Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 159050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 795(@200wpm)___ 636(@250wpm)___ 530(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 795(@200wpm)___ 636(@250wpm)___ 530(@300wpm)
Cool, mildewy air blew from the cellar below, and he cleared his throat, illuminating the narrow stairs that seemed to lead into hell itself. Somehow, being here with Elliot made the whole experience more eerie.
“What is?” Elliot glanced back at him, but was quick to make his way down the stairs. “That secret door is such a crafty idea. And to think that he came up with it two hundred years ago!”
“It used to have a coded lock, but that was replaced by one of the later owners. He could create a combination as he locked it, so only he could access the cellar without damaging the door,” Knight said, begrudgingly thinking that it had been a smart choice of Fane’s, even though he’d likely commissioned someone to produce the special lock anyway.
Every time Elliot looked back into the white beam of Knight’s flashlight, his eyes seemed to hold more madness. “No wonder he could continue for years without being discovered. When you think about it, he was never truly discovered. He was murdered and only then people found out about his secret.”
Knight bumped the side of his head against the brick wall in frustration. “For the last time, he wasn’t murdered. Laurent killed him in self-defense, and you can only speak of murder when it’s deliberate and planned.”
Elliot shook his head as they slowly reached the end of the downward corridor where three doors loomed—two were open and filled with some junk, but the door to the last one on the left remained shut. The space was so narrow and cramped they needed to keep their heads low to not injure themselves. “You don’t know what happened. Who knows what we may find once we start methodically searching this house. But was Laurent defending himself? I doubt it. William was known to be a handsome man, so no reason to reject him.”
He pressed on the handle of the door leading into the room where Fane used to keep his victims, but it wouldn’t budge. The pleading look of frustration on Elliot’s face made Knight toy with the idea of asking for a blowjob first, but the white paint was too much of a turn off.
“Are you saying that being handsome excuses everything else? Or makes rape somehow impossible? Laurent wasn’t known for violence before he killed Fane, and the creepy memorabilia Fane kept of his other victims was proof that he attacked people. You can’t deny facts,” Knight said and opened the door with a key.
It screeched as it moved, revealing a room that had always creeped Knight out. First because of a satanic sigil hidden under the floor, now because he knew what really happened here to all the blameless men who had been assaulted and murdered by their captor. Built on a plan of a trapezoid, it had struck Knight as very odd since he first visited the clubhouse as a young teenager. With walls stripped of wallpaper that likely used to decorate them and empty, with the exception of an ancient fireplace, it hadn’t changed much since it had been crafted for the Fanes.
Elliot swanned in as if carried on clouds. “I can’t deny that, but just think about it. Mementos. Keepsakes. Even after they died, William still wanted to keep a part of them with him. I think that’s why he progressed to cannibalism. Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t start out by eating his victims either.” Elliot took slow steps and ran his fingertips over the bare walls.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Knight hissed as he placed the flashlight on the dusty mantelpiece. “There’s no evidence he was a cannibal. Zero. Null. None of the bones identified have any knife marks consistent with removing meat.”
Elliot wandered around the room in circles, as if there was something new for him to find here if he just walked for long enough. “What about the missing arm? What about all the victims that have not been found?”
“You can’t make assumptions about stuff without any clues to go on. That’s not how science works.”
Elliot sat in a dark corner of the room despite the chill that had to be getting to his skinny body even more than it did to Knight’s. “It’s true, I’m not a scientist, but I know what I feel.”
Knight barked out a laugh. “Oh, so you’re a medium now? Maybe you should summon him?”
Knight didn’t like the long silence that followed.
“Just imagine if his soul could speak to us. He could reveal the truth about himself. Was he a cold-hearted killer, or was he misunderstood by history?”
Knight huffed. “We already know the truth. It’s a damn luck he’s not here, because he’d have used you like he had all those innocent men.”
Knight hated the way Elliot’s eyes seemed to glaze over at the thought. “He’d keep me forever,” Elliot whispered.