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Her eyes narrow but she nods. “Like what?”
“We go outside, and you can’t run inside to hide.”
“Why not? That’s not fair!” she whines. “The only way I have a chance to escape you is if I get a headstart from the door locks and get to hide.”
I raise my eyebrows at her, daring her to continue to argue, but she just huffs and agrees to my stipulations, albeit begrudgingly.
Chapter Sixteen
Phoebe
Blowing out a slow breath, I prepare myself to run. I know he’s going to catch me, but I’m going to give this my best shot. For all the complaints I’ve lodged all week, I’m surprisingly ready for this. The movie was boring, but this actually has the potential to be fun.
It’s dark, but still hot out and I’m already daydreaming about the shower I’m going to get when the game is over. Josiah looks at me from the other side of the inner door where he’s waiting for me to get through the outer door and get the headstart we agreed on. “Ready?” he asks.
I nod my head.
“Okay. On the count of three. One.”
Giggling, I push through the door and stop for a second to taunt him, sticking my tongue out and shaking my head side to side before sprinting along the side of the garage where there are no windows so he won’t be able to see me. As I get around the back, pushing my feet into the sand in an effort to gain speed, a plan begins to formulate in my head.
I’m not sure if it will work, and I’ll be bending the rules, but if I can stay ahead of him I think I can do it. It’s going to piss him off so bad and I can’t wait. I like getting him riled up and watching him steam. I don’t do it as often as I consider it, but I’m just getting started.
The countdown in my head finishes and I know the door should have opened by now. Like he’s taught me, I listen to the sound of his footsteps to judge his distance, instead of turning around to look and throwing off my focus. He’s closing in, and I push myself harder, trying to make myself faster.
Luckily, I didn’t try to outsmart him this time. I’ve tried starting one way then faking back the other, but he’s never tricked by it. It’s like he can sense where I am and what direction I’m going every time. He always catches up to me.
But not this time. I round the last corner and throw all my effort into being quicker than him. I make it through the door and pull it shut behind me at the last second, grinning like a fat cat as he gets stuck on the outside for at least ten seconds, but if I can keep him from getting the door open first, I’ll have twenty.
As Josiah points and yells at me through the glass about breaking rules, I back up to the inner door and push on it repetitively so that he won’t have a chance to open the other door before it locks again. I don’t notice until it's too late that he’s not working the door from his side.
The door at my back clicks open and I shove it closed again without going inside. I’m technically notinthe house, so I didn’t break the rule. I’m in Schrödinger’s box. I’m both inside and outside, poking fun at Josiah as I yank the door until it clicks, and I push it shut again.
And then Josiah’s inside with me too somehow. Stuck. In Shrödinger’s box with me, even though I just restarted the clock. Turning around, I check the colored lights that signal whether the door is locked, counting down, or unlocked but they’ve all gone dark. “What the fuck?” I whisper. Fear winds down through my body as I push on the door and it sticks.
“There’s a key, kitten. Now that the auto-locks have been overridden, neither of them will open without it.”
A key.A key. Of course there’s a fucking key. He’s always four or five or fifteen steps ahead of me even when I think I’m winning. I flatten myself into a corner and stare up at him. Without sunlight from the outside and the lights inside blocked by curtains, he looks absolutely terrifying. I can’t remember how to breathe, and the air is dripping with my fear.
“So open the door.” My voice is too quiet, like I’m asking.
“No, I think I’ll let you sweat it out for a while.”
I squeeze my eyes closed so I can pretend that the darkness is my choice. I’m not actually afraid of Josiah, but I am afraid of the dark. In the absence of light, the unknowns flourish. Logically, I know it’s just me and Josiah, but fear doesn’t work with logic. This room could be filling with water. The floor could be covered in snakes. Anything is possible.
I squeak when something brushes against my arm, but then Josiah’s warm hand closes around my wrist. “What are you doing?”
“Breathe, Phoebe.” His usual calm demeanor isn’t at all affected by my horror or the way I frustrated him. “You know you’re safe.”
I try to slow my breathing, but there are tears threatening to break free at any moment. “How do you know that? We can’t see anything.”
“You’re right,” he agrees after a moment, and his thumb starts to rub circles on the back of my hand. “You can’t see anything. So how could you possibly know you’re safe?”
My heart rate spikes again. “You’re not helping. If you’re trying to get me to calm down, you’re doing a shitty job of it. Just open the door, and then I’ll be able to see and then I’llknowI’m safe.”
“What if I told you you are?”
“These fucking riddles, Josiah... Unlock the door. We’ll both know we’re safe then. You’re a paranoid person. Aren’t you freaked out by the dark? How do you know there aren’tants…or something crawling around on the floor right now? You couldn’t see when you opened the door outside either. What if you let in a snake or-”
