The more I walk around the basement, which is so huge it’s like another new dimension, the more anxiety and panic rush through me, my mind screaming at me to run away, yet I’m glued to the spot, my eyes capturing the horrors all around me.
Going farther, I notice a board with at least a hundred names, connected by arrows and a hugeX, with small notes and photos attached.
Next to each photo is another of either ripped flesh or some other body parts.
Nausea hits me.
“Oh my God.”
Levi is a murderer.
No.
A serial killer who must enjoy what he does to have so many devices to prolong his crimes. And what are these photos? Trophies?
Looking under the board, I see a computer and flash drives with the names on them, which probably means he films all the atrocities committed by him as well.
“Oh my God,” I repeat, finally snapping out of my stupor and spinning around, ready to bolt, only to freeze once again when I notice nine huge screens farther to the right.
And each screen has my face on it.
Coming closer, I whisper, “Oh no.” Videos play one after another, all invading my privacy.
Videos from my apartment, university, family dinners, and my sessions with Dr. King.
I barely swallow past the bile forming in my throat, holding back the need to gag because the man I thought was a good guy…is an obsessive killer who stalked me all this time!
Another board hangs near it, and it has my whole family on it, Orion included, with similar notes and arrows, as if he designed some kind of plan.
And I’m the weapon to execute it.
The pain that envelops my heart shatters since he has probably been using me for his sick agenda, but I refuse to focus on it.
Instead, I reach for the survival mode that urges me to seek out and get help before something bad happens to me.
My brothers.
I need to go to my brothers and tell them about all this.
They’d know what to do.
How could I be so stupid? How could I have not seen this in him?
The madness that pollutes his kind cannot be missed, yet he deceived me. Now I’ve put everyone in danger.
I don’t even make two steps when an arm circles around my waist, lifting and turning me around, pressing me hard against the nearest wall. My scream reverberates through the space, and I come face-to-face with Levi.
“Caught you,moy cvetochek.”
“Let go of me,” I hiss, trying to get free, struggling in his grip, which is useless, and that’s when he wraps his hand around my throat, pressing with his thumb on my artery. “Let…go…”
“Shhhh,moy cvetochek. Save your strength for what’s to come.”
His grip on me intensifies. I expect pain, instead, my body becomes heavy, and slowly, the world around me goes black.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Family is everything and comes above anything else.
