AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mariah
The cage door squeals as it swings open. Lilliana grasps my wrists.
Will is no longer standing beside me, which means he’s returned to his body on the wall—held there now by his own predatory stillness. I’m still unconscious from the sedative, but I’m beginning to feel the edges of my awareness thinning as the drug wears off.
Lilliana steps into the cage, dragging me in after her. Will’s eyes snap open. They’re the same impossible shade of blue they were the night we first met.
“He’s awake,” Christopher says.
Lilliana looks over her shoulder and sees Will watching her.
“I don’t know how Dad gets so close to that thing,” Christopher says.
She tugs harder on my arms. “Just shut up and help me with her legs.”
Christopher grasps my ankles. The sound of creaking metal causes them both to freeze in place.
“Is that normal?” Christopher asks.
Lilliana sees the screws on the floor and releases me.
Will’s cuffs burst apart as he lunges. Lilliana screams. He’s on her, his mouth at her throat, fangs sinking into her neck.
Ripping. Tearing. Shredding.
The sound alone makes me shudder. There’s so much blood...
Will crouches over Lilliana’s form on the floor, his back heaving as he swallows. Christopher slams the cage door shut. Lilliana cries out to her brother, a garbled call that sounds like she’s trying to speak underwater. Blood drips from her mouth. Christopher rips the key from the lock and then fumbles with the keychain, dropping it.
He’s trapped me in here with his dying sister and Will’s bloodlust.
“No,” I say to no one who can hear me.
Christopher flings open the exterior door and disappears into the darkened hall. I kneel by the cage door, looking to see where the keychain fell. It’s about an arm’s length from the bars. I pour my concentration onto the keychain, willing it to slide toward me, but just as the keys begin to twitch, I feel myself waking up.
I sink back into my body. My head hurts like it’s been kicked by a horse. I blink against the light and roll onto my side, coming face to face with Lilliana’s open-eyed stare.
“Jesus...” I jerk back. Will has torn a hole in her pants to better reach the artery at her thigh. He looks wilder than an animal, like something pulled straight out of Hell.
Lilliana has stopped crying. If she’s not dead already, she’s teetering on the edge.
And if I can’t get the cage door open, I’ll be next.
I crawl on heavy limbs toward the spot where Christopher dropped the keychain. My knees catch on my dress twice, so I bunch the skirt portion up. Reaching through the bars, I stretch my arm as far out as I can.
“Come on,” I mutter through clenched teeth, brushing the keys with my fingertips.
A hand grasps my ankle.
I scream. Having mustered her final ounce of strength, Lilliana has grabbed onto me. I meet her pleading gaze with a look of indifference and shake her off. Just minutes ago, she’d been all too eager to watch the same thing happen to me.
It’s too late to save her, and even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t lift a finger.
Again, I narrow my focus on the ring of keys, calling them into my palm. My heartbeat hammers in my head. Tears stain my cheeks as I work to channel all my effort into drawing them toward me.
An invisible string forms between my hand and the keys.
They slide the extra few inches I need, and then I have them.
