Chapter 30

Another picture came through of Joelynn wearing a crown of white flowers. Eva could feel the blood draining from her face.

“Oh my God it’s him! It’s him! He’s got Joelynn,” Eva was sitting on the floor in tears, pulling at her hair.

David stood above her, still holding her phone. “It’s gonna be fine. We’ll get Joelynn back. First, we need to call the station and get the cops involved.”

Eva’s phone dinged again. The sound seemed so loud in the quiet of Eva’s home. She looked up at David who was holding her phone. He read the message, “Don’t even think about calling the cops.”

Eva was panicking. It was okay for her to be in danger but her cousin? It made no sense.

“Why would he take her David?” Eva didn’t know what to do and despite just accusing him of being a serial killer, David was her only source of comfort. She had never been so glad to be wrong in all of her life. “What should we do?”

David handed the phone back to Eva. “I want to call the police,” David answered.

Eva fiercely shook her head, “No. If we call the cops, he’ll kill her.”

The phone dinged again. “Someone has to die tonight. Who will it be? You or her?”

Eva kept staring at the phone. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

“What does it say?” David asked.

Eva ignored him and stared at her text message. She took a deep breath and typed, “Me.”

David grabbed her phone and read the messages, “What the hell are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to save my cousin!” Eva was becoming hysterical. David pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her to wipe her tears.

The phone dinged again. This time it gave an address and told Eva to meet him there.

“If I see a cop…she dies”

“You can’t come David,” Eva told him as she grabbed her purse.

“Are you kidding me, Eva? Like I’m really going to let you go alone.” David grabbed her arm and reassured her, “Don’t worry Eva. I won’t let anything happen to Joelynn.”

Eva was still clutching the handkerchief when David dragged Eva outside and told her to get into his car. He checked his glove compartment and grabbed his gun.

“You keep your gun in your glove compartment?” Eva asked in disapproval.

“Be grateful that I do.” David started to drive to the address that was sent to her on her phone. “This doesn’t make sense,” David said.

“Exactly! Why would they take Joelynn?”

David made an exasperated sound, “No Eva, this goes against his profile. The Demon King has never kidnapped or threatened. He just kills. There’s something wrong here.”

Eva didn’t care if it went against his usual protocol. She just knew that Joelynn was being held captive. The address they were headed to was an old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. The neighborhood was underdeveloped and only homeless people lived in the abandoned buildings there. David’s car was probably the only one that would be coming down this street tonight.

David turned to Eva, “I want you to stay in the car. I’m going to go in and look for Joelynn.”

Eva didn’t want to stay in the car but David told her, “I’m going to be too busy worrying about Joelynn and myself. I don’t want to have to worry if you’re safe too. So just stay in the damn car please.”

Eva nodded and stayed in the car, wrapping the handkerchief around her hands in nervousness.

She watched David as he quietly and stealthily made his way to a side entrance of the building.

Eva felt horrible for accusing him of being the Demon King and lying about his identity to her earlier. She wouldn’t blame him if he never wanted to see her again after tonight.

He had even said, “I love you.” It had been muddled in the middle of an argument but he still had said it. Eva couldn’t believe all that had transpired in the past few hours.

As she sat in the locked car with the windows rolled up, Eva had noticed several papers stuffed in between the seats of the car. She pulled out the papers and a small card fell from to the car’s floor. Eva leaned over to pick the business card up.

“Open Heart Residential Treatment Center,” Eva read the card’s name aloud.

“Hey girlie…whatchya doin’ here this late at night?”

Eva jumped in fear to see a homeless man with long curly hair and missing teeth pressed up against her window.

“Oh crap, you scared me.” Eva held her hand with the handkerchief against her chest. She quickly shoved the papers back between the seats.

“That’s quite a shiner you got there. You like being hit? I can hit too,” the homeless man laughed.

“Go away,” Eva yelled at him. He began hitting the window while trying to open the door at the same time.

“You got any money? C’mon open the door,” another homeless man was starting to approach the car.

“I’m calling the police!” Eva shouted.

He snickered, “They won’t get here in time. Open the door, bitch!” He was trying to kick the window.

“Buddy, what are you doing?” the second homeless man came up to them. He didn’t seem to care about Eva being there. “Look what I got!” He held up a brown paper bag and gave a toothless smile while twitching his eyebrows up and down. Eva shuddered at his obvious lack of dental hygiene.

Buddy seemed to be excited about the brown paper bag as well because he turned back to Eva and said, “I’ll come back for you later girlie.” The two of them ran off together.

Eva wasn’t sure if she should stay in the car. If they came back with more of their friends, it wouldn’t be safe. She put her phone in her pocket and quietly stepped out of the car. She was still holding the handkerchief which she also put in her pocket. She had seen the direction that David went. She decided to follow. There were old broken windows that she could peek through. As she walked up to the warehouse, she was careful to watch out for any more homeless bums.

She walked towards the back of the building and could hear a scuffling inside. Eva hunched over and looked inside. A tall figure dressed in black was fighting with David. She couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a ski mask. The only light that showed inside was coming from the street lamps outside. Eva could see the glint of a knife in the other man’s hands. Why hadn’t David just shot him?

Suddenly the sound of Bruno Mars filled the air.

“Oh shit!” Eva’s phone had gone off because she hadn’t put it on silent before leaving the car. She looked through the window and saw that the noise had startled both David and his attacker. The man in black took the moment of surprise to raise his knife and stab David.

Eva screamed and David collapsed.

The man in black pulled the knife out of David’s body and started walking to the window where Eva was. She could’ve sworn she heard him laughing.

“It was this way boys!” The sound of Buddy shouting stopped the man that had just stabbed David. Eva could hear a group of men hollering and whooping. They were coming closer. “She was beautiful boys! We’re gonna have fun tonight!”

Eva couldn’t see his face but she thought he smiled before running in the opposite direction that led outside the warehouse and into the darkness. Eva quickly dialed 911 and ran inside to David.

He was on the floor. Blood was seeping from his wound which was in his chest. Eva took out the handkerchief and pressed it against his wound, “Hang in there David. You’re gonna make it, the ambulance is on its way.”

She still had them on the line. The operator advised Eva that the ambulance would be there any moment. She felt David's blood seeping through the handkerchief. David put one of his hands over hers, “Eva…”

Eva was crying, “What is it David?”

“Eva …I want to make sure…sure you know.”

“Know what?” Eva could hear the sirens from the ambulance getting closer.

“Since the first day I met you. It was…” David seemed to be losing consciousness.

“Stay with me David,” Eva pleaded.

“I loved you Eva. At first sight...loved you.”

“David,” Eva was surprised by his declaration and she felt guilty because all of this was her fault. All of it.

“I love you Eva Lewis,” David smiled and then his eyes closed and his body fell limp.