Haunting-Adeline
The video starts playing, and despite my ins ncts screaming at me notto, I turn up the volume so I can hear.It’s a grainy video of a fucked up satanic ritual. The person recording isbreathing heavily, more than likely from the risk of being caught doingsomething extremely dangerous.Four robed men stand over a stone slab with a squirming li le boy eddown to it.Over and over, he’s screaming to let him go. His li le voice breaking ashe cries for help.I run a hand over my face when they plunge a curved knife into his chest.They fill metal goblets with his blood and drink the en rety of the cup inone swallow.I force myself to watch and endure the pain alongside this boy. Becauseeven though this innocent soul is now gone, that doesn’t mean I won’t doeverything in my power to find jus ce for him.When the video is over, I have to turn away and breathe through theurge to vomit.“Z?” I had forgo en Jay was even on the phone.“Yeah?” I respond, my voice hoarse and barely there.“I… I couldn’t watch it, man. I couldn’t do it.”I close my eyes and breathe deeply.“That’s okay,” I say. “You don’t need to.”Jay knows how hard I take these things, but he also knows I refuse toturn away from them. That’s what most people do when it comes tohuman trafficking. Everybody knows it exists, and most will educatethemselves on how to avoid it, but they can’t watch when it comes to thereality of it. Can’t listen. Can’t see the depravity. Because if they don’t look,then they can go back to their normal lives and live on as if there aren'tthousands of people out here dying every day.Jay isn’t one of those people, he’s doing what he can. But he also doesn’thave the stomach for it, and I can’t blame him.Because I don’t either. And to be honest, the people who do are theones who are trafficking them and commi ng the crimes.“Is it the four we’ve been tracking?” I ask.Jay sighs. “No, Mark was spo ed at a restaurant last night with his wifeduring the mestamp of the video. Looks like different men, but these
ones aren’t iden fiable. I imagine they only do the ritual once.”I nod my head, my mind racing as I try to figure out what the fuck I’mgoing to do.About six months ago, a video leaked on the dark web of four men inblack robes performing a ritual on a li le girl. I’m not sure if it wasarrogance or what, but the men kept their hoods down, unfazed withonlookers seeing exactly who they were.Even with the low-quality video and dim ligh ng, I was able to iden fythem immediately.Senators Mark Seinburg, Miller Foreman, Jack Baird, and Robert Fisher.They surrounded the li le girl on a slab of cement, stabbed her and thendrank her blood. The girl was s ll alive, wriggling and screaming at the topof her lungs as the men chanted around her.The same exact ritual the li le boy just went through, s ll looping on mycomputer screen. Except in this one, the four men surrounding the li leboy have tall, sharp-pointed hoods drawn over their heads, concealingtheir iden es.I can already feel myself slipping back into that black hole it took weeksto crawl out of six months ago. It put me in one of the darkest headspacesI’ve ever been in.I locked myself in a room and didn’t come out for twenty-six hours a erwatching that first video. I was physically unable to go on living my normalday-to-day with the knowledge that this was being done to children.That helplessness grew as I explored the dark web and found thousandsof videos of parents raping their own children. Alongside the millions ofother videos of torture, cannibalism, and even necrophilia. A lot of thosevideos take place in red rooms, where buyers can direct how exactly theywant the vic m to be tortured, raped, and killed.And those are just the ones involving children.Those videos in par cular are what drove me to create Z five years ago.Since I was a kid, I had a knack for computer science, and my skills havesurpassed even the top hackers in government organiza ons.Finding myself on the dark web and stumbling upon those videos was byaccident. But it changed my fucking life.I haven’t been able to sleep since then. Knowing sick people pay to viewhundreds of thousands of children being subjected to those things. Even
- Page 79 and 80: But the most notable part is direct
- Page 81 and 82: “Fuck, baby, that’s it. Let me
- Page 83 and 84: close to pissing my pants from the
- Page 85 and 86: Red and blue lights brighten the wo
- Page 87 and 88: look into you, but when they don’
- Page 90 and 91: Chapter 9The Shadow’ve commi ed h
- Page 92 and 93: Come get me, Archie.He hesitates on
- Page 94 and 95: I pull into the driveway leading in
- Page 96 and 97: looks as if he went five rounds in
- Page 98 and 99: Cracking my neck, I take another de
- Page 101 and 102: Chapter 10The Manipulatorave you he
- Page 103 and 104: He waves a hand in acknowledgment b
- Page 105 and 106: “I don’t know what to do, Daya,
- Page 107 and 108: “Honestly, Daya, I’m a li le re
- Page 109 and 110: I aim for it, sliding the door open
- Page 111 and 112: due to insufficient evidence.A lot
- Page 113 and 114: This was undoubtedly a crime of pas
- Page 115: I find myself curling deeper into t
- Page 118 and 119: Another flash of movement causes me
- Page 120 and 121: fear. But also from something else.
