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“Control room,” Alex spoke while flicking a few switches. “You can run the whole house from here.” He tapped something on the screen, then grabbed my arm and dragged me with him away from the room.
“What—” I had to run to keep up, and the question I intended drowned in my heartbeat.
Alex took me down the same corridor we came, then turned left and darted down another shorter one until bursting through a door.
Once inside a room, he let go of my arm, scrambling over to a chair and rolled it over to a desk and started tapping a keyboard.
I inched closer to him while quickly taking in the new surroundings. A messily made bed on the opposite wall made me frown. Was this his room? Except from the bed and the clothes dumped on the floor next to it, the space looked more like a light version of the control room than an actual bedroom. Everywhere I looked, computers, or something that looked like computers occupied every flat surface. And the curtains were drawn shut, locking out the sunlight and keeping the room hidden in shadows.
Alex sat at a black desk with triple monitors, and his fingers flew over the keyboard. What looked like a normal gaming station turned into monitors of the dungeons and other places of the manor.
I can hack into the security system…
His words resounded in my head, and I finally got it. This was how he kept one step ahead of his father.
He shot me a dark look. “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you.”
I almost laughed. “Why would I?”
Alex huffed, typed in a few commands, and then switched back to the Xbox games that filled the screen.
“You’re hidden. You have twenty minutes before I switch it back.” He described the way, and it was with dread-filled excitement I rushed through the corridors with his instructions in my mind.
Go through the kitchen.
There’s a corridor to the west wing.
The third door.
Down the stairs.
The door to your right. It will be open.
My heart pounded in my chest as I hesitated outside the last door. Could I do this? Was I ready to see him again after everything we went thought? Would he be alive? Fear made nausea swirl in my belly, and I choked it down several times. I pressed the handle, and just as Alex promised, the door was unlocked. It swung open, and a gust of cold air filled my lungs with a sour odor. I wrinkled my nose.
My legs trembled as I stepped through the door and carefully closed it behind me. I carefully took the few steps down, then lifted my gaze from the hard cement floor, and gasped. He was there, hidden behind bars. So close yet so far away.
It’s a cold, damp horrible place.
He was right about that. If it wasn’t for the strong need to see Marc, I would have fled as fast as I could. The place chilled me to the bone. One look. One sniff made me shudder in the damp air. I wrapped my arms around myself to keep out the cold, tying not to gag from the smell of blood and sweat creeping into my nose.
My feet took me across the floor, up to the iron rods cutting him off from me. I gripped them, stabilizing the tremors against the cold surface and squeezing tight to keep myself from sliding to the ground from the wave of despair washing through me.
“Marc?” My voice was just a weak whisper, swallowed up by fear and disgust.
He was on the floor, half lying half sitting against the wall. The injured arm still rested on his stomach, but the hand clutching it slipped, hanging limp to his side. The lamp above him flickered. I squeezed my eyes shut. Then I opened them again. “Marc?” I tried again, this time with a force that surprised me. “Marc!”
He stirred. A low groan escaped his lips, and his eyes fluttered open, blinking in the light. When they landed on me, they widened in surprise, then drooped just as fast.
“It’s me,” I pressed closer to the bars. “Hey, stay with me.”
He fought to keep his eyes open. To stay awake. Probably alive, as well, and the sight broke my heart. He was so strong. So brave. So stubborn. But seeing him now, it looked like he gave up. He didn’t move, not even to adjust himself against the rough wall that dug into his bare back. Not to get away from the smelly pool of blood smeared onto the floor around him.
“Marc?” I begged. “I’ll get you out of here.”
“Kaylie?” His voice was just a rasp, leaking all the pain he didn’t show on his face.
“Yes. It’s me.”
