The black sedan glided smoothly along the interstate highway heading toward the airport, devouring miles of asphalt under a sky that was beginning to be tinged with the purple tones of sunset.
Sarah, exhausted after the emotional tension of the trial, rested in the passenger seat with her eyes closed, and although her breathing was calm, the deep furrow between her eyebrows betrayed an accumulated tiredness.
Lief drove with one hand, relaxed, while keeping his other arm resting on the frame of the open window, letting the high-speed wind flow through his fingers.
Through that touch, he not only felt the breeze charged with the smell of vegetation and the distant echo of urban bustle, but he also perceived the more subtle and deep currents of energy that vibrated, invisible to common people.
However, the tranquility of the trip was broken abruptly just when the car took a fork toward a secondary road, a remote path flanked by dense forests and shadows.
!
And without warning, a figure emerged from the bushes at the side of the road.
It was a young girl, barely eighteen years old, who burst onto the asphalt with an expression of absolute panic, without even looking to see if a vehicle was coming, driven by a blind terror that prevented her from thinking.
In that instant, time seemed to slow down.
Without a shred of panic, Lief turned the steering wheel sharply while his feet danced with precision between the accelerator and the brake.
Screech
The agonized sound of the tire rubber fighting against the asphalt tore through the silence of the forest.
The sedan did not lose control, instead, it traced a perfect arc over the road, sliding the rear with a violent elegance while the nose of the car passed grazing inches from the girl's body, completing a controlled drift before stopping firmly a few meters away.
Sarah's heart gave a violent lurch, almost jumping out of her throat from the jolt and the fright.
"O-Oh my God!" she exclaimed with adrenaline spiking her pulse while unbuckling her seatbelt with trembling hands. "Lief, get out quickly! We have to see if she's hurt!"
Turning off the engine, Lief opened the door and accompanied his mother toward the figure that remained petrified in the middle of the road.
The red-haired girl was wearing a long-sleeved gray T-shirt and jeans, she had a face, which under normal circumstances would have been beautiful, was now mortally pale, and her large light green eyes were wide with shock.
She looked at her hands and then lifted her gaze toward the car and toward the two people approaching, seeming unable to process that she had just escaped death.
"Child, are you okay?! Did we hit you?" Sarah asked softly, approaching cautiously so as not to scare her more and checking visually if there were injuries.
Upon feeling Sarah's comforting touch on her shoulder, the girl seemed to wake up from her stupor and the words came out of her mouth in an incoherent torrent.
"I... I'm fine... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! It wasn't my intention to cross like that... it's just that... my dad! My dad has disappeared!"
"Calm down, don't worry. Breathe slowly and tell us clearly what happened," urged Sarah.
The girl, with her breath catching, pointed with a trembling finger toward a small solitary two-story house situated not far from the edge of the road.
It was a gloomy structure, an empty house that screamed abandonment, with the paint on the walls peeling and a front yard where weeds had grown wildly.
"My name is Fay..." she explained, struggling to control her crying. "T-That is my family's old house. We are getting ready to sell it, so today my dad and I came to do some cleaning before putting it on the market. But... a moment ago I went to the back of the yard to pull some weeds, and when I came back... I discovered that he was no longer there!"
"I-I called him... I called him for a long time, I shouted, but no one answered. Only... only strange sounds were heard coming from inside the house and the mobile phone has no signal here at all, so I panicked and ran out to the road looking for someone to ask for help..."
Sarah looked toward the building, which seemed too grim, and frowned with concern.
Lief's gaze also locked onto the house and a stench of stagnation filtered from the dark windows like a poisonous gas.
There was something in there...
"I'll go in to take a look."
"Lief, be careful," Sarah warned, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the wind.
"Don't worry, I won't be long."
With a slight nod, Lief walked directly toward the house, walking through the tall weeds with a firm step.
"..."
Fay stayed there, watching his back as he entered the darkness without hesitation, and on her tear-bathed face a faint trace of hope appeared.
...
The wait did not last too long, just a few minutes after Lief disappeared into the darkness of the foyer, the heavy front door of the old house burst open.
Lief came out but he wasn't alone, he was dragging a man by the collar of his shirt without any apparent effort, towing him along the ground as if he were a heavy trash bag, to finally drop him with disdain at the women's feet.
