Let Me Out Read online

  “No problem!”, they said.

  “Come here so we can know what happened.”, said Steven.

  “Tell me what happened Joanna?”, asked Steven as Alexander’s sons and Max were all listening.

  Joanna replied, “I was sitting her reading the book when that bastard came behind me and put his gun on my head and said, “How dare you belittle me like that you damn brat?”. I moved my head away from the gun and pulled his hands forwards which made him fire two rounds. Then, I put my leg in front of his knocking him down. I took the gun from his hand and stood on top of him. He tried to take out another gun from his pocket. I had to shoot him.”.

  “Please excuse my daughter’s language.”, said Steven to Alexander’s sons.

  “He deserves it.”, said Brian.

  “Yes, he does.”, said Daniel.

  They were both honest as they didn’t care much for what had happened to him. “Can I ask a question?”, said Brian.

  “Sure!”, said Steven.

  “What did your daughter say to my father?”, asked Brian.

  Steven told him what had happened in the basement. “Now, I know why he was furious when he came up to us. We couldn’t ask because we knew we would be in trouble.”, said Brian.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?”, asked Steven.

  “Because he would have killed us if we did.”, replied Daniel.

  “In a heartbeat.”, said Brian. “He hated the feeling that those around him treated him as a mad man and, I quote, “that he had to take the medication to be a normal person!”, he added.

  “When the doctor prescribed the medication to him, he kept repeating and implying that he wanted to kill doctor!”, said Daniel.

  “Don’t you remember the first day when someone asked what we’re going to do when the food runs out? And my father answered that would eat him? My father really meant it! He wasn’t joking. When you and Max supported him, especially Max, when he shot the fire and ended the argument, he felt relieved. Had continued their argument, he would have killed them all.”, said Brian.

  “You mean that we should have been cautious with him?”, said Steven.

  “Exactly!”, said Danial and Brian simultaneously.

  “Fine. Let’s all go to the group and take the weapons away so that this incident won’t happen again”, said Steven.

  “I agree!”, said Max.

  “Stay here. I’ll be back soon.”, Steven said to Joanna.

  Steven, max, and Alexander’s sons headed towards the group to tell them what had happened. “Brian and Daniel are good people followed Max with the Alexander’s sons heading towards the group to unlike their father. He was suffering from a psychological disorder, killing his wife and torturing his children.”, said Steve addressing the group.

  Steven asked Alexander’s sons to reveal their backs so that the group can see their father’s doings. “As you see! Their backs are disfigured from torture! They also weren’t upset about their father’s death because according to them, he deserved it.”, said Steven.

  “Yes, he did.”, added Brian.

  Steven then went on saying, “Whoever treats them badly because of what their father have done is going to deal with me. Got it?”.

  Everyone agreed. “Now it’s time to collect the weapons from everyone. We will appoint some of you to guard them.”, said Steven.

  Some hesitated, but from they felt that Steven wasn’t going to change his mind about this so that incidents like this don’t happen again. Everyone turned their weapons in and appointed Max to assist Joseph in guarding them. “Thank you for your cooperation”, said Steven.

  Steven went to his daughter and found her staring through the glass. Steven then quickly looked at the crime scene and found that one of her books were punctured twice by Alexander. “He destroyed the book.”, said Steven.

  Realizing her father’s presence, Joanna turned and said, “What a prick!”

  “Calm down.”, said Steven comforting her.

  Steven called a few to take Alexander’s body and throw it from the roof and wipe the blood off the floor. When they came and pulled the body, Steven said, “Wait.”.

  Steven stared at Alexander’s face, as Joanna looked at him surprised! “Okay. You can go now.”, said Steven.

  They went to throw him off the roof, while others whipped the blood off the floor. Steven and Joanna remained alone when she asked him, “Why were you staring at the criminal’s face?”.

  “After his sons told me about his past, he reminded me of someone.”, said Steven.

  “I thought it was a sympathetic look.”, replied Joanna.

  “You guessed wrong.”. said Steven.

  It got silent for a few moments then Steven said, “These are hard times. I will go to Oliver. I feel bad for making Adam take care of him most of the time.”.

  “Don’t’ be. Adam likes children and enjoys spending time with them.”, replied Joanna.

  “How did I not see that?!”, said Steven. “Okay. I’ll go now. Stay alert and try to sleep early.”, he added.

  “Thanks Dad. I will.”, said Joanna.

  Steven sat next to Oliver. “I want Adam.”, said Oliver.

  Steven smiled and called Adam and said, “Oliver wants you. Let’s have him sleep between us.”.

  They put Oliver between them and slept while Joanna stayed in front of the glass going through the books and taking notes about what she knows and what she notices about the creatures. A candle was bedside her providing her with light so that she could read. She finally got tired and decided to take a rest. She looked at the book that was punctured with the two gunshots and decided to spend the rest of her time going through it even though she knew that the shots destroyed many of its contents and thought of throwing it away. As she was going through the book thinking about the strength of the gun that made two holes through all the pages, a page caught Joanna’s eyes! Joanna was shocked as the page had drops of blood and handprints stained in blood. She found a small paper in the middle of the page with words written by hand. Joanna recognized it to be her mother’s handwriting. However, the shot had penetrated the sides of the paper leaving only two visible letters “…ea…”. Joanna then knew that this was a message from her mother before she passed! She then started to search the books for words with similar middle letters until she was overcome by sleep.