- Page 122 and 123: My strangled scream pierces the air
- Page 124 and 125: I roll my eyes. “Because I manipu
- Page 126 and 127: “Addie, he could s ll be here. We
- Page 129: Chapter 12The Shadowhere’s anothe
- Page 133 and 134: But no one is there, despite the pe
- Page 135: The video restarts. I snarl, the cr
- Page 138 and 139: Rushing over, I grab the swinging s
- Page 140 and 141: Switching to the other note, it tak
- Page 142 and 143: I li my hand and flip him the bird.
- Page 144 and 145: It’s not un l a er I take a hot s
- Page 146 and 147: in the world to happen—my body is
- Page 149 and 150: Chapter 14The Manipulatoraya put so
- Page 151 and 152: They treat it like a concert to avo
- Page 153 and 154: release a shaky breath.I have a cho
- Page 156 and 157: Chapter 15The Manipulator’m compl
- Page 158 and 159: I gasp, my eyes widening and snappi
- Page 160 and 161: “Mm,” he growls in delight. “
- Page 162 and 163: the hallway I came from.I bolt thro
- Page 164 and 165: the balls for it, but I couldn’t
- Page 166: Above him, the stars are twinkling
- Page 169 and 170: “Do you know what these mean?”
- Page 171 and 172: seeing. What I’m feeling.Slowly,
- Page 173 and 174: rips through me.I’m screaming. I
- Page 175 and 176: I can never let Daya see those mark
- Page 177 and 178: “No,” I say finally, refraining
- Page 179: “They’re going to be a problem,
The video starts playing, and despite my ins ncts screaming at me not
to, I turn up the volume so I can hear.
It’s a grainy video of a fucked up satanic ritual. The person recording is
breathing heavily, more than likely from the risk of being caught doing
something extremely dangerous.
Four robed men stand over a stone slab with a squirming li le boy ed
down to it.
Over and over, he’s screaming to let him go. His li le voice breaking as
he cries for help.
I run a hand over my face when they plunge a curved knife into his chest.
They fill metal goblets with his blood and drink the en rety of the cup in
one swallow.
I force myself to watch and endure the pain alongside this boy. Because
even though this innocent soul is now gone, that doesn’t mean I won’t do
everything in my power to find jus ce for him.
When the video is over, I have to turn away and breathe through the
urge to vomit.
“Z?” I had forgo en Jay was even on the phone.
“Yeah?” I respond, my voice hoarse and barely there.
“I… I couldn’t watch it, man. I couldn’t do it.”
I close my eyes and breathe deeply.
“That’s okay,” I say. “You don’t need to.”
Jay knows how hard I take these things, but he also knows I refuse to
turn away from them. That’s what most people do when it comes to
human trafficking. Everybody knows it exists, and most will educate
themselves on how to avoid it, but they can’t watch when it comes to the
reality of it. Can’t listen. Can’t see the depravity. Because if they don’t look,
then they can go back to their normal lives and live on as if there aren't
thousands of people out here dying every day.
Jay isn’t one of those people, he’s doing what he can. But he also doesn’t
have the stomach for it, and I can’t blame him.
Because I don’t either. And to be honest, the people who do are the
ones who are trafficking them and commi ng the crimes.
“Is it the four we’ve been tracking?” I ask.
Jay sighs. “No, Mark was spo ed at a restaurant last night with his wife
during the mestamp of the video. Looks like different men, but these
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