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I turn back to the radio, flipping to another station and repeating my call for help, ensuring to keep my voice quiet but clear.
Kacey moves behind me, and an alarm blares in my head the moment she is out of my peripheral vision. I shift toward her, watching her slowly drift toward the steps.
“Stay up here,” I tell her. I don’t want her to follow Enzo. Something tells me that if she came up behind him unexpectedly, it could be lethal.
There’s something off about her.Obviously,there’s something off about her. She’s been trapped in this place for her entire life. Her mouth is fucking sewn shut.
How does she even eat?
Then, it dawns on me. Those handmade plastic sacks with the white tubing in Sylvester’s bedroom suddenly make sense. They were feeding bags, which means he must’ve cut a hole somewhere in her stomach in order to get the nutrients inside her. It also explains why there are so many Ensure bottles in the cabinets.
My stomach twists further, coiling into a tight rope. I feel sick at the thought. I can’t even begin to imagine what torture this poor girl has endured.
Kacey twists toward me, and it’s still shocking every time I see her mutilated mouth. There’s no getting used to the sight of that. It comes straight out of a horror movie and cements the feeling that somehow, I’ve managed to stumble my way into one.
Guess I can’t even be angry. The universe is definitely getting its karma right now, and well, I can’t really fucking blame it.
She can’t speak, and it doesn’t appear that she has any other method to communicate, so after a few uncomfortable seconds, she turns away and just stands at the top of the steps, staring down into the black abyss.
My discomfort grows, alongside my growing worry over Enzo and concern that no one has answered my call yet.
But as the minutes tick by, a new emotion swirls into the already too potent cocktail in my bloodstream. Dread.
Something is wrong, and I feel more and more useless chattering into a radio and getting no response, while Enzo is possibly in danger.
“Maybe we should—” I’m cut off as a loud bang disturbs the otherwise silence. I gasp, dropping the radio speaker and staring down at the stairs with wide eyes. Moments later, a second shot goes off, racketing my heart farther up my throat.
Was that Enzo or Sylvester? There’s no telling who’s persevering.
“Okay, now we need to go check,” I say, my voice uneven and tight.
Kacey slowly turns to me. The energy has shifted, and I’m no longer confident she’s on our side.
My lips feel bone dry, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth as she steps toward me.
“Don’t do that,” I warn her, and she pauses. “I have no intention of hurting you, but I will if you fuck with me.”
She cocks her head, and for all I know, she might not even know what that means. There’s no doubt she’s been extremely sheltered. But rather than confusion, the act almost seems… condescending, like placating a child that is whining because they can’t eat cookies before dinner.
Bitch.
She takes another step toward me, and I straighten my spine.
Fuck her for trying to intimidate me. I’ve fought my entire life just to survive. I’m not going to stop now.
She seems to still, and before I can figure out what her intentions actually are, there's a loud boom, followed by a muffled shout that sounds likeKacey.
Her head snaps to the staircase, and then after a few moments, she slowly faces me again. My heart is in my throat, pounding viciously, and my brain can't decide where to focus its attention—on the commotion coming from below and the danger Enzo is likely in, or the girl with a rotted mouth rushing toward me.
I have just enough time to duck out of her way, sending her crashing into the control panel, and race toward the steps.
Fuck this.
I'm not staying up here fighting with a half-dead girl that's clearly not as docile as she seemed to be.
I'm plunged into darkness within seconds of practically tripping down the stairs. I can’t hear the chains on her feet chasing after me, but my terror has convinced me of it anyway, and I'm not stopping to verify.
As I get closer to the bottom, my heart rate grows faster. There isn’t any noise from beyond the doorway anymore. And I find that far more unsettling than if there were a loud ruckus. At least then, I know Enzo is still alive.
