Devilish Detective ✅

You Have A Secret

“You did? When was this? Why did you do that? You can tell me the details. You know you can.” Sam’s voice is laced in a buttery sweetness, his gaze is unblinking and he doesn’t sound the least condescending.

It’s too sweet and gentle, it’s terrifying.

“I really don’t want to,” Asher strains. Veins are bulging on his forehead and by now, he’s sweating heavily, it’s concerning. My heart slams in my chest, not just because of the panic attack that I’m fighting, but for the physical pain Asher seems to be in.

“How then are you going to get rid of the guilt? It’s going to keep stabbing at your very essence and it won’t stop. You know it won’t. You’ll think about it all the time and at night, it’ll torment you in your dreams. You know I’m right, don’t you?”

Asher once again nods.

“Why then are you resisting? Talking is therapeutic. It heals the mind.”

My jaw slackens at the total sincerity in Sam’s tone. It dawns on me that he’s a master manipulator and his weapon is the honesty. He takes the truth and bends it so it suits his will. There’s absolutely nothing Angelic about it. It’s pure evil. It’s revolting!

“It was a couple of years ago.” Asher bites hard on his lips to restrain himself from speaking further, but Sam leans forward; the intensity of his gaze, his striking eyes… It’s all too much, even breathing has become a challenging task.

It feels as though my brain has become so overwhelmed; it has decided to give up its whole functions to focus wholly on Sam.

“It was the old, supposed haunted house on the outskirts of town; an income generator as there are so many paranormal activity seekers.”

He stops talking as his breathing is heavy, his eyes wide and frantic. I stare at Sam, pleading with my eyes that he stops whatever it is he’s doing, but he completely disregards me.

“You thought it was a sham, didn’t you?”

“I did at first.” Asher nods. “But I’ll have to admit that some strange and unexplainable things happened there. I sometimes heard disjointed voices when I snuck in, but nothing frightening. Then that particular day, I snuck in… Ben dared me to spend the whole night there. I wouldn’t have – and it got cold, and I was young and stupid. I – I thought it was wise to start a fire. I didn’t mean to…” He trails off and swallows hard.

“Mistakes happen, Asher. Blame the huge damage on the fire control department. They never come on time, do they?”

“They don’t… But that’s not what Ben said.” Asher shakes his head. “He said I would end up in juvie, and I was terrified and… He recorded the whole thing. That sneaky little…” Asher inhales deeply through his nose to rid himself of the brewing anger.

My breath seizes in my throat as I lean in, understanding that any information he gives from his moment is extremely crucial to determining whether or not he’s the one who did the crime.

“He’s blackmailed me my whole life. Made me hand over the Captain’s position to him, made me do most of his assignment, and most of all, stop me from talking to the girl I’ve admired since the first day she stepped into our class. It’s been horrible!”

Asher did have more than enough motive to end Ben. However, the thought of him committing murder seems so absurd, my brain refuses to accept it. It just has to be someone else!

“You must have loathed him for that,” Sam unrelentingly presses.

“I did. We fought a lot. I hated that he despised Bells for no reason whatsoever. It was senile, but I guess I was more afraid of… I did plan to end everything. I got a job where I knew she was working because I wanted to talk to her, to know her. I confronted Sam that day after work. He found out I started working there.”

“And that’s when things ended very badly?” Sam raises a brow, but Asher shakes his head.

“He was fine. There were a bunch of people there. Some people from the basket ball team, some from the swim team. They were having fun and Ben refused to hear me out. He told me I had to quit working there, else he’ll make it known what I did. I told him to go ahead, I was done being a puppet. Then, I left. He was still very much alive when I left. I swear!”

Sam hums and leans backwards. He strokes his chin in thought, then he snaps his fingers and grins triumphantly.

“You are not completely useless. In fact, I think you may have just made this a whole lot easier for us.”

“I have?” Ash questions the same time I ask “He has?”

“Of course. You saw the people that were there that evening. The killer was most likely one of them. You, human boy, can tell us who killed Ben Alder.”

~~~

I'm super duper sorry for the late update

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