Almost Forgotten

Chapter 3: Key For Violence

You'll never know the psychopath sitting next to you. You'll never know the murderer sitting next to you.

I am frozen to my seat, eyes lost in the distance of this dull room. I feel the heat on my face which was earlier lowered, return back to me. Lilah is there, but I can't see further than my own destiny. His eyes warned me that night in the motel room. He would return for revenge.

He already has.

"Winter. We need to leave." she is standing in front of me, keeping her hand on my shoulder but my eyes don't move. The director might be saying something, but my phone slid away from my palms the moment I heard her.

My stomach is twisting inside me, mulling over the rest of the insides as they feel like rotten meat. I should feel this stunned to move and maybe I am not. It might be fear of it all. Terror of the paths which will wait for me when I step out of the room.

At least I know that nothing could change if I don't move.

"Winter."

"Leave."

She is slightly shocked by my answer, but I only pull Leah closer, letting my forehead rest on the top of her hair. My eyes are met with darkness, but it's better than seeing this kind of light. If the light can only light up one part of the darkness, doesn't it make it weaker than the dark void.

"He doesn't know where I am." I lift my head, meeting her eyes. I hate the pity I see in them, the hesitant words as if I could break and she would have to tiptoe over the glass to get to me. "I am even safer here than in the head office."

"Well, you are not safe at home."

My narrow eyes meet the screen on her phone, spotting the picture she has been sent by Jackson. It's the harsh wall of a prison cell, with a name engraved into it with the blood belonging to a man, killed in an orange jail suit.

I take sharp breaths at the message.

regal way 34, i will see you soon Miles

"He found your address. Mrs. Brooks already knows what she will do, but first we need to bring you home to pick up the things for you and her." she crouches down to pick my phone and I can only nod. I don't even know why I am nodding.

He found your address.

He was looking for you.

"Leah." I am gently slapping her face awake. After one or two muffled sounds she is rubbing her eyes awake when the agents surrender the hospital. She refused to let me carry her as my hand rests in hers when we get out of the building.

Jackson called one more time, telling me the more detailed story once we entered one of seven heavily armed and protected SUVs. I can see Leah being tense, but I try to keep her head as far away from the real business as I can.

Apparently he only escaped half an hour ago, so it's physically impossible for him to arrive from Colorado to Virginia in less than a day, so we should be on the safe spot for a while.

Jackson tries to reassure me into a calm state. He is first on the list of wanted now, half of the federal departments are active in trying to find him. He couldn't have gotten far, nor will he, are the words that linger through the whole car ride, but I know better.