HIDE ✔︎

Chapter 11

Devin had entered the basement by chance when he saw the door that was almost hidden in the shadows. He wanted to wait till Ella had gone someplace else before coming out to go find his teammates. He had heard a number of screams from above and figured that they weren't doing very well at all. 

At the moment, he was sitting in the middle of the a pile of pictures and documents. Some of them had made him utterly confused. A dozen pictures were showing an operation theatre where people in doctor's garb were performing surgery on a man. The thing that made Devin frown even more was that the man seemed dead. The ECG monitor beside him showed a straight line while it was attached to the patient. Why would someone perform operation on a dead body? It doesn't look like an autopsy either.

He found a bunch of dusty books of anatomy and human brain in a corner but among them stood out a book whose title caught his attention.

STUDY OF DEATH

Are we still alive even when we are dead?

D.H Macabre

He had read the first few pages and the concept the author was talking about was out of the world. He couldn't understand any of the bizarre theories and hypothesis at all.

Suddenly, The basement door opened and a figure walked in. Devin stilled and took out his gun.

"Devin?"

The familiar voice came to his ears and he removed the hand from his gun. It was Lucas.

"Woah, what's all this?" Lucas looked down at the paper mess on the floor and gave Devin a curious look.

"Were you followed?" Devin asked and looked behind him.

"I guess not." Lucas shrugged and picked up one of the photos on the floor.

"Found some weird pictures around. I wonder what other stuff Klein Roberts is into."

Lucas had a thoughtful look in his face. He was a little creeped out after seeing the operation photos. Devin was going through an old box where he found another bunch of pictures stacked along with photo albums. He flipped through them and the expression on his face changed the more he looked at the pictures.

"Lucas, Come look at this." Devin was shaking his head as he placed the albums on the table and picked up the stacked photos.

"What?" Lucas opened the album and flipped through it as well. He saw a bunch of family photos. It was a family of six people. A middle aged man with red hair, and a black haired woman stood beside him. The picture seemed to be taken in front of a mountain valley. A young girl was standing beside the woman, she had similar features as her and was smiling brightly. Two toddlers were held by the couple, each in one's hand. A little boy around ten or eleven stood with both hands in his pocket, he had long hair which were tied up behind his head. He was trying to give a mature look into the camera. Lucas' hands shook as he held the album.

"These people look very familiar." Lucas looked at Devin who was staring at one particular photo in his hands. Lucas peeked in and looked at Devin, open mouthed when he saw who it was.

In the photo, there was a black haired girl who was smiling to the camera. The picture was taken in the front lawn as they could make out the familiar house in the background. The girl was wearing dark clothing even though the sun was brightly shining at the back. It looked like the photo was taken all of a sudden, she didn't get enough time to smile properly and was a little embarrassed.

"This girl..." Lucas pointed at the girl in the photo with a what-am-I-seeing look in his eyes. He hadn't seen such a contrast in personality in his whole life.

"She looks pretty nice when she's smiling actually." Devin said as his lips slightly hooked up. Lucas frowned as he gave Devin a weird look.

"You've never complemented a girl before, Devin." He shook his head. "The first one is someone who wants to kill you."

Devin didn't know how to respond so he directly ignored Lucas' remark.

"But damn, they all look very normal in these photos...like a completely normal family. Just what happened to them?" Lucas asked while staring at the photos in his hands.

"I wonder. There's something else as well..." Devin flipped past the photos as he said, "I don't see Klein Roberts in any of the pictures. The red haired man looks like the father but he isn't Klein Roberts, nor any of his subordinates that we know of."

Devin and Lucas looked at each other in confusion.