Liam drove to his place, a big mansion far from the city. The old house was covered in cobwebs and dust. He went upstairs to his room, where he had a big painting of Orexis hung with candles around it. He had a bunch of phones, which he used to call detectives and private investigators to look for people. He called a lot of them, and some charged him more, which he agreed to pay. Some had been working for him for years, and he paid them with gold plates. His goal was to find Elena, and he looked at the painting every day.
Meanwhile, Elena pored over her sister's notes, her eyes scanning the pages with a mix of determination and desperation. She found out about an antique shop on the street and planned to go there the next day.
She went to visit the man and treat him to free energy drinks together with his antique shop owner friends.
Elena stepped into the dimly lit antique shop, the scent of aged wood and polished brass enveloping her. With a twinkle in his eye, the store owner greeted her warmly. "You're not going to buy it, but you always wanted to see any new dagger that comes in," he said with a chuckle.
A second man, his face creased with laughter lines, nodded in agreement. "Exactly! She's been checking the daggers in every antique shop in this alley for years."
Elena felt a flush of embarrassment creep up her cheeks. "I'm sorry, but I really have to find something," she said, her voice tinged with urgency.
"What is it you're searching for?" one of the men asked, his curiosity piqued.
"A way to save my life," Elena replied, her gaze unwavering. "I need that dagger to save my life."
The men exchanged a bewildered glance, one of them chuckling softly. "What a strange thing to say," he murmured.
Undeterred, Elena pressed on. "I just have a lot of interest in ancient daggers," she said, hoping to steer the conversation in a more innocuous direction.
"I bet you carried a dagger in your previous life, right?" one of the old men said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
Elena couldn't help but smile. "Gosh, you're super smart," she said, playing along. "I must have wielded my dagger at bad guys in my previous life." The men erupted in laughter, the tension in the air dissipating for a moment.
As Elena unfolded the dagger they had presented, her heart sank with disappointment. She thanked the men and made them promise to notify her when a new dagger arrived.
"How on earth can I kill Orexis?" She soliloquize on her way home, holding on to the jotter tightly.
Suddenly, her hands trembled, and her heart raced. The bus driver, a reincarnated monster, stood before her. Soon, Elena's instincts kicked in. She noticed it was the bus driver who wanted her soul when she was a kid, and she ran. The man chased her along the street. She trapped him in a nearby building, her face cap serving as a makeshift stake. "Leave me alone," she warned, her knife at the ready.
"Don't come after me. If you do..." Elena said as he cut in.
"You! How did you know I was watching you?" The reincarnated monster said. "Can you sense people like me? You can! He said. Come to think of it, you knew that I was watching you that day, right?" The monster's words sent a chill down her spine.
"What?" Elena was confused.
"Right?" He asked again.
"Have you been following me since that day?" Elena asked.
"I've been looking for you ever since we met that day because I couldn't forget you!". The monster shouted as he had an unquenched thirst for her soul.
"Why are you monsters trying so hard to kill me?" Elena asked. "Doesn't this get old to you? Please stop following me, "said Elena. "Trying to run away from Orexis is tough already,"she said.
Hey, I'll find you again. Okay? He said.
"No. You reincarnated monsters will never catch me. I don't play on dying before I kill Orexis. Elena said, her eyes locked onto the monster's.
"No, you'll die. Many others are looking for you besides me, " the monster said.
Is there a fan club I dont know about? Where are they? With a scoff, she turned and walked away, leaving the monster to seethe in frustration
Liam strode into the dimly lit room, the smell of stale alcohol and sweat hitting his sensitive nose like a punch. His personal detective, a man he had hired to dig up secrets, sat slumped over a whiskey-stained table, shots scattered before him like fallen soldiers.
"You stink!" Liam joked, a grin on his face. "You should wash up. You smell like a brewery."
The detective chuckled, running a hand through his messy hair. "Well, I had to drink with a cop all night to get that info."He slid a folder across the table, the contents spilling out like a dark secret.
Liam leaned in, intrigued. "So, this is about the suspect in the missing person cases?"
"Yeah," the detective said, his tone serious. "But I don't think he's one of those psychopaths you usually chase."He was a suspect but got released recently.
Liam's smile was a thin, cold line. He's the one who killed those missing people."
The detective's eyes widened, impressed. "How do you know what the cops couldn't do?"
Liam sat back, a grim look on his face. "He and others are born to kill."
"Sir, I'm really curious," the detective asked quietly. "Why are you after these criminals?"
"Because we're looking for the same woman," Liam replied, glancing at the papers in his hand.
The chairman was a well-known figure in town, a politician in Wales. For years, he had been suspected of being involved in the disappearances, but he had recently been cleared of any wrongdoing.
With the information he had, Liam went to find the chairman. He found him with a young boy, beaten and stuffed into the trunk of the chairman's car.
Liam's anger simmered just below the surface as he dragged the chairman into the darkness of the uncompleted building.
"You've seen this girl, haven't you?" Liam demanded, shoving a picture of Elena in front of him. "Did you kill her too?"
The chairman, bloodied and scared, looked at Liam with confusion. "Who are you?" he stammered.
"You might not remember me, but we met a long time ago," Liam said, his voice steady.
*He was the old man, monster, who had drawn the eerie Orexis picture and claimed to have killed her in his past life*.
"I've encountered people like you for so long that I'm sick of it." His voice was steady, but an undercurrent of anger simmered just beneath the surface. "You monsters from a previous life have been reincarnated as humans, yet you still kill. And all of you are searching for her. I've heard you can recognize the scent of her soul."
He rose up, the tension in the building palpable. "But here I am, the owner of that very soul, and I can't sense a thing."
The chairman, intrigued, leaned closer, his gaze fixating on Liam's shirt. With a sudden realization, he caught the faint aroma of something familiar—the hair band that had slipped from his grasp in the frantic chase after the woman. It was Elena's. Liam brought it to his nose, inhaling deeply, and a vision struck him like a lightning bolt: a laundry house, the rhythmic sound of a washing machine, and a woman's hand deftly folding towels.
Without hesitating, he reached for his phone, dispatching a message to his private detective. He needed information on every laundry house in the vicinity. Time was of the essence, and he could feel the threads of fate pulling him closer to her.
As the call ended, Liam barely had time to turn before the chairman lunged at him again, the familiar stab finding its mark. In a swift, fluid motion, Liam seized the chairman's hand, twisting it with a force that splintered every bone within. A shiver raced down the chairman's spine, his voice cracking in desperation.
"Why are you doing this to me? I didn't do anything to you!" he cried, panic lacing his words.
Liam's gaze was cold, unyielding. "This is all I know how to do," he replied, his voice steady. "Kill monsters."
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