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BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 37
That night, Arthur lounged in his leather chair, swirling a glass of expensive whiskey as he opened his phone with a smug grin. He had been waiting for this moment all day. The scandal he orchestrated against Samuel had taken social media by storm, and he was eager to witness the flood of negative comments tearing Samuel’s reputation apart.As his screen lit up, the top headline did indeed feature Samuel’s name, but the moment Arthur read it, the glass nearly slipped from his fingers.“BREAKING: Leaked Audio Exposes Arthur’s Blackmail and Fake Scandal Setup!”His stomach lurched. His pulse pounded in his ears as he tapped on the article with trembling fingers.Complete audio recordings of Arthur threatening the young woman released to the public.Evidence of fabricated videos uncovered.The anonymous team behind the video confesses and issues a public apology, citing mysterious external pressure.Arthur’s blood ran cold.“No… No, no, no—this can’t be real,” he muttered under his breat
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 38
Joey paced back and forth in the dimly lit room, his thoughts swirling like a storm. The last few weeks had been a whirlwind, filled with legal battles, political scheming, and threats lurking around every corner. Samuel, the man who had once been a feared figure, was now trapped in a prison cell. And despite his best efforts, Joey couldn't help but feel the weight of the situation bearing down on him.He knew Samuel’s bail had been set at an astronomical $700 million, a sum so large that it felt almost impossible to imagine. But even more perplexing was the fact that Lisa and Arthur had done everything in their power to keep Samuel locked up, and they weren’t going to let him go easily. They had connections, influence, and money. Samuel’s release would be nothing short of a miracle.But then came the unexpected. A figure had appeared in the midst of the chaos, a woman who had already managed to shake up the situation. FL2, the mysterious woman with an even more mysterious past, had d
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 39
The air outside the prison felt different as Samuel stepped through the gates. The oppressive weight of the cell walls that had confined him for weeks, the endless days of uncertainty, were finally gone. But as the cool evening breeze brushed his skin, something unexpected hit him—a strange mix of calm and exhilaration. It was freedom, but it came at a price. He had barely had time to process what had happened, but one thing was clear: he was back, and this time, it would be on his own terms.As his boots hit the pavement, the heavy thud echoed in the otherwise quiet space. It felt almost too still—like everyone was waiting for something to happen. Samuel glanced around, his sharp eyes scanning the area.Then he saw it.A small crowd had gathered just outside the gates, but it wasn’t just any crowd. These weren’t the kind of people you’d expect to see gathered around a recently released prisoner. No, these were influential figures, well-dressed individuals who clearly had money and po
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 40
Joey sat at his desk, staring at the stack of paperwork in front of him, though his mind was far away. The prison release had been surreal. One minute, Samuel was in a high-security cell, and the next, he was walking out as though the past few months hadn’t happened at all. There was no public outcry, no protests—just Samuel, free, greeted by a crowd of supporters who seemed more like admirers, and Joey couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.Everything had been so calculated, so smooth. Samuel had always been a man of influence, but this—this was something else. It wasn’t just his usual circle. Joey had seen the figures standing in the crowd: political figures, wealthy elites, even a few people he recognized from business circles. Samuel’s release didn’t just symbolize his freedom; it symbolized something much bigger, something Joey couldn’t see yet.And that bothered him.“Hey,” a voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see Sarah, or FL2 as everyone called her, st
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 41
Joey stared at the stack of files in front of him, but they didn’t make any sense. The information was there, but his mind kept circling back to one thought: This is all part of something bigger. Samuel’s release, the high-profile supporters, the silence from people who should have been talking. Nothing about it added up.He leaned back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. There was a knock at the door.“Joey?” The voice belonged to Sarah, and it was unmistakably calm—almost too calm.“Come in,” he replied, his tone more clipped than he intended.Sarah entered without hesitation, her posture as confident as always, her eyes scanning the room as if it were her domain. She closed the door behind her and took a seat across from him. Her gaze was steady, but Joey could sense that she was waiting for him to speak first.“What’s going on, Sarah?” he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Samuel’s release. It’s not just a coincidence, is it?”Sa
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 42
