Page 14 of Back In the Shadows

Ratchets and springs, such delicate things. Like puppet masters pulling invisible strings. Each calculation precisely designed to leave your precious order far behind.

Wind them up tight, set them just right. Release them all on this wonderful night. My beautiful chaos about to unfold. A symphony of brass and tarnished gold.

You called me mad, locked me away but genius needs no light of day. In darkness deep my work was done. And now at last my time has come.

The gears are turning, can’t you hear? The moment of truth drawing near. My masterpiece about to start as all your world falls apart.

Final tick … final tock … Let the clockwork madness walk.

The words of his song cast even more gloom over my situation. Each note pierced my mind like shards of glass, amplifying the already suffocating dread. The haunting melody painted a vivid image of death and destruction, leaving me paralyzed with fear. From the sound of it, he planned on killing more people, and I suspected I was one of them.

“Chicken noodle soup is good for the soul,” he said, pulling me from my thoughts.

“I love soup. Thank you.” I sat on my hands, so when he turned his back to me, I wouldn’t run over to him and slam his head against the wall. It would have to wait before I attacked him since I had to figure out an exit strategy first … like where the damn door was and what I could use as a weapon.

“It’s good for the soul. Good for the soul.” He busied himself and poured two bowls full and then he put them in the microwave and warmed them up.

“How long have you been down here?” I had a million questions for him, but I had to be careful and not piss him off. I stared at his sister and cringed. How could Xavier stuff his own parents and sister after killing them? If he hated them enough to end their lives, why did he have them at the kitchen table?To create the perfect family.If that was true, what the hell was he planning for me?

My thoughts ran rampant as I tried to figure out why I was here. Maybe he’d been watching me and decided I would be a good addition to his group. A sharp needling sensation spread through my chest as I struggled to swallow, the feeling as devastating as an open wound.

“Not sure. Off and on for a few years. I needed a place to hide after …” He tilted his head toward his family. “They were going to leave me. Said I was fucking cuckoo. How can you leave your son? That’s when it occurred to me to keep them alive forever … with me. They can’t leave me now.” The corners of his mouth curled up into a sneer.

“Is that what you’re going to do to me?” My voice hovered above a whisper with my question. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “I have babies at home. You wouldn’t want me to be away from them for long, right? You know what it’s like to miss your family so much it breaks your heart.”

His brows knitted together.

I continued, hoping to break through his twisted thinking. “Twins. They’re nine months old, and they need their mother. Please, please let me go.”

Conflict twisted his features as he stared at me. “Boss wants you alive for now.”

His boss? If Xavier wasn’t behind all of this, then who was and how could I pull the information from Xavier? His words bounced around in my head as I tried to piece together the answers. Then my brain latched on to what else he’d said, and a big sigh of relief escaped me with the news he wasn’t going to kill me … today. Maybe that meant I had time to figure out how to get away from Xavier, but only if the spiders didn’t get to me first.

I tucked my hair behind my ears as he retrieved the bowls from the microwave and set them on the table. He hurried to a drawer, pulled it open, and removed two spoons.

“Eat, eat.” He handed me the utensil before he sat down next to me.

I stared at the soup, wondering if there were spider legs in it as well as the few noodles I could identify. I stirred it, hesitant to take a bite until Xavier began to loudly slurp down the meal. If I wanted to keep up my energy, I had to eat. As I lifted a spoonful to my mouth, I glanced sideways at Xavier.

“Who had you kidnap me?” I took a tiny taste of my dinner, and to my surprise it was good. My stomach growled in agreement.

He tilted his head toward my bowl. “Don’t worry about that. Eat, then you can tell me why you married a serial killer.”

Thank god, I had plenty of practice mastering my expressions while working for attorneys. My face remained stoic as I slightly tipped my chin and stared at him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He leaned in close, his body only inches from mine, and his putrid breath assaulting my senses. His bloodshot eyes bore into me with an insane intensity, the manic darkness that possessed him now fully focused on me. I could feel his madness radiating off him in waves, suffocating me with its ferocity.

Then he said, “I know your secrets, Ella. All of them.”

A loud cackle burst from him as he shifted in his chair, grinning like he’d just won the war. I had news for him—he wouldn’t live that long to see the end of it.

Time blurred in the cage.Without my watch, I was left with no way to mark the passing hours except the sporadic appearances of the spiders that seemed to dance at the edges of my vision. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if they were real or if isolation was already breaking down my grip on reality.

“Do you know why I chose glass?” Xavier’s high-pitched voice drifted through the darkness as he approached. He’d been watching me for what felt like hours, his presence a constant reminder of my captivity.

I remained silent, refusing to engage. My throat was raw from earlier screams that had earned me nothing but his amusement.

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