Who Is Mr. Locke?

Emma POV

I was in shock. Coming back from the bathroom where I had just emptied the contents of my stomach fully, the room was spinning. I did not know what to think of all this, but one thing was certain. I had to find a way to run away from here, I had to leave and never look back. Mr. Locke, judging by the files that Myra’s friend brought, was a monster. A monster in every way!!! Numerous pictures of young children, some infants, their descriptions, places where they were found, some of them injured, some close to death – all disappeared. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! All disappeared mysteriously and all of their disappearances connected to one person – him.

A long list of shell companies was at work. Some posed as international charities, some I found online as legitimate businesses in various countries. Again, they all had one thing in common. Him. Somehow, at the top of this horrible and ugly pyramid of children’s disappearances and obvious human trafficking was always him. There was no rhyme or reason for this – no obvious connection among his victims, save for one. Most of them were orphans and some came from already abusive families. There were pictures of some, and my heart was breaking looking through it all. My hands were shaking, my vision blurry and I was trembling. I had to have dinner with this monster in a couple of hours. I did not know how I would go through that. I knew what my mother said about him, but I also realized that she might have known only one side of him. Besides, people change, and even I had fallen prey to his charms, eloquence, fake kindness, and generosity. Who is to say he did not lie to my mother too??? Nothing made sense.

“We should not take this lightly, Emma, however, I do not think that everything is how it seems”, I heard the ever-present voice. “You said we can trust him!!”, I snapped back at her, aggravated and scared. Maybe he had Dr. Sina give me some type of poison or hallucinogen – maybe I am supposed to hear this voice to convince me to trust him??? Maybe he did this to all his victims? I knew all this was too good to be true and I should have trusted my gut instinct to begin with!

Terrible fear overcame me. How would we leave? Where do we go??? Our home was gone, and if we left, I had nowhere to run. We had no savings, no money. Obviously, Mr. Locke knew this and took advantage of the situation, I thought to myself. Obviously, he preyed on children like us, orphaned, without family, support, in dire need. “I think you are overreacting”, the voice came again. “And I do not think you appreciate the gravity of the situation, whomever you are!”, I sneered back. “This is serious. I have read about people like this. They take advantage of children, use them, and abuse them, sell their body parts, sell them as sex slaves! All these kids, all of them are MISSING!!!!! How do you explain that???”

“I cannot. However, I never sensed anything of the sort from him. On the other hand, that lady, the nurse or whomever she is – there is darkness around her Emma. Why should you trust her??? A man in Mr. Locke’s position, somebody so influential and wealthy is bound to have a lot of enemies. And he cares for you and Leo. What better way to hurt somebody like him than come after people he cares for?” the voice tried to reason with me, but I did not buy it. Something was always off with him, something I did not understand. He felt out of place, strange in a way. I had never met anyone like him and everything that has happened made me question not only him, but my sanity also. Most importantly, I was worried about Leo. What did I get us into???

“Again, I am asking you as to why you are trusting a complete stranger like this woman??? If Mr. Locke wanted you for some devious scheme, why would he be taking care of you all this time? He could have had you killed and sold your body if he was guilty of what he is being accused”, she said again. Her words made me think. This was true. He could have done that, and none of us would have been the wiser.

“So I repeat, why are you trusting a complete stranger who shows up randomly, in a mask, not even allowing you to see her face?? You have no idea who she is, and now you are here, taking her word as a gospel??” “I am not trusting the nurse. I trust Myra, my life-long friend, the person I grew up with, my confidant, my sister! She must be concerned about Leo and I. She and her family have always taken care of us, always! Her I trust!” “Be that as it may, Myra can only share the information she has. She may not know if it is real or not. She is just being a good friend, trying to warn you. However, that does not mean that her sources are benign or legitimate. Besides, why would your mother encourage your friendship with him? Even if she is dead, she would know about these things. Did she not show you the visions, the visions of the past and the future? What makes you think your own mother does not know how to protect you?”

My head was throbbing. I wanted to give Mr. Locke a benefit of the doubt. I wanted in my heart to believe that somehow Myra got this wrong. But I could not deny that all this time, ever since I met him, something was off, something was very different about him. I could not ignore it anymore. I had to talk to Leo – urgently. Perhaps his friends could get us out of the hospital, somehow. I needed to come up with a plan. And I needed to know the truth. Who is Mr. Locke after all???