Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf

Originally Published: August 12, 2020

Submitted on Scribblehub: April 17, 2021

 

You can get Book 1 on Gumroad (Chapters 1 - 15)

Book 2 is from Chapters 16 - 30

 

Innocent Devil's Harem | Chapter 1-1: My Housemate’s Friend was Kidnapped

I got home from school, parking my silver used car in its usual spot, and went inside to begin making dinner for myself and my…

Well, essentially, my housemate.

The girl I lived with was five years older than me, and had practically been a part of my life since I was two-years-old, our families having always been super close.

However, due to an extremely unfortunate car accident, involving all of our parents, the two of us had been living together by ourselves for five years now.

Serenity had been eighteen at the time when it happened, still in her Senior year of high school, causing me to be sent to a foster home for almost a month while she attempted to gain custody of her almost thirteen-year-old childhood friend.

Unfortunately, they didn’t exactly allow regular custody, but I was allowed to live with her, since she was automatically designated as the conservator to the trust fund I’d been left, with a court-assigned guardian checking in on us once a month until I turned eighteen.

Honestly, in hindsight, I was surprised it had only taken a month for her to bring me home, since I wasn’t at all related to her in any way, and there wasn’t even paperwork on file of my adoption with my adoptive parents, only a Delayed Birth Certificate with fabricated dates…

Yeah, I was adopted to begin with, with my adoptive mom and dad having set up a trust fund that specified Serenity’s parents were to be my godparents, and be the point-of-contact for the fund.

Meaning, they were to be the conservator, or guardian for my property and assets.

Or rather, I supposed ‘god-family’ was more accurate, since it was specified that anyone legally an adult could take care of my assets. Which meant Serenity legally became the conservator and point-of-contact for a fund that contained a two-and-a-half million life insurance policy, all of which was money meant to help take care of me in the event of their untimely death.

And oddly enough, her parents had done the exact same thing, leaving her with three million in life insurance money, though she didn’t need a legal representative due to her age.

I was sure none of them ever anticipated dying at the same time, considering my adoptive parents were likewise supposed to be her godparents, but the unthinkable truly happened.

Unfortunately, the missing adoption paperwork did cause a bit of a problem, but ultimately the trust funds were what helped the most, in her saving me from the foster home.

Eventually the court decided that a clerical error must have been made somewhere along the line, and assigned a legal guardian for regular visits while also allowing Serenity’s legal right to be the conservator of my trust fund to proceed, with the judge seeing no reason to put a kid who’d just lost his parents through hell, over a few technicalities.

Never mind the stress it put on Serenity, who was also going through hell after losing her own mom and dad.

But now we lived together, my court-assigned guardian having no problem allowing Serenity to take care of my living arrangements, with court approval of course. Although, I wasn’t sure how me turning eighteen a couple weeks ago affected the status of her being in control of the trust fund, not that she ever really used money from my fund anyway. She’d always used her own money, which meant the actual value in my account had grown beyond the two and a half million, due to investment income.

Still, I had no idea if emancipation was automatic or if I had to file for it. I at least knew that I was already emancipated from the court’s oversight, since I wouldn’t be receiving any more visits from my legal guardian, but wasn’t entirely sure how the trust fund part worked.

Not that it really mattered, since I still had to finish my last year of high school either way, and would probably still continue living at home while I worked on some college credits.

But at the very least, we wouldn’t have to worry about those random visits from the court-assigned guardian, although I had to admit it was only a minor inconvenience, since the older woman knew that Serenity had things covered at home and was responsible for our finances anyway.

The only problem was, the lady liked to talk, and would often occupy several hours of our time, once a month, as she talked Serenity’s ear off while I pretended like I was doing homework.

Initially, after everything was resolved and the courts allowed Serenity to be responsible for my living arrangements, we tried living in her parent’s old house for a while, but it was too painful for us, both of us having a ton of memories tied to that location. And of course, she wouldn’t move me into my old home for the same reason.

Thus, within the first six months, we’d moved into a much smaller house, hidden away in the trees on the edge of the city, with her having purchased it with a portion of her insurance money.

Honestly, seeing the pain in her eyes, I couldn’t help wishing that at least hers had survived the ordeal. Because, even though Serenity’s parents weren’t mine biologically, I still grew up around them, and it still felt like I was losing loved ones either way.

Of course, a selfish part of me wished mine were alive too, but if I had to choose, I would have chosen to take the sadness away from her, instead of me.

It was agonizing to lose all of them, especially at the same time. Horrible for our world to be normal one day, and turned upside-down the next, with all our parents gone in the blink of an eye.

For the first year, Serenity trembled whenever she got in a car.

She tried to hide it, but I noticed.

It was a reminder for both of us, and yet we couldn’t exactly go without transportation.

And even though I was adopted, and theoretically had other parents out there, I had no idea who my real mom and dad were, so finding them wasn’t really an option.

The official story was that my mom found me on the doorstep, as crazy as that sounded, but honestly not even Serenity knew for sure where I actually came from.

