A CLUE OF THE MONSTER

'Speak clearly, Gracia. What are you insinuating here? What do you know about the people I have lost? My father and my mother, what do you do?"


"We are talking about the deal; there is no need to drag the spirits of the dead here," she cuts me off, but I can't. She is admitting something to me. 'I am not kicking you out of the company. You can still retain your former position or become my vice, and together we can move the company forward. But I want that seat! So, deal?"

I must admit that she is freaking me out. I am scared to the bones for the bits of revelations she has spit so far. Whether she is doing it on purpose or not, it is not that important. What I know is that she might be at the center of this puzzle.

Deal with her ass!


"Pay attention to what I am about to say, Gracia, and listen well," I say to her face. 'Never in your wildest dreams will you have my father's company! Never at any given point in my life will I ever even contemplate giving up my family fortune to you or anyone, so, no fucking deal!" I emphasize my stand, her glare turning cold in a flicker, but I don't cower to her demeaning power. How dare she? What a dreamer, really?

We stared at each other for minutes with no words spoken. The gun is still pointed at her head. Until she finally drops a bombshell that almost, almost, brings me to my knees.


"Well, the hard way, then! Don't come crumbling to my feet if your beloved husband ends up with some broken bones and baseball marks. Who knows, he might even suffer more torture than what you have so far witnessed. He might not even survive. You know, accidents do happen, right?"

I lower my gun, a surge of fear gushing down my spine. Broken bones and baseball marks? Is this her way of killing? So, does this mean that the two murder cases of my mom and nanny Aisha are related? Did she...

"What? Seen a ghost?" She mocks me, standing under my nose, her assassin nerves sucking the air out of me.

Wait, she hasn't even seen Nanny Aisha, as far as I know, right? As for Mom, well, she was coincidentally there at the hospital that day. Mom breathed her last. What is this that she is going on about broken bones and baseballs?

"What do you know about breaking bones and baseballs? You didn't do that to Nana Aisha, and..."

"You tell me, Ellie!" She hissed with so much soothed venom, cutting me off. 'Look deep into my eyes and tell me if I am capable of doing that." She fixes her eyes on me, and I accept the offer to explore this sinister dark glow that has always been bewildering to me from the start. Even in the shadows of the lights, they look scary. "Am I innocent according to you, or am I capable of breaking someone's bones and hitting them with a baseball until they lose their consciousness, leaving them to die in agony, or slitting their throats to save them from too much pain?"

Ooh, merciful Lord! Am I staring right at a serial killer right now?

What I see is the factual portrayal of the monster she just described. Her eyes have no tinge of mercy or remorse. They are not just cold, but there is this weird fear that you feel while trading glances like this—the kind of fear that chokes you. The kind of fear that leaks nothing but grave danger. The kind of fear that makes you want to run for your dear life.

"Well, you swallowed your tongue?" She challenges me, and I shake my head, taking a step away from her. "Ooh, don't tell me you are already scared when you haven't even witnessed how I torture my culprits, Ellie!" She closes the gap between us. "Want an experiment?"

I take another safe step away from this monster. What is she? A serial killer?

"So, it was you?" I mumbled so faintly that the words didn't get to her.

"What? If you are talking to me, make sure you are audible enough, you bitch, or else my patience with you might run out!" She warns.

Yes! She is! Otherwise, she would have denied it all! And all these gestures and riddles? They are just to warn me not to cross my path, or I will end up like mom, dad, and nanny Aisha, and God knows who else she has killed.

So it was her all along? "What do you know about..."

"Love?" Damian's voice calls from behind, cutting off my question to this heartless assassin.

"You better not say or do anything stupid if you don't want to suffer my wrath. My shadows are roaming around, ready for my call. Be careful!" Gracia warns, sounding like the dead serious monster that she really is.

She walks past me, standing right behind me to make sure I don't sell her out. But can I? Before me is the man I love the most, and he, unfortunately, has been caught up in this web. I can't risk anything that will get Damian in trouble.

"Are you okay?" Damian asks, holding my hand and pulling me to him in a protective stance.

"Yeah. I am." I lie, because no human would be okay under all this pressure.

"We have searched the entire compound, but we didn't catch anyone. The medics' report shows that the servants had been fed with a knock-out drug to make them fall unconscious for some time." Agent Drew elucidates.

"Are they in any danger?" I ask.

"They are fine. They just need to rest for some time." Damian responds.

"We also found something that we believe will help us catch whoever did this." Drew continues, catching my full attention, and so is this monster's behind me.

"What?" I ask.

"Three male servants tested negative for the benzodiazepines substances, meaning they counterfeited their blackout. We believe they are in cahoots with whoever did this, and they were used to induce the drug in their fellow servants." Drew further explains.

So, I have moles in the castle? I refuse to be defeated in my own house!

"Have they spoken?" I ask.

"No. They seem afraid of their boss, so they insist that they know nothing!" Drew speaks.

"Take them away and dig out every single piece of information you can get from them. Force those ungrateful bastards to talk by all means. Beat them up, break their bones, or hang them upside down and drench their empty skulls in a tank of acid if need be. Just get them to talk!"

All three pairs of eyes are on me as I speak, Damian being the most thunderstruck one among them, but I don't even blink.