Upon seeing the man's face under the moonlight, Fay let out a stifled scream.
"Uncle Peter?!"
She ran toward the slumped figure and shook him with desperation until the man, dazed and with a visible bump on his head, began to regain consciousness, blinking in confusion.
"Fay..." Peter muttered, bringing a hand to his aching temple, and as he focused his eyes on his niece, a complex expression crossed his features. "I... was so worried about you that I came to see if you were okay, but..."
"And my dad? Did you see my dad inside?" Fay interrupted him anxiously, ignoring his excuses.
"No... I didn't get to see him," Peter stammered, trying to sit up. "As soon as I crossed the threshold, I felt a sharp blow to the back of my neck and everything went black."
"Then he is still there! My dad has to be trapped inside!"
Panic seized Fay again.
She jumped up and clung to Lief's arm with both hands, digging her fingers into his chest with a strength born of pure hysteria.
"I beg you, please, you have to come inside with me one more time!" she pleaded with eyes full of tears and terror. "I really don't dare take a single step in there alone! There is something... there is someone else in that house!"
"..."
Lief looked at her, noticing the uncontrollable trembling of her hands, and then shifted his gaze toward his mother, who was watching him with concern.
"Sigh... As you wish. Let's go."
…
This time, upon crossing the threshold together with Fay, the atmosphere of the house had changed, the air felt strange and there was a silence even more oppressive.
"Dad? Dad! Where are you!?"
"...."
There was no answer.
Crack
However, a moment later, a sound came from the ceiling above their heads: a dry crack of something being knocked over, dragging.
Fay's body tensed violently.
Lief's gaze shot toward the staircase that disappeared into the darkness of the second floor and his senses did not deceive him.
The source of all that negative energy, that mass of rotten emotions and pain, was concentrated right up there.
They climbed the steps in silence, with the wood groaning under their feet.
At the end of the second-floor hallway, a small wooden door led to the attic.
It was the only place that noise could have come from.
However, the moment Fay's hand touched the knob of that door, her body began to convulse uncontrollably.
This detonated a bomb in her psyche.
Fragmented, violent, and blurred images flooded her mind.
The suffocating darkness of the attic... the smell of sweat, the heavy breathing of a man, the crying of a little girl, and the sharp whistle of a belt before striking flesh.
"AAAH!"
Screaming sharply, she brought her hands to her head and crouched on the floor, unable to bear the weight of her own history.
Those memories, which her mind had mercifully blocked for more than a decade, had just been unearthed with violence upon returning to the setting of the nightmare.
"Are you okay?" Lief asked, holding her by the shoulder to keep her from falling, but his eyes narrowed upon noticing something unusual.
Inside that girl's body, the balance was wrong.
There were two souls.
One was the current personality, fragile and broken, the other was an entity forged in pain, charged with pure hate and murderous rage.
A few eternal seconds passed until the trembling ceased.
Fay stood up slowly.
When she raised her head toward Lief again, although tears still traced tracks down her cheeks, the expression of absolute terror was gone.
In its place, there was an unnatural calm, a pulsating coldness in her eyes that did not belong to the girl who had been crying a moment ago.
Without saying a word, she gently pushed Lief's hand off her shoulder and, with a decisive movement, pushed the attic door open with force.
The interior was in semi-darkness, barely illuminated by the moonlight filtering through a dirty skylight.
In the center of the dusty floor, a man lay unconscious, with his hands and feet tied with thick ropes and his mouth gagged with a cloth.
It was John... her missing father.
Upon seeing the scene, Fay's main personality seemed to regain control momentarily as a trace of concern crossed her face.
She ran toward him, her clumsy fingers struggling with the knots until freeing her father's hands and ripping off the gag.
"Dad! Dad, wake up, please!" she shook him, trying to bring him back.
Soon, John began to open his eyes slowly, disoriented.
But the instant his gaze focused on the girl kneeling in front of him, there was no relief, nor gratitude, nor love.
He exploded in volcanic rage.
"Filthy bitch! You still have the nerve to come back?!"
He roared like a beast and jumping up before Fay could react, his hands closed tightly around her thin throat, squeezing with all his might.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! You ruined my life! YOU DESTROYED EVERYTHING I HAD!"
