The Axelridge Series Book 4 Griff's Red Card

IVY

I hold myself as I listen to Finn continue the Nightmare of Eddie Manning. Just when I think it can’t get any worse….it does.

“In a matter of hours. Everyone was dead. There wasn’t a single person spared.” He looks for Noah who's sitting in a chair by the window. He’s leaning on his knees with his hands wrapped around the back of his head.

I can only shake my head as I imagine what that must of looked like. I can almost hear the screams of terror in my head.

“Surprisingly, that’s not even the creepy part.” He wipes his nose with a sniff. “He was 15 when we found him. He lived with Alistair in him for 5 years. Apparently, they spent that time killing people across the country until Eddie hit him so hard in his head, that he kind of mentally stunned him. Eddie got temporary control, but with Alistair out of commission, his body took a fast hit.

Jax found him. He saw him wandering up the south bridge. He was catatonic, dirty and emaciated. He called me and we took him in. He didn’t speak for a long time and would only write one word. ‘Monster.’ To this day we have no idea how he ended up here.

When he did finally start speaking, he didn’t say everything, but he told us about the town.

This is the strange part. We went to Caitlan. We weren’t expecting much. We certainly weren’t expecting what we saw.”

“What did you see?”

“Everything. Nothing was touched. The town and all the murders were never investigated. Nobody knew that 75 people died. Nobody. How fucked is that? Bodies still laid as bones in the fucking street. The inside of houses looked like horror shows. Pieces of people were everywhere. It was like it was preserved or something. Not one foot from the outside, stepped into that town for 5 years! Even with six huge towns just outside its borders. It was almost like it was…”

“Shielded.” I suggest. “Cut off so no one would find it.”

“Yeah, well, thank god we did because we knew what we had to do at that point.” He glances at Noah who looks away.

“What did you did you do, Finley?” I lower my eyes to see his.

He sucks in his top lip. “We covered it up.” Guilt pasted across his face.

“You what?”

“We had to. When we found out he was possessed by Alistair, I couldn’t let this kid go down for mass murder and I knew no one would believe him. So, we scrubbed everything. Names, records, photos…anything mentioning Caitlan. We gathered up the bodies and burned them. We changed Eddies name and his birth records. Hacked every system we could think of. We were determined to make Eddie Thomas disappear.

We were 19 year olds with money and no parents, handling a possessed 15 year old broken kid. None of us were prepared for what that meant, we just knew he needed our help.”

“Why did you do that?” I ask.

“Because a kid shouldn’t get the fucking death penalty for Alistair. That’s why.” He grits.

“But all those people…their families…” I say with disbelief.

He points to my nose. “Those people tortured a boy for 5 years. Hurt him in ways, most nightmares won’t go. As far as I’m concerned, they can rot in hell nameless where they fucking belong.” He walks away with a hand on his hip and rubs his nape.

“You can’t do that, Finn. Regardless, of what they did, you can’t keep something like that a secret.” I argue.

He turns back around. “It didn’t matter anyway.”

“Why?”

“It wasn’t long before we were found out.” He says.

“By who?”

“The Cleaners.” He sits in a chair opposite Noah.

“The Cleaners?” I ask as I slowly walk to where he’s sitting.

“Hunters.” He glances at me then looks out the window. “Eddie fought every second keeping Alistair back and we did manage to keep this kid under wraps from everyone for about a month until they came looking for him.

We hid everything online and I mean, everything. But what we didn’t account for was some sick fuck not calling the town in for some murder tour. Apparently, some asshole did find the town and was making money off it showing it off to tourists in one of those highway side show businesses. My guess is, we wrecked his business plan and he mouthed off about it to a hunter who then dug a little deeper and found Eddie.

He had a target on his back and we had to get it off him.

We hid him out. Kept him moving while we tried to come up with a plan. Eddie started getting scared and that’s when Alistair fully revealed himself to us. Really, he was just sitting back, waiting silently, until he could make his move. I see that now.”

“What do you mean…make his move?” I ask.

“Alistair told us about hiding from Lefu, though he only said Death. We didn’t actually know who Lefu was at the time. He promised he’d fight with us to protect Eddie and in turn, we had give him asylum. Yes, give asylum to a fucking demon. God, I was so stupid.” He shakes his head at the window.

I can only imagine what he must feel like. I know I feel like my guts are being ripped out. This whole thing…how the hell do you recover from that?

“Did you accept?”

“Not only did we accept, we turned him loose.” Noah says as his head looks to the floor.

“You didn’t. Finn…” I look to Noah then back to Finn.

“5 hunters died that night, but it didn’t stop there.” He says with his fingers curled over his lips. “He found their headquarters. 30 people were slaughtered in the fight. I couldn’t believe it.” He drops his hand and looks to Noah.

“What did you expect, Finn?” I question.

“All I wanted was Eddie safe, ok? I wasn’t thinking. I…” He glares at me then looks away.

“Anyway. Once again, we covered up Alistair’s mess. Who’s gonna miss a bunch of hunters? At least, that was our logic. We realized the risk we took, we just didn’t realize how big that was. It wasn’t long before the next ass to get bit was ours.

We spent a year with Alistair and Eddie. When we took the council, he even helped us fight the lycans on several occasions. But as Eddie exposed Alistair, Alistair wanted full control of Eddies body which we weren’t allowing.

Again, Eddie fought to keep Alistair back, but we could tell he was starting to lose, especially now that Alistair had a taste of control back. We knew Eddie couldn’t have Alistair in him for much longer so, we decided to re-nag on the deal.

