[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇
"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒. 𝐴 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒."
—𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑇𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑛

𝐈
— 𝐸𝑢𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑢𝑠 —

𝐄𝐔𝐃𝐎𝐌𝐔𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 the second-floor hallway of the motel, on high alert and he suspiciously looked at each dark blue door that he passed.

He knew that Diego's brother was in one of these rooms. And with him, the two masked killers that Eudomus had been searching for for the past couple of days.

Eudomus kept his footsteps quiet as he glanced down at the phone that was clipped onto his belt, wondering if Diego was on his way.

Reluctantly, he had come to a realization that Diego would probably be useful in this case and had called the boxing gym where he lived at. Unfortunately, Diego hadn't picked up, but Eudomus had left a message with the owner, and could only hope that Diego would receive it on time.

He suddenly paused as he heard thumping erupt into the air, and then his pace quickened as he tried to find the source. He stopped at where the thumping sounded loudest and pressed his ear against the door—room 225.

Slowly, he lifted the gun out of his holster and shifted in front of the door, pressing his ear against it once more to make sure that this was the right room.

Suddenly, a cleaning lady wearing a blue uniform came out of the room to the right, paying no attention to Eudomus as she went toward her cart.

Eudomus stepped over to her, mouthing and gesturing for her to hand him the key.

Eyeing the gun in his hand, the woman fished a key card out of her pocket and quickly handed it to him before abandoning her cleaning cart and running down the hallway, glancing back every now and then.

Still hearing the thumping, Eudomus slowly slid the key card into the lock and heard the confirming beep that the door had unlocked.

He carefully opened the door, seeing a shirtless man who was drenched in sweat and dried blood and had a strip of duct tape over his mouth.

The man, who had been sobbing, looked up at the sound of the door opening, and his eyes widened upon seeing Eudomus. He began to whimper, shuffling slightly in the chair he was bound against.

Eudomus leaned toward him, whispering, "Are you Diego's brother?"

"Yeah," the man breathed out, his voice muffled as he nodded desperately. He yelped, nodding his head backwards to tell him that the kidnappers were in the bathroom at the back, and Edumous nodded, hushing him.

"I'm Detective Patch." Eudomus unsheathed a knife from his belt and quickly cut the duct tape that was holding the man's arms down to the chair, and the man cried softly as he stood up.

Then, the sound of creaking filled their ears as the door to the bathroom slowly opened, and the yellow light from inside became more noticeable.

Eudomus quickly grabbed onto the man's shoulder and brought him aside as the other hand prepared the gun before seeing a larger man peek his head out of the bathroom. Immediately, he pushed Diego's brother onto the bed, where he rolled off and hit the ground, before firing his gun, but the kidnapper rushed back inside the bathroom.

Both hands now clutching his gun, Eudomus took a few steps forward and declared, "Police! Drop the gun, or you're going down!"

Then, a hand holding the handle of a gun poked out of the door and tossed the gun on the floor before a male's voice spoke, "I'm coming out. Don't shoot."