Deadly Discern - Book Three ✔️

Chapter Sixteen - Dealing -

Alex POV

Considering that I'd just effectively ended someone's life by switching one single thing, I think I'm dealing with it okay.

Admittedly, it felt wrong, killing a person with their own measures when they'd already lined it up to kill someone else with it. Wrong in the sense that its as though I've changed the course of life's plan and that in itself is fucked up. I feel unsure of how else this situation should have played out though. Or more honestly, I didn't want to watch Danica torture a target just yet. It is too fast and too soon for that. I need to slow things down for my own sanity.

Silence engulfs the car.

Without turning my head, I flick my eyes over to where Danica sits quietly. And she looks bothered. I've changed her night. I took the kill right out of her hands without letting her know. She can't be happy about that. I choose to ignore her, this isn't the time for her to rush into a kill, this entire situation needs to be measured and balanced, no jumping or acting irrationally. Not anymore.

Now, we wait. It'll probably be a few hours before the guy leaves, hopefully it's sooner than that and when he finally does, Danica and I will go back in and see how Miranda is coping.

It won't be pretty, I know that much. And it'll shock her that she somehow picked up the wrong glass. I can imagine that she would be wracking her brains to figure out how she made such a critical error, but it'll be too late for her to fix anything either way. The error of her ways has brought her to this end.

It feels good in one sense.
We're saving other men from the same fate and saving them from the monstrosity that is Miranda Briggs. It's not all bad.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

The true feeling that I'm forcefully shoving further down is something that's too hard to ignore.
Disgust. Disgust in myself for murdering someone, even though the act in itself was just, I'm not a killer.

Cornered, that's the best explanation I've got for this overall feeling. I'm cornered in a place where Danica's darkness has been clawing at me so long that I've reluctantly accepted it and moved in sync with it.

It's a constant battle and it always will be.

*************

Danica twitches beside me, her hand reaches out to touch my leg and acquire my attention, I look her way and see the man emerging from the house, he looks to be acting somewhat skittishly as checks behind himself constantly while he walks to his car. Anxiety and confusion, that's what I see.
It's a good sign.

Once he is in his car and has driven out of sight, Danica looks to me and I nod in approval as we both step from the car, checking that no one else is up and about to notice our appearance and then we both wander casually to the house. We travel to the rear of the house again, entering through the same back door as before and creep silently down the hall.

The house is dead silent, but we're yet to find out if that's a reality or simply a coincidence.

Danica slows, walking a little ways behind me as I move closer to the bedroom, I lift my left hand to the door and gently push it open.

The smell hits us first, I immediately recoil, not wanting to go further.

Ruthless in its assault of us, the stench permeates the air, thick and invasive. I press a gloved hand to my mouth and nose, the strong scent of leather filling my nostrils and giving me a reprieve from the smell of vomit that surrounds us.