Change of Heart 2

Chapter 72

His loud laughter brought both fear and anger to me at the same time. He had the audacity to laugh? I felt like punching him again but instead I did much worst. I called Adrian into the room.

"Angel...I don't believe you actually think I'm the killer here. What do you think? Do you think I killed my mother at ten years old? Do you think I'm the one who killed Satyr's sister huh? This is crazy!"

Adrian walked inside along with Satyr and Vince.

"I think we heard enough out of you Nick!" Adrian said in a calm tone before he swung his fist into Nick's face and broke his cheekbone.

"No Adrian! Let him talk." I stood directly in front of Nick and looked him dead in the eye. "You aren't the killer?"

"No I'm not." He sighed and dropped his head down.

"Get up Nick! Look at me!" I grabbed his face tightly in my hand and squeezed on his broken cheekbone which caused him to shout out in pain. "You say that you're not the killer so explain to me why Adrian saw you go into that abandoned warehouse! Tell me why there was a dead woman inside! Explain to me Nick why you are always at the crime scenes! And help me to understand why I found a notepad with the place time and date of every goddamn death thus far!"

"I−I can−explain." He took a deep breath after every word. The venom was killing him slowly.

"Then start right now because you don't have a lot of time." It was Vince who yelled at him.

His eyes leaked and he looked up at me. "Remember when I told you about my mother?" He coughed and spit more blood. "I told you that the spirits talked to her and...told her what the sisters were up to."

"Yes I remember that."

"They stopped...talking to her for a long time but now...now they talk...to me." His head dropped and he began to sob.

I felt my heart drop at the sight of him crying.

He raised his head slowly and his eyes were red as they looked at me again. "They tell me where to go Angel. They tell me where a death is gonna occur and I try to get there in time to stop it but I'm always too late." He closed his eyes and cried more. "I didn't tell anyone about it because...I wanted to block them out...I tried to but I couldn't."

"Why do you want to block them out?" My voice was soft and I knew it shouldn't be.

"They made my mother crazy; they drove her to insanity. They made her isolated from everyone including me and I needed her." His body shook as he cried. "I needed her but she wasn't there for me and they were the reason. I don't want that Angel...I don't."

"Nick I−

"Oh come on Jennifer I hope you're not falling for this shit!" Adrian's voice snapped me back. "He's an actor...this is just another scene for him!" He grabbed Nick's collar and began punching him continuously in the face.

"Adrian stop!" Satyr yelled and shoved Adrian off of Nick without actually touching him. "You will kill him!"

"That's the point!"

"Leave him alone he's telling the truth." She wiped her eyes and touched Nick's bleeding face.

"What? No he's not he's the killer! Jennifer!" Adrian looked at me and his eyes pleaded for me to take his side but the truth was...I didn't want to be on Adrian's side.

I walked past him and knelt in front of Nick. "Hey, I believe that you're telling the truth about the spirits talking to you...but tell me...why did I find an identification card with the name Demarco Raminoi on it?"

His head was leaned onto his left shoulder as he was unable to hold it up on his own. "Demarco is my name...or at least it was. When my mother died and I left I wanted to start over...I wanted to start everything over and that name carried memories of a part of my life I wanted to forget. Demarco was a lonely little boy...a lonely, sad little boy who once had the love of his mother and then suddenly that was taken away from him. I don't want to be that boy anymore." He took a deep breath. "Raminoi was my father's last name but I never knew him. I kept the name Octavius because it was my mother's. I wanted to have a little piece of her with me. I didn't hide my identity from you guys because I am a killer...I hid it because that's not who I wanna be anymore."

I closed my eyes to stop any tears from falling out and shook my head. Nick was in fact Nick...he was who he said he was but one thing still didn't make sense to me.

"Nick...if you aren't the killer then why did Bobby give Adrian and I a description of you as the man who killed the woman at his store?"

"What did he say?" His voice cracked and sounded frail.

"Well a lot of his description was a bit vague but the last thing he said wasn't." My eyes met his. "He described your tattoos Nick...he saw them."

"What? That doesn't make any sense." He tried to raise his head up. "Angel, whenever I'm out of my bedroom I'm so covered up that my tattoos are impossible to see...no one knows about them. You're the only person I told."

"Are you sure I'm the only one who ever saw them?"

"Yes...anyone else who happen to by accident which is very rare...I always compel them to forget what they saw. No one knows about my tattoos...no one."

"That man knew Nick...Bobby knew about your tattoos. So that means that you and I...you and I are not the only ones who know about them."

He stared at me without blinking and now the venom that was slowly taking his life was the least of his worried. "I'm being framed."

"And whoever is framing you knows your secret."

"I'm sorry...what tattoos?" Vince was the one who spoke.

I stood up and sighed. "That's not important right now. Someone is messing with us. Nick isn't the killer." I kicked the table that stood middle of the room breaking its leg.

"What? Are you sure because I still think that−

"Adrian quit it ok! He's not the killer." I shouted and exhaled.

"Great...wonderful!" He walked to Nick and began tearing the ropes off of him. "I'm not gonna apologize your shady actions got you tied up here in the first place."

"So now we're back to knowing absolutely nothing." Vince shook his head and brought a first kit into the room. "Not to mention we almost killed an innocent man."

"Almost, the important thing is Nick is still alive." Satyr smiled and cleaned the blood off of his mouth and face.

When she was done I made my way to him and rolled my sleeve up. "Drink...quickly." I held my wrist up to his mouth and he sunk his teeth into my skin without hesitation.

The bliss was just as I remembered it to be and I had to remind myself that I was in a room with others. He withdrew his mouth in a little over a minute and the color in his flesh begun to return immediately.

"I'm really sorry Nick. We didn't mean to hurt you. Well we did but−

"It's ok Angel." He smiled at me despite the fact that I was prepared to kill him a few minutes ago. "We need to find out who's the fucker that knows about my tattoos."