Felix Lacson, 23, high school dropout, worked part-time at a junk shop on Staten Island. Described as 'not being in his right mind' by people who knew him and was diagnosed as schizophrenic by the time of his hearing.
"One of the reporters covering his trial described Lacson as a sobbing mess, and that the suspect refused to reveal the boys' whereabouts but kept insisting he didn't kill any of them. He just put them to sleep, like the voice in his head had told him to."
Zari and her Master exchanged looks. Voices in one's head might automatically make one certified in others' books, but in their world, it usually meant exactly that - a voice, typically a demon's, messing with susceptible human minds, which unfortunately were a dime a dozen.
Alexandru considered the timeline. It had been twenty-six years since the murders, and while that only placed their alleged killer in his forties...
"Lacson's dead, is he not?"
"Mysterious heart attack while he was behind bars. If he had lived another day, he would still have died; the jury thought him guilty, and the public wanted him executed."
"And the thirteenth boy?"
"Lacson never once mentioned anything about it. The only reason we know about it is..."
Alexandru turned his attention to the dead little boy who had remained silent but watchful by his pet's side the entire time they had been talking. "Martin, is it not?"
"Yes, sir." Martin's voice had a noticeable quiver, and it said a lot of his courage that he was even able to be coherent in Alexandru's presence. The devil - or in this case, demon - might wear many faces and hide under different guises, but ghosts were one of the rare beings that his kind was incapable of fooling.
"I don't mean you any harm," he said gently. "Anyone who is a friend to my pet is under my protection as well."
After several moments, the boy asked tremulously, "What do you need me to do?"
The First One Tells A Story
Chapter Fourteen
I WAS THE FIRST ONE he took. He stole me from my bedroom, covered my eyes, and then he carried me out of the window. I think it was the window because my head bumped into something. And I've never bumped my head through the door.
Then we were in a car. Or a truck. I just sensed he was driving. My Pa always says big boys never cry, so I don't usually cry, but I was scared that night. So I cried. I asked him to take me back to Ma and Pa, but he never answered. I don't think he even heard me. You see, he was mumbling a lot of things under his breath while he was crying. At first I thought he was talking to someone. But when no one ever answered him back, I got even more scared because that meant he was crazy. You only talk to yourself when you're crazy, right?
But maybe he wasn't crazy.
Maybe it's like the mister says, and the demon was talking to him in his head.
After that he took me to this cold place. It felt like our old basement, so I guess that's where he took me?
The second boy came just a little while later, and he was crying, too. Then the third and fourth came together. We were all crying. And I was getting hungry. I asked if I could have some food and he said, when I woke up, I won't ever be hungry again.
More boys came after that. I started counting. The last one was the thirteenth. He didn't say much, but he sounded a bit older. Everyone was hungry then and tired. But he never fed us. And he never let us go anywhere so we had to pee and poo where we were. It was gross.
On our last night he woke us up. He told us we're going to our new home. He carried us one by one into the truck. This time I'm sure it's a truck. And the thirteenth boy...he didn't have to be carried. I could hear him get up all on his own. So he must be a lot older, like fifteen or sixteen.
He drove for a long time after that. I know it was long because I fell asleep. Then he woke us up again and made us walk. Then he told us to stop. That's when he took our eyes just before pushing us into the hole.
When I woke up, it was just like he said.
I wasn't hungry anymore.
ZARI DID HER BEST TO contain her emotions as Martin finished recounting the last minutes of his life. She felt angry and frustrated, but more than anything she felt helpless, knowing by now that there was truly nothing she could do to put a permanent end to such evil.
The bad would always exist with the good; that was just how life was, and you just had to keep doing your part, which - in this case - figuring out if there was more to the story about the missing thirteenth boy.
After assuring Martin that he could go back "home" and play with Elsa, she turned back to Alexandru and found her Master had already jumped down into the grave and was now crouching down on one knee to slowly run his fingers over the soil.
"Devil's apples..."
Zari, startled to hear Alexandru seemingly murmur the words to himself, couldn't help asking, "You know about it?"
"I should think you would, too," her Master answered rather enigmatically as he swung himself back up on the ground.
"Well, I don't, actually." Zari couldn't help frowning as she watched Alexandru brush off the dirt from his hands. "When Martin used the same term, I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn't even know they were just another word for mandrakes until I got to AGNEX's library to look it up." She saw the way Alexandru's gaze had suddenly narrowed at her and felt uneasy. "Is it really something I should know about?"
But Alexandru only continued to look at her, and she tried not to squirm.
"I met with your boss earlier..."
Her eyes widened. Of all the things she had expected him to say, it was definitely not that.
"He tells me you had tipped him off some months ago, and both of us know that only means you had one of your visions."
Zari could feel herself going pale, and she had to bite her lip hard to keep it from trembling. She had tried so, so hard not to think of that, and she still didn't want to think of it.
Please don't make me say it, Master.
She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to cry, but the moment she found herself in his arms, it was all over, and the tears rushed faster down her cheeks when she felt him brush his lips against her hair.
"Then I shall be the one to speak of it."
No!
She tried to shove him off at that, but of course he was too strong for her, and his arms were so tight around her that she couldn't even free her hands to cover her ears.
Please, Master—-
But Alexandru had already begun to speak.
"I remember that one night you were crying and drinking yourself to sleep, asking me if I'd hate you if doing the right thing meant you'd risk losing me forever."
Please stop—-
"It was not easy getting a message to you from where I was at that time, but I eventually found a way, and you received my answer, did you not?"
I don't want to talk about it!
"I'll take that as a yes, which means you know..." And at this, Alexandru's tone became sober for a moment. "I would never hate you. No matter what you did, pet, I would never be able to hate you."
Zari was sobbing hard now and doing her best to get away as she pounded his chest with her fists and tried kicking him in the groin. While his strength was more than enough to restrain her, the sound of her pain had him breathing hard, and he had to force himself to go on and finish what he had to say.