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Is she nearly clean?
Downstairs has been cleaned up, ready for round 2.
My stomach rolls.
No.
Master Hill’s message to his wife is a clear reminder of the danger I’m in, so I suck in a breath and focus on my goal of escaping.
Cracking the bathroom door open, I strain my ears, trying to hear for any sound nearby. When I’m sure I’m alone upstairs, I slip out the door and tiptoe along the bottle green carpet runner to the top of the staircase.
Again, I strain my ears, hoping to find the path to the front door clear, but the undeniably close voices of Master and Julie tell me I’m likely to get sprung if I go down there.
My heart sinks.
I need to find another way out.
Creeping back up the passage, I pass the bathroom and enter the girls’ bedroom that I was in the last time I was here. Rushing to the window, I try to open it, but it’s locked by a key lock.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
This room is at the back of the house, overlooking the pool, so there’s no ledge, anyway. Just a straight drop, which I’m pretty sure even if I could get the window open, the drop would leave me injured and unable to run.
Pushing away from the window, I rummage through the closet, finding a man's t-shirt. It smells of mothballs but is large and dark grey and perfect to cover myself up with, so I’m not running around completely naked.
Knowing I’m wasting valuable time, I slip out of the girls' bedroom and check each door to find more bedrooms, all with windows securely locked.
At the end of the passage, the double doors open to the master bedroom. I almost don’t go in because the thought of Master Hill and Madam Vik sleeping here creeps me the fuck out, but again, they are emotions that need to be shoved right the fuck down. They have no place in this situation.
Once again, I move to the windows, which are actually doors. Un-fucking-fortunately, they are locked too, and the need to scream in frustration is overwhelming. My eyes pick up a bathroom and walk-in robe off to the side, so I quietly dart across the room, only to find the same issue.
Fuck.
So, I’m not escaping from up here, which means I need to get downstairs. I could wait and hope Master and Julie move to a different location in the house while they are waiting for Vik to clean me up, but it’s more likely that they will be up here any moment to see what’s taking so long.
As if he read my mind, the phone in my hand vibrates with another message from Master Hill, telling his wife, in not a nice way, to hurry up.
Fucking arsehole!
Think Rhys! How can I get downstairs without them noticing?
A distraction, maybe?
I glance at the phone, knowing I need to call the police, but I also need to get to safety, so I look around the master bedroom, trying to figure out how I can distract everyone downstairs.
There, on the bedside table, is a scented candle and one of those gas candle lighter thingys.
A fire? Sure, that could be a distraction, but I could also fucking die from it if my plan backfires. Unfortunately, since I’m all out of other options, fire it is.
Grabbing the lighter, I click it a few times and it lights. Ooooh, it’s like a mini blow torch. Cool.
Just like in the bathroom, a fucking scary, sinister smile spreads across my face. I really think I should be more concerned by my reactions, but right now, they are filling me with courage I didn’t know I had.
Turning to look at my surroundings, I move to the curtains, and I click, click, click, making sure the little blow torch catches onto the fabric at the bottom. The flames ignite, catching hold and start to travel north, so I repeat the process on the other curtains, then move to the wardrobe, eyeing those pompous black suits Master wears, and I click, click, click them too.
In the bathroom, I ignite the curtains in there, as well as the towels, and then before I leave the master bedroom, I light up the bedspread.
I hurriedly creep from the room, dashing into each bedroom and lighting the curtains on fire before closing each door behind me. Crackles from the fire burning through objects, and thick smoke starts to drift down the passage before the smoke detectors blare to life. Darting quickly back down the passage, I slip into the closet right next to the staircase on the landing and suck in a breath as I try to calm my racing heart.