Samuel leaned back in his chair, watching Sarah with narrowed eyes. The dim light in the room cast long shadows across her face, making her expression unreadable. She had called him here—this private, quiet space tucked away from the world—because she had something to say. Something important.“What’s this really about, Sarah?” he asked, voice steady but laced with suspicion. “I know you didn’t bring me here just to reminisce.”Sarah exhaled, folding her arms. “No, I didn’t. It’s about your past, Samuel. About the things you don’t know.”Samuel scoffed, shifting slightly. “I know enough.”“No, you don’t.” Sarah leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table between them. “You think your old master was just another powerful figure who fell to time? That his death was the end of his legacy? It wasn’t.”Samuel’s jaw tightened. His old master—Richard Vale—had been one of the most feared and respected men in the underworld. Ruthless, cunning, always three steps ahead. And then, one day, h
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 43
Joey sat in his car, gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. The city stretched before him, neon lights flickering in puddles along the streets, the distant hum of traffic merging with the weight of his own thoughts. He had parked outside an old diner, one he used to visit when his biggest concern was a pile of unsolved cases and too much bad coffee.Now, things were different.His phone buzzed on the passenger seat, Samuel’s name flashing on the screen. Joey hesitated. It was always like this now—his old instincts battling against his new reality.He had been a cop once. A damn good one. Back when the law had clear lines, when criminals were the enemy, when he still believed in justice. Then Samuel happened.It hadn’t been overnight. At first, Joey told himself he was just gathering intel, playing a long game. He could get close to Samuel, see how deep his operation ran, and then take it apart from the inside. But that plan had dissolved somewhere along the
BENEATH THE MASK: REVENGE OF SAMUEL HAYES 44
If justice wouldn’t do its job, Arthur would make sure the world saw Samuel for what he truly was.He tapped his fingers against the keyboard, skimming through old articles, police reports, anything that might give him leverage. Samuel had been careful, but no one was untouchable. Everyone had a past, and Arthur was going to dig until he found the skeletons buried in Samuel’s closet.Then, he’d burn them for the whole world to see.The first crack appeared in an obscure report from twenty years ago. A fire at a group home. Three dead, including the owner, a man suspected of running an illegal foster scheme. The official story ruled it as an accident, but Arthur had spent too many years in this game to believe in coincidences.Especially when a young Samuel had been one of the few survivors.Arthur leaned back, rubbing his jaw. The fire had destroyed most of the records, but something about it didn’t sit right. Survivors had been sent to different homes, and while most had faded into o
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Samuel stood at the center, his eyes dark with unreadable emotions, while the Brook family loomed over the negotiation table like vultures circling a fresh kill.“I don’t think you understand the weight of what you’re asking, Mr. Brook,” Samuel said, voice calm but edged with steel.Across from him, William Brook smirked, fingers tapping rhythmically against the armrest of his chair. “Oh, I understand perfectly,” he mused. “What I don’t understand is why you’re hesitating. A merger between our companies would be beneficial for both sides. And yet, you seem... resistant.”Samuel’s jaw tightened. This wasn’t just a business deal. The Brook family had been subtly moving against him for months, and now, they were making their power play. He wasn’t going to let them win.“I have no interest in merging with a family that has done everything in its power to sabotage mine,” Samuel said coldly.“You wound me,” William chuckled, leaning back. “This isn’t about the past, Samuel. It’s about the f
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Vincent, still clutching his gun, scanned the perimeter of the room before finally lowering it. "We should be safe here for now."Evelyn rubbed her temples, her fingers trembling. "For now? That's not exactly reassuring. Those echoes... that wasn’t normal. Not even for this."Thorne stood near the doorway, his gaze distant. "It was an aftershock. The Devourer may be bound, but its influence lingers. The echoes were proof of that."Sophia crossed her arms. "Great. So what do we do? Just sit here and wait for another nightmare to show up?""No," Thorne said simply. "We need to sever the last ties."Samuel looked up. "Ties? You mean, there’s still something linking this place to the Devourer?"Thorne nodded. "The remnants of its presence don’t just vanish. The echoes were drawn to us because we disrupted something ancient. If we don’t finish what we started, this will happen again. And next time, we might not be able to outrun it."A heavy silence settled over the room.Vincent finally s
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The group moved quickly through the desolate landscape, the weight of what had just happened pressing down on them. The air still held the remnants of the Devourer’s presence, thick and suffocating. Samuel kept a firm grip on Mercer’s arm, making sure he stayed steady.Mercer, though exhausted, still managed to crack a weak smile. “You planning to hold onto me forever?”Samuel scoffed but didn’t let go. “You can barely stand.”Mercer sighed but didn’t argue. His body was covered in bruises, his clothes tattered, and his skin was still marked with faint traces of the dark tendrils that had bound him to the Devourer.Vincent led the way, his gun still drawn, eyes sharp and scanning the area for any threats. Evelyn walked beside him, her hands trembling slightly, though she tried to hide it. Sophia was a few steps ahead of Samuel and Mercer, her grip still tight on the dagger, ready for anything.Thorne, as always, was eerily calm, his presence steady. “We need to move faster,” he said.
