ℳ𝒾𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃ℊ | ℳ𝒶𝒻𝒾𝒶 𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸ℯ

9

I couldn't sleep properly through the night because I kept thinking about those damn fingers! So, Dante really got James. I never expected him to be so brutal right away. I went to the kitchen and got myself a glass of water, quickly drinking it down. I felt the ice-cold water going down my throat. I placed the glass in the sink and rubbed my face in frustration. He's dangerous, and I underestimated him. What will happen if he finds out I'm getting close to him just because of my mission? Will he then harm my mom? I took deep breaths and hurried to the living room to grab my work phone. I called my boss. It took a bit before he answered.

 He asked skeptically, "Rose?" 

I paced through the apartment and replied, "Yes, Chief, it's urgent."

 He sounded interested, "What's wrong?"

 I chewed on my fingernail and then said, "It's about James. Dante apparently had his fingers cut off."

 He sighed on the other end of the line and said, "Yes, I heard about it. He was found covered in blood in front of a police station yesterday. We tried to scan the vehicle, but unfortunately, it was impossible. It was a black van with no license plate."

 I banged my toe against a chair and limped away, cursing, "Damn chair."

 The boss asked, "Everything okay?"

 I regained my composure and said, "Yeah, everything's fine. But Chief, what is with the Video evident in the Café and did he survived?." 

He took a deep breath and said, "Yes, he's in the hospital and the video got deleted how suprising. But Rose, I have something important to tell you."

 I stopped in my tracks and asked, "What is it?"

 He took a deep breath and said, "I've fired James."

 I gasped, "Why would you do that?" 

There was a brief silence, and then he said, "We were looking for evidence of who could have done this to him, so we also searched his apartment, and you won't believe what we found."

 I became nervous, and a sense of unease washed over me. "What did you find?"

 He said, "Wait, I'll send you the photos."

 I received the messages and placed the phone on the kitchen counter, setting it to speaker mode. I looked at the pictures. My mouth hung open. I got goosebumps. 

I muttered, "This can't be..."

 The boss continued, "His diary entries, how should I put it nicely... they were very disturbing. If he had succeeded in doing that to you, you'd be... dead." 

I looked at the phone in disbelief, as if I could see it, and rubbed my forehead incredulously.

Actually, I wanted to vomit. The pictures showed James's room. The walls were covered with pictures of me in every direction, with strange symbols drawn on them in red felt-tip pen. There were smears of blood or whatever it was all over the walls. The diary entries contained drawings like those of a psychopath—screaming figures in the margins, sketches of me with a knife in my heart. I stared in shock, reading the sentence next to one drawing: "...today, I will kill her..."

 The boss asked, "Are you still there, Rose?"

 I stuttered, "Y-yes, I'm still here." 

He said sympathetically, "I'm sorry you had to see that, but it was necessary."

 I swallowed hard and said, "It's okay, but I'd like to hang up now." 

He took a deep breath and said, "Of course, take your time."