Chapter 16 Black Birds

Dr. Frank raised a hand to push the door, but before he could reach the door handle, it slid open and William came hurrying out of his office.

“Sir, I’ve got the files on Mrs. Eulich’s medical report—the one you asked for.” Frank said, scanning through the multiple files which he held in his hands, searching for Eulich’s medical report.

“Good.” William remarked, hurrying past him. “Leave it on my desk. I’ll go through it as soon as I get back.”

“… and one more thing, sir.”

He stopped in his tracks. “What’s that?”

“The mayor…” Frank said, “He’s asked to see you.”

“We’d have to reschedule that meeting until when I get back. I have to pick up my daughter from the hospital. She’s been waiting all day for me. And if I don’t make it back on time, then we’ll have to shift the meeting to tomorrow.” William hurried out of the building.

Kevin sat on the bed, frozen in fear.

A man wearing a mask just took my daughter from the hospital.

Her words kept echoing in his head. He did not know what scared him the most at that moment. Was it the fear of losing Mirabel to a masked man, or is the fact that he was also kidnapped by a masked figure a year ago?

Barely a year ago, a masked man had kidnapped him and began his troubles. It was for this very reason he left Fallout city and moved over to Burnout with Cedric—to let go of the past, forgetting all that had happened, and to evade being kidnapped again.

Several months after T-Rex had held him captive and forced him to watch as Loretta was tortured to death, the memory of the masked figure had constantly forced its way into his mind. He’d always wondered who was behind that mask. The thought of it kept him up late at night, most of the time. He had constantly been having nightmares about the masked figure and hadn’t found true peace since his kidnap.

It had been over an hour since he got the distress call from Mirabel’s mum about her daughter’s kidnap. Kevin had wanted to go see her at the hospital, but he just couldn’t bring himself to get up. His body wasn’t obeying him anymore.

Finally, he understood what he was most afraid of at that moment—being kidnapped again. He feared going through all that he had suffered a year ago all over again. Felt like a masked man is waiting around a dark corner to kidnap him again.

Loud caws from outside the window startled him. And his eyes were drawn to three crows sitting on the oak tree outside his window. Adrenaline rushed through his body when he immediately recognized them.

The birds from my dream.

An icy shiver raced down his spine. Panic struck his brain as he took up the drawing of the black birds he’d sketched earlier from the bed. There was no mistake—these were the birds from his dream. He stared into the red eyes of the three black birds. Started walking towards the window, eyes fixed on them, body trembling.

The birds all had their gazes fixed on him, as though watching him with human eyes. Strangely, he felt like a prey before a predator—even though they were just birds. Anxiety overwhelmed him as he neared. There was something about the way the crows were looking at him that just seemed off.

Suddenly, one of them let out a loud caw and flew away, and the rest followed. Soon they all found flight, flapping their wings until they were all out of sight. Kevin kept staring at the tree long after the birds were gone. His palms were sweaty. The birds had appeared to him exactly the way he’d seen them in his dreams. He was shaken by what had just happened—unsure of what they meant.

Then he turned around to take out the rest of his drawings from the bed, but his face was met with something hard. He bumped into something—no, someone. Horror crept through him when he noticed a muscular figure standing before him.

The paper fell from his hand, and guided by the gentle air, it came to rest at the feet of the man that’d invaded his house. He raised his head to look at the face of the man standing before him, eyes shaking.

T-Rex! The voices in his head screamed—horrifyingly.

He felt himself get picked up, and his head smashed into the glass window. T-Rex pinned him onto the wall, squeezing his shirt and raising him off his feet.

“My visit here is to make one thing clear to you,” T-Rex sneered at him, leaning forward—his voice sounding dangerously low. “There is no place you hide that I won’t find you.”

He shuddered at his words. His body trembled terribly as he struggled to focus on T-Rex’s face. “What do you want from me? Why won’t you just leave me alone?” he snapped at him, trying to cover the fear he felt coursing through his veins.

T-Rex narrowed his eyes at him—as though he could perceive his fear. “… to see you suffer.” His whispers were the coldest he’d ever heard.

An ugly smirk crossed his lips. T-Rex jumped through the window and left the room in a jiffy, shattering the glass in his path. Kevin dropped to the floor, gasping for air—chest heaving rapidly. Rubbed his neck, struggling to breathe. Suddenly an odd feeling struck him. T-Rex didn’t just invade his home just to prove a point. It has to be something more.

His eyes fleetingly caught a little note lying beside him. Picked it up to look at it. It was a handwritten note, he observed. He felt something familiar holding the note—like he’d seen this before.

He looked over it again—eyes widening as he recognizes it. It was the same note from his dream. With shaky hands, he opened the note to inspect it. His hairs stood on end when he saw Natasha’s name written inside. He finally remembered the name he’d seen written on the note from his dream.

N-A-T-A-S-H-A

His spine stiffened, eyes wide and wild as remained motionless, processing what this meant—all of it. Then the tortured images of Loretta slipped into his mind, filling him with horror. Felt his heartbeat intensified when it finally clicked.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!—the hospital…” Kevin panicked, racing across the room to grab his phone. With the phone in hand, he dialled Landry.

Within seconds he heard his voice echoed. “Hello Kevin?”

“Landry, I just figured what those images from my dream meant.” he tattled.

“Really, tell me.”

“I don’t have time to explain it to you right now.”

He picked up a note of panic in his voice. “Is everything okay with you? Cause you’re really starting to scare me.”

“Landry, I need you to listen to me. T-Rex just showed up at the house, and he left me a note—the same note I told you about from my dream.”

“What?” he was horror-stricken and started to panic. “Did he hurt you? Are you ok?”

“I am fine. It is Natasha I’m worried about.” he quivered.

“What do you mean?”

“The note from my dream… it had Natasha’s name written on it—I finally remembered.” he glanced at the note in his hand. “T-Rex is going to kidnap Natasha from De-Laurel hospital, just as he did Loretta a year ago.”

For a long second, there was a chilly silence between them, then Landry answered, “I’d notify the cops right away.”

After he hung up, Kevin dashed out of the room—ran as fast as he could to the highroad where he hitched a ride to the hospital. He knew he was going to meet T-Rex there, but that did not deter him. At that moment, his fear of losing Natasha was far greater than his fear for T-Rex.