Page 39

That hysterical laughter continued, the warped sounds of a monster growing as it ricocheted off the trees around us. I ran faster, trying to locate the sound. It was like a carnival ride, alluding to one spot, but then you heard it from an entirely different location.

“Fallon!” I screamed, getting more desperate by the second and sick to my stomach, listening to that damn laughter. He was related to Joe, all right. That haunted sound plagued my mind. The past and present combined together to create an echo of the same sound.

“Taliah?”

I couldn’t see my brothers behind me anymore.

I had veered too far from the path we took together.

Now, I was lost in this horror echo. I isolated myself.

This was for the best. It was my fucking right to kill this asshole.

My brothers would only get themselves hurt by being dumb heroes trying to save me. I didn’t want to be saved.

I only wanted to kill.

Justice for Ariah, for Xenia, and all those people he killed.

How long had this gone on? Was he the one behind the murders at Hospital Twelve?

Did he kill those people, too? It was known after the massacre that there were always two Reapers.

Joe was just the first. Could his grandson have been the second? He said he didn’t kill Xenia.

Was that a lie?

And if he had been telling the truth…who did?

“I will find you, you fucking freak,” I threatened the air around me.

“I will stay out here all fucking night. I will not leave until you’re bleeding on this ground.”

The laughter shifted again as I moved closer to the cliff, and I could see the jagged cut-off. Ferdinand was leaning against a boulder by the edge. Fallon was laid down flat in the mud at his feet, and my sister was nowhere to be found.

Ferdinand was bleeding, but I couldn’t access the damage to Fallon. I couldn’t even see if she was breathing through the storm’s brutality.

“No…” I said, dropping to my knees beside her. “Please, no.”

She felt cold, but her chest was lightly rising and falling. Thank fuck there was a god somewhere.

“Poor pitiful Pharaoh Masters.” The monster laughed. “Tick-tock, Tick-Tock. You think you won, but you forget the most important thing of all. Who took your little toy? The bundle of your pride and joy.”

I tried to ignore his fucking mindless babbling. He killed Xenia. He was just goading me, trying to taunt me about her death.

“Not I, not I! Oh, how I missed her lonely little cry. There has always been one, two, three. Too stupid, too stupid to suspect me!”

What was he saying? Three? Three what?

“Shut up, you fucking monster. You are going to die. You killed my daughter. Your riddles are meaningless!”

He laughed again, his mouth filled with blood that splattered to the ground. Taliah or Fallon had gotten to him. He was dying without the use of my hands. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to beg for his demise.

“Silly boy, silly boy. Tick-tock, Tick-tock. Another drops. The sleeping doll is one step ahead of you. You think you’ve won, but he’s one of you!”

“Would you shut the fuck up!” I screamed, jumping up and emptying more than half the magazine into his body.

He coughed, the blood streaming down his mouth, his arm lifting to point behind me.

“Not me…not me…” he gurgled. “It is he... Soldier Two is who…did…this…to…you.”

His breathing stopped. The silence stretched for a moment before Judas walked out of the woods. He was covered in blood, with an eerie smile stretched across his face.

“Judes…?” I said carefully, seeing that my brother was not who was walking toward me.

“Tick-Tock. Another drops.”

I backed away from my brother, looking behind him, waiting for Randall or Goliath to emerge from the woods.

What was happening?

What the fuck is wrong with Judas?

The leash handle dragged along the floor as he took more and more steps toward me. My back had the cliff behind me.

Judas screamed, his body convulsing into a pained growl as he held his head in agony.

“Judas?”

“Pharaoh.” The words were different than before. “Run... I can’t…she’s…”

Concern and complete confusion about what was happening to my brother made me weak.

What is wrong with Judas?

What is happening to my brother?

He looked like he was fighting…with himself .

He was flashing in and out of two different people. His words were a contorted mixture of both, the terrifying, insane clown and my flesh and blood.

“Judas. What is going on? Man, let me help you! What the fuck is happening, brother?”

Judas walked forward and shoved me away from the cliff, his own body falling closer to the edge. I reached out for him, and that bubbling laughter returned.

“Poor, Pharaoh! Tick-tock. You can’t see that the monster you’ve been searching for has been right in front of you all along.”

I recoiled. His words made me falter in my steps.

What…

The words of the madman’s relative came back into my mind.

“Not me…not I…it is he. Soldier Two is who…did…this…to…you.”

“No…” I said, my heart shattering into pieces on the ground before me. “It can’t be…Judas...you can’t have taken her from me...why? How could you!”

My brother laughed, smiling at me as he licked the blood that ran down his hands.

“Where is Goliath and Randall, Judas? What did you do?”

He simply smiled.

“Tick-tock. Your time is up, brother.”

“Judes. Please. Tell me he was insane. Tell me this is a dream. Please.”

“See, Lithy Poo figured it out before you. He was running like a hero to come tell you. So, he had to be silenced, of course. You wanted that footage so badly. It showed me. He tried to kill that bitch for getting in his head, but that wouldn’t work so well for me. She had to live.”

Who the fuck was he talking about? Silence, Goliath?

“Judas, what the fuck is wrong with you? Come on, man, stop this.”

Judas screamed and fell to the ground, holding his head in his hands and breathing heavily.

“Roe…end it…please…I can’t…”

End it?

I looked down at the gun in my hand in horror.

What is happening to Judas?

“I can’t—I…Please, Roe…pl-please…s-stop this!” Judas struggled with himself, nearly falling over the edge of the cliff.

He fell forward beside where Fallon was. I tried to collect myself, running to help my brother, but then he lifted her neck, angled up in a dangerous pose. One flick of his wrist and her neck…would be broken…like Xenia’s.

“No…”

Judas smoothed Fallon’s hair, wiping the muddy smudges from her cheeks. She moaned in pain but couldn’t move.

“Let’s recap, shall we?” Judas said. That cold, soulless tone came back into place. “You can’t see what is right in front of you. Refuse to believe that sweet, batty Judas could possibly do such a thing.”

Fallon’s head was turned sideways slowly to the point where she cried out. I reached forward, my body seized in fear, unable to move fast enough to prevent this from happening.

“Judas. Please. Stop. Please don’t do this.”

Judas licked her cheek and drew a bloody smile on her lips with his finger, turning her for me to see.

“Now, now, Roe Roe. This is practically fate. You always were lying about the voices in your head. Poor Pharaoh simply snapped.”

I shook my head, inhaling the harsh rain pouring down on us.

“Please. I don’t know how to help you. I don’t know what to do. Stop. Don’t hurt her. I… can’t handle this. Not again. Please, Judie.”

Judas screamed again, his head jerking side to side, his body convulsing in shaking, battering breaths.

“Pharaoh! Do it! I can’t stop this. Do it. Shoot me !”

I raised the gun to my brother. Tears streaming down my face as the reality of my entire fucking life crashed around me like the rain. Judas.

Judas was the other Reaper.

Not Ferdinand.

He didn’t have access to the asylum.

Ezello had said there were different kill patterns. Patients were killed in ways that didn’t match Joe’s MO, but why? How could my brother be…my daughter’s killer?

Why?

I roared, my scream releasing the pain, betrayal, rage, and absolute devastation inside me.

Judas lost himself again. His body began to jerk again, and I knew his hands were going to take Fallon’s life…like Xenia’s.

“Was it worth your pounds of silver, my brother?”

Boom.