Chapter 5 -The Truth He Couldn’t Hide
1119 Words
I didn’t remember getting home.
One moment I was standing in the middle of the street staring at the place where the woman had disappeared.
The next, I was sitting on my couch.
Joshua stood near the window.
Watching outside.
Always watching.
The silence inside my apartment felt unbearable.
My parents.
The woman had mentioned my parents.
And judging by Joshua’s reaction, she hadn’t been lying.
My chest tightened.
I slowly stood.
“Start talking.”
Joshua didn’t move.
“Judith.”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“I am done being treated like a child.”
He remained silent.
The calm expression on his face only made me angrier.
“My entire life people have hidden things from me.”
I took a step closer.
“Monsters are apparently real.”
Another step.
“A woman with glowing eyes knows who I am.”
Another.
“And now someone is telling me my parents died because of a secret.”
I stopped directly in front of him.
“Tell me the truth.”
For several seconds, Joshua said nothing.
His silver eyes searched mine.
Almost as if he was debating something.
Finally, he sighed.
A tired sound.
The kind made by someone carrying too many burdens.
“Your parents were not ordinary people.”
My heart dropped.
The words confirmed what I’d already suspected.
Still, hearing them aloud felt different.
More real.
“What does that mean?”
Joshua looked away.
“They belonged to an organization called the Veil Keepers.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“Never heard of it.”
“Most people haven’t.”
“Why?”
“Because they’re supposed to remain hidden.”
Great.
Another secret society.
Exactly what my life needed.
“What do they do?”
Joshua hesitated.
Then he answered.
“They protect humanity from supernatural threats.”
I stared.
For a second, I honestly thought he was joking.
Then I remembered the creature from the alley.
The woman with yellow eyes.
His impossible speed.
Right.
No more normal explanations.
“So my parents hunted monsters?”
“In a way.”
I sank onto the couch.
My head hurt.
Everything hurt.
The life I’d known for twenty-three years was falling apart piece by piece.
And I had no idea how to stop it.
“Why didn’t they tell me?”
Pain flickered across Joshua’s face.
The expression was gone so quickly I almost missed it.
“They were trying to protect you.”
The answer only made things worse.
“Protect me from what?”
Joshua’s jaw tightened.
“You.”
I froze.
“What?”
His gaze met mine.
“They were trying to protect you from what you might become.”
The room went silent.
I stared at him.
Certain I’d heard wrong.
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?”
Joshua looked genuinely uncomfortable.
The sight shocked me.
Nothing seemed capable of rattling him.
Until now.
“Joshua.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
As if preparing for something.
When he opened them again, his expression had changed.
Become harder.
More guarded.
“Judith.”
My pulse accelerated.
The way he said my name felt different.
Careful.
Almost afraid.
“What?”
Joshua took a slow breath.
Then he said the last thing I expected.
“You are not entirely human.”
The world stopped.
I laughed.
A sharp, disbelieving sound.
“Okay.”
Joshua didn’t smile.
I laughed again.
Harder.
More desperately.
“This is a joke.”
Silence.
My stomach dropped.
“Oh my God.”
The realization hit me.
He wasn’t joking.
He actually believed it.
“No.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Judith”
“No.”
I stood so quickly the couch nearly tipped over.
“I am human.”
My voice rose.
“I bleed. I breathe. I eat way too much chocolate when I’m stressed.”
Joshua remained silent.
Which somehow made everything worse.
“Say something.”
“You deserve the truth.”
“I deserve a better truth.”
The words echoed through the apartment.
My chest tightened painfully.
Fear.
Confusion.
Anger.
All of it crashed into me at once.
The room suddenly felt too small.
Too crowded.
I moved toward the door.
Joshua stepped in front of it.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Move.”
“You aren’t safe alone.”
I stared at him.
The nerve of this man.
The absolute nerve.
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Every day.”
“Congratulations. That’s terrifying.”
A faint smile touched his lips.
The expression vanished almost immediately.
But I saw it.
And somehow it made me even angrier.
Because I didn’t want him smiling right now.
I wanted answers.
Real answers.
Not riddles.
Not half-truths.
Answers.
Then something strange happened.
A sharp pain shot through my chest.
I gasped.
Joshua was beside me instantly.
“Judith.”
The room tilted.
A wave of emotion slammed into me.
Not mine.
Someone else’s.
Fear.
Desperation.
Rage.
The emotions were stronger than anything I’d ever felt before.
My knees nearly buckled.
Images flashed through my mind.
A dark room.
Ancient symbols.
Blood.
Chains.
And a man’s voice.
“We’ve finally found her.”
The vision disappeared.
I stumbled backward.
Breathing hard.
Joshua caught me before I fell.
“What did you see?”
My heart pounded.
I looked up at him.
Shocked.
Terrified.
Because the vision had felt real.
More real than any dream.
“There are people looking for me.”
Joshua’s expression darkened.
“I know.”
The certainty in his voice chilled me.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t think that was important information?”
“Compared to everything else?”
His gaze held mine.
“No.”
For a second, neither of us spoke.
Then a loud crash echoed from outside.
Joshua released me immediately.
Every trace of warmth vanished from his face.
Danger replaced it.
His eyes locked onto the window.
My pulse jumped.
“What is it?”
Joshua didn’t answer.
The silence lasted three seconds.
Four.
Five.
Then he whispered something that made my blood run cold.
“They found you.”
A second later, every window in my apartment exploded inward.
Glass filled the air.
I screamed.
Joshua moved.
Too fast to follow.
A dark figure crashed through the shattered window.
Then another.
And another.
Their glowing yellow eyes fixed directly on me.
Not Joshua.
Me.
One of them smiled.
A mouth full of fangs appeared.
And suddenly I understood one terrifying fact.
The creature from the alley had never been hunting randomly.
It had been hunting me.
And now it had brought friends.
- Writer
