Eat.

Mario knew who was keeping Ellie company and it was obvious that if Brian found out what Mario was planning, he could easily hurt him. But then again, Brian had the physical strength to injure, while Mario had the mental strength to kill without remorse, and that’s what he would do just to get his Elizabeth back.

Currently, Mario sat on a park bench, thinking about how to end Brian Haner, but no matter how much thought he put into it, simply nothing came to mind. Mario would cross and uncross his legs, looking at the children play with a finger on his lips.

The question was, what does Haner love most in the world? Elizabeth was given and so was his family. But there had to be something stronger, something bigger than the obvious choices. It was then when Mario saw a familiar family walk into the park. Jimmy was carrying his daughter around the park while he left Dalia alone sitting at the picnic table. Mario smirked to himself, that was Jimmy’s first big mistake.

Mario decided that he should slowly destroy Brian’s life, starting off with every person he thought was important. So, what better way to destroy someone’s life than to make everyone around him miserable. At this point, Jimmy had taken his daughter to the pond to look at the small fishes and ducks and no children were currently present on the playground. He laughed to himself, it was almost like a scene in the movie. Mario got up from his seat on the bench and listened to the grass shuffle beneath his feet.

Mario was now behind her, he leaned in and sniffed her hair. He sighed at the scent and closed his eyes, she smelled of roses, Mario liked roses. But when he opened his eyes again, Dalia was staring at him with wide eyes. She opened her mouth to let out a scream but his hand beat her to it.

“You don’t want your little family to get hurt, do?” He asked her gently. Dalia began to tremble, tears spilling from her eyes.

“Now if you don’t want to see them get hurt, you’ll come with me and not say a word, or else, you can kiss your beautiful baby girl goodbye.”

Her eyes closed in submission as she got up and followed him slowly. Mario’s politeness faded as he took a handful of her long black hair and yanked it harshly. “Do you think we have the time for you to walk at this pace? Faster. Now.”

Dalia sobbed in his hand as she followed him into the darkness of the trees in the park. Mario pushed her in and finally let go of her mouth and hair, knowing that she knew better than to let out a scream. She sniveled softly and looked at the ground, Mario yanked her head up and made her brown eyes stare into his hazel ones.

“Rule number one, eyes on me. Always.”

Dalia didn’t say anything, she just stared at him in fear.

“Rule number two, all of this, is coming off.” He smirked, his hands traveling over the fabric of her shirt. He grabbed the hems from the bottom and pulled it over her head harshly. After that, he pulled off her pants and tsk’d at her body figure.

“A little bit fuller than I like them to be. But, beggars can’t be choosers.” He sighed, grabbing her neck and shoving her down so that the pebbles and twigs seeped into the skin of her knees.

Mario grinned as he had his way with her, the tears and the cries reminded him of his Elizabeth so that when he finally climaxed, he groaned her name loudly, loud enough for Dalia to hear and for her to finally realize who this sick bastard was.

He pulled out and threw Dalia’s naked body to the ground, she shook and cried as he pulled up his pants. Mario rolled his eyes at her cries.

“Dalia?!” He heard a voice yell, “Dalia, where are you?!”

“It was about time they came looking for you. I began to think they didn’t care. Sounds like he brought along one of his mutts to find you.” He said in the distance.

Right when Jimmy and Matt arrived, Mario was already long gone. Matt held Emilia as Jimmy tended to his friend, “Oh Dia, who did this to you?”

Dalia didn’t utter a word, for she knew the consequence if she did. Instead, she let Jimmy dress her and gently lift her from the ground.

“Dalia, say something.”

“He said that if I said something...t-that if I told anyone who did it, he would hurt you and Emilia.”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow and looked at Matt, who already had an idea who did it.

“Oh shit.” Matt whispered, “Call Brian.” He urged.

“Do you really think it’s-”

“No doubt about it. He’s going to come back for Ellie soon, and when he does, Brian won’t be there.”

“What makes you think that?”

“That fucker is crazy. That’s what makes me think that.”

Dalia sniffled and climbed into the car, Jimmy frowned and placed a kiss on her forehead, “We’ll find him. He won’t hurt me or Emilia. I promise.”

“But what if-”

“He won’t. Matt is going to take you home with Emi and stay there with you until I get home.”

“Where are you going?”

“With Brian to talk about some things.”

“Will you take long?”

“No, it’ll be quick.”

Dalia nodded and Jimmy placed another reassuring kiss on her forehead before turning to Matt and holding his arms out for Emilia, he smiled down at her and said, “Daddy will be back, babes. But you have to be good to Mommy as she rests, Uncle Matt might feed you some gross milky stuff but you have to drink it for our sake, alright?”

Emilia looked at her father and made a gurgling noise, kicking her legs and smiling up at him. Jimmy smiled back and put her in the carrier in the back of his car.

“Hey Matt, can I-?”

Matt smirked and swapped him keys, “Tell Ellie I said hi.”

“I will.”



The drive to Ellie’s house was a quick one considering that he was driving twice the speed limit. He got out of his car and knocked on the door, waiting two seconds and then knocking again, feeling agitated.

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’, dammit.” Joe opened the door and looked at Jimmy in confusion, “Jim? What’re you doing here?”

“I need to talk to Brian, he’s here right?”

“He is but he’s upstairs with Ellie and-”

“Thanks, Joe. You’re the best.” He said breathlessly, patting his shoulder and running to the stairs.

“Now you just wait a hot minute, what is going on?”

“I’ll explain it to you after I explain it to them. Sorry Joe, it’s really important.” He said quickly, walking up the stairs and opening Ellie’s door to see that the two were sharing a rather passionate kiss. He stood at the door shocked but when he remembered what he was here for, he cleared his throat loudly, making the two separate instantly.

“Jimmy!” Ellie gasped.

“You’re make out session is going to have to wait. You two have some explaining to do.”

“We aren’t-”

“Shut up. My turn to talk.” Jimmy sighed, sitting in front of the two with his legs crossed,

“We've got a problem.”

“What happened?” Brian asked.

“Dia, she’s been- she was...” Jimmy took a deep breath, he never thought he would have to say the words, “We were at the park and I took Emi to look at the ducks at the pond but then when I got back she was gone. I couldn’t find her anywhere so then I called Matt to help me find her so that when we did find her...she was on the ground naked and- point is, we think Mario did it.”

“Oh...fuck.” Brian sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Oh no.” Ellie frowned, “Are you sure?”

“We don’t know. But I saw on the news about his sister, and I know that the police are looking for him so I’m only guessing that it could be him. He knows who I am, and he knows who Dalia is so it makes sense.”

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Brian mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just from a book a read. I thought it was relevant. Think about it Ellie, it makes sense.”

“Do we call Detective Frost?”

“Who?” Jimmy asked.

“The guy that’s investigating Mario and trying to find him. We should tell him that Dalia has seen him.”

“No way. She’s not ready. She can’t talk about what just happened today. She needs to breathe and to rest and try to get her mind off of it.”

“She’s not going to get her mind off of it if he’s still circulating around.”

Jimmy sighed and put his head in his hands, “If I see him, I swear I’ll-”

“What wouldn’t we all do? You better get home to her, Jim. Dalia would want you to be there.”

“Yeah,” He sighed, getting off the bed, “I don’t want to leave Matt with Emi too long. He might...I don’t know, feed her too much or something.”

“We’ll call Detective Frost tomorrow.” Ellie said.

“Alright.” He nods, he spun on his heel and left.