~The Hunter~
Grayson was sinking in the quicksand that was his life. It was only a matter of time before his head went under and he ran out of oxygen.
Every trip he took out of his room was serenaded by the symphony of arguing his parents composed. It had turned the whole house into a storm cloud - ready to strike down lightning at any moment. His little brother played in the front lawn to avoid it and threw a tantrum when his grandmother ordered him back inside. If it was up to him, he would only return when it got dark out. He had even caught Jason trying to go out in the rain. Grandma Li was the only one who spoke during dinner. His mother and father would only look up from their food to give eachother bitter looks. They had been married for nearly thirty years and their fights had an average time of lasting a few hours. This time, it had been days.
Grayson would have been concerned about his parents if he hadn’t caught some of their arguments. The halls did a great job at carrying sound so he knew they were fighting about him. They were arguing about what to do about him and how to help him. Did they not understand that it was Bethany who needed help, not him?
His family had expected the video chat he received from Beth to help him out. Even Grayson could admit it had done the opposite. He had gone from having every part of his soul yearning for her return to every fiber of his very being needing her home.
School was his escape. Ever since his schoolmates found out about the rescue mission he went on, they treated him like he was the coolest guy on the planet. He found himself with a dozen friends in each class to keep him preoccupied. Grayson had also realized he had a knack for storytelling - he had conjured up at least ten versions of the time he broke into a house to save Beth.
He still attended therapy - for his parents sake. His therapist, Elle, and him sat in silence for the first thirty minutes of each session and she fed him nonsense for the remaining fifteen minutes.
“You have come up with an unhealthy way of coping. It feeds into the stage of grief you're stuck in: denial.”
He had no idea what he was denying. He knew Beth was missing - he wasn’t stupid. He also knew that she was alive and would make it back home. It should be considered denial to think anything else. Screw the moment of doubt he had while in Bethany's apartment. He was drunk.
It was more reasonable to say Detective Brendan was in denial of the case dragging out longer than he hoped it would. He had tried to make the argument that Bethany was no longer with the Beast multiple times since he had given him concrete evidence that she was.
“Not only that but there haven’t been any sightings of the Beast since the Ryan Daniels incident where you and your staff concluded that she was on the scene at some point!”
The detective shook his head. “We have reason to -”
“You don’t!” No one in the station reacted to Grayson’s shouting anymore. They all anticipated it by then. The staff continued to work as if nothing was happening.
“Listen to me and listen to me very closely Grayson Li.” His voice became low and his speech slowed. His words were tigers getting ready to pounce on their prey. “It would be best for you to stay out of this. Drop it. Forget about the girl and go home.”
For a second he thought he was hallucinating.
“What?”
He leaned in closer, a smile plastered on his face despite the gravity of what he was saying. “Leave and don’t come back. The news will forget about her, her mom has already forgotten about her, you will too. No one needs to get hurt.”
Grayson refused to back away. He stood eye to eye with him. “Are you threatening me, Detective Brendan?”
“Of course not!” He stepped back and straightened his blazer. His voice carried across the whole station. “The team and I are working tirelessly to help Miss Bethany Rodriguez. I assure you we are doing all that we can.”
“You son of a -”
“Officer Oakely, can you show this gentleman out?” Grayson didn’t resist the pull of the cop behind him. He had heard all he needed to hear.
The first thing he did was pull out his phone to text Maris. They hadn’t exchanged contact information while she was visiting but with a few taps and a scroll through Benthany’s Instagram, he was able to find Maris. He privately messaged her.
Hey, I’m really sorry about the way things ended the last time I saw you but I have some important information to relay.
That bad feeling you had about Detective Brendan was right! He just threatened me to stop pressing about Bethany.
He had anticipated waiting hours for a reply. Maris was probably still pissed off about him trying to kiss her - reasonably so. It shouldn’t have been her first instinct to see a message from him and click it immediately. Still, he barely started the car when his phone buzzed.
Hello . . . I think you messaged the wrong person.
He groaned.
I’m being serious. This isn’t the time to be petty.
She wrote back instantly.
I’m being serious too. What’s going on with Bethany's case? I’ve only heard what’s in the news. You’re her friend Grayson, right?
