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Prologue
Sienna
April 12th, 2019
“Please!”
I jolted awake, eyes flying open. A distant sound had reached my ears. A faint shattering of glass, followed by a screamed word.
I strained to listen, senses sharpened by the eerie atmosphere in the lake house bedroom. It was engulfed in darkness, with the only source of illumination being the occasional flash of lightning. A storm had been raging all night, crashing thunder and howling wind matching the turmoil swirling inside my mind.
What was the word that startled me awake? Who screamed it? It was already slipping away, leaving only a vague recollection of its piercing tone.
I slowly sat up, grimacing as I leaned on one elbow. My head was throbbing from a mix of alcohol and exhaustion, but I tried my best to mentally slap myself out of the haze and make sense of the situation. Was it just a bad dream? Were the strange noises all in my head?
No.
There was a scream. I was sure of it. But it wasn’t just that. Something felt off. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on in my foggy, still-tipsy state.
It finally hit me when I reached out to touch Paxton for comfort and wound up patting cold, unoccupied sheets instead. I’d spent most of the night flirting with the gorgeous star of the hockey team and fallen asleep tangled up in his embrace. Now he was nowhere to be seen.
Doubt and panic instantly swept through my mind. Did he leave because I didn’t have sex with him tonight? Did he sneak out once I fell asleep and hook up with one of the other girls instead? I didn’t think he was one of those guys, but it wouldn’t be the first time one of the uber-popular hockey guys had screwed over a girl from our school. My best friend Tate warned me about that earlier today.
“Paxton?” I called out in a tentative tone, tilting my head toward the en-suite bathroom door. Maybe I was just inventing drama in my mind, and he was in there peeing or splashing water on his face. “Are you in the bathroom?”
No reply.
A low, muffled moan filtered through the opposite wall from the bedroom next door. My stomach twisted painfully as I registered the sound. Callie Ruiz had claimed the room in question earlier, and I was certain she’d gone to bed alone. Perhaps my paranoid theory about Paxton’s bed-hopping wasn’t so off-base after all.
With a sigh, I lay back down and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the ache in my heart. Despite my drowsy state, sleep eluded me.
Another scream pierced the air, jolting me upright again. The sound was instantly swallowed by a deafening crack of thunder, but I knew I heard it this time. It wasn’t just my imagination playing tricks on me. It wasn’t the result of a pleasurable midnight encounter, either. Something terrible was happening.
I sucked in a deep breath, dread and fear mingling in the pit of my stomach as I tried to piece together the possibilities. An intruder, perhaps. Someone who wanted to rob the place or assault one of the girls. Or maybe one of the boys drank too much and horribly injured himself while attempting a stupid dare to impress the others.
The sudden clunk of footsteps on the lake house stairs sent my pulse into overdrive. I clapped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from shrieking and hurriedly buried myself under the blankets as the door creaked open.
“Sienna.”
I peeked out as a low voice muttered my name. A figure was standing by the bed. My eyes struggled to adjust in the gloominess, but I could just make out Paxton’s silhouette. Relief washed over me. He was tall. Strong. Powerful. He could protect me.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “I heard weird noises. Did someone break in?”
Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the room. Paxton was drenched in blood, and a large knife was clenched in his white-knuckled right hand. The sight froze me in terror, throat constricting so much that I couldn’t even conjure up a tiny squeak.
Paxton looked down at me, pressing a finger to his lips in a silent command. I stared at him with my mouth hanging open, shock and primal fear still stifling my voice.
The room flickered to life once more, brightened by another flash of lightning, and Paxton’s blood-soaked form became clearer, cementing the reality of the nightmare before me.
A scream tore from my lungs as adrenaline poured through my veins, sending me scrambling across the bed. At the same time, Paxton leaned down and hissed something at me.
“Run.”
Sienna
September 5th, 2022
Today was day 1236.
