“Besides attending the same school, we can’t find anything linking them. No classes, friends, or hobbies in common. They’re not even the same body type or ethnicity. Whatever he’s looking for has a meaning only he knows,” James said.
“Shit.” Schilling rubbed his eyes. “We’re missing something and running out of time. He killed the last victim less than forty-eight hours after abducting her. If we don’t find Eva alive before sunup tomorrow, we’ll find her dead come nightfall.”
Seventeen
He hit her hard. The side of Eva’s face pulsed hot with pain. Bright fluorescent light shone in her eyes, making them water. She squinted and tried to lift her hands to clear her vision, but they stayed pinned by her sides. The creature’s shadow hung menacingly on the periphery of Eva’s eyesight.
“Good. You’re awake.” A crackling growl hummed from his throat as he spoke.
Eva squirmed against the restraints binding her hands and legs. With each movement, the bands cut into the flesh of her wrists and ankles. Her blood splattered onto the concrete floor in hot, wet drops. The strap across her forehead dug into the skin above her brow and kept her from turning her face away as he approached.
“I…I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Just let me go,” she pleaded.
“I think we both know it’s too late for that.”
Eva closed her eyes tight. He had ripped off his skin, revealing the face of a monster. She didn’t want to see what he was, and she couldn’t help but start to believe what he said; Bill was gone and something else took his place. Her chest heaved with silent sobs, and her muscles tightened in fearful anticipation.
“Don’t struggle.” His last word came out as a hiss. Ssstrugle.
The squeak of worn wheels got louder as he rolled a tray up next to her. He sat and his putrid stench washed over her. “I don’t need to be polite to you anymore. That’s refreshing. Do you want to know my true name?” Metal tools clanked together as he shuffled things around on the tray.
Eva kept her eyes closed and made no response.
“Alastor.” A cap unscrewed and liquid gurgled. “Have you heard of me? Did your Yiayiá tell you tales of the Great Avenger?” Scissors snipped through thick paper.
Alastor. His words triggered a faint memory. Something her grandmother said when she was a child. She flipped through the moments she shared with her Yiayiá, and an image of her younger self became clear.
“Yiayiá, you have to keep the closet light on. I can’t sleep if it’s off.”
“Why not? You are big girl now. Nothing in closet hurt you.”
“What about Alastor? If all the lights are off, he’ll come get me when I’m sleeping and put his mark on me.”
“Alastor is nasty, evil demon, but he won’t get you. Where you hear that?”
“I read it in one of your books. It said that he can grow new skin and look like anyone he wants. If you don’t know what he looks like, how do you know he won’t come here?”
“He locked away and only back when horrible crime come.”
“But what if he gets out?”
“No.”
“I’m still scared, Yiayiá.”
Yiayiá sat at the edge of the bed and rubbed Eva’s forehead. “A great magic in you. Don’t let anyone steal your power. The power make you unique. Now, you sleep.”
Eva’s eyes fluttered open. “You were a bogeyman. I thought everything I read and what she said was made up to keep me in line.”
Alastor chuckled softly. It sounded wet and raspy. “She didn’t. I’m very real.”
“She said I didn’t have to be afraid. That you were locked away forever.”
“You have so much to learn. But you won’t be alive to figure it all out.”
Cold liquid hit her forearm. He smeared it around and wiped it off with a rough paper towel.
Horrible crime. “You think someone in my family is responsible for a murder? T…That’s not even possible.”
“Not a murder. Your family has been murdering for centuries.” He placed paper on her forearm and smoothed it out with a heavy hand. “They’ve been trying to rid this realm of the powerful beings who keep it in balance. Banishing us to that stinking hole in the Underworld. Calling us evil. We had free rein before the Oracle. Pythia.” A growl bubbled in his throat as he removed the paper. “Hundreds of years have passed, but her blood still stinks heavy and sweet within her descendants. The stench is so potent it rubs off on those around you. The smell is good on your mom, but on you…” He leaned over her and into her line of sight. Eva suppressed a scream as his nostrils flared with a deep snorting inhale. “On you it’s almost pure.” He leaned back, and the stool creaked with his shifted weight. “You have the gift of sight, like the Oracle. You’re just too stupid to use it.”
A faint clicking rose from the ground followed by the sound of swarming bees.
“W…What is that? What are you going to do to me?” Her voice sounded small and broken.
“Leaving my mark.” He touched the buzzing tool to her forearm. It felt like shards of glass scraping her flesh.