“His record,” Rogers announces, presenting the pile in an outstretched hand.
Sinn'ous takes the offering and immediately begins leafing through it, barelytaking note when Rogers walks off. All his focus is in the printed records.
Jasper Marcelo.Nineteen. A thief. Mother and sister. Father deceased. Lives in an apartment.
Every word is studied and re-read. All the facts and minor details imprinted in Sinn'ous’s psyche. Page after page, he paws through them all. Some have usefulfacts, others nonsense he cares nothing for.
He’s so engrossed in his careful study it isn’t until the alarms sound that he is snapped out of his fixation.
By the time he tucks the records under his mattresses and drags himself to the cafeteria his prey is nowhere in sight, and neither is Reni’s clique. If he goes by their usual routine this would put them in the showers.
He shoves out the side doors near the kitchen, shoulder checking an inmate who apologises to him, even when it was Sinn'ous who deliberately hithim.
Cowardly.
He straightens his stance and stridesright up the centre of the corridor. Anyone too slow to clear his path is bodily moved by his own. And no one says a thing or makes any snide remarks.
5
SINN'OUS
Stale air accompanies Sinn'ous in the far-off doorway he’s wedged into. Out of sight and hidden in plain sight, a stalker’s wet dream. Only his stalking is filling him with a seething hatred that has his head aching and his knuckles white.
He never made it to the showers, instead he’s stuck here in limbo. In thedo I, don’t I. It’s a toss-up between ending his hunt now—killing Reni and dragging Jasper to a vacant corner to slice into his skin a few times—or waiting and prolonging it.
The kicker is, it would end up being rushed and hasty, coupled by anger at Reni, which would stale his encounter with his true target. It would end up being a sloppy mess that borders on insanely unsatisfactory.
The scene playing out down the corridor has him fuming, but ultimately he pauses and waits.
Reni is grunting and huffing under the weight of Jasper as he shuffles them both down the corridor. The boy is on unsteady feet, and his eyes are pinched shut, then open and rolling back into his head. Reni has an arm around his back while the other holds Jaspers over his shoulder, leaning the very out of it boy into his body to support the irregular gait.
The thought of someone slipping his prey drugs has his stomach in knots. It could have so easily ended all of Sinn'ous’s hard work. All the carefully constructed plans.
They walk past Sinn'ous, and Reni’s face tucked into Jasper’s chest is the only reason he remains unseen. Unlike his prey Reni knows how to watch his surroundings—under normal circumstances. These aren’t those.
It’s clear by Jasper’s clammy skin and bleakly pale face, he’s taken something he shouldn’t have. Sinn'ous hadn’t pegged him as a drug user or read anything about it in his file. But again, that isn’t saying much. His own file lacks the information on all the people he’s killed or anything from his past. So it stands to reason that his prey’s file would also be missing things.
It’s easy to hide when you can fake your way through life on hidden intentions and choice words. Or, in Sinn'ous’s case, knowing people who are good with computers and hacking into records.
The duo continues their half-carrying, half-walking shuffle down the long corridor. Reni’s frustrated grunts accompany his shifting positions to rearrange Jasper into a better hold every few seconds.
“You—” Reni grunts, leaning a shoulder into the wall to heft Jasper upright more, “—could at least try to carry some of your weight.” He speaks to Jasper as if the drugged boy can carry a conversation or distinguish up from down.
Undeterred, Reni continues to bitch, “you’re so far out of it.” Then he adds to himself, “better have a nice ass for all this effort I’m putting into buttering you up.”
Sinn'ous trails right behind them, his own strides landing in a way that keeps them silent and his presence unknown.
Reni stumbles, nearly eats shit then rights himself, still holding firmly onto Jasper. “The hell did ya take? If I was a lesser guy I’d leave ya here in the corridor to fend for ya self.”
It’s bemusing how consumed in his task Reni is, to not sense Sinn'ous a few steps behind them. The lurking predator closing in.
Satan, give me the strength to not kill them here and now.
The wet footsteps and lingering soapy smell, coupled by the damp hair and wet patches scattered over Jasper’s shirt is a fairindication they are on their way back from the showers.
He ignores the way his chest tightens at the notion of Jasper being so out of it he couldn’t shower himself. It wouldn’t make sense, not with the way Reni struggles to manoeuvre him, trying to wash someone in this condition would be unmanageable. The showers are not friendly to anyone who can’t stand on their own.
Sinn'ous bites his tongue and bides his time. In the end it will be worth the wait. And he can take out all his frustrations on the boy once the time comes.
