Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 12

"Do not answer it!"

Eli shouted through the headset, but I had already pulled it off and slid the accept button across the screen on my phone. I had a thousand different things I wanted to say to the son-of-a-bitch, but the problem was where to begin? I waited impatiently as the video call loaded, but all I saw was a grey screen. I stared at it confused, not sure whether anything I said would be heard as there was nothing to see. I glanced up at the corner of the screen where the application would show me my stream, but instead gave me an error message. Eli returned and leaned over my shoulder. He clicked his mouse onto something on his computer screen, then suddenly my camera came back to life. He wanted whoever was calling to see him there over my shoulder with his hannya mask. He wanted them to know I was under his protection.

Suddenly, the grey object that was blocking the camera moved to the side, revealing my apartment. It took me a moment to work out where the camera was, but then I realized it had been positioned behind my apartment door so that the camera was blocked while it was open.

Then I saw Gabe, walking across my apartment with a firearm at the ready. This time though he had fully reassumed his FBI identity, moving methodically. I didn't know what to think of what I was seeing, not until the camera started moving towards him, swaying back and forth with each step as whoever was holding the camera stayed in his blind spot.

"GABE! LOOK OUT!" I screamed, hoping to God he could hear me, but he didn't so much as flinch.

Eli reached around and covered my mouth with his hand just as the camera drew close behind. A hand appeared in the stream holding what looked to be a taser, similar to the one Eli gave me. A small spark made it clear it had been turned on, and that small spark caught Gabe's attention, but it was too late. Just as he started to turn around the taser contacted the bare flesh on his neck. A look of utter fear overtook him when he saw his assailant. At that moment, he knew it was over - over before the fight had even begun. Eli's hand was barely able to muffle the scream that escaped my mouth as I watched Gabe's twitching body fall to the ground, immobile. He frothed at his mouth while he laid there paralyzed. A menacing voice spoke, digitally altered on the spot to disguise the speaker's identity.

"Bear witness Dani to what happens when you are not where you are supposed to be," the voice said.

The hand put away the taser, then reached down to the ground for Gabe's firearm. It was Eli's turn to yell, but it didn't matter. The sound of two gunshots erupted as one bullet penetrated Gabe's head and another into his back. Killing shots to make sure he never got up again. I shrieked and turned away, burying my face into Eli's chest.

"This is your fault, Dani. If you had not run away like a scared little kitten, he wouldn't have died," the voice insisted.

I glanced out from Eli's chest just enough to see the feed had changed to the front camera on the phone to reveal the assailant wearing a plain, white, full-length mask. It was molded with a neutral expression on a genderless face, reminding me of Eli's Waka Onna mask, only clearly just a high quality Halloween mask and not a traditional prop with a deep history.

"Next time be at the designated point or another innocent will have to die in your place," the voice threatened.

Where the call cut off there or not, I did not know because Eli flung my phone across the room. I buried my face into Eli again sobbing as the image of Gabe on the ground with bullet holes in his head and back burned into my memory, right next to my memory of Heather. I screamed into agony, Eli's hoodie unable to muffle me, while my hands gripped onto his hoodie like my life depended on it. In some ways, it did. I was so distraught that I hadn't noticed that Eli was trembling and muttering to himself.