The Masked Killer - A.T Ben Saad || English

Chapter 15: Levi

"What's going on with him?!?" I demand, yanking her by the hair so she has no choice but to look at me. Her eyes are wide with fear and confusion.

"I—I don't know! I really don't!" she cries out helplessly. I sigh, frustrated and desperate, and pull Noah's phone from my back pocket. But the moment I do, his hand snaps around my wrist with lightning speed. He seems to shift into a different stance, one that sends a chill down my spine. I release her hair, and she rubs the sore spot on the back of her head. Noah slowly turns to face me, his eyes as vacant as before. He stares at the ground and pants like a dog, his hands clenched into fists. He looks like he's turning into a beast.

"Buddy, are you okay?" I ask nervously, my voice trembling. Suddenly, Noah's arm swings up and delivers a massive blow to my jaw. I'm certain I heard something crack. Pain radiates through my face as I stagger backward, overwhelmed with fear and disbelief. What is happening to him? Has he been pretending all this time? I can't comprehend it.

I recover, but the hatred in my eyes is intense, more than I've ever felt before. "What the fuck?!?" I shout angrily, spreading my arms wide. "I did everything for you! You promised to spare me if I supplied you with weapons!" I pause for a moment, swallowing the lump in my throat. "You promised to keep me alive if I killed my own friends." The words emerge almost as a dull whisper from my mouth.

As I speak, memories flood my mind. I remember how Oliver had stolen drugs from me, and the day I discovered a packet of coke on his nightstand that he hadn't paid for. The betrayal burned deep, but not as much as the pain of killing Henry. I had struggled so much to go through with it, but Noah had left me no choice. He had threatened me with a video of my coke stash, taken in the dead of night. I had suffocated Henry with a pillow, crying and apologizing over and over as my hands shook with guilt and fear, waiting for my friend to stop breathing.

Noah begins to grin, a sinister twist to his lips. "I never promised to keep you alive, Levi. I promised not to turn you over to the police after I discovered your drug dealings. I promised you the sweet taste of revenge, and that appealed to you. Everything that followed... remained unspoken."

His words strike me like a slap in the face. "You're insane," I say, my voice trembling. Noah twists his hip and kicks me hard in the stomach. I never knew he could move like that. I crumple, clutching my abdomen, gasping for air. The pain is excruciating.

Noah's rage is unrelenting as he continues to kick my kidneys. "Stop!" I plead helplessly, coughing up blood. The world spins around me, and I feel the crushing weight of my mistakes. My vision blurs, and darkness edges into my sight as Noah's kicks drive me further into the ground. I cough up more blood, each spasm feeling like knives in my chest. Oddly, a sense of relief washes over me. Maybe it's better this way. Maybe death is the escape from the horrors I've committed.

As consciousness fades, I whisper a prayer, begging not to be sent to hell. I pray that the afterlife is just infinite silence and darkness, a place where I can finally find peace from the nightmares of my own making.