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It took me a solid five minutes to steady my racing pulse. My only consolation was that I knew her frustration surely matched my own.

I stepped away from the wall and rubbed the back of my now sore head. I stared down at the phone, resisting the urge to chuck it across the room. Instead, I pocketed the cursed thing and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

A very cold shower.

The wind and rain slapped at my face, but the storm was no match for the resolve running hot through my veins.

I had to find her.

I would find her.

I just wasn’t searching in the right places.

Out of the rain and into a dark building. It smelled musty in here, like unwashed hair and dirty laundry.

I stepped into a room that had long been neglected, abandonment taking its toll over time. I knew this place all too well—the curtains that hung from the windows, the tattered couch against the wall. Cobwebs covered the lampshades on the end tables.

I hadn’t been here in so long…

I glanced down at the throw rug in the living room and saw a large brown stain of blood. Bile rose in my throat, and I quickly turned away.

How did I end up here?

I knew she wasn’t here. I had come to the wrong place again.

“Alexander.”

I heard my name, but the voice was wrong. It wasn’t the voice I had been searching for. It belonged to someone else—it was the voice that had the ability to soothe and frighten me all at once.

“Krystina?” I called out.

“I’m here,” I heard her say from another room.

I ran through the dingy apartment in search of her. She didn’t belong here, not in this dirty, tainted place.

How did she find out about it?

How did she know to find me here?

“Krystina, where are you?” I yelled.

I tore through the hallway, searching room after room. But it was as if every time I closed a door, another would appear. The dim lights began to flicker until eventually they went out completely, and I was left in nothing but darkness.

“I’m here,” she said again. With only her voice to guide me, I stumbled into another dark room.

“Where? I can’t see you?”

“Here.” Her voice came from somewhere behind me.

I turned to go toward the sound, but my feet came out from under me, and I was falling.

“Krystina!” I yelled through the air that whipped past my ears. “Help me!”

“I can’t,” I heard her say, but her voice seemed to be farther away now. So much farther…

Falling.

Falling.