Devil's Whisper Chapter 108: Pieces of the Puzzle

“Ella mentioned that Shawn’s been hospitalized, and the doctors strongly advised against anything that might stress him out. He’s in a fragile state。”

Jason said after a long pause, his voice low and strained, as if the words had been dragged out of him. Their hands, still clasped in that fleeting moment of shared solace, slowly slipped apart, the warmth fading as their fingers brushed one last time against the crinkling plastic gloves. The gesture dissolved into the cold air, leaving a void between them that mirrored the growing weight of their reality.

Kate nodded, her brow furrowing as she processed the news, lines of worry etching deeper into her face. After a beat, she spoke, her voice carrying a note of apprehension that trembled just beneath its surface. “How long do you think we can keep the brutal truth about Sasha’s murder from him? He’s bound to find out eventually, and when he does… I can’t even imagine how he’ll react.”

She sighed, a heavy, shuddering sound, and stepped away from Sasha’s lifeless form sprawled in the sand. The sight of those severed stumps, the frozen agony on Sasha’s face—it was sinking in now, a leaden weight settling into her bones, dragging her down with every breath.

Jason didn’t respond right away, his silence stretching out like the shadow of the crime scene tape fluttering in the wind. He stood rooted to the spot, his gaze drifting back to Sasha’s body, then out to the horizon where the waves churned relentlessly against the shore.

“Jason,” Kate began again, her voice cutting through the stillness as she turned to face him, “I’ve spent hours combing through Sasha’s social media profiles. Most of her posts revolved around exposing the dark underbelly of Satanism and its effects on humanity. She wasn’t afraid to call out the sinister forces at work, but…”

Jason glanced at her sharply, his head tilting, eyes narrowing with a sudden intensity. “But what? What are you trying to say?”

Kate met his gaze, her expression hardening into something serious, resolute. “As I dug deeper into her posts, I came across some really unsettling comments. They weren’t just trolls or random critics—they felt personal, like a direct warning. One particular individual stood out. He seemed almost obsessed with silencing her, repeatedly commenting on her posts and warning her to stop speaking out against Satanism.”

Jason’s interest sharpened, his posture stiffening as he leaned in slightly. “Who is this person? Did you get a name?”

“I’m sending you his profile now,” Kate replied, pulling her phone from her pocket with a quick, practiced motion. A moment later, Jason’s phone buzzed in his hand, a sharp vibration that jolted him into action.

He glanced down at the screen, his thumb swiping to open the link. “Juan Luu. That’s the name. Do you know anything about him?”

“Not yet,” Kate admitted, shaking her head slightly, a strand of hair falling loose and catching in the breeze. “But we need to find out who he is and why he was so adamant about shutting Sasha up. His persistence in attacking her posts makes me think he’s more than just an angry keyboard warrior.”

Jason nodded, opened Juan Luu’s profile on his phone. “I’ll look into it,” he assured her, his thumb scrolling through the sparse details—a profile picture too grainy to make out, a handful of posts locked behind privacy settings, a bio that offered little beyond cryptic phrases.

Kate crossed her arms, the plastic gloves rustling faintly as her mind raced, piecing together fragments of the puzzle. The stranger’s warning echoed faintly in her thoughts—Baphomet is hungry—and now this name, Juan Luu, felt like another thread in a tapestry she couldn’t yet see.

“By the way, Jason,” she said, her tone shifting to something slightly accusatory, “you never updated me on the forensic report from the scene where Sasha was abducted.”

“You’re right—I didn’t,” he conceded, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, the glove catching on his skin. “I meant to go over some things with you this morning, but then the discovery of Sasha’s body completely derailed everything.”

Kate raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

“Okay,” Jason said, pausing to collect his thoughts, his voice rough around the edges as if he were still wrestling with the weight of what he was about to share. “Yesterday morning, Ella Paula came to the station with her driver. She handed me something—an identity card she said she found under the rug in Sasha’s room.”

“An identity card?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed, reached into his pocket, retrieving his phone with a quick, practiced motion. “Ella told me she didn’t recognize the name on it and that it didn’t belong to anyone in Sasha, Shawn, or her circle of friends. She suspected it might have been dropped by the person who abducted Sasha.” He tapped the screen a few times, pulling up an image, then handed the device to Kate.

Kate took the phone, her gloved fingers brushing his as she angled the screen toward her. She studied the image intently, her breath catching as the details came into focus. The card was laminated in an ominous design—red and black swirling together like blood and shadow, stark and foreboding. There was no photo, just a name, a registration number, and the words Pathway of Ascendants emblazoned across the top in a jagged, almost ritualistic font.

The name on the card read Lowan Box.

Her pulse quickened, a faint thudding in her ears as she absorbed the implications.

“Lowan Box?” Kate asked, glanced up at Jason, searching his face for answers.

“He’s a member of the Pathway of Ascendants cult.”

Her eyes narrowed, her mind racing as fragments of memory snapped into place like puzzle pieces she hadn’t realized were missing.

“The Pathway of Ascendants... The same cult my father was investigating before his murder…” she murmured, her voice dropping to a near whisper as the realization hit her. “And Ryder was also tied to it.” The names—her father, Ryder—tumbled through her thoughts, each one a wound reopened, a thread pulling tighter around a truth she’d long suspected but never fully faced.

“Exactly,” Jason confirmed, his voice low and resolute, anchoring her as she spiraled. “And now this Lowan Box is linked to the cult, and his registration card was found right outside Sasha’s room. It’s more than a coincidence.”

Kate’s jaw tightened, a muscle twitching as she let the implications sink in, cold and sharp like a blade against her skin. The salty breeze tugged at her hair, but she barely noticed, her focus narrowing to a single, searing point.

“Jason, think about it,” she said, her voice steady but edged with urgency. “My father, Ryder, Sasha, and now this Lowan Box—they’re all connected to the Pathway of Ascendants cult. It’s becoming more and more obvious that someone from inside that cult is behind these murders.”

“You’re right,” he said, his tone heavy with the weight of agreement. “The pieces are starting to come together, but we still need more to go on.” He glanced toward the forensic team still working methodically in the sand, then back at her, his eyes sharp with determination.

Kate’s breath steadied, though her heart still raced beneath her ribs. “We can’t let this slip through our fingers, Jason,” she urged, her voice firm and insistent, cutting through the distant murmur of the waves. “Lowan Box or Juan Luu—one of them could be the killer, or at the very least, they know something.”

Her mind flickered to the stranger’s warning—Baphomet is hungry—and now to Juan Luu’s obsessive comments on Sasha’s posts, and this card, this tangible link to the cult her father had died chasing. The connections were tightening, a noose she could almost feel around her neck.

Jason straightened, his posture snapping into focus as determination etched itself into his features, hardening the weariness that had lingered there.

“I’ll dig into both of them,” he promised, his voice carrying the steel of a vow. He leaned in closer, his voice low and deliberate as he handed Kate a small slip of paper. “Kate, meet me at this address tonight. Memorize it and destroy the paper after.”