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A growl sounded from his throat, almost inhuman in nature, and I wondered if that was the truth of his being. After the lives he had taken, the families irrevocably broken, could he even be human anymore? “You don’t get to speak to me.”

Gone was the kind detective, replaced by the monster he so expertly hid for so long. Though I wondered if some people had seen through the mask; a few people in town did wonder if he was responsible for it all.

“I do now,” I challenged, knowing riling him up could lead to dire consequences, but I needed to keep his attention on me. “Why are you doing this?”

I could feel the anger radiating off of him in waves, and he took a step closer into the room. Everything in me wanted to push him out, but he cleared the doorway, just as we needed.

“It doesn’t matter,” Darren muttered.

I scoffed. “It doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter why you butchered dozens of people, killed my own parents?” I purposefully left out any mention of Silas, not wanting to draw any attention to him. “The least I am owed is an explanation, after everything you’ve done to me.”

“You are owed nothing! You are nothing!” he seethed, but remained standing where he was.

“I’m obviously something to you.” I kept speaking as I watched the silhouette of Silas’s body sneak past Darren. How Darren didn’t at least sense him, I didn’t know, but I chose not to question it. “I was supposed to be the first, wasn’t I? I must be of some use to you, considering you risked it all taking me in broad daylight after that meeting at the school, and then doing it again, unmasked this time, breaking into my home.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered, and turned to leave, which I couldn’t allow.

“Was it my parents, or my brother?” I jumped in, hoping I wouldn’t sound too obvious. “Is that why we were your first?”

“Your dad was a no-good pig who couldn’t keep his nose where it belonged!” he exploded. “Which was completely out of my business!”

“How did you know my dad?” Everyone said he came to town after my parents were killed. “You’re not from town.”

I could practically feel him roll his eyes. “That town is full of a bunch of uneducated freaks who seem to forget there is a world of people outside. They turned away anyone who didn’t match their view of acceptable, let alone a kid who wasn’t born there. I wasn’t worth anything to them. It was about time I taught them a lesson.”

I strained to make sense of his words. Maybe it was the adrenaline coursing through me, but my mind felt jumbled trying to process it all. “You grew up outside of town?”

“Practically on the other side of the world,” he seethed, his tone full of years of pent-up anger. “And they made sure I knew that. They harassed me whenever I went to school—bullying me, my family—all because we wanted to exist off the grid.”

It hit me like a punch. There was one other suspect that no one really thought was viable: a young boy who had been bullied, but not for the reasons Darren spewed. The boy was a monster to his peers, if I remembered correctly. Known for being a trouble maker, picking on those around him, even setting properties on fire. The boy was the first suspect before being cleared… cleared by Darren.

“Why my dad?” I asked.

He was quiet for a beat, but it seemed he wanted to explain. Well, justify it, more like. “He threatened me. Said he was going to arrest me, and for what? Lighting some stupid barn on fire?” He scoffed. “It was revenge for how that family treated me.”

“And that is what my parents' deaths were—revenge?” I asked. In my mind, it was insane, but it was obvious Darren didn’t care.

“He was going to take away my freedom,” he seethed, stepping closer to me, his finger in my face and his voice rising. “So I took his life, but not until I promised to take the freedom away from what he cared most about.”

Me.

“But you couldn’t find me?” I taunted.

A slap met my cheek before I could blink, but it was weak, his aim slightly off. He truly was blind in the darkness he forced us into. “You are a no-good bitch who deserves punishment.”

“So why everyone else?” I continued, ignoring his barbs. “I get it—” I didn’t truly “—my dad did you wrong, so you got revenge. But everyone else? All those kids?”

“You know how old I was when it all started? When we moved here? When this town turned on me? Only six. I was six years old, and no one gave a single shit about me,” he explained. “It was only right this town understood what it was like: to feel the same pain I did.”

God, his logic was ridiculous, and I strained to hear Silas, hoping he’d found a way out. “So you understand the pain you put those kids through? Because that’s what they were, Darren—kids!”

“They were never hurt,” he grumbled.

“Oh, really? You mean the stories of you beating Silas were all fake? He wasn’t hurt?”

“Silas didn’t listen to the rules!” Darren yelled again, crowding me into the wall, his chest heaving. “Silas broke the rules! He talked, he asked questions about those no-good brothers of his. And his brothers—” Darren let out an exasperated breath “—they were a real thorn in my side. Silas had to bear the punishment for his brothers' behavior.”

“So keeping him alive and beating Silas was revenge on his brothers? You killing my parents was revenge on my dad? You kidnapping children was revenge on the town? You killing their parents was revenge on them? So was what you did to me revenge, too?” My words came quickly, my own anger bubbling over.