Endeverafter: The Series Presents The Cursed One

Chapter Eight

She looked at Axel and Sven before she moved. Were they not coming with them? If not, she didn't trust that. Virek led her back towards the elevator and they rode down instead of up. On the fourth floor, he led her towards apartment 4A. Like Axel, he waved his wrist in front of a sensor and the door unlocked. When she didn't move, he signaled her with his hand.

"Ladies first." He was smug and she hated him for it. Drue instinctively wrapped her arms around her body as she stepped inside. Behind her, Virek flipped a switch, turning the lights on. Why were they standing in an empty apartment? Was he leading her to her death? If she had any sense, she would've ran out there as fast as she could. But she didn't. She turned around to see Virek standing there with his hands in his pockets. "Go on."

Ignoring all of the red flags, she turned and started walking. A couple of feet ahead, she could make out three black trash bags sitting in the middle of the floor in a row. No, they were more like body bags. What the fuck was going on? She was beginning to feel uncomfortable. A shiver ran across her body as she looked at the trash bags. He was going to kill her. She was sure of it. Because... what the hell were the body bags for? But then it hit her. If he was going to kill her, he wouldn't have put on his best clothes to do it. He didn't seem like the type of guy that got his hands dirty. That's what his two identical twin henchmen were for, who, surprisingly she was starting to wish had come with them. "Okay, enough with the theatrics," she said, putting her hands up. "If there are dead bodies in those bags, I swear I'm gonna call the police."

"And tell them what exactly?" Virek asked, walking past her. She didn't have an answer to his question. She hadn't thought that far. Virek walked up to the three body bags and ripped off the bags one by one. When Drue's eyes landed on the three corpses in front of her, she gasped. Two of the bodies were completely charred to a black crisp and the other one's arm and ankle were bent, clearly broken. She covered her mouth and blinked back tears. "These three sorry sods tried to attack me on Wednesday," Virek said. The disdain in his voice was palpable.

When Axel said that a situation had happened two days ago, she wasn't expecting something like this. "What do you—" she could barely form a sentence because her heart was beating faster than normal.

"I take it you don't recognize these blokes, do ya?"

She couldn't take her eyes off of the charred corpses in front of her. "Should I?" she asked, grabbing her chest. Suddenly, her phone started ringing. She reached into her pocket and pulled it out to see that it was Lex calling her. She rejected the call. This wasn't a good time to talk.

"No but I figured I'd ask."

"So, that's why you brought me down here? To see if I could identify three men that you killed?"

"Has everyone lost their hearing all of a sudden?" Virek asked himself. "Or maybe it's the accent, I don't know. But may I remind you that they attacked me first? In my home, at that."

Drue looked around. "You mean this empty apartment? The one we're standing in that has no furniture in it?" Her phone rang again. Lex. She rejected the call and groaned.

"I'm gonna have to spell it out for you, haven't I? Alright, listen up, love." Virek stepped away from the bodies and walked up to Drue. "These three assholes were sent to kill me and to send me a message, yeah? Now, it's obvious by me standing in front of ya that they failed on the first part. It's the second part I need ya to focus on."

"Fine."

"The message was a warning."

"What kind of a warning?"

"A warning telling me not to protect you."

Drue opened her mouth but no words came out. Her hands shook with fear and she was starting to sweat. "I don't understand," she said. "They were-they were sent to kill you because of me? That-that doesn't make any sense. You're not... protecting me."