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Closing the door softly behind me, I quickly scan my room. Everything seems to be how I left it, right down to the bottle of whiskey and its tacky stain on the hardwood floor from where no one has cleaned up the spill.
My laptop is also still on my desk, so I quickly go and turn it on so I don’t have to wait for it to boot up when I get back. My luck, would be that there’s an update to be installed.
The only sounds in the house have been from the heating—hot air being pushed out of the vents, and the low grumble of the furnace—and me. But as I type my password in, a different noise makes me freeze.
It takes a moment before I register it was a squeak. For an old house, someone went out of their way to make it as comfortable and luxurious as possible, but there are still a couple of floorboards and door hinges that protest.
The squeak I hear doesn’t sound like one of them, but it’s still so out of place, that I carefully lower the laptop lid and then move as slowly as I can to the bathroom. There aren’t many places to hide in my bedroom, but my closet door is one of those with squeaky hinges, and I’m hoping that if someone is there, they would just stick their heads in and then leave.
But after a few minutes, I’m certain I’ve been hearing things.
Carefully, I creep to the bedroom door and press my ear against it. All I can hear are the low rumbles of the vibrations in the house. A little over five weeks in this house has understandably left me cautious, but time is ticking away, and the sooner I’m out, the better.
I ease open the door, but before I can step out, a giant black blur is ramming into me.
XXXXIII
Tori
The wind is knocked out of me even before I crash onto the floor. With my head spinning from the impact, what feels like a single person pressed on top of me looks like two.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” the person tells me.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t respond.
I can’t even raise my arm quickly enough to block the blow to the side of my head.
The person gets off me, but the dancing black dots, nausea, and pain stop me from being able to do much more than lie there, gasping for breath. When the zipper to my hoodie is yanked down, panic floods me, but it’s somehow enough to clear my vision and my thoughts enough to think—to react.
Reaching up, aiming for an eye, I claw at their face. There’s a cry of pain as something wet drips onto my cheek, and then the person grabs my wrist and slams my hand onto the ground at such an awkward angle that I’m surprised my elbow doesn’t snap.
“Get over yourself, bitch,” the person snarls at me. His hand goes to my throat, but instead of wrapping around it, his nails scratch my chest, and he moves back.
Then the collar around my neck tightens.
The person stands, yanking the chain so hard, I’m sure he’s about to strangle me. Scrambling in pain, I somehow manage to get to an almost sitting position before the guy starts walking.
My body twists, my injured arm giving out, but the chain stops my face from hitting the floor. Somehow, I manage to grab the chain, pulling enough to loosen what’s around my neck so I can get air into my lungs.
The hardwood floors allow my body to be pulled after him with little effort, but he’s dragging me away from the door.
I assumed he was taking me to Syn, but this doesn’t make sense, and I don’t have the ability to focus my thoughts into much more than keeping the chain just loose enough to be able to breathe.
My attacker stops, and just as I attempt to get onto my feet, he opens the closet door, shoving the few items of clothing I have to the side to reveal the hidden door to the attic.
Death.
Somehow, in all the pain and confusion, my brain manages to connect a few dots. Leaving the room would keep me alive, because he’s taking me to someone. Going into the attic means he doesn’t intend for me to leave alive.
Right or wrong, I refuse to let myself be taken up there.
I manage to get a moment of grip with my feet, but it’s enough to throw my entire body weight into him.
He falls forward, crashing into the attic stairs, and lets go of the chain.
Before I have the chance to fill my lungs, I’m already turning, stumbling towards the door.
The enormous bedroom seems to have tripled in size as I attempt to get out.
