CHAPTER FIVE: REASONS TO FEAR

Kevin was dumbstruck, and his eyes went round as he turned to meet his gaze.

He is also a shifter? He could never have guessed.

Derik went on, “My mom and dad died a few years after I was born.” His body stiffened as he sucked back a deep, quick breath. “They were shifters too.”

 Kevin felt a pang of sympathy for him and said, “My heart goes out to them.”

Derik said nothing. Tears threatened to form in his eyes.

“I didn’t even get to know my parents.” Kevin thought sharing his own story might let him see that his own case wasn’t unique. “T-Murek killed them before I came of age, and he is out to torture me the same way he’d tortured them. He is just waiting until my twenty-fifth birthday to do it. He wants to fulfil a promise he made to my mother several years ago.”

Suddenly, they heard a car horning ahead, and Derik looked up at the road, his eyes widening at the approaching truck. He quickly realized he was driving in the wrong lane and steered the wheel to avoid the truck, almost skidding off the road tracks into the surrounding bush.

When Derik was back on track, he let out a sigh of relief and returned his gaze to Kevin. “When is your twenty-fifth birthday?” he asked, his gaze returning to the road.

“April 26th—that’s precisely five days from today,” Kevin answered. “I have to find him first—before he finds me.”

In the momentary silence that followed, he asked, “Any idea where we might find him?”

“57 old Avenue hills.” The words were already out of his mouth before he had the chance to recollect his thoughts.

His brows knitted. “What’s that?”

There was no turning back now. He had no choice but to tell him everything he knew. “That’s possibly where we might find T-Murek. We should go over there right now. See what we can find.”

Derik’s eyes flashed. “Hold on, how do you know that?”

“It’s an address I got from detective Leonard—he wants me to check it out. Said he found out about a map Murphy was working on before they’d killed him, and 57 old Avenue hills was marked on it. Leonard believes that’s where T-Murek might be holding his victims.”

His eyes flickered. “If this information is correct and T-Murek really is holding his victims at that address, we wouldn’t want to make any rash decision. If we try to capture him ourselves with no backup, he might slip through our fingers—or worse, we could risk getting captured. I suggest we wait until sunrise, then I’ll call in the taskforce to inform Sir Lawrence about this new discovery.”

Maybe he will get off my back after I help bring down this group of shifters. Derik never said this aloud.

 “Who is Lawrence?”

After a brief silence, Derik said, “Lawrence Linus is TCU’s new president who was appointed recently to replace Mr William. That guy is a real pain in the ass,” he stifled a groan. “He’s already figured out what I am.”

Hearing this, Kevin wasn’t sure whether to feel sad or happy.

Derik—sizzling with anger, clutched the wheel and said, “It’s only a matter of time before he comes for me. Tomorrow, he’s conducting a home-to-home investigation in every household here in the city. It’s something I like to call shifter hunting. I advise you to stay out of sight when he comes around. He’s great at sniffing out shifters,” he said, before his voice became low, as though he was speaking to no one in particular. “I just do not know how he does that.”

“But I haven’t met him before. How do I know it’s him when he comes around?”

“When you see him, you’ll know. Trust me. He walks around with a muscular giant of a bodyguard who never leaves his side. Lawrence doesn’t go anywhere without him.”

Do not involve the police; there are not many people we can trust right now.

Leonard’s warning slithered its way into Kevin’s mind again. And he didn’t know why. Then he gave it deep thought.

If Lawrence is president of TCU, then calling to tell him about the address Leonard had discovered to him might not be such a great idea. If he is informed of T-Murek’s hideout, he’ll send out word to every agent and officer on the taskforce to go in search of T-Murek. And if this information gets in the wrong ear, T-Murek could slip through their fingers before the search even begins.

Again, Leonard’s words rattled through his mind.

I tried to bring the activities of Beocraft to light, so I returned to the precinct, telling everyone everything I knew. That night, the state security chief led an attack to capture and arrest them, but they were all gone before we got there. It’s either they knew we were coming, or they’d changed the venue for their meeting. After that night, I started having this awkward feeling of being followed.

He turned to look at Derik. “We can’t trust Lawrence or anyone at TCU for now. The members of Beocraft are everywhere, and we could be giving information directly to the enemies if you tell the taskforce about this address. We’ll lose the element of surprise and risk T-Murek slipping through our fingers. You cannot tell anyone about this.”

A blot of silence.

“Tomorrow, we will check out this address—just the two of us and no one else.”

###

Derik rounded a corner and turned into the next street, putting his blinker on as he pulled up beside the sidewalk. Climbing out of the car, Kevin closed the door and leaned on the window. “Thanks again for saving me back there. I would be dead if you hadn’t showed up.”

Derik’s lips curled into a smile. “Before you try to do anything stupid like that again, try to call me first.”

He snorted at his response, and the corners of his mouth quirked up. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Then Derik drove off, leaving him to stand alone in the dark street, barefooted. And turning to look at the apartment, Kevin had mixed feelings. He didn’t know what horror lied in wait for him within those walls. A cold shiver ran down the length of his spine as he walked towards the door. He felt so scared to face Cedric.

He opened the door and walked into the dark main-hallway. As he inched into the darkness, he felt fear enveloping him. He had grown scared of the dark since his terrible encounter with the masked man that’d kidnapped him from his room.

Engulfed by a shroud of thick darkness, Kevin ran his fingers along the wall, searching for the light switch. When he finally found it, he quickly turned on the light, and the room brightened. His eye fell on the calendar that hung on the wall beside the light switch. He observed that April 26th had been crossed off the calendar with red ink.

That is exactly five days from today, he thought with dread.

His birthday!

Why would Cedric strike out my birthday on his calendar?

He wondered as he walked to his room. Then he realized that Cedric might have marked his birthday so that he wouldn’t forget—perhaps he was cooking up a big surprise for him. Kevin wanted so badly to believe Cedric crossing his birthday off his calendar wasn’t for any creepy reason. But he was convinced otherwise. He knew better than to let his guards down. His relationship with Cedric will never be the same ever again, not after what he’d found about him tonight. Cedric can no longer be trusted.

As he walked past Cedric’s room, he noticed that the door was still open, just as he had left it—a clear indication that Cedric wasn’t back home yet. The thought of invading Cedric’s room came to his mind.

As soon as he came an inch closer to the door, he felt something watching him from the shadows. He rolled his eyes to the corner, a frigid chill racing down his spine when he saw a masked, hooded figure standing behind—watching him.

The figure remained still, glaring at him from behind a scary mask. Kevin startled with fear and shuffled backward until his back was pressed against the wall. The hooded figure raised its hands to take off the hood, then it slowly removed the mask.

It was Cedric.

“What are you doing in here?” his voice was calm and carried a note of barely subdued anger.

“I saw nothing in there. I swear it,” Kevin stuttered, moving away from the door, away from him, his body trembling as he leaned back against the wall.

Cedric walked towards him in a way that scared him—venomous gaze fixed on him, and when he got close, he spoke to his face. “Curiosity kills a cat. Be sure to keep that in mind,” his voice sounded almost like a whisper.

Cedric walked past him into his room, then slammed the door, shaking the foundation of the entire building. Kevin remained frozen, heart pounding against his chest. Even though he’d been with Cedric for an entire year, he felt like he didn’t know him anymore. Cedric acted like an entirely distinct person. He had become cold, and it scared him.

Kevin heard a voice behind him say, startling him, “I knew you were following me.”

He moved quickly away from the wall, looked up, and saw Cedric standing in the doorway. Cedric spoke with a coldness he’d never heard before. “I let you follow me so that you can put your suspicions to rest. Now you have allowed the group to discover you. You have made yourself a target.”

“Are you going to kill me?” he asked in a quivering voice.

For a moment, Cedric cast an icy gaze at him, and it scared the hell out of him. “No, I won’t kill you,” he snapped a reply at him. “… but they will.” He shut the door, leaving Kevin to stand outside in horror.

He was frightened and confused. “Who are ‘they’?” A lump went down his throat.

Wasting no second, Kevin dashed into his room and packed his things. In one night, he parked all his belongings, putting only what he needed in his bag. He’d never been so scared in his entire life. He felt like his life was on the line—like there was someone standing in every dark corner, watching and waiting to capture him, just as they did before. That night, he ran to stay with Landry, explaining all that’d happened to him.

###

Kevin never wanted to leave the house the next morning, but he was compelled to. He needed to meet up with Leonard as planned the previous night. He had Landry drive him to the park.

The sun was already up when they arrived. Kevin looked around the park for any sign of Leonard, but he did not see him anywhere. He got out of the car and walked into the park in search of Leonard.

The park was buzzing with activities. He turned to look around, hoping to find Leonard, but didn’t see him anywhere. Kevin wondered if he had arrived a bit too early, then stole a quick glance at his watch.

9:08 am.

He waited on an empty bench. After a couple of minutes, he looked at his watch again.

9:37 am.

He looked around the park, frustration making his veins swell. He kept getting this strange feeling that something was wrong. Then he noticed a small crowd that had gathered in the park very close to the spot where Mirabel’s body had been found a few days ago. Now he knew something was definitely wrong. He felt it in his gut.

He got up from where he sat and hurried towards the crowd, moving past the people that had gathered. When he got to the front, he let out a breathless gasp as he took in the sight of Leonard lying naked amid the people that had gathered. His corpse was bathed in blood.