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The second eye blinked open, followed by a third, then a fourth. The Devourer’s presence spread, a suffocating force pressing down on Samuel’s chest. The symbols on the ground pulsed in response, flickering like a heartbeat.Sophia’s grip tightened on the dagger she held, ready to intervene if things went wrong. Vincent and Marcus stood at the edge of the ritual circle, their eyes locked on Samuel, prepared for anything.The Devourer’s voice slithered through the air. “You… are tethered to the one we hold.”Samuel swallowed hard. “Yes.”The entity’s gaze burned through him, its presence creeping into the depths of his mind, sifting through his memories, his emotions, his very essence. A wave of nausea rolled through him as the connection strengthened.“You offer yourself?”Samuel’s fingers curled into fists. “I do.”Evelyn’s chanting shifted, the cadence growing sharper, more forceful. The mimic ritual had to remain convincing, and that meant making the Devourer believe it was getting
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The weight of Thorne’s words settled over them like a suffocating fog. A willing sacrifice.Samuel’s fingers curled into fists as he stared at the page in front of him. The ancient symbols meant nothing to him, but the implications were clear. To sever the Devourer’s connection to its feeding ground, someone had to die.“That’s not an option,” Sophia said, shaking her head. “There has to be another way.”Thorne leaned back in his chair, watching them with a measured gaze. “If there was, I would tell you. But Devourers are ancient creatures, bound by deep-rooted laws of existence. To break their hold, something of equal value must be given in return.”Vincent scoffed. “So you’re saying the only way to save Mercer is for one of us to die? Not happening.”Thorne sighed. “I understand your reluctance. But this is not a simple monster you can kill with bullets or fire. Devourers are entities of hunger and power. If you go in unprepared, you won’t just lose Mercer—you’ll all become part of
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Marcus kept one hand on the wheel while his other gripped his phone tightly. “We need to move fast,” he muttered. “The Brook family won’t just sit back and let us find Mercer first.”Samuel exhaled slowly. “Then we beat them to it. Whatever’s up there in that village, it’s dangerous. But Mercer is still alive. I can feel it.”Vincent scoffed from the backseat. “Feel it? Or just hoping?”Samuel ignored him. He wasn’t about to explain the gnawing pull in his chest, the unshakable certainty that Mercer was still out there, barely clinging to life.Sophia shifted uncomfortably beside him. “That thing in the village… It wasn’t human, was it?”Evelyn, who had been silent the entire drive, finally spoke. “No. It wasn’t.” Her voice was unusually quiet. “I’ve read about things like this before, but seeing it in person is something else.”Marcus frowned. “Read about it? What was it?”Evelyn hesitated before answering. “There are stories of ancient beings bound to certain places, creatures that
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The wind howled through the ruins, carrying an eerie whisper that sent a chill down Samuel’s spine. The inhuman eye within the darkness remained fixed on them, unblinking, filled with a hunger that made the air itself tremble.Sophia gripped Samuel’s arm, her breath shallow. “Samuel… what is that?”Vincent stepped forward, drawing his gun. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”Marcus cursed under his breath. “We need to get out of here. Now.”The trembling man on the ground clutched at Samuel’s sleeve. “You can’t fight it,” he rasped. “You can only run.”Evelyn narrowed her eyes at the shifting darkness. “No. We don’t run. We face it.”As if responding to her defiance, the shadows coiled like living tendrils, stretching toward them. Samuel barely had time to pull Sophia back before the darkness lashed out, striking the ground where she had just been standing. The impact left a deep crack in the earth, radiating an unnatural heat.“That’s not normal,” Vincent muttered.The villagers had
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The moment they stepped onto the tarmac, a biting cold wind greeted them, carrying the scent of damp earth and something else—something older, almost metallic, like the air before a storm.Samuel adjusted the collar of his coat, his eyes scanning the unfamiliar terrain. He wasn’t the only one on edge. Sophia wrapped her arms around herself, glancing toward Marcus."Are you sure your contact knows where Mercer is?" she asked, her voice hushed.Marcus checked his phone, his fingers typing rapidly. “He says Mercer was last seen near a village deep in the mountains. But it won’t be easy to reach. The roads are dangerous, and the locals avoid that area.”Vincent scoffed. “Of course they do. Let me guess—ghost stories? Cursed land?”Evelyn, standing slightly apart from the group, tilted her head. “It’s not just stories,” she murmured. “There are things in these mountains older than any of us.”Vincent rolled his eyes. “Great. More cryptic warnings. Love that.”Marcus ignored him and motione
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Samuel knew they were far from safe. His palm still ached from where his blood had sealed the cracks, but that pain was nothing compared to the weight of what they had just done.Vincent leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “So what now? We just sit around and wait for it to wake up again?”Samuel turned to Evelyn, whose gaze remained fixed on the stone. “How long before the Leviathan tries to break free again?”She didn’t answer immediately. Her expression was unreadable, but there was something almost… distant about her, as if part of her wasn’t even in the room. Finally, she murmured, “It depends.”Sophia frowned. “On what?”Evelyn’s eyes flickered toward Samuel. “On him.”Sophia stepped closer, her patience wearing thin. “Enough with the riddles, Evelyn. If you know something, say it.”Evelyn’s lips curled slightly, but it wasn’t a smile. “The Leviathan is bound to the Blackthorn bloodline. That bond was weakened over centuries. But tonight, it tasted his blood again.”Vincent s