Devil's Whisper Chapter 123: The Stubborn Truth

The lady continued, her voice steady and resonant against the soft crash of wind of the unknown.

“I know a lot about things you don’t know…” she said, her words curling around Kate like a quiet spell. “And if you’re going to ask me how I learned all of this, I would say that the one who is handling this whole universe made me learn the secrets of this universe.”

Kate’s brow furrowed, her mind racing as she processed the woman’s cryptic claim, her gaze flickering over her unassuming figure—ordinary yet imbued with an otherworldly presence. “When we met outside George’s Restaurant, you told me that I misread the message the killer sent me…Tell me, if I wasn’t going to be murdered by the killer, then who was going to be his next victim?”

The lady tilted her head slightly, her smile faint but knowing, her eyes glinting with a depth that unnerved Kate. “He’s not going to kill you…” she said, her voice soft yet piercing, each word a deliberate weight. “He’s going to ruin your life by changing everything in it, and this would give him a hell of a lot of pleasure.”

“How?” Kate asked, her voice a breathy whisper, her heart thudding as she searched Sarah’s face for more.

“I don’t know this yet,” Sarah said, her calm unshaken, her gaze steady as she met Kate’s intensity with a quiet resolve. Then, a flicker of curiosity crossed her features, and she added, “Wait… Why are you using the past tense for the killer?”

“Because we’ve nabbed someone,” Kate said, her voice firm but edged with a flicker of doubt, “and there’s a great chance that he’s the killer we were looking for in the whole of Adelaide… I think you didn’t know this.”

“You think the man arrested this morning is the killer, and now the danger has halted?” the lady asked. “My dear, the man in your custody is just a pawn set up by the killer… Do you think that someone who unleashed Baphomet and orchestrated a series of murders would be captured so easily?”

Her words were a thunderclap in the stillness, resonating with the doubts Kate had buried—the same doubts that had gnawed at her when she’d seen Juan Luu’s disorganized chaos, so at odds with the killer’s calculated precision.

“Hmmm,” Kate murmured, her lips pressing into a thin line as she fell silent. She didn’t reply, because she shared those doubts.

“Kate Miller, the man in your custody cannot be the killer…” the lady said, her voice rising with a quiet urgency that snapped Kate’s attention back to her. “Because he is under the protection of Baphomet, and Baphomet would never let anyone take the guarantor of his survival on Earth.” Her eyes burned with a fierce conviction, “Your killer is still hiding somewhere and planning his next step… He might have chosen a way to ruin your life.”

“You’re confusing me,” Kate said, exhaling a deep, shaky breath. “On one side, you said that you don’t know how the killer is going to ruin my life… and on the other side, you’re saying that the person in police custody is not the actual killer.”

“I told you nothing but the truth.”

Kate thought for a few seconds, her eyes drifting to her house and moved her feet toward it, the gravel crunching beneath her boots. She wasn’t going to spend the whole night outside, caught in this web of cryptic warnings. She had to retrieve the file and return to the motel, where Jason waited, his steady presence a lifeline she craved now more than ever.

But before she could take a step, the lady's hand shot out, her fingers closing around Kate’s arm with a firm, urgent grip that stopped her cold.

“Don’t go toward your house…” she said, her voice dropping to a serious, almost desperate tone that made Kate’s heart lurch. “He is waiting for you, and once you’re inside, there’s no guarantee that he will let you come out alive.”

Kate looked at her serious face, the lines etched with purpose, and her breath caught as the gravity of her words sank in. “I need a file from the house,”

“No file is more important than your life,” the lady replied, her tone resolute, her hand still firm on Kate’s arm. “Kate Miller, only you can stop the killer. You are the one chosen by divinity to stop Satan and its vicious followers, and I was sent your way to help you and show you a way out—to make Satan go back to its filth and stop the killer from taking the precious lives of innocent people.”

Kate heard her, and for the first time, after remaining silent for a few seconds, her breath shallow as she processed the weight of it, she said, “What is your name?”

The question hung between them, making the lady fall silent, her grip loosening slightly as she studied Kate, her eyes flickering with a moment’s hesitation.

“First, you ask me to trust you and listen to you,” Kate pressed, stepping closer, her gaze locking onto her with a serious intensity, “and then when I ask you your name, you show your distrust over me.”

The lady thought for a second and then said, “I am Sarah.”

“Sarah? Okay, what is your surname?”

“I don’t have any surname... I am just Sarah, a servant of divinity,” the lady who introduced herself as Sarah said in a polite tone.

Kate looked at Sarah with deep eyes. She entered her life like an unwelcome guest. Kate didn’t know her and was still trying to uncover any hidden intentions that might be lurking in her black-colored eyes. But she couldn’t discern any hidden intention. It meant that either Sarah was telling the truth and came to help her, or she was a really good actor who knew how to conceal her true intentions quite successfully.

"It seems like you've left the condition to meet you at Somerton Beach... So, Sarah, tell me, if you don’t know what the killer is about to do, then how would you help me stop him?"

“Yes, because you don’t have time…” Sarah continued, her voice dropping to a grave whisper that sliced through the twilight air, her eyes glinting with an urgency that made Kate’s heart stutter. “You can’t see, but I am seeing the evil that is slowly grappling your soul, and soon it will attack and make you suffer in the worst possible way…”

Her words hung heavy, a prophecy steeped in dread, and Kate felt the weight of them settle over her like a shroud, the faint scent of lavender from Sarah’s coat clashing with the salty tang of the sea, grounding her even as her mind spun.

“So, I am dropping my condition to visit me at Somerton Beach,” she said, her voice rising with a resolute strength that cut through the gathering dusk. “I would help you set the pieces of the puzzle to find out who the real killer is, and then I would show you the way to fight Baphomet and make him leave the world. Baphomet is a dreadful beast, and it would be a very difficult task to make him go back to the depths of the earth… So, you would need proper guidance to do it.”

Kate’s breath caught, her mind reeling as Sarah’s words sank in, each one a hammer strike against the fortress of doubt she’d built around herself. The evil grappling her soul—Baphomet’s shadow, the killer’s hand—felt closer now. She thought of Samuel—his gentle pleas to step back—and the suspicion flared sharper, a cold blade twisting in her gut. Then Jason—his steady resolve, the heat of his presence beside her in Juan Luu’s house—flashed through her mind, a tether to the fight she couldn’t abandon.

“Okay…” she said, her voice trembling but firm as she met Sarah’s gaze, the words a quiet surrender to the path unfolding before her. “Tell me what I have to do?”