Downhill

19: Silent Danger

I fumbled through the countless articles and photos. Everything, every piece of evidence, lead back to the same boy. I tried to find something wrong, something that proved it wasn't him. I couldn't find any, they all fit together perfectly. A closed case.

The assassinations of kings, queens, princesses, princes, the murders we couldn't solve they all were him. The murderer that hid in the shadows, the killer that lived in the forest. If that's where he even lived. That could be a lie too.

I stared at a photo of a little boy, with the same curly hair, his back covered in scars and new wounds. Beaten and bruised. Scarred. Not what a little boy should look like. I pushed the photo away and stared down at an article.

Only two years ago, 2019, Princess Lara of Slovnada was murdered in her sleep. She was found dead, her body covered in blood. There was evidence of a struggle but she clearly lost. She laid there, her neck cut open, her eyes opened wide still, terrified. Earlier that day she was spotted at a cove with a mysterious friend.

I stared at the photo of the dead girl, her neck cut open and her eyes wide open. She was dead but even then she looked terrified. How could Hector do this? He can't. He could never.

Or is that what he wants me to think? He wants me to think he can't so that he can kill me when I'm sleeping. I was a victim to his charm, I fell for his clever little lies. I trusted his smiles, his kisses, his hugs, his love. It wasn't love, it was an act. He was putting on a show, a character in a story.

"Hector Chase, son of General Dawn and General Petal..." I read out loud as tears rolled down my cheeks. I looked back at the photo of the dead Princess. Mother was right all along. She was right, she always has been. I closed the folder, hands shaking. I don't know what I am feeling. Anger? No. Maybe.

The shadows laughed at me. "Shut up, shut up," I repeated but they continued.

I looked at my hands, they were fists, fists that were shaking. I felt like I was snapping, like emotions were filling me. I was drowning in them.

I was engulfed in the feeling. The feeling of pain in my heart, the feeling of my nails digging into my hands as they remained in fists. It was eating me alive. Yet the only person I wanted here was the cause of this. Hector.

I just wanted to look at him and yell. I want to look at his perfect, lying face. I wanted him to just see me break so I could cry and let him watch. Will he feel guilty then?

I showed him my everything. I opened my soul to him. I showed him my tears and let him comfort me. But nobody is here to comfort me now. I believed all of the pretty words he said to me, all of the delicate lies. I thought I was falling in love but no I was falling into a trap. To him I was a mission, to me? He was my life.

I put my hands to my head and cried. The tears flowed out of me like a painful song, I thought I could drown in my tears. My body shook with every agonizing sob. Crying wasn't enough. It didn't relieve every ounce of pain that flowed through my soul just as much as the blood in my veins. The walls kept laughing.

I got up and grabbed a vase, I threw it. It shattered against the wall but who cares. There is no reason to care if nobody cares about me. I am on this Earth for a reason I don't know.

To stay in this room? To get dressed up when my mother wants me to go outside? To fall in love and get killed by the person I trusted with my life? This world doesn't like Maxwell, this world only wants him when it's convenient.

This world only wants him when they can kill him, when they can see his 'perfect' body. When they want to touch and touch and touch.

The walls kept laughing. The shadows kept laughing.