Not that my biological parents would have been a replacement for the people who raised us. Certainly, not for Serenity, considering it was her real mom and dad who died.

But as far as where I came from, my older friend just remembered me showing up one night when she was about to turn seven.

Her childish mind had thought God answered her prayer for a playmate as a birthday present, often wishing either her parents, or mine, would have a baby.

And to this day she occasionally teased me about being ‘her gift from God.’

But I doubted it was God, or a god, that had been the one to answer her prayer, given what I knew about myself. Granted, I would never dare tell Serenity why. She was the only person I truly loved, and I could never betray her by revealing that I’d discovered at a young age that I wasn’t like her…

That I wasn’t human.

Our new house, which we’d lived in for over four years now, had a large spacious kitchen that also served as a dining room. Despite the fact that it was only the two of us, we’d kept a lot of the furniture from her old house, unable to part with everything. Thus, the dining room table could seat six people comfortably – two on each side and one person at each end, with plenty of room in between. Really, the table was large enough that eight people could probably be squished together if an extra chair was added to each side.

However, as it was, only two chairs were used with any frequency, even if we had six at the table.

Sighing, I glanced at the clock, and then sat down at the table, leaving the hot ‘cheddar, potato, and bacon soup’ I’d made on low heat on the stove to prevent it from getting cold.

On a good day, Serenity would arrive home a little after 5 PM from her job as a police detective.

However, as it neared 5:45 PM, I began to suspect this might not be a good day. She had been working on a case recently that was causing her a lot of stress, but she hadn’t brought home any of the files yet, so I didn’t know what it was about.

Yes, I sometimes snooped through her casework files. I snooped through a lot of her things, if I was being honest, though I’d never share that with her. She’d probably be mortified if she knew I’d been through her underwear on numerous occasions.

Sometimes, although very rarely, if the work situation was bad enough, I would intervene myself to stop the criminals. However, I also knew that it might raise suspicion if someone made the connection that all the incidents when I’d helped happened to be her cases. Thus, to avoid that outcome, I only got involved in the situations that were exceptionally upsetting for my unconventional roommate, usually involving abuse against women.

And by abuse, I meant serial killer cases where the victims wouldn’t survive without intervention.

Serenity didn’t technically have to work, since we had enough money to last us for an extremely long time, possibly all our lives, but she’d initially wanted to make sure no one doubted she was responsible enough to raise me.

Still, I didn’t know why she’d chosen to pursue a career as a detective.

Prior to getting the position, she’d held another job almost full-time while attending the police academy, and yet soon found herself with some of the best scores in the state. I’d asked her ‘why’ once, but she only gave the allusive answer that she enjoyed solving mysteries – allusive, because I didn’t feel like her answer explained her intense drive.

Or maybe her intense drive was just to prove she could take care of me.

Glancing at the clock again, I got up to grab my backpack, deciding to get to work on my homework while I waited for her to get home.

It was near the end of the spring semester, toward the end of April, my graduation only about a month away, so it was already warm outside on most days. I really enjoyed the warmer weather, mainly because I liked it when there were leaves on the trees. But I was also glad school was almost over in general, eager to get that part of my life behind me.

I was an adult now and wanted to feel like an adult, instead of a kid or dependent.

Honestly, I didn’t mind school itself, so much as I was tired of dealing with my shallow human peers. As I’d gotten older, my body became lean and muscular, sparking a lot of interest among my female classmates, as well as attempts made by the guys to win my friendship. However, my memory was a lot better than theirs, and I wasn’t one to forgive easily.

I could still remember all the jokes and teasing they’d done just after everything happened, coming from both the boys and girls. It hadn’t taken long for the whole school to find out I’d lost my parents, and I quickly discovered just how hateful middle school kids could be, with them beginning to harass me about living alone with my ‘hot’ older friend, who was barely out of high school at that point.

Not just suggestive comments, but true harassment.

True hate, making it seem like it was really a big deal, and I was a huge pervert.

Apparently, one of the kids had overheard a couple of teachers discussing the whole thing about her becoming responsible for my living arrangements at such a young age, and even overheard about the trust fund, and I didn’t hear the end of it after that for a solid semester.

Funny how kids that age could always turn something into harassment, because if that happened now, I wouldn’t be nearly as bothered by it.

But honestly, in hindsight, it was only about three months of torment. Still, it felt like an eternity to my crushed thirteen-year-old self. At the very least, it slowly taught me to not let words bother me – otherwise, I might not have survived the regular onslaught of bullying.

Nevertheless, I still hated them all. Or maybe ‘hate’ wasn’t the right word. It was more like I couldn’t consider trusting them again, even though I’d never had much trust to begin with.

When I finally heard Serenity’s car pull up, I glanced at the clock to see that it was almost 6:45 PM, indicating that it might have just been a really busy day. However, my powerful senses told me differently.

Even over the noise of the car engine, with its familiar clanking sound from a loose bolt, I could hear her fast heartbeat. And even despite the smell of bacon, I could smell her salty tears, as well as the scent humans gave off when they were grieved – something that shouldn’t even be possible for a wild animal.

