Rage and Ruin | 2

2 | 1

J A K E

I slid the photo out of the frame and flipped it over. On the back, a date was written in looping cursive: 16 November; fifth anniversary.

"They've been together for more than five years?" Tesla read over my shoulder, "How is this even possible? I mean, how did he keep this a secret from everyone?"

"Not everyone."

She gave me a look. "You knew."

"More or less."

"How did you - No, I'm not even going to bother asking that. How is this even possible?" she stammered in shock.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Your confusion as to what she sees in him is the same as mine."

"Maybe he's threatening her to stay with him."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"Wait," she said and turned to face me. "You're planning something for her."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You're going to do something horrible to her in order to hurt Hundsen. What are you planning?"

"I'll think of something." I already had a very vivid picture of her mutilated, dead body in this very room before a grief-stricken Hundsen. He'd finally know how I felt.

She scoffed. "I hope she deserves it."

"If she's with Hundsen, helping and abetting his tyranny, then she does."

"Is that so?" Tesla asked in a quiet voice as she began to walk out of the bedroom. I followed her.

     The next room we wandered into was Hundsen's home office. I knew that if there was any information on his current location, it would be here. Making a path straight to the massive wood-carved desk, I was determined to ransack every last drawer for a clue.

I pulled open the first drawer and found that it was filled with filed Manila folders. The one above it was as well. Tesla opened the other two and found that, they too, were file cabinets.

"You're going to have to look through all of these for information," she said as she shuffled through the folders.

"Maybe not." I moved on to the small drawer with a lock on it. As I'd presumed, it was locked. A thin icicle formed in my hand at my command and I gently shoved it into the lock. After a few moments of working the lock, the drawer slid open.

Inside was another handgun laying on top of a stack of papers. I pulled the papers out from under the weapon, making it clatter to the bottom of the drawer.

      "These are what I came for," I stated, knowing that Hundsen had wanted these papers kept secret for a reason.

      "What if he planted them as a trap?" Delphinium asked. "A person like Hundsen would take every precaution to not be found out like this."

      "True, in any other circumstance than this one," I told her as we began walking back down the stairs. "You know what Hundsen's biggest flaw is?"

      "His shockingly evil nature?"

      "He's prideful. He believes that no one can touch him or his business, especially in his own home. It will be his downfall."

      She shook her head. "But Hundsen's not stupid. You're telling me that it's not at all suspicious to you that there are no bodyguards, no people patrolling the house in his absence? Hundsen knows that you're after him; he wouldn't leave his house unprotected like this."