With the pressure, Fay's face turned red and congested in a matter of seconds, her hands weakly clawing at her father's arms, her legs kicking in the air looking for a foothold, while her eyes rolled back from lack of oxygen.
Just at the instant her trachea was about to collapse, a hand appeared and grabbed John's wrist firmly.
Crack
The crisp sound of the bone breaking resonated in the attic like a gunshot.
John let out a miserable shriek, releasing his daughter's neck instantly as he fell backward, rolling on the floor and clutching his wrist, which now hung limp.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Coughing violently, Fay sucked in air with desperate greed, while her hands massaged her bruised neck.
Recovered, she looked up at her father, who was howling in pain cradling his shattered wrist, and at that precise instant, the last trace of doubt, fear, and human warmth evaporated from her pupils, leaving behind green eyes as empty as the bottom of a well.
Slowly she stood up and began to walk toward the darkest corner of the room, where an old iron crowbar rested against the wall.
Her thin fingers closed around the cold metal and she lifted it, weighing not only the kilos, but the weight of years of abuse, silence, and terror...
She turned around and walked back toward the man who had given her life only to also take it upon himself to ruin it.
"..."
Lief made no move to stop her, simply watching, understanding that this was necessary for her.
John, seeing his daughter's shadow rise over him with the weapon raised, opened his mouth to scream, but the sound never came out.
Boom
A dry thud resonated in the confinement of the attic when the iron found the skull.
The man's howls cut off abruptly, leaving a sudden silence that was even more chilling than the screams.
But that was only the beginning.
Fay raised the crowbar again and let it fall with a savage growl.
Again and again.
The rhythmic sound of metal hitting flesh and bone filled the attic, discharging in each impact a decade of repressed nightmares, destroying the monster that had tormented her until there was nothing left but silence and ruin.
When she finally stopped, Fay's chest was rising and falling violently, and her hands were trembling so much that she could barely hold the weapon.
She was at the edge of the abyss, about to lose herself in the madness of her own violence.
It was then that Lief moved.
Without saying a word, he approached her and, with a firm gentleness, took the crowbar from her rigid hands, throwing the bloody metal far from her reach.
Before she could react or collapse, he wrapped her in a strong and sudden hug.
He pressed her against his chest tightly, using his own body as a solid wall to prevent her from falling apart into pieces.
Upon feeling that safe warmth surrounding her, Fay's murderous adrenaline left her system and human emotions returned in a devastating torrent.
She clung to Lief's shirt with desperation, digging her fingers in, and began to cry inconsolably against his chest, letting out a cry that came from the deepest part of her broken souls.
Several minutes passed, with Lief gently stroking her hair while absorbing her tremors, until the crying turned into an exhausted sob.
Without asking unnecessary questions, he bent down and lifted her up in his arms with ease, carrying her as if she were a princess rescued from a ruined castle, and took her out of that horrific attic.
Upon reaching the ground floor, Peter saw them and his face turned a sickly pale color upon noticing the sepulchral silence coming from upstairs and the way Lief was carrying the girl.
He opened his mouth, intending to ask about his brother, but the look Lief gave him froze the words in his throat.
Lief carried Fay to the outside, where the fresh night air cleaned her lungs, and then turned slightly toward Peter.
"You take care of cleaning this up."
Peter's body went rigid with terror, but he nodded dejectedly.
Back at the car, Sarah watched her son return with the girl safe in his arms and her gaze swept the dead house and then the girl's emotional state, but she decided not to ask questions.
She knew that there were things happening that did not belong to her jurisdiction as a lawyer.
The sedan's engine roared, rejoining the dark road in the direction of the airport.
Only this time, in the back seat, there was one more passenger, wrapped in a blanket of silence.
It is not known how much time passed, with the hum of the tires on the asphalt as the only background music, when Fay's voice broke the stillness.
"The world is very big..." she whispered looking at the stars through the window. "I want... I want to go see it all."
________
Time: If you're craving more (and I know you are!), I have just what you need. On my Patreon, you'll find exclusive chapters. Join our community and be the first to discover what happens next!
👉 [patreon.com/Athome790]
Your support fuels me. Thank you for the support! 💖