He tossed his phone into Pedro’s cup holder and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe that a drunken kiss could cause Maris to turn her back on her cousin. He was truly the only one who had Beth’s back. He was the only one she could count on.
He flipped on the car’s radio while driving. He was so sleep deprived he needed white noise to keep him up. On came a report about a teenage boy named Josh Reckins who was caught planning to shoot up his school in upstate New York.
“Cops were alerted to Reckins plans when they received a phone call from campus. An unknown man had detained Reckins and disappeared once the police arrived at the scene. Police would like to identify this man to thank him for his help in preventing a tragedy,” the news reporter said. “Josh Reckins described the man who detained him as lean, caucasian, and having a distinct upturned nose.”
A man who stopped a criminal but vanished so as to not be seen by law enforcement in upstate New York . . . It was all familiar. He didn’t know how his mind pieced it together - and he knew he was going out on a limb - but he was desperate.
A day later, Grayson found himself in a holding center across the city. He had found the prison Josh Reckins was being held in and called to find out about their restrictions. Josh must have been itching for some social interaction because he placed Grayson on his visitation list with no trouble. He sat at the cold table, foot tapping against the ground at the speed of his thudding heart. There were other inmates speaking to people all around them. There were more police officers in sight than prisoners and visitors combined. He wasn’t scared of Josh. He was scared he would have nothing to offer him.
The young man was sporting an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. The security guard sat him down and waited two steps behind him, arms folded by his stomach.
“Who are you and why are you here?”
Grayson swallowed. If he was already being so defensive how would he react when he found out Grayson was here to question him and take off?
“The man who caught you for the police - I want to find him.”
Josh scoffed. “You and everyone else.”
“Not just find him . . .” He had to be careful about how he phrased this. “I want to catch him.”
He squinted at him. “You know who he is then. You got beef with him or something?”
“Yes. I need you to tell me anything and everything you can remember about him. I think you would appreciate it if -” he glanced up at the officer standing close by, “- he was caught.”
The criminal leaned in. “He followed me. He knew what I was about to do and he followed me to school! He wasn’t a cop, so how did he find out about me?”
This was another reason to believe this was the Beast. He was known for anticipating where criminals were and what they were going to do ahead of the law. The one thing that was off was Josh was here to talk about it. The Beast hadn’t let the police take any of his finds since the days he was just starting out. It couldn’t have been a mistake because he had called the police. Why did he spare Josh Reckins?
“What did he look like?”
He grimaced. “I caught a glimpse. I thought maybe I imagined it - and maybe I did - but he had a snout. He might have had fangs too - and his skin was messed up.”
Grayson balled his fist and let out a breath through his nose. “Stop playing with me.”
“I’m not!”
The Beast could have been wearing a mask - a mask that fit his title as the “Beast”. He had originally gotten the name because of the tireless way he went after criminals and disposed of them. This could have been him playing into it.
“Fine.” He gave him the benefit of the doubt. “Anything else?”
“That’s all I got. Now, what are you gonna give me?”
“What are you talking about?”
The boy waved his cuffed hands. “I gave you information. Now you give me something I need. It’s a fair trade.”
Grayson got up from the table, feeling disgust as he remembered who he was speaking to. “Rot in jail, you sicko.”
The teens face contorted and without further warning, he tackled Grayson. Having been tackled his fair share of times, he stood his ground - taking the force into his abdomen and holding Reckins there in a headlock. He was knocked a few steps back and tripped on the ledge of a chair. Reckins took the opportunity, climbing onto him and slamming his fist into his face. Grayson easily overpowered him. He rolled on top and once he started punching he couldn’t stop.
The guards had already come to break up the fight. He could get off of him. He could walk out. This was no longer about self-defense.
His fist connected to his jaw, his nose, his eye. When the cops dragged him off by his arms he kicked him in the ribs. Josh Reckins was long passed fighting back. The only reaction he had was folding in pain.
Blood was dripping from his knuckles and splattering onto the concrete ground. He saw the prisoner cough up a pool of crimson.
“He deserved it!” he screamed as he was hauled off. That boy almost murdered several students - he had attacked Grayson. He was an unstable monster. “He deserved it!”
That was why he beat him up.
He deserved it.
That was why his knuckles and shirt were bloodied.
He deserved it.
He kept hitting Josh Reckins because he deserved it.