  In the morning, Steven woke up and found Oliver awake playing with his toys and Adam still asleep. Some people were awake too, sitting together having conversations and laughing. He turned to the other side to look at his daughter, but he couldn’t find her. He stood up and started searching for her until he found her asleep beside her books. He went to wake her up and as soon as he touched her, she woke up as if she had seen a nightmare. “Are you okay? I don’t think you slept very well.”, said Steven.

  “Let me show you what kept me up so late.”, said Joanna.

  “Show me!”, said Steven, feeling that It was something very important from the way she woke up.

  Joanna grabbed the punctured book and opened the blood-stained page and said, “Look at this.”

  Steven was surprised and said, “Is that your blood?”.

  “No.”, replied Joanna.

  Steven then knew that it was his wife’s blood and said, “Why is this part of the page not stained?”.

  Joanna took out the small paper from her pocket and said, “This paper there. Unfortunately, the two shots punctured the paper and making it difficult to read. The only letters left were “…ch th…”.

  Steven looked carefully and shouted, “That’s my wife’s handwriting!”.

  “Yes, it is.”, said Joanna.

  Steven uttered the two letters in surprise, “…ch th…”? There are a lot of words that have these letters in the middle!”.

  “I feel she was hinting at something.”, said Joanna. “That’s why I stayed up all night searching the books for what my mother meant. But I couldn’t find anything yet.”, she added.

  Stev
en looked carefully at the page and then looked to the opposite page and found the same fingerprints that they found the small paper in. “My wife deliberately hid this paper.”, said Steven.

  “What do you mean!”, said Joanna.

  Steven said, “When my wife wrote this small paper and placed it on this page which got stained with blood. Had the book been left open, the blood would have dried, and the opposite page wouldn’t have been stained too. However, she closed the book which indicates that she wanted to hide something, so we would find the message.”.

  Joanna was moved about how much her mother wanted them to receive this message and she imagined her struggling to write it. Steven then said, “How did they not notice this page?”

  “Who do you?”, said Joanna.

  “The investigators!”, said Steven.

  “Didn’t you investigate her case?”, asked Joanna.

  Steven said, “I resigned after your mother’s death. The last case I investigated was a case first investigated by me but the case was soon rendered as a banned after the death of your mother. Any banned case resulted in another Since your mother’s case became banned as well, that’s probably the reason why they didn’t investigate it and gave us her books.”.

  “Why did you lie to me and said that you investigated mom’s case?”

  “Because that time you wouldn’t have understood what banned cases were. I also wanted to make you feel reassured.”. replied Steven.

  Joanna got a little upset as Steven continued saying, “They would have killed you too if I had gone on with the investigation. I hope you understand.”

  • • •

  Jonna knew that her father did the right thing. Steven came up to her and kissed her on the head, hugged her and said, “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”.

  “I trust you.”, said Joanna.

  After hearing what she had said, Steven closed his eyes and felt pain in his heart. He sighed and said, “Now, let’s have the breakfast. Then you can continue searching about what your mother’s message meant. I will sit and try to remember my conversations with your mother. I might remember something related message.”

  “Okay.”, said Steven.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Surprise

  Steven and Joanna went to have breakfast. At that time, Steven looked towards the group and said, “Are you guys ready for your first day at training?”

  Everyone became enthusiastic and said, “Yes we are!”.

  “Alright then. We will start after breakfast.”, said Steven.

  “Okay.”, they said.

  After breakfast, Joanna went to continue searching the meaning behind her mother’s message. The group picked up wooden and metal sticks to use during training. Before training started, a doctor named Victor said, “I have a question.”.

  “What is it?”, said Steven.

  “Aren’t the sticks useless when it comes to fighting those creatures.”, asked Victor.

  Everyone had a quick discussion and concluded that he was right. “I have a suggestion.”, said Brian.

  “What is it?”, said Steven.

  “My brother and I can turn these sticks into deadly weapons.”, said Brian.

  “Can you really do that?!”, said Steven surprised.

  “Yes…we can turn the point of these metal sticks into sharp swords.”, replied Brian.

  “We can also turn the wooden sticks into sharp spears!”, added Daniel.

  “That’s wonderful!”, said Steven. “But how are you going to do that?”, he added.

  “The tools in our father’s car can help.”, said Brian.

  “Okay. You guys can do that after training.”, said Steven.

  After everyone had thanked Alexander’s sons for that, the training started. They were all enthusiastic and did very well and after an hour of training, they had a break. In an attempt to encourage them, Steven said, “Great job everyone. We will continue after lunch.”.

  Everyone was exhausted and therefore agreed. Only five minutes after Steven, Adam, and Oliver have sat that Jonna ran up to them, gasping for air and said, “Where are the keys to the staircase doors?”.

