Page 82 of Monsters

“Fast forward ten years and suddenly I have detectives turning up at my birthday party. The woman corners me in the bathroom and starts asking questions about the relationship I had with you. She made mention we shared the same birthday, so she’d done her homework. I told her I knew nothing. Then she asked me about Mason. Whatever I had replied had obviously triggered her curiosity. They didn’t leave me alone. I could feel them watching, waiting for the truth to somehow reveal itself.

“What I didn’t know was that Mason was also watching. Before the detectives arrived in my life, they’d already paid you a visit, and in turn, you’d tipped him off. Mason left work and headed to find the one person who had the tiniest bit of knowledge on him and what happened that night. He found me. He also found my workplace and destroyed Maximus Kline’s artwork by carving into them.”

“How do you know it was him?”

“Because he left a calling card. Maximus graciously handed it to me. It read, Truth or Dare.

Lucas’s eyes widened at the mention of our childhood game the three of us played. “That night when I returned home a bouquet of flowers my ex had given me on my birthday were all missing their buds. Frightened he had been in my space, I slid a chest of drawers across the door for extra security. But that night, I was restless. Tossing and turning in my sleep, fighting through a nightmare that featured Mason. When I woke with a fright, I saw him standing at the foot of the bed. Doing what he does best. Watching. Waiting. Intimidating.”

Lucas swallowed hard. “He was in your apartment?”

“Yes. And he was holding his favorite carving knife.”

Lucas rubbed his jaw, agitated. He rose to his feet and pulled on a pair of shorts. When he started pacing, I wondered how far I should go.

“Carry on,” he urged, sensing my hesitancy.

“I reached for the light, and when I turned back, he was gone.”

“You’re certain he was there?”

“Certain. His cologne remained. I went searching through the apartment turning on every light, but I couldn’t find anything. I thought I was going crazy when I saw the chest still in place across the door. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and lo and behold there was a message on the mirror.”

Lucas stilled, arms resting on the back of the couch. “What did it say?”

“Little Wren.”

“Little Wren?”

I nodded, a chill running up my spine.

“Fucking Christ!”

“Mason wanted me to remember all the horrible things he’d done to me out at the cabin. He was letting me know he was watching. Reissuing the warning to keep my mouth shut. He just never stuck around long enough for me to reassure him I wasn’t going to utter a word.”

Lucas sat on the end of the couch, his chin resting on steepled fingers. For the next few minutes, I told him about the trip to my parents’ house, the rock through the window and seeing Mason standing in the rain on the porch. There one second, and gone the next.

“I had been in contact with my college friend, Christina. I’d agreed to see her the next day. When I arrived, her baby Evie was on the floor, but there was no Christina. I let myself in and went searching for her. There was a knocking on the wall coming from down the hallway. I followed the noise and walked in on Mason on top of Christina having sex, in the exact same position as when I saw him with Joanie.”

Lucas slowly closed his eyes and shook his head, no doubt ashamed of his brother’s behavior.

“He continued fucking her while looking me straight in the eyes. It was a cruel reminder of what I’d never given him. A reminder that he would always hold a grudge over it.”

“How did that end?”

“Not well. As you can imagine, I’d had it! Mason was slowly turning everything I loved into something dark and repulsive. We argued, and Christina didn’t believe a word I said. He, of course, was on his best behavior and holding Evie like she was his.”

“Is she?”

“No, that’s a whole other story. He used her as a silent threat. I’d been seconds from telling Christina who he really was but when I saw him holding her, that promise in his eyes he’d hurt her if I uttered a word. I decided to leave. I took the opportunity to tell him I wasn’t saying anything to the detectives, but he didn’t believe me. I felt he was choosing not to believe. He wanted the drama and craved keeping me on my toes.”

I told Lucas about the photos of Peter and the beautiful blonde and to my surprise, he didn’t seem shocked. Even Mason’s own brother expected the worst from him.

“To be honest, I know it was Mason who sent them as a way of crushing something else in my life, but he actually did me a favor.

When I revealed how David had been found hogtied naked with his face in another man’s genitals behind a dumpster, Lucas was rightfully horrified.

“Jesus,” Lucas exclaimed stunned by the progress of the story. “Mason always did have a perverted and twisted sense of humor.”

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