Page 189 of I Never Stopped Loving You

But I do.

I take the steps slowly, one by one. I watch my footing making sure not to step on anything since I’m only wearing a pair of socks. Now I really wish I had my slippers.

With each step further, I can hear the voices. It still isn’t enough to understand what they’re saying, but I know there are two and one is definitely Noah’s.

At the bottom of the steps is a halloween mask. It looks like a skeletal face. The white bone is split open and the eyes are black. The mouth is sewn shut and there are faded blood splatters covering the white of the skull. It looks creepy as fuck. Yep, this is definitely going to be how I die.

“Where is she?” a male’s voice demands. One that I don’t think I recognize. It’s not Jeremy’s.

I slowly let the bottom door swing the rest of the way open. A sickening, coppery smell hits me causing a wave of nausea to roll through my stomach. I quickly pull the T-shirt up over my mouth and nose, but it does little to help with the smell. Now the smell of Noah’s cologne is also mixed in.

As I close the door behind me and move forward, I realize I’m not in a normal hallway at all. It’s more like a brick tunnel. Everything feels old and damp down here. It feels wrong. I can hear the voices getting clearer. Noah and someone else. I can’t shake this feeling of familiarity at the other man’s voice. It’s almost sickening.

“If you ever speak about her like that again, I’ll…”

“You’ll what, Killer? Kill me?”

That voice…

I know that voice. I’ve heard it in my nightmares.

No…There’s no fucking way.

I make my way further allowing my body to slink along the wall keeping tight to the shadows. I can hear them fully now. They must be just on the other side of this wall.

“Does she know?”

That haunting sound makes my body recoil in disgust.

“Know what?” Noah snarls.

“That you’re a killer?”

A killer? Noah? No.

“Not yet.”

What? What the fuck does he mean, not yet?

“Will you tell her the truth?”

“Yes. I plan on telling her everything.”

Everything? What more is there to tell? If you’re a killer, what is there to justify what you did?

My heart is racing. I should go back upstairs. Pack my shit and leave. Disappear. I can disappear again. I can…

“Are you sure about that, Killer? It could ruin everything.”

“It won't. She wants you dead, so that’s a start.”

I said that, didn’t I? I said I wanted to kill him. Did Noah go out and find him? Bring him here for me to kill? What the fuck? My heart is racing so fast and loud that I barely hear their conversation.

“Otherwise, you’re just a soulless killer with no real reason for killing.”

That’s the only thing I manage to catch as my heart starts to quiet in my chest.

“She is my reason. She didn’t deserve to grow up away from the people who truly loved her. She didn’t deserve to have her mother ripped away from her at such a young age. She doesn’t deserve to still have to watch over her shoulder, waiting to see if the fucking nightmare that you are is still haunting her. I did it for her and every other victim out there who doesn’t have a voice or even fucking life anymore because of pieces of shit like you.”