"Why don't you come to my place for lunch today? I promise, I cook well, '' Thomas's voice crackled on the Bluetooth headset in Scarlett's ear. She parked the car in front of Grand Valley. She laughed.

"Are you offering to make me lunch? Thomas Calligan, you will spoil me. "

Her heart skipped a beat at his hearty laughter.

"Well, maybe that's my plan."

''Oh, really? Then I accept your offer. "

"Excellent," he said triumphantly. "I'll send you the address."

Shortly after the call ended, she heard the familiar sound of a message on the phone. She took the bag from the seat and put the phone in it. She had to leave her personal belongings at the reception anyway so she didn't even want to waste time looking at the address Thomas sent her. Although she was very pleased that he wanted to make such a nice gesture to her, every brain cell was focused on Sebastian now. It didn't give her peace – she didn't know what he was going to tell her, but she knew it was something serious. Something in his cold but pleasant voice did not give the impression that he was going to talk about something wonderful that had happened to him. It seemed as if Scarlett would really find herself conflicted with her opinions and beliefs after that. And that she wouldn't like it at all.

She repeated the standard procedure of leaving things with disinterested Marsha and demanded a guard to let her go to Sebastian. Marsha rolled her eyes not so discreetly and called a young man named Liam. Liam, with a kind smile and nodding his head in greeting, escorted her to Sebastian's cell and let her into it.

Sebastian walked leisurely along the established route in his dungeon. His face was stony, expressionless, and his eyes like a predator. He followed the guard with his gaze, whose opportunity soon disappeared with the loud creak of the door that separated Sebastian's cell from the other patients. Even in a mental institution I was isolated, Scarlett assumed that would be one of his comments.

He sighed briefly and moved. His face was still expressionless and his jaw clenched. With his hands in the pockets of his gray tracksuit, he began to walk toward Scarlett like a wolf trying to block his prey. His step was graceful and firm. Scarlett felt the tiny hairs on her neck rising and alerting her that something was wrong and that she was in danger. She licked her lips nervously and tried to cover up the panic she was sure was sticking out of her eyes. Sebastian stood opposite her, only a few inches away, and she could feel his breath on her lips.

"Is something wrong, Sebastian?" She asked, in a slightly hoarse voice, but received no answer. Instead, he silently watched her with a critical expression. He bit his lower lip.

"This visit will not last very long, doc," he told her in vain. He scanned the room with his lip between his teeth.

''What do you mean? Why?''

He was silent for a few moments, as if choosing the right words to say the following information to her.

"Because I'm going to attack you."

"Excuse me?" She asked in disbelief. That sentence seemed like a joke, but nothing in his speech, tone, or facial expression had the slightest hint of a joke.

"I'll attack you, Scarlett."

"Are you crazy?!"

At her words, he squeezed her muscles with his hands and, moving her a few meters, nailed her to the wall. She didn't even have a chance to kick in protest because he was extremely strong. The wall was cold and froze her skin beneath the fabric she was wearing. His gaze was warning.

"Scarlett, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but there's a camera on that wall in the corner," he told her impatiently. "And don't try to check it over my shoulder."

He told her at the moment when she intended to do so. She realized that it was a stupid decision the moment she tried it because he was about twenty centimeters taller than she was and he looked like a two-meter concrete fence over which you can't see what's going on in the neighbor's yard. At her attempt to do what he told her not to, he rolled his eyes.

"Why do people constantly need to do things that someone tells them not to? Such a twisted habit."

"Stop playing around, Sebastian," she told him authoritatively. That is, at least she tried to be.

''I'm not playing around, Scarlett. I'm very serious. If you want to hear the truth, you have to play by my rules," his voice was quiet, but stern. "I don't want someone to hear what I'm going to tell you. Or to start being suspicious about it. That's why I asked you to come in, and that's why you're going to have to agree not to say anything while I'm telling you things that interest you and while I'm attacking you. "

For a few moments, she stared silently into his blue eyes that would leave everyone breathless and tried to digest the information he was bombarding her with.

"I'm going to try to do something now, and you're going to slap me," he told her, and Scarlett hesitated. "You said you trust me, didn't you?"

