Page 28 of Savage Ruin
Sterling shakes his head and whispers something in Raider’s ear, but all he gets in return is a negative headshake. Sterling looks disappointed.
Thiago glares at Raider for being rude, but it has zero impact.
“Nice to meet you, Raider,” I murmur, although I’m sure he knows I’m just being polite.
“What about his voice?” Zane asks.
Back to my stalker. I try to remember the few times he’s spoken to me. “It’s moderate and cultured, kind of like Sterling’s but without the British accent.”
Sterling tilts his head in interest. “He sounds like he came from a wealthy background. No slang?”
“Exactly. He doesn’t seem to have an accent, and his speech is very precise,” I state with surprise, having never really thought about it. “MIT is full of rich kids, though.”
“Any scars?” Raider questions with an impatient sigh.
I’ve only seen his neck and hands, but nothing comes to mind, so I shake my head.
“Hair?”
“The mask covers his entire head except for his eyes and mouth,” I tell them. “And it’s a different mask each time, with nothing in common. I’ve tried to think of things over the years to find out who he is, but I’ve come up blank.” I sigh. “There’s very little to go on. He spent most of his time terrorizing me and ruining the lives of my friends and family from a distance.” He doesn’t sound very scary when I put it that way, but the things he’s done to those who have protected me... “I’ve only seen him in person a few times.”
Thiago motions behind me, and Grayson comes around to sit on one side of me while he takes the other. “Mateo is searching the cameras of every house around us right now.”
I shake my head. “You won’t see him. The cameras will be blank. Every single one. He’s good,” I warn them.
“We’ll check, anyway. Don’t forget, Mateo is smart, too,” Grayson reminds me.
Mateo looks up and gives him a half smile.
Thiago takes my hand in his and my attention returns to him. “Henley, let’s talk about the few times you spent with Stanley.” When I look puzzled, he smiles gently. “Sometimes naming the thing that scares you the most helps give you a bit of perspective and takes away some of its emotional power. I named your stalker Stanley because it’s absurd, and it will help ease the terror in your mind when you think of him.”
Why didn’t I ever think about naming him? “Stanley… I’ve only seen him a few times. The first two times, he showed up in my dorm room. I woke to find him sitting beside my bed. When I screamed, he slipped out. Nobody ever saw or caught him on camera. They thought I made him up.”
Anger flashes across Thiago’s face, but he nods encouragingly.
“The first time he spoke to me was in my room at my mother’s house. I didn’t scream because I didn’t want my mother coming to save me,” I reveal, my voice tight with terror from that night. “He spent an hour talking to me, telling me he thought I was a worthy partner for someone of his intelligence. Of course, he needed to be sure, so he informed me he’d give me a series of tests, and if I passed, he’d marry me. If I didn’t pass, he’d kill me. Then he left.”
My whole body starts shaking when I think of how I had lain in my bed, listening to him calmly tell me about our future. He never held me at gunpoint or threatened me with a weapon of any kind. Listening to him speak was more terrifying than if he’d waved a loaded gun because it revealed his madness.
“I was so angry with myself when he left. Why didn’t I run or fight or even cuss him out? I promised myself I would the next time. A month later, he returned. I had rented an apartment from this nice old couple. It was more like a room in their basement with a kitchenette, but it was perfect, and more importantly, my mother was safe in her own apartment across town.” I stop there.
How do I explain what happened next?
“This time, I tried running. He caught me by the throat and… smiled at me, like he was proud to see me run. His fingers tightened until I thought I was going to pass out, so I kicked him in the balls. When he dropped me, I grabbed the lamp and hit him on the head. He tackled me to the ground.” I pause for a second. “The old man from upstairs came down with his gun and ordered him to get out of the house. Stanley… and he fought. The gun went off. He killed the old man. In shock, I stood there for a minute, but then I heard the man’s wife on the stairs. I ran toward her, shouting for her to run and call the police, but she continued down the stairs, calling her husband’s name. He shot her, too. While he was busy with their bodies, I ran. He set fire to the place. I became a wanted felon.”
Tears roll down my face. I’d brought that psycho to their door, and I didn’t even have the guts to warn them. If I had, maybe they would have called the police instead of trying to save me.
“So, he killed two people in a matter of minutes,” Raider recounts with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Did he look remorseful or worried to you?”
I think back to that night. “He calmly informed me that it was my fault he’d had to take the action he did, and he expected me to act better in the future,” I whisper, knowing he was right.
“It wasn’t his first time killing someone,” Raider states firmly. “Even sociopaths have some type of reaction the first time they kill someone. Glee, shock, anxiety, anger.”
“I think he killed my mother,” I reveal with a sob, having kept this secret from everyone. “The next night, I went to her apartment to say goodbye, but it was empty. There was a note saying she couldn’t handle the mess I’d made of my life, and she was leaving. She left an envelope with a few hundred dollars in it. I took it and ran.” My chest heaves, and Grayson wraps his arm tightly around me while I stare at Thiago. “The note wasn’t in her handwriting.”
His large hands reach out and gently wipe the tears from my face. “Henley, he took away all your support to make you vulnerable. It backfired. You never gave up. No matter how many times he caught up with you or you had to start over, you kept going. You’re a fighter, Henley. He didn’t break you. He made you.”
With one last hiccup, I stop crying. Could I have been viewing this all wrong? I barely remember the girl I was when it all started, but I remember being constantly scared, jumping at shadows, and worried about supporting myself. I’m still scared, but things have changed considerably. I’m stronger, much stronger.
