I nearly choke on how rancid it is, and I hear Jay cough from behind me.
Well, fuck. That’s a smell I’m very well acquainted with.
Someone died up here, and I will gladly place a bet that the body is rotting in
the same place where they fell.
The landing opens up to a small, dark area with a hallway branching off from
it, strands of light stretching from the back of it and toward us. Straight ahead appears to be a second stairwell, leading to the final floor.
Planting myself against the wall, I motion for Jay to follow my lead, then peer
around the corner and down the hallway, eyes narrowing when I glimpse an open room with what looks like an IV pole standing in the corner.
I can’t see much else from my vantage point, however, I’m positive there isn’t
anyone up here. Not anyone alive, anyway.
“Let’s go,” I whisper, making my way towards the room, gritting my teeth as
the smell worsens.
As soon as I breach the entrance, I stop short, causing Jay to collide into my
back.
On the floor is a massive pool of dried blood, a dead man lying directly in the
middle of it. He’s bloated, well into the process of decomposition.
“Jesus, fuck,” Jay mutters, as we both stare down at the stranger, disgust curling our faces. Dead bodies don’t bother me, but their rot will curdle the strongest stomach.
Immediately, I notice dry bloody footprints leading from the corpse and
toward the doorway we’re standing in. Grabbing my phone, I click on the light
and follow the footprints down the hallway and toward the second staircase.
“Female,” he says, confirming my thoughts. I get closer, taking care not to step in the blood. “You think they’re Addie’s?”
“Most likely,” I murmur. The prints are tiny and barefoot. Unless they took other females alongside Addie, I doubt they’re anyone else’s.
I sweep the corners of the room, locating several cameras pointing in different
directions.
“Cameras,” I call out, stepping around the blood and farther into the room.
Those will confirm whose prints they belong to.
My heart pounds as I take in Frankenstein's lair. Several machines are set up,
a long metal table with a copious amount of instruments, and a bed with a blanket laid haphazardly across it.
“He’s been dead for several days,” Jay observes. “Shot in the head. From the
back.”
I listen to him prattle on about his death as I scan every inch of the room.
“Let’s follow the footprints,” I mumble, my brow pinched as I try to piece together what could’ve happened.
Following close behind, Jay and I make our way back down the hallway and
up the second stairwell. The landing opens directly into a studio apartment.
Straight ahead, the entire wall is all glass, giving the room incredible natural light. A massive bed is in the middle of the area to my left with a small kitchenette to the right, dishes still in the sink and now attracting flies.
In the back corner of the apartment is a white tiled partition with a shower stall behind it.
The footprints lead all the way to it, and in the corner is a bloody hospital gown, dried and wrinkled now.
I stare, trying to process what the hell happened.
“Somehow… she was involved with that man’s death. And then it looks like
she walked up here and showered,” Jay concludes.
I shake my head, coming to the same conclusion. Fury is seeping into my vision, casting everything in red.
“Either she or someone else shot him from behind,” I surmise. “Most likely
someone else if she was covered in his blood and then had to shower it off.”
“You think she was in front of him?” Jay questions curiously.
“Or under him,” I grunt, hands beginning to shake as images of Addie being
attacked by the man downstairs flood my head. Whatever he was attempting to
do to her, it was bad enough that a human trafficker had to step in and kill him
for it.
My hand goes flying into the nearest wall, breaking straight through it. Like a
malfunctioning robot, I cock it back and drive it through a second time. And a
third, a fourth, a fifth, before Jay’s hands wrap around my arm and using my momentum, yanks me backward. I stumble, and we both come close to falling from the force.
“Snap out of it, dude,” he barks, sweat gathered across his hairline.
I growl and roughly shake my head, like a lion shaking off a hit to the head.
My knuckles are split, droplets of blood dribbling on the cement floor.
“We’ll have to clean up any traces of your blood,” he mutters.
“She could’ve been hurt,” I clip, ignoring him. I’m ready to storm back
downstairs and beat the shit out of a dead man. Torture him in the worst imaginable ways, despite him not being able to feel a damn thing.
Fuck. So badly, I want to tear through whatever veil separates the dead from the living, reach in, snatch his soul back out, and make him wish he never had one.
Every muscle in my body is locked tight and brimming with tension.
“We’re going to find her.”
“Hack the cameras,” I snap, charging up to the massive window and looking
out at the back end of the building. Jay sits on the edge of the bed, briefly looking at it like he’s sitting in a cesspool of DNA, then cracks open his laptop and gets to work.
I peer through the grime and find the black van sitting right at the parking lot exit, abandoned. My fists clench, noting the bashed-in fender and damage to the driver’s side of the vehicle.
I’m two seconds away from losing my shit again and punching the window,
so I work to decompress, closing my eyes and cracking my neck.
Keep it together, I chant to myself. Over and over and until I regain control.
I’ve seen some fucked-up shit in my life, more than most could handle, yet Addie's abduction is the worst thing I've ever experienced. There is no control anymore. Though with her, there never really fucking was.
I will gladly pour gasoline on everything in my path and set it aflame, if only
it leads me back to my mouse.
“Zade, you’re not going to want to see this… but you need to.”
Chapter 11
The Hunter
Baby, what have I told you about lashing out when you’re angry?