Page 111 of Evil Hearts

Mr. Hughes’s office is downstairs in the back of the house, and the fact that this man knows my employer lied to him about it must mean they have a history. One that isn’t very pleasant if it meant he had to have looked into the Hughes’s estate deep enough to learn the layout because I know everyone who comes in and goes out of this house, and that other voice has never set foot inside until now.

“Midnight. You said I have until midnight,” Mr. Hughes pleads. “I’ll come up with the balance by then. I’ll do whatever I have to; sell my house, my belongings. I’ll—”

“If any of those things were viable options to obtain the money needed to pay your debt, why haven’t you entertained them until now?” There are a few seconds of silence, a silence so heavy I can physically feel it, before the stranger continues. “Just as I thought. Not only did you have no intent to pay, but you were going to leave before I had a chance to collect. Isn’t that right, Reginald?”

I lean a little closer to the railing, close enough that I can see Mr. Hughes at the bottom of the staircase, and for a split second I have to wonder if he’s standing there in order to prevent this Pelifer from coming up here and discovering Reggie.

Disconnected from the sweet baby or not, I’d like to think my employer isn’t so heartless that he’d allow any harm to come to a child, especially one he created with his wife after trying so long to do so. Something in the back of mind says otherwise, though.

Their child has been a burden, an inconvenience to both of them ever since he was born, and deep down I know Mr. Hughes isn’t standing at the bottom of the stairs in order to protect anyone but himself somehow.

“Correct again,” the unknown man—Pelifer—says, a hint of a smile filling his tone. I see a shadow move in front of Mr. Hughes then it goes back and forth slowly a few times, and I hear the man’s footsteps as he begins to pace. Then I hear another set of footsteps, heavy ones that remind me of a horse walking through a stable, but I can’t see where they’re coming from. “Since you made no real effort to honor our deal, I myself have decided to do the same. You no longer have until midnight, and since you cannot provide the fifteen thousand pounds you owe, I’ve come to collect the alternate form of payment.”

I watch on bated breath as the shadow stops moving, as the third person downstairs with my employer and Pelifer steps closer to them, though the strangers remain just out of view, and when Mr. Hughes gaspsno, please!my eyes widen in horror.

Mrs. Hughes is shoved toward the bottom of the stairs, maybe a foot in front of her husband, her hands bound behind her back, her mouth gagged with her own handkerchief, and tears streaming down her usually flawless face.

“Please,” Mr. Hughes pleads. “Please don’t, don’t—no!”

Without so much as a word, Mrs. Hughes is forced to her knees, dropping in front of her husband with a painful thud. Two dark colored hands come into view next, a pair that begins working together to grip her forehead and tip her head back, while the other produces a dagger, and holds it to her throat.

“A body for every month you were late, Hughes.” Quicker than lightning, the right hand drags the blade across Mrs. Hughes’s flesh, her husband screaming as her blood spurts and splatters against the front of his suit.

I barely muffle my gasp as I watch in horror, the missus falling to the floor, her body completely limp and motionless, save for the way her mouth opens and closes like a fish on dry land. From here I can see her face, the way she fell, giving me a clear view so I can see the life flicker out of the lady of the house, see it drain from her eyes, and pool in the large puddle of blood gathering around her lifeless body.

Oh my god.

Oh my god,she’s dead.

That man, thatstranger,Pelifer just murdered Mrs. Hughes in cold blood, killed her in her home right in front of her husband, and I saw it.

I saw it.

I shake my head as my eyes well with tears, as fear and disbelief begin pumping through my veins, every bit of my body shaking so hard it has my adrenaline spiking.

I should leave. I know I should leave. I should take off and run screaming from this house in search of help, but I’m rooted to the spot.

I can’t move, I can barely breathe.

My eyes are completely fixed on the murdered missus, and I continue watching as a shiny, expensive looking shoe steps over Mrs. Hughes, bringing with it an extremely fine maroon suit fitted tightly to a lean body. One that looks oddly strange and…Oh my god.

Beautiful, deep bronze skin, a face more perfect and flawless than any I’ve seen before, but completely covered in markings. Starting at the collar of his shirt there are tiny raised white dots that swirl in the most unusual patterns, extending from jaw to hairline where Pelifer’s hair is in thick ropes of deep black that fall to his waist. And his eyes? His eyes are just as black, and dark as the night sky. They are empty and hollow, yet somehow, still full of the only emotion I imagine he’s experienced; hate. A hate I canfeelradiating off of him, even from all the way up here.

He leans toward a visibly panicked and fearful Mr. Hughes, sneering as he exposes rows of gleaming white, razor sharp teeth. “It’s time, Hughes.”

Without another word, Pelifer lifts his hand and slits my employer’s throat the same way he did to his wife. Mr. Hughes’s hands fly to the wound, grasping and trying to cover it as his blood sprays through his fingers then gushes as his body falls to the bottom stair with a sickening thud.

Tears roll down my cheeks as I watch Pelifer pull a handkerchief from his pocket and wipe the dagger clean, his stare fixed on the body at his feet, the body that twitches and jerks until it finally stills.

Dead.

My employers are dead, and I witnessed their murders.

Holy shit.

Which is the exact moment my instincts finally kick in.

Reggie.

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