CRYPTIC | completed

08

Chapter 08 - MEN AND MONSTERS

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"Everyone, save anything you can off a screen so he can't wipe them."

"Are you even thinking about this, Daxton?" I pushed past frantic people in the computers room. "About his motives?"

"He's a hacker, Ash! He can access anything about any of us," he shouted.

I scowled at him. "I need to speak with you alone."

* * *

"You sure you just don't want any of your own secrets to be out there?"

I handed him the photo of himself on the phone with the attached note that I found in my file. He glared at the paper. I half expected him to crumple it up, yet he didn't.

"Where the hell did you get this?"

"It was in my file. Who were you on the phone with?"

Daxton tossed his photo on the ground, focusing on the note.

"At what point does man become monster," he scoffed. "Mocking again, I see."

"You know the phrase?"

"Heard it once or twice before," he murmured.

"Where?"

"Another life."

"That's not enough. You know the same phrase the killer's using. We don't  have much to go on. Where have you heard it?"

"Long ago. Drop it," he glared daggers at me. The note dropped from his hand and fell to the floor. I picked up both papers and stood, entirely confused.

Another life. There were more secrets to be found.

* * *

Another body was found. Male, bloodied over, but there was no blood was below him. Meaning his body had been moved—this wasn't the location where he was killed. Slits were cut along the corners of the boy's mouth, nearly to his ears, to form a permanent, bloody grin.

"They're getting worse." I scrunched my nose from the odor of death. His corpse was already rotting, scattered rats gnawing at his bloody fingers. His blood-covered clothing was torn, bruises blotted his grayish skin. The large amount of unfocused stab wounds on his chest made me hope he died quickly.

One of the officers walked over to us and, in a low voice, said, "you both may want to see what I found."

He led us along a trail of blood drops to an empty room. Dried blood stained the wall just below the cracked window. On the wall there was a large message in deep crimson. A stained brush had been discarded on the floor.

WHEN DOES MAN BECOME MONSTER?

"He's not stopping anytime soon," I stood frozen in front of the writing. "What does he want?"

"It's not all joy, Ash—"

"I'm very much aware of that."

"—we're all human or monsters. Those who are kind, those that murder for joy. Those that are kind, honest, and the manipulators. It wasn't like this when I grew up."

"So which do you consider yourself?"

Daxton watched one of the investigators bag the brush and another take more photos. They both soon left; I still had no response.

I looked at him, expectingly. He looked over at the bloodied wall again and left without a word.

* * *

"Damn screen - you were working this morning." The screen of the computer kept glitching, kicking me out of programs I was trying to use for outside research of the "x" and of the house the body was found in. Nobody yet had been successful in finding a previous owner of said house, so I decided to try and help.

Thankfully, anything I had on Luca was already deleted from the laptop. I already made sure to write everything I had on him down in a notebook that I kept with my file. The file still remained an open mystery, sadly. Save for a sketch of the printed coins I recognized.

The laptop screen went black. Moments later, letters started to quickly pop up on the screen, one by one, in the large white font.

WH3N D03S MAN B3C0M3 M0NST3R? 1 H0P3 Y0U AR3 F1GUR1NG 1T OUT. T1M3 1S ALM0ST UP. |

I frowned, mouthing "what the hell?" to myself.

The white letters faded to black and brightened as more text.

1 KN0W Y0U.
1'V3 WA1T3D A L0NG T1M3. 1'M GR0W1NG 1MPAT1ENT. |

I waited a few seconds before the text faded into new words.

Y0U KN3W M3. |

I murmured to myself, "how do I know you?"

1 CAN'T T3LL Y0U THAT MUCH. 1 KN0W Y0U. Y0U KN3W M3. |

Shit. It was listening.

~

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MEN AND MONSTERS