Page 9 of Haunted Prey

“That’s what the password is for,” he argued.

“You’re a fucking psycho like the rest of us!”

“Okay, let’s calm down,” Nurse Andrea said calmly.

“Why is she here?” I asked, glaring at her. “She’s definitely not one of us.”

“I brought her,” Micheal answered. “She’s agreed to help us.”

“With what exactly?”

After a moment of silence, Micheal said, “My initial plan was to find survivors and just try to help each other. To find some kind of closure, knowing that we weren’t alone. I had the resources since I work in law, finding justice for neglected kids. I had connections to help me track everyone down.”

Liar. Not everyone. Not once did I ever receive a call while locked up or a letter. “I never heard from you. Not once,” I remarked.

He looked at his hands, trying to hide the shadow that passed over his gaze. “I learned what you did. And that you’d be locked up for the rest of your life. I didn’t expect you to ever get out. Still, I did try calling once…They told me you wouldn’t take the call, wouldn’t talk.”

So like the one who ended up dissociating from reality, he considered me a lost cause. As did everyone.

No. Not everyone.

More than ever, it physically hurt not to have Eve with me, to wonder where she was and what she was going through.

Micheal leaned in closer. “But you did get out. Then you disappeared. And I knew we needed you here.”

It felt odd being told I was needed anywhere. “And you just so happened to find me at a hospital?”

“Cassidy learned from the police chief that you were shot before you went into the river. They were tasked with helping the feds search for your body. Andrea and Dom dug through hospital records, hoping you’d somehow survived and made it to a medical facility. It was worth a shot—knowing you, like the others, have a better chance of surviving that kind of situation than the average person. One no-name with a few bullet holes and a scarred-up face was enough to make us start looking. And sure enough, we found you.” He rolled his shoulders. “Maybe it was fate.”

Cassidy snorted. “No. Just crazy luck.”

I closed my eyes. Thehowwasn’t my main concern; it was the why.

“You took your justice six years ago, Emery,” Micheal continued. “But it’s not over. The rest of us want our pound of flesh too. We learned a lot more after the murders. The experiments didn’t stop with Martel.”

I opened my eyes.No. No, they had to.

It never ends, my sister cried.It never stops.

“That’s why you can help us now, " Micheal said softly. “Help us end the experiments for good. Help save others from suffering like us.” He gripped the side of the bed. “Martel is gone. But they were only the heart of the monster, not the head.”

“Not all of Martel is gone,” Cassidy said. She tilted her head, her cloudy eye narrowing. “You had the Martel girl in your grasp. Trying to finish the job?”

Leslie leaned forward in his chair. “I heard that too. Were you?”

“Guys,” Micheal warned.

I didn’t say a word. Heat rose in me, but it was something else, something more dangerous, more... protective. No, I wouldn’t tell them about Eve.

Micheal gave me a judgmental look. Despite his warning, he was curious too. “You mad I took them out?” I said to him. “Or are you just mad I got there first?”

His jaw tensed. “It could have gone better, I think. I’m disappointed but…no, I’m not mad. They deserved it and more.”

“I just wish I had been there,” Leslie added.

“Me too,” Cassidy said.

“What’s done is done,” Micheal said. He got up from his seat, putting his hand in his pockets. “As I said, Martel wasn't the only one. We know now. They were paid for these experiments. And those heading the project are working again. And they are a far bigger threat than Martel.”

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