Page 135 of Sinister Legacy
He whirls on me. “Will you shut up!”
“If you don’t release my shackles, I’ll die, too.”
“We’re not going to die.” He pulls me up by my arm, guiding me behind him as we leave the small interrogation room.
The hallway is equally dark, void of windows. The only light source is an emergency exit light above the door up ahead. It’s not much. The soft, muted glow does little to disperse the shadows crawling closer from every corner and reaching for me like taloned fingers.
A shiver rolls down my spine as a cold sweat beads on my neck. “Officer Wells?” I whisper, uncertainty sneaking into my voice for the first time tonight.
“Keep close.”
Holding the gun with one hand, he extends his arm and pushes open the door to the reception area. We step through on light feet, careful not to make a sound. I can’t help but feel eyes on me. Someone is watching us. Waiting for us to run like prey.
“Shit…” Officer Wells hurries up to Riveiro’s broken body on the floor. That’s when I see it. The drag marks of blood trailing through the reception area. The killer attacked her and stabbed her multiple times. Unable to run, she army crawled toward the exit door, hoping to escape.
“Fuck!” Wells rolls her over onto her back, his bloodied fingers sliding over her slick face as he brushes her black hair away from her cheeks.
The tangy scent of copper assaults my nostrils. I take a step back, only to meet a solid wall.A breathing wall.Before I can scream, a hand clamps over my mouth. The cold metal of a knife digs into my cheek as a distorted voice whispers in my ear, “We’re down to the key players, Keira. Are you ready to run for your life? If I catch you, I will kill you.”
The knife falls away from my cheek, and the robed killer walks around me, creeping up behind Officer Wells, ready to attack him from behind. He twists his head, and his devil’s mask leers at me in the dim light, the sharp blade glinting in his hand.
I hold my breath, my heart thrashing so wildly in my chest that I struggle to think rationally. He’s taking his time on purpose, seeing what I’ll do.
I should scream.
Officer Wells is still hunched over Riveiro’s lifeless body, his shoulders shaking with silent, choked sobs. He pleads with her to wake up.
Slowly, so fucking slowly, the killer turns back around before reaching out and gripping Officer Wells’s hair. With a hard pull, he exposes his throat, and the haunting gurgling sound that follows turns my stomach.
Running forward to stop him, I soon stumble back when he turns around. Fresh blood drips from the curved blade, and my eyes travel down to the slumped body on top of Riveiro and back.He killed him. He killed Wells.
The masked man takes a step closer, and I inch away.
“The third act is the most exciting. Don’t you think, Keira? This is when the plot twists happen, and the heroine wins against all odds. Only this is a story with a twist. That’s why I chose you, Keira. You’re a caged monster waiting to be released into the world. All you needed was a little push—alittlematuring.And look at you now, so fucking perfect.”
I slide my gaze past him to the entrance door. The door that he’s blocking. I take off running the way we came, back through the hallway leading to the interrogation room, and through a second door. I can hear him behind me, dragging his feet, or at least I think it’s his feet, until a pained whimper rings out.
I’m just about to ascend the steps to the second floor when his voice calls out, chillingly cold, “You don’t want me to kill Officer Riveiro too, do you? She’s still alive, but barely.”
With my shackled hands on the metal rail, I look over my shoulder as the monster enters the narrow stairwell, tossing Riveiro to the floor. There’s so much blood everywhere, a trail of it running the length of the hallway.
“You have two choices, Keira. You either come with me willingly, and I won’t touch another hair on Riveiro’s head, or we play a game of chase after I slice her throat like I did to Officer Wells.”
Another pained groan fills the heavy silence while I stare at the devil’s mask in front of me. The emergency exit light above the door offers only just enough illumination to make out the cold, soulless eyes visible through the holes. “What do you want with me? You’re gonna kill me, so why don’t you just get it over with? Why all of this?”
“Because the game isn’t over. You’ll soon see what I have planned for you.”
I flit my gaze down to Riveiro, whose raven hair has escaped the ponytail. Dark, matted tendrils of her long strands stick to the blood smeared on her face, and her raspy, labored breaths are loud in the seconds that follow. I think of all the innocent people that have died because of this man’s crazy obsession with my father and me, not to mention his obsession with awakening my killer instincts.
My hands fall away from the railing, and I take a step closer to the masked man. “You win. I’ll come with you. No one else has to die.”
A low, sinister chuckle fills the air as I carefully step over Riveiro’s broken, prone body on the floor, my shoes leaving footprints in the fresh blood.
“The game is over,” I breathe, approaching him slowly. There’s no way out of this. I have to play along, or more people die. This nightmare ends with my death, and that thought alone carries me forward.
His hand flies out and grabs me by the collar. He hauls me close, the bloodied knife digging into my throat as he taunts, “The game has only just begun.”
Walking down the hallway, following the blood stains on the floor from when the killer dragged Riveiro, we enter the reception area, where Wells lies face down in a pool of his own blood.
