Linda gasped. She had never seen this nurse before; she certainly wasn’t the one who had waved to her when they left Hilltop Estate. Her eye caught something shiny in the nurse’s left hand, and she recognized a needle. She pointed Jeff to the apparition in the window, reacting as soon as she saw his eyes widen.
She ran to the computer, looking up the man mentioned in the article, wanting to do the right thing and warn him to stay away from there. On his business page, the only number listed to reach him was a cell phone. With shaking hands, Linda dialed the number, only to be told the voicemail was full.
Taking this as a sign to mind her own business, she never tried contacting the man again.
Epilogue
One year later
Hilltop Nursing Home
Linda’s eyes froze in horror as she watched the news. Twenty nursing home residents, along with the man who had been shown in the newspaper with Melissa in a three-piece suit, were dead. Massacred in the nursing home.
All had several broken ribs and IV needles sticking out of their chests. All of their lungs were filled with paraffin wax and olive oil. The police were on the lookout for a serial killer, but Linda knew the truth. She shook her head, she should have found a way to contact the owner and perhaps this nightmare could have been prevented. But, would he have even believed her? Would he have thought her crazy?
It didn’t matter now. He and most of his residents were dead. She reached for her cell phone to call Jeff, who had started his own construction company with the money from the sale of the house.
As she went to call him, she dropped the phone in horror. Behind one of the detectives investigating the grisly scene, stood the nurse she had seen crying in the house. She looked right at Linda, shaking her finger at her. “Why didn’t you help? Why did you let this happen?”
Linda screamed and looked away from the TV. When she looked back, the nurse was gone. Convinced that she was seeing things, she looked around for Sebastian for comfort.
He came over to her with something in his mouth and dropped it at her feet. It was a crumpled, yellowing piece of paper that looked familiar, and again, she could barely make out the writing.
It’s happening again. I can hear their pleas and I want to help, but I can’t. I’m too weak. How dare they do this to us! How dare they!
The End