"Yes, I trust you."

"Then do it after I try to kiss you."

She didn't have time to react, because in the next moment, Sebastian's soft lips were pressed firmly against hers. He released the grip from her muscles, which she should have taken as a sign to slap him. He stepped away as if she had pushed him away, signaling and arching eyebrows to do so as soon as possible. For a few moments, she tried to defer the shock she felt at that moment, and then, without thinking, slapped him hard.

Sebastian clenched his fist against his cheek, which ached under his touch, then giggled. He wrapped his arms around her again and threw her on the bed, trying to turn his back to the camera to hide the fact that he was telling her anything.

"So, the answer to whether I intentionally left my ID cards is yes. I did that," he began as he tried to overcome her and keep Scarlett's hands so she wouldn't kick. Scarlett tried to trust him and let him play according to his plan even though she was afraid it might be her fatal mistake. She hoped not. She really hoped she wasn't. "I wanted to be caught because I didn't want to go through that anymore, Scarlett. I've had enough of that. I'm tired of seeing the dead girls who have been begging me for days to get them out of there, not knowing I can't do it. "

"Of course you could."

''I did not. You don't understand that and you never will. I am no less tortured than they were. The problem is that their torture lasts for several days and stops after death. Mine never stopped. "

There was a commotion and the unlocking of the door, and then the thump of hurried footsteps. Sebastian nodded and looked at the cell door, then turned his eyes back to Scarlett.

"We don't have much time," he said. "I know you'll never understand why I did what I did, but I really hope you don't keep digging through it. It's much more dangerous than it looks, Scarlett. You can't tell anyone what I told you. Don't try to seek justice. Don't try to get me out of here. I am quite satisfied to rot in this place. I deserved it. "

Two guards appeared in front of the glass door that separated Scarlett from her attacker. She continued to watch Sebastian's worried face in disbelief. She saw fear and worry in his eyes. He was serious. He was really serious. Could he have acted it all out for the sake of the game?

"What do you mean by that? Why would I try to rescue you?" She finally asked in a whisper that was muffled by the strong commotion of the guards. As soon as the familiar sound of the cell door clicking was heard, Sebastian pulled away from Scarlett as if it were a hot stove that had just burned him. He gave her a defeated look, but something in that regard indicated a hint of relief.

"Because I didn't kill anyone."

Scarlett, still in shock, rose to her elbows as uniformed guards grabbed Sebastian. One ordered him to get down on his knees, but he refused. Scarlett knew what Sebastian was doing; he wanted all this to seem as convincing as possible. One of the guards, grabbing his hands and placing them on his back, knocked him to the floor. For a moment, she was even relieved that she thought he would just escort her out of the cell and let him calm down, but her concern grew when she saw a syringe with an unknown liquid held by the kind guard Liam who escorted her to his cell.

Scarlett's stomach was tied in a knot, and her lips parted. She jumped to her feet in shock. Without hesitation, Liam stuck the needle into Sebastian's exposed neck, and he groaned.

"What are you giving him?" Scarlett asked anxiously, more than she should have been since the same person had attacked her a few moments before.

"Don't worry, nothing that will hurt him. Only a sedative,'' Liam replied, and Sebastian's body suddenly relaxed and his eyelids dropped. He seemed so calm even though Scarlett knew that Sebastian's state of mind was far from that.

With wide-open eyes and a hand over her lips, she watched Sebastian's motionless body. She was breathing shallowly. Liam grabbed her by the elbow and led her through the cell while the other guard was left with an unconscious black-haired young man. Scarlett felt such dullness in her body that it seemed as if she could not move any part of her body voluntarily. She did not notice where the guard was leading her at all; she was a prisoner of her own mind. Mind that was currently working two hundred an hour trying to summarize all the information she had received. He was right when he said that she would not like what she heard at all. She didn't like it because she didn't know what to do with it. Should she tell Thomas?

Liam led her to someone's door and stopped in front of it. He gave her a sign that she was expected and that she should go inside. And that's something she didn't want to do right now. She had to pretend to be shocked by his behavior. She had to lie. God, how she didn't like to lie. Now she will lie in favor of the killer who claims to have been innocent all along.