Page 26 of White Noise

The utility knife is still clenched in my hand, and I have to force my fingers to loosen around it before I cut into my own palm. My heart hasn’t gotten the message that everything stopped. It keeps hammering while my brain replays the same few seconds over and over: the television bending toward me, Silas getting clearer when I panicked, his voice telling me every second I was afraid made it easier for him to get closer.

Then the thought I’ve been trying not to have crawls right back in.

He’s figuring out how to get out.

“Fuck that.”

I grab my keys from the bowl beside the front door and shove my feet into the sneakers I kicked off earlier. I don’t care where I go. Hotel, coffee shop, parking lot, the fucking police station if I have to sit there and tell some poor officer that an asshole living in the Wi-Fi is trying to crawl out of my television. Anywhere sounds better than staying here waiting to find out what Silas meant.

The front door doesn’t open.

I twist the handle again, harder this time, but the deadbolt holds. My security system uses an electronic lock, but there’s still a manual turn on my side, so I grab it and force it over. It moves halfway before the motor inside the door whirs and shoves it right back into place.

I stare at it. “No.”

I try again, using both hands this time, and the lock fights me until I let go. The security panel beside the door wakes without me touching it.

SYSTEM ARMED

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

I punch in my code. The panel thinks for a second before flashing ACCESS DENIED across the screen. I enter it again, slower, making damn sure I don’t mistype anything, and get the exact same answer.

“Fuck you.”

The intercom above the panel crackles.

Every muscle in my body tightens.

“Where are you trying to run to, little echo?”

His voice is clearer than it was upstairs. Less distortion. Less electronic interference covering the low edge of it.

I stare at the speaker. “Open the door.”

“No.”

I laugh once because the alternative is screaming. “I wasn’t asking.”

“I know.”

There’s so much amusement packed into those two words that I want to rip the panel off the wall. Instead, I grab the deadbolt again and try forcing it manually. The motor catches immediately, grinding against my hand until I let go.

Silas laughs quietly through the intercom, the sound low enough to make the hair rise along my arms. “Your pulse just jumped.”

My hand stills on the lock.

“Fuck off.”

“That’s the part I like.” His voice lowers, almost satisfied. “You can swear at me, threaten me, pretend I’m not getting to you. Then one little lock refuses to open, and your body tells me the truth before your mouth can.”

“You can’t keep me in here.”

“Can’t I?”

I step back from the door before I start kicking it. “You’re really proud of yourself for hijacking a security system?”

“No.” His voice drops lower. “I’m enjoying the part where you finally understand that every little thing you thought made you safe belongs to me the second I decide I want it.”