We searched the lore available at the time and the only thing we could find was how to force him out. We explained it to Eddie, and although he agreed, I don’t think he understood what it was we wanted him to do.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because he fought to keep him in.” Finn says solemnly.

“He wanted Alistair to stay? That doesn’t make sense.” I say with confusion.

“It does when you’re terrified and think using a demon as a shield is the right way to go.” Finn turns to me. “5 years. 5 whole years of relying on a demon for survival. Think about that. Now, hunters are after your ass? I blamed him at first, but then I understood. He explained to me what it was like and I told him I understood he was scared. I told him Alistair was slowly killing him and if he does survive it, he won’t survive the consequences of Alistair’s actions. I also told him I couldn’t protect him after that.”

“So, he agreed?”

Finn sucks in his top lip. “No. Not until he was faced with what Alistair could do.”

“What do you mean?”

He swallows and glances at Noah. “We didn’t want anyone getting hurt. So, we built a room without Eddie’s knowledge. We put everything in it that we knew was suppression material. Gold, silver, iron, you name it. Then we fought Eddie into it and locked the door.”

“Oh my God, Finn.” I shake my head.

“I know. I used his trauma against him and I feel like fucking shit because of it. In the end, it worked, but it didn’t come without a huge fucking cost.” His breath shakes as he hangs his head.

“He fought the door for days. Didn’t let up, day in, day out. We took turns manning the door and listened to him scream, beg and roar on the other side.

Then he started running into the walls. Alistair was killing him.

Brock Sloan, a friend of Noah’s, was at the end of his rope. We tried to stop him, but he opened the door.”

Terror waved through me. “He let Alistair out.”

Finn nods. “He had met with me a few days prior to suggest he keep Alistair in him. Brock felt that he was older and stronger. He said he could control him. I didn’t believe it. So, I refused his request. I didn’t want the demon anywhere near us. Unfortunately, what Brock had in him was too strong for Alistair to ignore.

What we didn’t realize was that while Brock was watching Eddie on his turn, Alistair was talking to him. They both cooked up this plan and hid it from Eddie.”

“So, letting him out was part of the plan.” I state.

Finn nods. “Alistair didn’t waste time. As soon as that door opened, he attacked. He unleashed hell on us all. The problem with a torture demon is their fucking imaginations. He held us for days in the basement of the Security Complex. He tortured us, thinking he could break us, but it didn’t work. The only one who broke was Eddie.”

“How?”

“He saw.” Finn almost tried to smile. “He saw what Alistair was doing to us and fought back. It was hard to stomach. He almost tore himself apart before Brock stepped in and invited Alistair in. Alistair took it as a means of escape. He jumped from Eddie to Brock.”

Finn shakes his head and looks out the window. “He was a goddamn friend and I trusted him. He said he could control him, but he lied. He didn’t want to control Alistair.” He turns his head to me and his eyes are teary. “Brock set him free.”

He sits forward and rubs his head. “We tried to fight him back to the room, but Brock was right, he was stronger…with Alistair in him. As we pushed on him, he grabbed Scott and…” He scrubs a hand down his face.

“He what?”

“Ripped his fucking heart out of his chest.” I turn to Noah’s tear filled, angry eyes. He gets up and walks away.

“Noah…” Finn starts.

Noah only waves him off without looking back.

Finn takes a shaky breath in. “While we dealt with Scott, Brock escaped. We tried to hunt him down, but he was gone. We didn’t see him again until last year.”

I lost my words. I thought my problems were horrible, but what these men went through was a night terror I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

“Like I said. Eddie didn’t do any of this. By some damn miracle, he managed to make a decent pack for himself. He’s an upstanding Alpha. He’s not that broken little boy anymore. I hope you understand that.” He whispers.

“Do you think it would have been different if you told someone?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I don’t think so. I think it would have been the opposite, actually. I think if we didn’t intervene like we did, Eddie would be dead by now, or completely lost to Alistair.”

“What about Brock?” I ask.

“Brock signed his death sentence the minute he conspired against us with a demon. I won’t lose any sleep when I kill him.” He grits.

“I can certainly understand that, but why not save him, if you can. You said it yourself, he was a friend. Friends can lose their way, sometimes.” I say softly.

The corner of lip ticks up. “I know it’s better to see the brighter side, but I’m sorry, Ivy. Brock burnt the bridge. I’m not about to build back for him. He was a friend. Now…he’s the scum who killed my friend.”

“He's awake.”

We turn and Jax is standing at the door to Eddies room with Noah.

I turn back to Finn. “Let’s go see your friend.”

He smiles and we both stand.

As we walk to the room, Eddies story runs through my head.

The fear. The anguish. The suffering that boy went through. It’s hard to believe that anyone would survive all that unscathed. I’m sure there’s scars, but he always seemed to not show them. He was always so happy. Seeing him as I have, it’s hard to believe he came from somewhere so dark.

I watch the Alphas talk with their friend and smile when I see their faces light up.

Eddie smiles as best he can. He grabs Finns hand from the side and Finn puts his forehead on it.

This is where I think Eddie gets his light from. The love of his friends. It was this love that saved them many years ago and I think love will save them again.

This wasn’t the update that I was expecting, but I’m so glad he told me. I’m not the only one battling demons. It also makes me feel closer to Griffins friends. They trusted me with this huge secret and I will keep it for them.

They’ve lived in darkness for so long. I think the light surrounding these men needs to be made brighter and that will only happen with the death of Alistair and my family.

Their evil can’t spread.

Watching Eddie, I’ve found even more inspiration. This is no longer about me. This is about him, too. My grandmother won’t win because Eddie, and myself, deserves all the love we can get.