Chapter 28 FIVE: THE TEXT ON THE WALL

When he opened the door, he met Alex waiting in his office. He quickly apologized. “I’m really sorry for keeping you. I was with the kid you mentioned earlier. He’s finally been apprehended. Turns out he is one of them. He’s now in the hard interview room.”

“That’s the reason I’m here.” Alex said. “It’s about the call you made earlier concerning a former military personnel Cedric.”

His nerves grew ever more taut. “Did you find anything?”

“I found some records with the name, Cedric, on the Fallout city police database, but it only dates back to a year ago. No record of Cedric was found after a year ago. His full name wasn’t documented on any of the police records. His age, date of birth, the cities he’s lived in, his parent’s ID, were all missing from their database. It is almost as if every information about him disappeared after he retired. I ran his face on facial recognition for any information about him, and all I found was the profile he had submitted to Fallout state police department after he resigned barely a year ago, and that’s it. There was no information regarding him before a year ago.”

William turned to him. “That’s odd. It’s almost as if he came into existence only a year ago and the year before that, he never existed.”

“Exactly.” he agreed.

Both men fell silent.

“Has the suspect already been apprehended?” Alex asked.

“I stationed men at his residence, hoping to capture him when he comes home, but no one has seen him since. My men have been standing there the last twenty-four hours and still no sign of him.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed. A new theory formulated in his mind. “Remember Jeffery, the kid whose head was blown off in your apartment yesterday?”

Of course, he clearly remembered. Shuddered at the memories of what’d transpired.

Alex went on. “I recall him saying the organization uses a mask forged from dark magic to conceal their identity. This mask allows them the ability to morph into anything they want—including another human.” Alex stated. “What if Cedric doesn’t even exist? What if T-Rex is just Cedric in disguise? Although it’s not a logical explanation, but that answers a lot of questions. Cedric didn’t just come into existence a year ago, that could be when T-Rex started using him as a disguise.”

“Quite the contrary, I think.” William snapped a reply. “Are you forgetting what the kid had said about T-Rex not being the man we think he is. Now that I think of it, it’s all starting to make sense. If T-Rex is his real identity and Cedric is just a disguise, he would conceal his face behind a mask—like the rest of his confrere. But that’s not the case. Maybe, we are evading the possibility that T-Rex and Cedric are just mirage created by an entirely different person—someone we are not considering.”

The door abruptly opened, and Derik rushed into the room, huffing and puffing. “There is something you need to know about Lawrence.” he heaved.

“It’s now becoming an annoying habit, Mr. Rushford, barging into my office unannounced.” William’s glare found him. “You better have some good explanation this time.”

Derik took a moment to look around the ceiling, as if expecting something to be hanging up there, then said, “Lawrence is a shifter and a member of Beocraft.”

“What?” William exclaimed, raising to his feet, and staring in total disbelief, the corners of his lips sagged in a frown. “This is absurd!”

“I know it is hardly believable. I had a hard time believing it too.”

“Do you realize the magnitude of the accusation you’re putting up against the president of this taskforce? You understand what this would result in if your accusations are found to be void?”

He gulped hard. “Yes sir, my job is on the line.”

“You sure this isn’t just an allegation against Lawrence to get back at him?” Alex chimed in.

“I have nothing to gain from doing something like that, sir.”

“You have any substantial evidence to support this preposterous allegation?” William asked him.

“Unfortunately, no… but that’s why I’m here.” Derik said. “With your permission, I was hoping to search Sir Lawrence’s office. All the evidences we need could be lying in there.”

“Do you know what you are asking of me?” William said, raising his voice.

“Sir, we are running out of options here. This could be the only chance we have to find your daughter. We have only but a few hours left to Kevin’s birthday. Who knows what they’re already doing to Natasha as we speak—if she hasn’t already been tortured?”

Kevin sat in the interrogation room, staring blankly at the walls. He had a lot on his mind. Wondered who William was speaking to in his office and why he was taking so long to get back to him.

Kevin wondered what fate awaits him. He could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Felt as if he had fallen into a deep tunnel and the deeper he went, the darker the tunnel gets.

He knew most certainly that Lawrence would burn him to the stake along with the rest of the shifters he’d captured. But it was only a few hours to his birthday, and T-Rex had promised him a slow and painful death as soon as he turned eighteen.

Deep down, Kevin wished Lawrence would set him ablaze before T-Rex gets to him. He was praying for something impossible. T-Rex had already made a promise to him, a promise he intends to keep.

Just then, Natasha came to his mind. He knew he’d never set eyes on her again. A line of tear flowed from his eye at the thought. He shut his eyes and uttered a quick prayer for Natasha’s safety. More tears dropped from his eyes as he shut them tight.

When he opened his eyes, he found, much to his horror, that the room was completely engulfed in thick darkness. Panic struck his brain. He had grown to hate dark rooms after his kidnap a year ago. His eyes were all over the place, peering through the darkness and searching for the sign of anything lurking in the shadow, chest heaving rapidly.

Suddenly the light came back on. Kevin quickly turned to look at the electrical lamp hanging above. Wondered what’s happening with the light. The fluorescent lamp flickered, and then the light ceased again.

He panicked, heartbeat intensifying. His breaths felt short and the dark room drove his mind insane. Struggled to see through the thick darkness, but it scared him even more when he couldn’t make out a thing.

Kevin froze in the chair when he heard the door creak open. His hairs stood on ends at the sound of footsteps shuffling into the room. His body shuddered when the door slammed.

“Who is there?” he stuttered, eyes peering through the darkness, and his body trembling.

No one answered. Then a silence, never heard before, slithered its way throughout the room.

“William, is that you?”

Anxiety overwhelmed him. Suddenly, Kevin heard something scratching the wall, then the light came back on. His eyes widened as they fell on the words that’d been scrawled on the wall.

Happy Deathday.

The text stared at his face.

Kevin was stricken with horror as he read the words over again, his heart throbbing within his chest. He quickly turned to look around. There was no one with him in the room. And the door was still shut tight.

He wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, or was his phobia getting the best of him? Kevin felt drops of sweat rolling down his forehead. Suddenly the light flickered again, and all became dark. He finally caught a glimpse of something moving in the darkness.

“Help!” he yelped, struggling with the chain.

When the light came back on, a hooded figure stood before him, holding a shovel, staring at him from its mask. His heart sank in his stomach when he saw the letter ‘C’ that’d been marked on its mask. He stared with frightened eyes, a cold shiver racing down his spine. A lump came to his throat.

It is him—the kidnapper from a year ago.

Without warning, C-Rex bashed his head with the shovel. The impact sent him crashing to the floor. His vision blurred. A loud thud sounded after Kevin collapsed on the floor.

Oh, God, not again.

Kevin felt blood oozing from his forehead. The chain rattled as the figure loosened it from his feet. He was slowly losing consciousness. As everything else went out of focus, he saw the masked figure squat to examine his face.

Then everything turned to darkness, and just like the last time, he felt a strong grip on his foot. C-Rex dragged away.

It is happening all over again.