  Adam looked at Steven and Steven asked, “Why? What’s going on?”.

  Joanna quickly replied, “You won’t believe it, but there’s an old man, who I think is blind, walking between the creatures.”.

  The group noticed their discussion and at Joanna’s reactions and felt that something had happened. They looked anxiously at each other and were whispering amongst themselves trying to figure out what was happening. Someone of them went to Steven while Joanna ran up to the roof. “Is there something wrong?”, they said.

  “There’s an old man wondering on the street. We think he’s blond.”, replied Steven.

  Everyone felt surprised. Steven followed his daughter, and some followed them. They went to the glass to look at old man. When Steven reached the roof, he found his daughter shouting, “You there! Over here!”.

  The blind man turned towards the source of the sound and said, “I finally hear you after a whole day without a sound!”.

  “I think he said something!”, said Steven to Joanna.

  “I think so. His voice is too low to reach us.”, replied Joanna.

  “I’m coming over to see what kind of sick prank this is!”, said the old man.

  They couldn’t hear what he had said. Steven started directing the man saying, “You’re on the right way! Keep going.”.

  “Why don’t you come and get me?! Isn’t that better than shouting?”, said the old man.

  The old man did not have a walking stick. He felt the way with his hands and legs. Steven saw that he was about to bump into one of the creatures. “Turn right!”, he shouted.

  “Are you kidding me?”, said the old man. “Your voice is coming from here and you want me to turn right?”, he added.

  The old man continued walking until he got very close to the creature while everyone was looking and anticipating what was going to happen. Joanna got scared and said, “Oh Lord! He is going to die.”.

  The old man continued trying to feel the way to know why Steven told him to turn right. His legs then hit the creature’s body. He used his hands to feel what he had bumped into and it fell on the creature’s body. What the old man then did made everyone breathless. “This is probably the millionth time that someone has stood in front of me while I’m walking.”, said the old man. “Why don’t you make way for me? Why don’t you speak? Your friend spoke so the prank is over!”, he added.

  The old man hit the creature on the head. That’s when everyone started imagining the worse was about to happen. The creature turned to the old man but did not harm him. Everyone was astonished as the old man continued walking and did not understand what had just happened. When he became close to them, the old man asked, “Where are you?”.

  No one could answer out of shock of what just happened. “Where are you, you bastards?”.

  “Keep walking until you get to the door in front of you.”, said Steven.

  “I’m coming, but I will beat you all up if you become silent again.”, said the old man.

  At first, they we shocked at what he was saying. They then realized that he was talking about the creatures as he would talk to the them, but they wouldn’t answer. “We won’t keep quiet so that you can come sit with us.”, said Steven.

  Everyone came down from the rood when the old man went through the door. Those who were looking through the glass window moved towards the center opening overlooking the ground floor. Steven asked Max, who was standing on the other side to guide the man. Steven and Joanna then armed themselves and Steven took the keys from Adam. He saw Joseph next to Max and said, Joseph! Are there any creatures behind the doors standing nearby?”.

  Joseph was directly above the staircase door and was able to see unlike Steven who was couldn’t. “Yes.” Said Joseph. “There are two at the right, right in front of the door. There’s another to the left almost eight m
eters away.”, he added.

  “Okay, let the others tell me if the old man becomes in front of the door.”, said Steven.

  The old man sensed from what they were saying that something was happening. “Have I entered a mental hospital?”, asked the old man himself.

  Steven and Joanna headed towards the stairs and went down until they stood in front of the ground-floor door. Adam was standing in front of the first-floor door updating him about the old man and the creatures.

  Steven said to Joanna, “Listen, since the creatures didn’t harm the old man, I suggest unlocking the door and let him enter by himself. We’ll so that the creatures don’t see us and follow him in.”.

  “Okay.”, said Joanna.

  Steven unlocked the door and they each hid on the sides of the door. Max was still directing the old man through the doors. “Turn left a bit.”, said Max. “There’s wreckage and pieces of metal in front of you.”, he added.

  The wreckage was from when Steven drove his car into the escalator. The old man was stubborn and continued walking until he felt the wreckage himself. he then turned left. “I’m about to lose my mind!”, said Max. “Why wouldn’t he trust me?”, he added.

  As the old man approached the door, Joseph said, “Be ready guys! He’s only two meters away from the door. The creatures are six meters away.”.

  The group delivered the message to Adam, and he delivered it to Steven. “Be ready.”, said Steven to Joanna decisively.

  They were fully prepared when the doorknob moved to the left opening the door. As the old man walked through, and through a small opening at the side of the door, Steven’s eyes became in direct contact with the eyes of one of the creatures who were standing outside the door. The creature ran towards them. In a heartbeat, Steven pulled the old man and closed the door. The old man started hitting Steven saying, “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have any manners?”.

  “Wait you don’t understand. You were in danger.”, said Steven.

  “Since when was entering through a door dangerous?”, said the old man.

  “There were creatures behind you and they were going to come through the door.”, said Steven.