Chapter 136

"You are a murderer."

"I don't kill." His hands, occupied with dishes, were diverted, and Van Doren's eyes rested on me. "I torture, I beat, I make you lose yourself in your mind, wishing for death as you see angels calling for you… But I don't kill. I don't get my hands dirty with your filthy blood. Not even a single soul."

A cold pain spread down my spine.

His dark irises sparked a flicker of fear.

"Good to know."

He smiled faintly.

"You're welcome."

My brain snapped.

They saw all of this as child's play. The fact that they were relaxed, going about their lives like damn criminals, having killed people, destroyed my life as if I were nothing but dust.

I couldn’t let it go.

I couldn’t let them continue like nothing was wrong.

"Let me out of here!" I screamed again.

Panic alternated between my lungs and chest. My heart was twisting, making the blood pump vitality to what was needed to make me think and escape. All I could do was scream.

"Give it up, princess," Asher huffed.

"You sons of bitches! You made my life hell! You destroyed everything I had! My family!" I yelled, the anger heating my face and every inch of my body. "You knew too! You accepted what Dante did! You killed those people too!"

They remained silent.

Not out of fear. Not to soothe my pain. Only because they knew their sins and accepted them as if they were their own commandments.

It was just like what they said.

The Empty Faces acted as if they were the justice, and everything they did was right.

My system collapsed.

Every glass, utensil, shelf of objects, and whatever else was in front of me fell to the floor. I destroyed the entire kitchen out of rage, screaming as if my lungs were suffocating. I was.

The memories of Dante's blood on my hand. My anguish to save his life. I wished I had killed him that day.

My crying. My mourning.

It was all because of them.

Cole took a few steps back, watching me.

None of them stopped me.

They just let the chaos take over me as I vented my anger by destroying the place. As my screams were the soundtrack of horror they were more than used to hearing from their victims.

"I expected a bit more self-control from you."

Dante entered, his aura dominating every inch of the area, along with my movements.

He had always carried an unshakable air, but it had been honed over the years. He was more than attractive. He was catastrophic for anyone.

One of the few remaining glasses was thrown at his face.

He dodged it, raising his eyebrows in a threatening challenge.

That son of a bitch circled the island and walked to the fridge, where he grabbed the milk. Calmly, he took one of the bowls from the upper cupboard and filled it, grabbing the chocolate cereal.

"Dude, you put the milk in before the cereal?" Asher voiced his outrage.

"Don't start again."

"You're a sociopath."

"Dante isn't human," Jaxon joked. "He doesn't like fries. Who in their right mind doesn’t like fries?"

Dante gritted his teeth.

"You guys are annoying."

He approached, yet my instinct was to pull away. His face was caricatured, questioning my movement. For milliseconds, he studied me closely as if I were an object of study. One of his statues in his room. A lifeless painting.

"Your hand is bleeding," he pointed out, and I raised my hands to check.

Then his focus shifted to the drawer where he took a spoon.

"Where's Vance, Cole?" he asked, leaning against the counter and eating his breakfast, not giving a damn about how I was deteriorating beside him.

I felt disgusted by him.

God, I hated how he seemed so calm with the fact that I was feeling weak and incapable of fighting them. I was there against my will, breathing the same air as four murderers I wanted to burn alive.

"He left early," Asher replied. "Maybe went out to have fun with his lazy friends."

"Hmm." That was all Dante said about the situation, swallowing some more cereal. "I had a task for him. Do you guys have class today?"

"Yeah. Actually, a test. I didn’t study. I’ll have to suck up to the professor to see if she bumps my grade," Hawthorn declared, tilting his head.

"You're a prostitute," Cole mocked.

"One you'd pay dearly for." Asher winked at the friend, who raised his middle finger.

"Your life seems to run on sex, man," Jaxon whistled.

"Of course. My good friend Descartes used to say: I think, therefore I fuck." Cole's laugh was involuntary, and then he stifled it. "Well, before I forget, I have to sleep at my parents' place in the next few days," Asher informed, throwing his phone on the table. "That piece of shit dad wants me to go to my cousin’s ridiculous engagement dinner."

"Engagement?" Cole asked, positioning his arms behind the chair where he was still sitting.

I watched Asher’s expression close. Any trace of comedy evaporated, replaced by a tremendous obsession. Whatever it was that was disturbing him, it ignited violent and inhuman emotions within him.

"Yeah."

The friends analyzed him and exchanged glances as if silently agreeing to not continue that conversation.

"Stopped crying?" Dante asked.

After eating, Dante placed the bowl in the sink. His analysis of my body lingered for slow seconds. I wanted to rip his eyes out so he wouldn’t see me. I wanted him to not have the pleasure of seeing me in that state.

I regained my posture, though I remained paralyzed.

"I want to leave here."

"I don’t understand, Emilia. There’s nothing holding you. You’re not tied up. If you want to leave so badly, go," he replied, calmly washing the dishes.

His torso was still exposed. I could see the tattoos on his back, but I didn’t take an interest in reading what they said.

"But know that we’ll hunt you down, and you'll come back," he continued. "And everyone who knows what happened will pay. Could be a child, a dog, your friends, your pet pig… You’ll have each of their blood on your hands."

The air that entered my system burned.

There was no trace of light in his eyes. They were as dark as his heart.

What was he talking about? Could I leave?

It was a bad joke. A test. A threat.

"Legend has it that anyone who sees the face of one of the Empty Faces doesn’t survive the day."

"Then I hope your day is long." The irony dug a hole in my core. "Those clothes... Where did you get them?"

His arched eyebrow made me feel pathetic.

"The intern said you wanted me to wear them."

Dante moved up and down my body. I wouldn’t doubt he could swallow me whole with his gaze.

"Did you authorize him to change your clothes?"

"How could I authorize it when I was unconscious?!"

His lips twisted in anger.

"Rachel, call the idiot."

The bitch, who had been lying down, ran down the hallway, barking like she had a loudspeaker in her throat.

There was a pause in time during the moment the dog went and came back with the intern. I thought about taking advantage of Faulkner’s relaxed state. The knife I had in my hand would still be useful. I could kill him. I could do what he did to me.

I could be worse than him, more than years ago.

My fingers warmed the knife’s handle.

It was just one step. I’d be precise in his chest. I’d end his existence once and for all.

"Did you call me, Faulkner?" The intern’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

Dante wiped his hands on the cloth softly before one of them slipped into a corner of his pants.

But not for long.

My heart exploded, and my breath froze. The room was pulverized, and the sound of my blood spreading freely through my veins was deafening. My consciousness felt heavy as I stared at Dante, seeing his most perverse state. Less human.

And as my mind returned to reality, the shock of the man’s head hitting the floor, his blood spreading like pieces of that area painting some of the white wall, was the reason I stumbled backward, curling up and screaming silently.

I tried to gather all my breath, but it was lost with each drop of blood splattering on the floor, staining that wall. The man’s wide eyes stared at me menacingly, invading my soul and stealing every spark of pure sanity.

"Shit. I’m not cleaning this time!" Asher grumbled, exhaling through his nose.

My only action was to keep breathing. It was the only thing that felt normal to me.

That man had been alive until then, but now he was just a corpse with half of his skull missing.

The sound of the shot. The bullet entering his head. The smell of death returning, just like that day.

Everything was chaos.