The only predators who had a comparable sense of smell were the shark, which could detect a drop of blood from about a quarter of a mile away, as well as the bear, which could smell a food source almost twenty miles away. However, my supernatural nose could home in on a scent from much further if I concentrated hard enough.

When Serenity didn’t come inside after turning off the engine, I realized she must not want me to see her crying. Granted, it’s not like she would be able to hide the fact that she had been crying. I knew her face would be red and puffy, especially around her deep brown eyes, even if she managed to get ahold of herself anytime soon.

Sighing again, I got up to go bring her inside.

The kitchen was connected to the rest of the house by the foyer area, where the door, stairs, and hallway to the living room all met. The wide entrance to the living room was only about halfway down the hall – someone coming down the stairs could easily see into it – but the hallway continued on to the laundry room and backdoor.

Underneath the stairs was a small bathroom with only a toilet and sink. Upstairs, above the kitchen, was Serenity’s room, along with a spacious closet, whereas on the other side of the house was my room and the bathroom we both shared. It was only a two-bedroom house, but all the rooms were extremely spacious, providing more than enough living space for just the two of us.

Opening the front door, I saw Serenity resting her head against the steering wheel, her dark brown hair disheveled, trying to control her breathing like she was on the verge of having a panic attack. Her blue car was parked at the edge of the long gravel driveway, in its usual spot next to my silver one.

Tall trees lined each side of the drive, including all around the house, giving us a sense of privacy since we were about a tenth of a mile off the road. Even though we lived on three acres of land, I only had to mow roughly half an acre in total, including the two strips of grass along the driveway.

Not wanting to startle her, I tried to be noisy as I walked over and then gently tapped on the window, rather than just opening it. However, despite her not looking up at me, I knew she’d heard me. Keeping her forehead on the steering wheel, she moved her hand to unlock the door, only to open it up herself. The moment I was able to, I knelt down and reached out to pull her into a hug.

Serenity immediately accepted the offered gesture, returning my embrace as she began to sob.

“Can you tell me about it?” I whispered after about a minute of her crying on my shoulder.

She immediately shook her head no, before answering. “Not officially…” She then told me anyway. “It’s a s-serial killer case, Kai. And it looks like h-he targets only women.” She sighed heavily, trying to speak clearly despite her sobbing. “And what he d-does to them is…horrible.”

“How many?” I wondered, already considering intervening, since this predator had made her so upset. This was by far the worst I’d seen her.

She tried sucking in a deep breath. “T-Technically, he’s only killed two so far. But a new girl was just kidnapped…” Her voice trailed off as a whine escaped her throat, a sob then erupting from her chest as she began falling apart again. Her face was twisted in anguish. “And if w-we don’t find her soon…”

“What’s the timeline?” I asked, speaking in a way I knew would help her mind shift into detective-mode.

It worked – not perfectly, but it worked.

Serenity took a shaky breath and began speaking more clearly, as if a switch had flipped in her brain. “If his two victims are indication of a pattern, then she’ll be dead by midnight. He leaves a spray paint symbol, along with a token from his previous victim – that’s how we know who kidnapped her. Previous evidence suggests that the first two were tortured in the most inhumane ways possible, before he killed them while sexually assaulting them in the woods.”

“The woods?” I repeated in surprise, feeling that was odd if it was really the pattern.

“Yes…” She pulled away to look at me then, her deep brown eyes hesitant, knowing she shouldn’t be sharing information about this, but deciding to do it anyway. “We think he enjoys the chase. He wants them to run, probably so they have a sense of hope – that they might find freedom after being tormented.” She paused. “Only for him to catch them and finish it off horribly.” A pained expression crossed her face again as she barely managed to maintain her composure.

Suddenly, I realized I’d missed a fundamental question – something to explain why she was upset to this extreme. Because her reaction was far beyond what I’d ever seen before.

“Serenity…do you know her? The girl he took?”

Her composure broke, and she lost it again.

I waited patiently for her to gather herself, not wanting to seem too pushy. After all, I could never let my ‘technically a cop’ older friend find out I might get involved in this situation. She could never know my secret.

While I waited, my mind began going through the people she knew, wondering who it might be. Honestly, my housemate didn’t have very many friends – the only close friend she had was a girl named Gabriella who she met only a few months ago. Serenity also had a few coworkers who she was friendly with, including Jessica and Abby, but otherwise the list was pretty short.

Granted, it could also just be a random acquaintance from high school or the police academy. Simply knowing the person could make a case feel a lot more personal. All it would take was just seeing a familiar face, coupled with knowing what might happen to the girl if they didn’t catch the guy in time.

After a few minutes of holding onto her, I was about to prompt her again, but then she finally responded to my question on her own.

“Kai,” she said in a strained voice. “It’s my friend. It’s Gabriella.” She sobbed again, her words coming out in a whine. “And they removed me from the case when they realized my connection.”

Shit.

 

Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf