Innocent Until Found Dead

Chapter Three

"There are two types of secrets: The kinds that you want to keep in, and the kinds you don't dare let out."        

 —Alley Carter

Laura Jain Haulsen,

For three years, you've played the devoted guardian to our dear Tris, crafting a web of lies and illusions to keep her comfortable. And for three years, I've watched, thoroughly entertained by your little performance. Did you really think I'd forgotten our history? That your attempts to erase her past would somehow change what she means to me? No matter how thick you spin your web of deception, she remains mine. She always will.

You've proven to be quite the manipulator, fooling even the girl herself with your carefully constructed facade. It's been amusing, truly—watching you twist and turn to keep her in the dark. But like all performances, yours has run its course. I'm bored of your charade, and now it's time for the curtain to fall.

I'm giving you a chance, something I don't often do, and only because I find you slightly more interesting than the mindless sheep around you. Consider it a generous offer, one I won't repeat. Obey my conditions, or face what's coming:

You will vanish from North Carolina. You are no longer welcome here. If you fail to disappear within the month, I promise you, death will find both you and your precious Quinn in ways you can't begin to imagine. If you ignore this warning, everyone you care for will be dead within a week. You will do as I command—you know you will if you value their lives.

Don't test me. Don't make me prove just how monstrous I can be.

Yours truly,
The Devil's Influencer

Laura's eyes darted over the jagged lines of ink on the crumpled note, her fingers trembling as she held the wrinkled paper around the cold, weighty stone it had been wrapped around. She felt a surge of dread, a pulse of nausea twisting her stomach. She should have known. She should have seen the signs—the subtle warnings that he was still lurking, watching, waiting. She'd clung to the fragile hope that he'd vanished, that somehow their nightmare had ended. But now, standing in the suffocating silence with this note in her hands, she could no longer deny the truth.

The Devil's Influencer had returned to claim them. Only, deep down, she knew he'd never really left.

Laura had never believed in the devil—until she met his master in the flesh, this monster of a man who stepped into her life like a shadow with a pulse. It wasn't until she witnessed his handiwork, the twisted remnants of lives he'd shattered, that she understood true darkness. And then, when she finally looked him in the eyes, she saw it—the void, the endless depths where no light could reach. He was someone that the devil himself could fear. He was something that demons would have nightmares about. Laura had learned the hard way, long ago, that the only thing more terrifying than the devil himself was his Influencer.

............................................................................................................................................................

Hunter checked his watch for the third time, impatience gnawing at him as he waited for Quinn. Where was she? He leaned back against the side of his truck, blowing out a deep, irritated breath. She'd been a no-show at lunch, hadn't turned up at her locker, and he hadn't even seen her in the halls. It grated on him, this uncertainty. She always had a way of disappearing just when he thought things were starting to settle down.

He replayed their last interaction in his mind. It wasn't even a fight—more like her snapping at him. It was so one-sided that he hadn't even managed to respond before she stormed off. She tended to bottle things up until they exploded, and he figured this was just another one of those moments. But still, it left him frustrated, running in circles, trying to understand why she would take what Dexter Wilconson–of all people–said seriously.