Seize(25)

However, I can’t get her off my mind. My heart is torn between doing what is right and doing what is easy, safe. I try to ignore this nagging feeling that tells me to grab her and make a run for it. It wouldn’t end well, though. In order to calm down, I promise myself that I will not stop trying to pull at least one victim from their grasp, and I will start with her.





Accompanying song: “The Hunted” by Snow Ghosts





Room 569. Providence, Rhode Island – June 3nd, 2013





“You …” I mutter. “Oh God, that was really you. That day at the charity event? Oh my God, it all falls into place now …”

“Yes, I was there, and so were they. You remember it, don’t you?” he says. “The way they seduced your mother.”

I gasp, gazing down at his chest, not wanting to come to terms with all that he’s told me. I feel sick to my stomach. I can’t believe this has been going on for so long and that these men do all these things without anyone stopping them. When he said money could buy anything, he wasn’t kidding.

“So this Genesis thing … it’s like Illuminati,” I mutter.

“A little. The idea was copied but is carried out on a much darker scale.”

I frown, biting the inside of my cheek. “How could you drag me into this?”

“I tried to keep you away from them. That was all I was doing.” Then he sighs, big time. “But you never listened to me. Never trusted me for my word.”

“You were a stranger; how could I trust a stranger over my own heart?” I say. “And not to mention, you were scary.”

He chuckles a little. “Scary? You don’t say.”

“You wanted me to be scared, I know that now. But what I don’t understand is why go through all that trouble just for me?”

He grabs my hand and twines his fingers through mine. “Because there was something about you … something that awoke me from the trance that I’d been in since they pulled darkness into my life. The way you looked at me … it just slapped some sense into me.”

Now I laugh. “Jesus, I wish I could enable that magical ability around my mother.” Just mentioning her name creates a lump in my throat. “Well, before …”

“I’m sorry. About everything. About being part of her death and your abduction.”

“Sorry doesn’t fix anything. Sorry doesn’t bring her back. Sorry doesn’t give Ashley back what she lost to those monsters.”

“No … which is why I will fight them with everything I have.”

“How?” I gaze up into his eyes, which are clear and truthful, like he’s really trying. I can’t give in that easily. “You took pictures of me. That’s not going to help.”

“The pictures that I just took will show them that I did what I had to do; they’re mere tools for me to ensure that they’ll still trust me.”

“And that’s what you used the video you shot of me for?”

“Yes … I do not want to share you, but I have to show them proof.”

“And then what?”

“Patience. I need to have it and so do you.” He rubs his forehead with his fingers. “They cannot just be killed. Believe me; I thought it all out. It’s not possible. They protect each other, and if one were to be attacked, the others would surely intervene. They have enough money to persuade anyone to come to their side. They are unstoppable.”

“Then how are you planning to put a stop to it all?”

“I’m writing a book.” He frowns, gazing at me. “I’ll write their end. Instead of killing them myself, I will murder them with words. They’ll read it and reenact it all, unable to stop because that is their rule. That one and only rule …” He makes a fist with his hand. “It will be their downfall.”

He grabs my hand firmly and squeezes it. “Which is why I need them to trust me, so they’ll read it. And I need your trust to pull through.”

I gaze at our hands, firmly entwined, and even though it bothers me that he speaks to me like a lover after having hunted me like a deer, I still feel connected to him in a way that I cannot explain. This is why it feels so uncomfortable being near him and yet safe at the same time. My heart is going one way while my mind is going another, and I can’t seem to choose.

“You put that note in my backpack, when I was on vacation in Costa Rica. You said it before, that I should’ve listened when you told me not to pick up the phone.”

“Yes, I did. I was following you on their orders.”

“Why?”

He sighs and turns around to lie on his back, releasing my hand. He runs his fingers through his long, blond hair and breathes out a puff of air. “They were keeping tabs on you from the start. They had all your information, your credit card number, your phone number, your ID, where you were going, who you were with. Anything and everything was tracked. There was nothing you did that they didn’t know, and it was because of me.”