Book 1: Sancta Labyrinthus

Chapter 4

She stared at Alistair from where they sat across from each other in the dining room of their apartment. He’d made some toast for breakfast, but it sat untouched on their plates. For the first time in her life, she had absolutely no appetite at all. Idly, she stared at her mug of coffee, watching the spires of steam disappear into the chill of the air.

The man’s proposal from yesterday still rang crisply in her head.

“Abandon your current life, and join us, where your father awaits.”

It didn’t make sense to her. Why had Father gone to some unknown place? A place that apparently believed Park Jae-Ki was still alive. How could they have known that? There were too many unanswered questions, and yet – Father was with them. There had to be a reason.

“So we have to go, right?” Victoria said flatly. “It’s not like we have a choice. We have to help Father.”

“If that was even Father,” Alistair countered.

Victoria bristled. “Are you saying I wouldn’t have recognised our own father’s voice?”

“No, but it could have been a voice recording,” Alistair said. “I don’t trust this organisation, or whatever they are.”

“I’m not saying we go because we trust them,” Victoria argued. “I’m saying we go because Father’s clearly involved with them somehow and we need to figure out what’s happening. If not for Father, then at least for some answers. You can’t deny something is definitely off.”

Alistair dropped his head into his hands. “What is going on? Where is Father? And how can Park Jae-Ki be alive?”

“What were the circumstances of his death again?” Victoria pondered. “They said he somehow manoeuvred himself onto a couple floors below where he fell off the fourteenth storey, right? Then this… snake bit him, and they said his body had undergone rigor mortis by the time the police found him.”

“But he lived,” Alistair said. “So is this what Father aims to do? To kill Park Jae-Ki?”

“So… Whoever we spoke to – that bald man – wants Park Jae-Ki dead too?” Victoria mused. The thought of the tall mysterious brown-haired man that she’d seen five years ago, still alive after all that he’d done, made her sick. He was out there wandering about freely after stealing her mother’s heart and destroying her to smithereens – and that was just for one host. How many other people had he killed, how many other families had he torn apart? The mere memory of her mother’s almost unrecognizable state in death made her want to empty all the coffee she’d consumed earlier.

She sat up straighter. “Allie. We have to end him.”

Alistair’s face was white. “The… Park Jae-Ki?”

“Duh!” Victoria smacked her hand onto the table. “Who else? Now that we know he’s alive, we have to kill him! He destroyed Mother, Allie!”

Alistair reached over and evened out the creases she’d made on the tablecloth. “Vic, I know, but I don’t think murder is the right way to go about this.”

“Tell that to Park Jae-Ki,” Victoria sneered. “He certainly didn’t think that way when he killed our mother.”

Alistair gazed at her steadily. “And you want to be like him?”

Victoria faltered for a brief heartbeat, then announced, with a cold finality, “If that’s what it takes.”

“No!” Now it was Alistair who slammed his hand on the table, though he rapidly straightened the creases that he made before he continued. “I won’t let you go down that path. It isn’t right! He already ruined Mother. He can’t ruin your life too.”