Page 92 of Enticing Monsters

Abruptly, Anderson releases me and takes a shaky step backwards. His desperate eyes flick in both directions.

“It’s not safe,” he whispers hoarsely, reaching behind him for the doorknob.

“Anderson, wait!” I boom, but he doesn’t answer as he flings the door open and races away.

A few officers cast him strange looks, and one even tries to stop him, but I yell at the woman to let him go.

Most of what Anderson said sounded like the inane ramblings of a madman, but one thing pops up.

The pit.

I need to go back to the pit.

I’ve never beenthe type of man to enjoy hiking through the woods. That was more of Tristan’s thing than my own. Before Serafina, I often spent the nights I wasn’t at work in a bar, kicking ass at pool or throwing back a beer.

I scowl at nothing in particular as I stomp through the forest behind my parents’ cabin. It’s eerily quiet, despite the fact that the sun is still high in the sky, painting the forest in splashes of orange and yellow. It’s almost as if the world itself is holding its breath, waiting.

I haven’t been back to the crime scene since the bodies were removed. Yes, I did a preliminary sweep of the site, searching for any clues that would lead me towards the murderer, but when I found nothing, I focused my attention elsewhere. I assumed I would find answers by looking into the victims.

I was wrong.

The only things I discovered was that they were all different and that they died from a virus. There was nothing to tie the murders to a specific person, let alone the previous serial killer.

But now…

I step around one of the largest trees and stare down into the pit that once housed dozens of bodies. It’s empty now, though a few splashes of dried blood remain. The FIB was supposed to clean everything up, but with how crazy the last few days have been, they never got the chance.

Which works for me, because if they had, they would’ve removed crucial evidence.

I don’t know what I’m looking for at first. An innate voice in the back of my head tells me I’m closer to a discovery than ever before.

Frowning, I slide down into the hole and begin to check the ground with fervor. I gently turn over every rock, move every leaf, turn over every acorn.

What are you looking for, Devyn?a snide voice in my head asks, his tone scathing.

I don’t know,I confess, moving towards a pile of leaves.

I brush them away gently to see that there are sticks embedded into the dirt directly beneath them.

My frown deepens.

Quickly, I finish removing all of the leaves and then step back, wanting to see the entire picture.

I inhale a sharp breath.

Holy fuck.

The sticks have been arranged in a way that is so familiar to me, I feel physically sick. I’ve seen this symbol on more than one dead body, carved into the flesh of innocent girls.

It almost looks like a star, though it’s missing the bottom right prong and has two dark circles wrapped around it.

“Holy fuck,” I say out loud, gaping.

This is it.

This is the piece we’ve been missing.

My thoughts turn over themselves, desperately trying to fill in the gaps.

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