She turns to face me, a faint smile on her lips, and responds gently.
“When you reach the top of the stairs, walk down the corridor until you reach the tenth door on the right.”
My eyes widen, and I try to imprint what she said in my mind as I stand and make my way to the foyer. I climb the enormous, grand staircase until I reach the top, where I notice a three-way divide. A hallway to my right, left, and center.Fuck.I take a hesitant step forward while the house is peaceful and decide to walk down the one in front of me. As I stride slowly past the black matte doors on the right, I start to count them.
Suddenly, the lights go out, and I hear the girls screaming in the far distance. Except for the lightning that illuminates the large window at the far end of the corridor, it is pitch black.
I fall against a wall, my chest rising and falling with each frenzied breath, my pulse pounding, a panic attack nearing. As I stare forward, I start to hyperventilate uncontrollably, my chest tight and my body feels as if it is spinning in circles while I pray the lights will be turned back on soon.
When I hear a faint whistling, much like a bird tweeting eerily from down the hallway by the floor-to-ceiling window, my heart races and I cautiously turn my head in the direction of where it is coming from. I feel my entire body tense with dread as soon as I discover a shadowy silhouette of a man standing there through my whirling vision, illuminated by the occasional burst of lightning behind him.
I begin to suspect I am hallucinating and falling into a state of fright since I am terrified of the dark and this isn’t the first time I’ve seen figures during a panic attack, but when a glint of metalcatches my eye, my breath lodges in my throat. I realize it's a large knife as soon as he starts taking calculated steps forward, dragging the blade along the wall, its sharp sound slicing through the air, sending shivers down my spine.
The closer he gets, the more I internally plead with myself to get moving, throwing my head back against the wall and finally starting to creep along the wall, my quivering hands searching for anything that will allow me to escape him. I twist a doorknob as soon as I feel one, and when he realizes I am about to enter, the black figure rushes forward, causing me to squeak with terror. I slam the door shut behind me, frantically locking it, and when I don’t hear an attempt to get inside, I take a few steps back on wobbly knees, my eyes blurring with tears.
“Why the fuck are you in here?”
I shriek and spin around, my heart hammering in my chest as I attempt to see where the deep voice came from. The room is briefly lit up by an electric flash of lightning behind the tall rainy windows, revealing Chaos' shirtless figure reclining in a chair in the far corner of the vast bedroom. As the room plunges back into darkness, he takes a long drag of his joint, the ember casting an orange glow across his features before fading away.
“You're in my bedroom, and you're not telling me why?”
I attempt to relax my stiff muscles before responding.
“The power went out, and—”
“Are you afraid of the darkness, Charley?”
As I answer, I attempt to not seem too timid.
“Just a little.”
He waits for a moment as if he is thinking.
“This is probably the worst room to come into when it's dark.”
I stare into the abyss, wrapping my arms around my midsection.
“Oh, and why’s that?”
“Come here, and I'll show you.”
My body stiffens in response to his unnerving tone, yet I find myself taking hesitant steps towards him. The room is repeatedly illuminated by flashes of lightning, almost as if I am in a rave and when I’ve bridged the gap, I come to a halt between his spread legs.
“Closer.”
I nervously lay my palms on the chair's arms while leaning in until he unexpectedly snatches my face and speaks through clenched teeth.
“Because I'm a bad fucking influence.”
He takes a deep drag of his joint, holding the smoke in his lungs, before squeezing my cheeks firmly, prompting me to open my mouth and when I obey, he presses his lips on mine. He exhales the smoke, transferring it into my mouth and the small intimate connection almost makes my knees weak.
The potent, earthy taste fills my lungs as soon as I inhale, stupidly, causing me to cough involuntarily. He chuckles menacingly and before I can fully recover, he slips his arm over the small of my back, grips my hip, and yanks me down onto his lap.
The unexpected bold move causes me to stumble and slump down onto him with my arm across his shoulder. He keeps his joint between his lips as he wraps his tattooed arm over the front of my thighs and pulls them up, forcing me to curl up against him.
“That should calm your scared little body.”
I am not sure what to say or do, so I just remain mute and allow him to do as he pleases with me. We continue not to talk for a while in the pitch black, the heavy rain hammering on the windows behind us creating a peaceful setting and I just observe as he casually smokes his joint, completely unfazed that a total stranger is sitting on him in the total darkness until he finally decides to break the stillness.
