The Devil’s Gaze: Chapter 4:- Hunter Or Prey(part 9 )

From inside the house came the faint sounds of normal procedure — camera shutters, low voices, someone moving an evidence case. Ordinary sounds. Ordinary work.

Above them, the attic hatch sat in the corner of the ceiling, closed, silent.

Dua looked up at it, then at Rupen.

“I’ll go up,” she said quietly.

Rupen reached out and caught her wrist. Not rough — just enough to stop her.

She looked at him sharply. He released her immediately.

“Sorry,” he said. Then, calmly. “I’ll go.”

“No,” Dua replied instantly. “I’m senior on this case.”

“If someone’s up there,” Rupen said. “the first head through that hatch is the first target. You should be down here, not walking into a blind space.”

Dr. Korrin spoke from behind them. “If you go up, you don’t move unless I tell you. You say what you see immediately. If anything moves, you come down. Understand?” Dua ordered.

Rupen nodded once. “Understood.”

He climbed.

The ladder creaked softly. At the top, he pushed the hatch open. Dust drifted down through the light.

He pulled himself into the attic.

Silence.

Dua stood below, looking up into darkness.

“Rupen?” she called quietly.

A pause.

Then his voice came from above.

“Dua… I smell blood.”

She frowned. “What?”

“…and I can hear you breathing,” Rupen said quietly into the darkness.

Dua’s expression changed.

From the attic, Rupen spoke again.

“No point hiding.”

Then, softer:

“What’s the point trying to be a hunter… if you can’t step in front of a predator?”

A sudden crash sounded above.

At that exact moment, Dr. Korrin said quietly behind Dua. “I hope if the son is up there, he doesn’t have any sort of weapon up there.”

The sentence hit Dua like a spark.

Her mind jumped back to the kitchen.

The knife rack.

One knife recovered from the body.

One empty slot.

She turned slowly to Dr. Korrin.

“The knife from the rack,” Dua said. “You logged it as the murder weapon right, right?”

“Yes.”

Dua swallowed slightly. “How many empty slots were in that rack?” Dr. Korrin paused.

“…Two”

Silence.

“Did you recover the second knife?” Dua asked.

“No,” Dr. Korrin said. “We assumed that slot had always been empty. We didn’t find another knife in the house.”

Dua looked up at the attic instantly.

Above them, something moved.

Dua grabbed the ladder and started climbing fast.

“Rupen, stop!” she shouted.

From the attic came a trembling voice:

“He knows! He knows everything!” “He told me he would know!” “He knows what to do!”

Dua climbed faster.

When her head rose above the attic floor, she saw the son — shaking pale, knife in hand — lunging toward Rupen.

“RUPEN!” she screamed.

The knife drove forward.

This story is being published as an ongoing serial. © 2026 Rupam Sarkar. All rights reserved.

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