Kill The Innocent

Chapter Twenty-One

You knew the password so I let you in the door. You knew you won, so what's the point of keeping score?

Taylor Swift

***

Now is my chance.

Declan is in his office and Ellie is in her room taking a nap.

I just checked on Ellie and am now walking into our bedroom and shutting the door. I immediately walk up to the bed and start to shove it aside, it surprisingly isn't too heavy and slides pretty easily against the wood flooring in the room.

When I've shoved it enough to reveal the small door in the floor, I stare at it for a couple seconds wondering what it might be. I can't help but let a tinge of worry run through me. What if I don't want to know what's behind this door?

I need to know now.

I walk into the closet and shove aside my clothes to find the skeleton key is in the exact same place I left it. I pull it off the wall and walk back into the bedroom.

I'm on all fours now, placing the key in the hole. It fits like a glove and when I turn it there's a small click sound as I pull the door open.

I am now looking at a long staircase that leads to a dark room. I set the key down, take a deep breath, then start to head down the stairs.

With both hands on either wall beside me, I take each step cautiously. Like the stairs to the training room, these stairs are just as rickety. They creek with every step I take down them, and it's not long until my hand meets a light switch on the wall.

When I flick it on, I watch as the room lights up. My brows furrow as I take in everything. On three out of the four walls in the small box of a room, there are desks with monitors on all of them. The fourth wall is lined with VHS tapes. One of the desks has an old, 90's box TV that is covered in a thin layer of dust.

"What the fuck..." I whisper to myself as I walk in. I grab the only mouse that is connected to a monitor sat on a desk and shake it a little, when I do, they all come on.

It takes me a moment to realize that I'm looking at camera footage of Nolan's house, but when I do, I start to look at it even more in depth.

The house is empty. Not a soul in sight, and it looks like nobody's been there for quite some time.

When the hell did he put camera's there?

I turn my attention to the tapes on the wall. They all have dates on them, and the oldest one goes back to about 5 years ago. There seems to be about one tape for every day, give or take. I reach for a random one from two years ago and turn on the TV, putting the tape in the player.

I gasp when it starts playing. The camera angle is pointed right at my bedroom and the video is of me, spinning around in my bedroom using a hairbrush as a microphone.

"What the fuck..." I whisper again.

I immediately hit the eject button and pull the tape out and grab another one. This time it's me again, sitting at my desk writing something. I eject it and grab another. In this one, I'm sleeping. Another, I'm shirtless and shifting through my closet to find something to wear.

"Oh my fucking god." Has he been fucking stalking me?! For five fucking years?!

There's a tightness in my chest and tears prick my eyes as I slowly start to realize Declan is not who he's been acting like for as long as I've known him.

I turn around and look at the wall of tapes, my eyes fall on the very first one. September 27th, 2018. It's the date of my 21st birthday. I grab it and put it in the player and hit play.