The building was exactly as he rembered it from a few days ago. However, the street surrounding it looked like it had been through hell. Cars were overturned and splotches of blood coated the sidewalks.
Adam’s frown only deepened as he got closer and closer to the building. He could sll it and monts later, so could Greg.
It was the stench of dead bodies. Most likely fresh ones at that.
Peering into a nearby alley, Adam’s suspicions were confird as discarded like trash were the bodies of looters and civilians, all of them dead from blood loss or major injuries.
Greg’s jaw clenched as he caught sight of the bodies. So were slumped against the wall, others twisted unnaturally across garbage bins and broken crates. Blood pooled beneath them in dark puddles, already drawing flies.
"This wasn’t just a fight," Greg muttered. "This was a slaughter."
Adam stepped into the alley, careful not to step in the blood. His eyes scanned the scene with practiced detachnt. Throats slit. Limbs broken at angles that suggested slow deaths. One of the corpses had no eyes.
"They weren’t killed cleanly either," he said quietly. "Soone enjoyed this."
Greg turned his head, his stomach churning. "Who would do this?"
Adam didn’t answer right away. He knew that it was probably the twisted actions of one of his horrible siblings.
The only question was which one.
Elise was dead by his hand. Kyle was a rapist but a coward, lanie was cold, but she was too smart to dump bodies sloppily like this. Was it Anthony? No, he would be useless in a fight.
After deliberating, Adam was able to narrow it down to three siblings: Blair, the 2nd Eldest and the most violent man in the family, Jerey, the 6th eldest was also twisted enough that he may enjoy doing sothing like this. The final possibility lay in the youngest sister of the siblings: Kylie.
To be honest, Adam didn’t know all that much about her. She was a few years older than him but she was always absorbed in her phone. She didn’t participate in any etings nor did she seem to have any intention of joining the fight for succession.
Yet she was also the only one who didn’t flinch when Adam had tossed the bloody bag with Elise’s tongue onto the table. It was suspicious to say the least.
But now was not the ti to play detective. He turned back to Greg and whispered "Don’t let the children see this. I will lead them in."
Greg gave a stiff nod, his expression tight. "Got it."
Adam stepped back from the bodies and made his way toward the front of the building, the sound of his boots crunching against broken glass. The building itself lood quiet, untouched by the chaos outside. Whatever happened here, it hadn’t reached past the threshold.
The door creaked open with a gentle push. It was dark inside, the faint sll of blood lingering, but no fresh bodies in sight. Adam exhaled slowly. The carnage hadn’t made it indoors. That was sothing, at least.
He glanced over his shoulder. Greg was already heading back to intercept the others before they got too close, his massive fra casting a long shadow over the street. They didn’t have ti to explain what happened, and honestly, there was no explanation that would make this okay.
Adam stepped inside fully, the shadows swallowing him as he moved through the entrance hall. Dust clung to the walls and old furniture sat draped in faded sheets. This place had once been luxurious. Safe. Now it felt like a tomb that had been disturbed.
As he waited, Adam’s thoughts drifted again to his siblings. Blair, Jerey, Kylie. Any one of them could have done this and slept soundly after. His family had always been a hive of monsters, they were all just a different type of poison.
Adam moved deeper into the building, his eyes adjusting to the dim light. Dust swirled in the air, caught by the beams of sunlight slipping through the cracked windows. At first, the place seed empty, abandoned like the rest of the street outside.
But then he saw movent.
Huddled in the far corner of the lobby, a group of won sat curled together beneath a threadbare curtain. Their uniforms were wrinkled and stained, and more than one looked bruised. One woman had dried blood along her collar. Another clutched a torn sleeve to her chest. They were hotel staff, or what was left of them. Their shoulders shook. None of them spoke.
Adam’s jaw tensed. It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened here.
A sudden noise drew his attention to the stairwell. Two security guards erged with raised weapons, their grips shaky.
"Stop right there!" one of them shouted.
Adam didn’t move. Instead, he shifted his coat aside and let his hands fall to his sides, resting near the twin daggers sheathed at his hips.
"You don’t want to test ," he said flatly.
The guards hesitated.
"Get Kyle," Adam growled, his voice sharp and full of nace. "Tell him to drag his sorry ass out here before I decide to make you regret ever being born."
The tension in the room changed. The fear in the guards’ eyes deepened. One of them backed away imdiately and vanished down a hallway, too afraid to argue. The other kept his weapon raised but didn’t dare speak.
Footsteps echoed a few monts later.
Kyle stumbled into view with a half-limping swagger, chewing on a cheap cigar and adjusting his pants like he’d just rolled out of soone’s bed. His shirt was wrinkled and open at the chest, revealing a chain he probably thought made him look important.
"I don’t know who the hell thinks they can barge in here without—" He paused mid-step, mid-sentence. His eyes landed on Adam.
His cocky grin disappeared.
"Oh," he said, the word dripping with bitter disappointnt. "You."
Adam didn’t smile. He stood still, his presence heavy in the air.
Kyle scoffed and looked him up and down. "Thought you were dead."
"You thought wrong," Adam said.
Kyle clicked his tongue and looked around as if expecting soone else. "What, no fanfare? No elite squad of loyal dogs at your back? Just you? I figured after your little stunt with Elise, you’d be a little more... important."
Adam took a step closer, his voice low. "I saw the street outside. Thought maybe you were the one behind it. Then I rembered."
He leaned in just enough for Kyle to feel the heat of his breath.
"You don’t have the guts."
Kyle flinched but tried to recover with a smirk. "I run this building now. These people work for ."
Adam’s eyes flicked back toward the trembling won in the corner. "Do they?"
The silence that followed was louder than any reply.
User Comments
0 comments from readers