18- Suspecting K

Suspecting K

It's 6 pm and nobody has returned my calls yet. I am very worried by now and V also has not returned from our realm. I know I should have gone myself but I also have to keep a watchful eye on Hannah here.

Peeping out of my office door, I look at the silent girl on the couch, again as she stares at the television screen. Not blankly at it for I see her facial expressions changing. She is laughing but not in an exaggerated way so I know she is into the show somewhat. It's a comedy.

Hannah knows something is up with K but I didn't tell her I suspected him of putting her in danger. I simply said, "Demon business," and she accepted that.

Hannah fixes me with gazes sometimes. Some are concerned and some like 'good luck'. She does not look frightened. I glance at my watch again- 6:05.

6:09

6:11

Why is V taking so long?

Closing the ajar door, I swing around to K. I am so disappointed that Hannah's danger alert might be him. Not that I thought we were close but still, I thought we had a great working relationship with each other. I think of Hannah's father and I hope it wasn't K that killed him.

He keeps denying he has anything to do with her being in danger but I don't believe him. That preposterous story about me having to train him? Only a handler does that. And he was working too long to not know that nobody would believe such a lie. And where the heck is his phone? I don't believe him when he says he's lost it. A soul collector does not simply lose his phone. It is custom-made to work in both realms and even doubled as a regular cell phone here. It's too important to us to simply 'lose' it as he stated.

Scrutinizing the man across from my seat over my desk, I think deeply- impatient as I am and slightly distracted with thoughts of why K would want to harm our Hannah. Share soul collection he had said. I was already sharing my coverage by collecting other souls that I'm not in charge off. Did he seriously think I was that stupid? That I could be duped so easily? It was almost ten of us here in this area already. Couldn't he come up with a better lie?

Insulted is how I feel that K is that stupid or if he thinks that I am.

"I'm hungry-"

"Shut it. You ate here yesterday," I said. He's not going to be hungry for another day maybe two.

"Man, we all ate that pig, okay? That's one meal dived into three shares," he releases a tired breath.

"My *ss is numb," he says next then shouts, "I'm freaking hungry!"

I look at my watch. 6:15

I ring my handler again from my phone and get no answer. Hannah walks in, minutes later with a cup. Holding a straw, she hands it to me and says, "It's a meal replacement."

Obviously, my eyebrow went up and I gape at an amused-looking K. My eyes follow the cup's direction as she puts the cup in my right hand and says again, "I heard him say he is hungry," making me look back at her face before I switch to K.

He looks at her with a big loopy grin on his face and says, "Why thank you so very much, Hannah, I will enjoy it."

Where is the almost uncivilized beast from yesterday who wanted to rip the meat apart with his hands and teeth? Maybe standing next to the uncivilized me from a week ago.

"I know you eat um- not this but I think you should try it if- if- if you are hungry," she meekly says and I feel so guilty that she is serving K when he might be the one that harmed her father but I can't let her know this so I nod and she leaves the office.

"See? Polite?" K says looking from the empty doorway to me and making a show with his head and neck for me to give it to him.

As if. I put it down on my desk and check my phone again.

"You know, I would not harm a human- the only reason I am allowing you to do this is that I am innocent and I can't wait to see your face when you see that I am."

I took the fact that he allowed souls to roam free because he was soft-hearted into consideration earlier but I also knew that it could also have been an act. Who knows when this all got its start? It did not have to be Hannah alone. It could have been others like her too- maybe it is even bigger than the attack on her parent. Maybe that was just a distraction- it could be an attack on our realm.

"Allow? You cannot move," I answer him pacing back and forth, tapping my phone against my thigh in impatience.

He made a show of wiggling for me and winced a bit as the whip cut and burned into his flesh. His sweet-smelling blood reaches my nose. "Continue- please," I say and slightly tilt my right eyebrow…okay, I get that I use my eyebrows a lot.

He stops and stares at me. "We are friends how can you not trust me? Don't you think if I were actually behind this conspiracy, I would have planned an escape? I would have used my whip before you? That those people will be looking for me?"

Yes, that is why I am agitated like this. I think somebody is expecting him back and will come searching.

"Aye, look man I'm not even mad anymore. Release me. I'll forget this," K clenched his jaw as his face darkened, looking almost sinister.

Ignoring him, walk outside to the sitting room and look again at Hannah in the other room to my right. I can see her through the doorframe and for the first time, I ask her, "Are you okay?"

She turns from the tv set and hooks me with her beautiful gaze. She's not frightened, I note and I am happy to know she trusts me that much. Going over to her, I sit beside her dropping my weary head between my knees, sighing. "I feel not afraid," I hear her say.

Raising my head, I scrutinize her face and she pats my head. Did I mention before that she is weird?

I am heading back into my office when I hear a guttural growl. Rushing in, I see the tied K looking at me while he drinks the liquid food from the cup. His scorched flesh smelled from the burnt marks of the whip caused by his movements. Burnt petals and citrus almost.

He had rolled the chair to my desk and his head was tilted almost in a painful position as he drank from the straw of the cup, still bound by the whip. He does not stop until he finishes it and I hear the growl again.

"That- "

"My stomach," he snared, looking away from me and at the wall, "I am hungry I told you- "

"That will not help- "

"It gives me a few minutes," he says as he wheels himself out of my office, freely and into the huge hallway, heading to the sitting room. I do not hear his pained grunts and I know the whip is cutting into his legs which meant he had a high pain tolerance…which I had never heard of before in demons. Sure, we can tolerate excruciating pain but not from our weapons.

This has my mind whirling too. In fact, it fuels negatively against his innocent.

He's eyeing Hannah so I hurried behind him. He turns the chair and kicks me on my knees with his bounded legs this time howling in pain as the whip cuts into his flesh deeper and once again he moves towards her. This time he bleeds out more, I can smell the high fragrance of his blood deeper. I get up from the floor and rush over to her, ignoring the trail of blue blood on the shiny floor just in time to see her stand and turn to me.

Did he put a hex on her?

She raises her hand towards me and I stop in my tracks as my eyes widen in horror- no not Hannah I think but she says, "Stop, he's hungry. When you kidnap people, you should at least feed them."

What?

"I- what- I never kidnapped anyone- he walked in voluntarily- he's dangerous-" I stutter. Did she not understand my inner turmoil? That I fear, he killed her father? Well, might have?

"He's not a danger. Look he can't do anything with the whip around him," she says to me and I see K wink at me.

"He kicked me," I mumble as I bend to rub my aching knees.

"He is hungry."

She walks out and went into the kitchen. Half an hour later he's eating two raw chickens with Hannah apologizing to him about the rubbery texture.

"That happens when you thaw under hot water," she explains to us before leaving us and heading upstairs.

9:42 p.m.

That means Hannah is still in danger as the message came in last night at 10:52 pm.

Currently, the three of us are in the entertainment room as Hannah insisted, we don't 'ill-treat' K. I don't think she fully comprehends how holding someone captive works.

From my seat next to Hannah, I remain fully alert. K is settled and looking relaxed from his seat on my left as he and Hannah look at a movie. Suddenly V materializes in front of us and K once again wears a big smile on his face, despite his pained expression.

"It's a mess. And it's not K. Hannah is not in danger," the long-haired beauty blurted out.

Brought to my feet at her appearance, I turn to K, who is smiling up at me. His black pants slashed from the cuts the whip had made, the blue dried-up blood.

Thank goodness, our blood is blue and smells fruity. Not red and metallic for Hannah would have fainted a few times already.

"You owe me bigtime, 173J," K singsongs.