AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re going to have to do it next, girl!” Ruse said loudly as he slunk down the hallway. “Better find a backbone, and quick!”
* * *
I was reading my book with headphones fit comfortably over my ears when Ruse appeared in my doorway just hours after our conversation. He braced his body weight in the frame and breathed heavily, and his face couldn’t decide between his standard rugged human form’s features or the face of a feral hyena. Blood was smeared down his shirtless front and all around his mouth to let me know the deed had been done. I hadn’t heard a thing over my headphones and was silently grateful that I’d sprung for the noise-canceling variety.
Carefully, as if a sudden move might startle him, I removed my headphones from over my ears and draped them around my neck.
“Hi, there,” I said, unsure what else there even was to say.
“Hi,” Ruse growled from a hyena maw attached to an otherwise human face.
My mind whirled with a thousand questions. Did Nox and Thorn know what he’d done? Did they care? Was there going to be evidence I’d have to clean up myself? But most of all, could I follow through with my end? Could I do what Ruse had just done?
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, still blindly navigating the strange What Comes Next after your most unhinged, monstrous acquaintance murders a man and eats him.
He shook his head violently, sending droplets of blood spraying into the air. I could tell from where I sat that there was something especially unusual about the shifter at that moment. He was like a walking storm. I wasn’t sure if he was half a second away from eating me as well, hurting me, or simply blacking out from whatever insanity plagued him.
“Can I… do anything?” I asked. I knew full well that the answer would likely also be a resounding no, but sitting there on my bed like a clueless moron didn’t make me feel very good. I was becoming frantic, and I knew that once I reached that point, it would become near impossible for me to know where the line was between helpful and annoying.
Ruse’s gaze snapped to me, and I noticed his eyes were pitch black, just like I had seen them that night on the couch. His lips twitched upward, holding back a wild animal’s snarl, as he lurched toward me with one stumbling step. It was like the shifter I’d met before was gone and had been replaced by a creature in the throes of its own bloodlust.
He took another step toward me and flexed his arms. The white skin of his arms bubbled and shifted back and forth between human skin, thick black fur, and shimmering scales. The tips of his fingers extended, and long needle-like nails burst through the ends.
“Ruse?” I said with a shaking voice, trying to direct his attention.
There was no sign he could hear me at all as he took another step in my direction. Blood mixed with saliva dripped from the end of his jaw, and I felt my body seize in fear as I realized that I was Ruse’s prey, his only target, and he was closing in.
I felt like a deer in the middle of the road, blinded by headlights, as my eyes darted between Ruse and the door. There was a small chance I could bolt and make it to the door, but then where would I go? The shifter would have me beat in a foot race or a test of strength. My only shot would be to book it for somewhere I could shut the door behind me and hope that Thorn and Nox would sense my panic and come rescue me.
If they would even rescue me at all.
Ruse had almost immediately downturned between brainstorming ideas with me in the living room to a creature of pure evil and darkness after the incident with Ted. I couldn’t take the time to consider the possibility that the others might be so easily swayed to their primal natures as well. I had to get away. Anywhere.
Slowly matching Ruse’s pace, I lowered my feet to the floor. The two of us stared at each other with furrowed brows, waiting to see who would make the first move, but both hoping the other would go first. My heart pounded like a bass drum against my chest, and I could feel the blood rushing through my ears. The entire world went silent outside of my own survival as I moved my weight from the bed to the balls of my feet, waiting for the exact right moment to make my move.
My senses heightened, and I kept both eyes laser-focused on Ruse. As soon as he raised an arm to wipe the pinkish drool away from his mouth and shifted his weight just half an inch away from me, I felt lightning strike my muscles, and before my mind could catch up, I was throwing myself toward the exit.
My ears rang in panic, and my bare feet carried me to the door with the same natural grace as the deer I felt like I was. I clumsily gripped the door frame to swing myself down the hallway just as Ruse’s arm came slashing through the air behind me with a bear paw the size of my face coming off his wrist. He let out a roar of disappointment as I sprinted down the hallway in my bare feet. Without a specific plan as to where I was going, I was smacked with regret when I realized I swung myself in the wrong direction, where my only choice was to find a place to hide.
Moving on pure adrenaline-fueled autopilot, I threw open a door to another bedroom–the huge one Ted had assumed I would take when I first arrived, with the fluffy white comforter and luxurious attached bathroom. As soon as I passed through the frame of the door, I slammed it shut behind me and pushed in the knob to lock it. Behind the door, I could hear the thunder of a bloodthirsty Ruse charging down the hallway. I stumbled backward in surprise when the sound of the shifter slamming his body into the door radiated through the walls.
“I’m going to GET you!” he growled violently.
The weak little lock on the antique knob was not going to stop him from getting in here, and I knew it. As an act of desperation, I pulled the dresser as far as I could in front of the door before moving to the bathroom to put another door with another lock between us. Nox and Thorn had to have heard the chaos. They both had to be aware that something terrible was happening.
The sounds of Ruse slamming against the door grew louder and more insistent. All I could do was hold my breath and hope the solid wood door and dresser would buy me some time to figure out a plan for escape, or for the others to come to my rescue.
“Let me in! Let mein! Let! Me!IN!” Ruse said with a spitting, snarling roar.
I was locked in the bathroom now, taking stock of my surroundings. It was spotless, brand new, and entirely empty. A huge walk-in shower sat proudly in the corner next to what had to be the original clawfoot tub. Just above the tub was a wide window hung high for modesty’s sake and flanked on either side by decorative stained glass.
I was on the second floor, and the window was higher than any other, but if I stood on the edge of the tub, there was a chance I could wriggle myself out and I could run off the property to safety. I just had to get out the window without falling toward injury. A tall order, but certainly better than being eaten alive.
My options were limited, and the sound of splitting wood gave me notice that my time to come up with an alternative plan was coming to a rapid end. I climbed up onto the side of the tub and prayed for its continued integrity as I carefully leaned forward and got to work wedging the window open. There was nothing else for me to stand on, so I had to hope for the arm strength to pull myself up and through the window once I got it open.
I could hear a final crash past the bathroom door, and I was certain it meant Ruse had broken through. The window—my one chance at freedom—was stuck shut. I wasn’t sure when it had last been open, but the frame of the window seemed warped enough that opening it would take much more effort than the awkward strength of a girl trying to balance on the side of a bathtub.
My ears perked at the sounds outside the door, but I didn’t hear Ruse storm any closer to the bathroom. I paused in my attempt to wedge the window open to see if I could hear what was going on, if perhaps Thorn and Nox had come to stop Ruse’s viscous pursuit. Muffled words traveled through the air, stifled by the walls. I hoped my wish had been granted and the next thing I would hear was Nox’s cool voice assuring me from outside the bathroom that I was safe now, that he would lay next to me as I calmed down, that Thorn would stand guard.
