“You find something?”
I met his eyes.
“No.”
The lie came easier than it should have.
Behind us, another camera shutter clicked.
I looked back at the body one last time.
The blood-smeared frown seemed to stare right through me, tickling memories that angered and disgusted me. For the first time since this case had landed on my desk…
It felt like someone was there, and that fucking someone was watching me.
“Ew…”
I woke up choking on the smell of mildew.
Concrete.
Dead mice.
My bag was full of fecal matter, blood, clothing scraps, and more.
Old water.
For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe, and not because anything blocked my airway, but because my brain had already realized where I was before my eyes opened.
The basement cellar.
No…
Not a basement cellar.
The basement.
My wrists jerked instinctively. Steel chains rattled above my head.
The sound echoed through me like a gunshot, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
No.
No, no, no.
My breathing came faster as memories crawled over my skin. I’d pissed off Natalie last night. My anger had gotten the best of me. I’d killed one of her pets, laid him out, and waited for the piggie to come sniff him out.
Now, I was back in my old prison.
The cold floor. The darkness. The screaming I’d swallowed because no one ever came for me regardless.
I pulled once on the steel.
Twice.
The cuffs bit deeper into my wrists and neck, and a manic laugh escaped me. Small and broken, like my withering spirit.
No.
