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“There’s no time,” I whispered.
Shayla stared out the window, torn, before nodding. “Hide,” she mouthed. She brought her leg back in and pulled me to the bed. “Get under here.”
I dropped to the floor and quickly crawled under the bed. When I was halfway under, Mr. X started shoving against the door. Shayla rushed to our parents’ closet. Just as I was fully hiding under the bed, Mr. X got the door open enough to squeeze sideways into the room.
All I could see were his boots. I held my breath as I watched those boots stand near the door for a moment and then slowly make their way over to the window we’d left open.
I did my best not to make a sound while silently hoping that he’d think we’d taken the risk of escaping through the window. He paused by the window for a few seconds before walking back toward the door. For a painful, pounding heartbeat, I thought he was going to leave the room, and then he rounded the bed and headed for the closet.
Shayla!
Moving as quietly as I could, I started scooting out from the opposite side of the bed, still watching Mr. X stand facing the closet. I was almost completely out from under the bed when he turned on the light in the walk-in closet and moved farther inside. I heard the rustling of hanging clothes being shoved to the side as I slowly sat up and peeked over the top of the bed at the closet.
Shayla let out a scream full of terror, making me jump into action. I leapt onto the bed and crawled across it quickly. Before I reached the other side, I spotted the unlit lamp on my dad’s nightstand. I grabbed it and yanked the cord from the wall as I came up behind Mr. X, who was dragging Shayla out from the corner of the closet where she’d been hiding.
Using all my strength, I swung the vase-shaped lamp at his head. The ceramic body of the lamp shattered against his skull and Mr. X let out a grunt before dropping to his knees. He loosened his grip on Shayla’s pink hair enough for her to get herself free and leap off the ground.
We both rushed out of the closet and toward the door. Mr. X had only scooted the dresser far enough to squeeze past it. Opening the door until it met the dresser, I slipped out of the room first. I only glanced back to make sure Shayla was right behind me. She was in the process of coming out of our parents’ room. I didn’t see Mr. X behind her. A little bit of relief flickered inside me, and I ran down the hall with my hand held out behind me for Shayla to take.
She never took it.
I passed my room and was almost about to pass hers when I heard her yelp. Stopping, I spun around, and my heart tried to lodge itself in my throat. Mr. X had her in his grasp. Her back was to his chest. He held her to him with an arm around her middle and his knife pressed so firmly to her throat, she was tilting her head back as if to get away from it.
“Please,” I begged with my hands out in front of me.
“Please what, my Shiloh?” he asked. There was such disgusting delight in his voice. It was as if this was all a game to him.
I took a tiny step forward. “Please don’t hurt her.”
Mr. X threw his head back laughing. “Oh, my darling, are you sure you want that? After all, she’s why I came for you.”
What?
“Shi,” Shayla whimpered, and tears started falling from her eyes.
Mr. X pressed his knife into her delicate skin a little more and a line of blood slid down her neck and over her collarbone.
“How do you think I knew they were going to take you from me?” he asked and stared down at Shayla. “Your sister here is the one who told me.”
“No,” Shayla forced out.
He leaned his mouth close to Shayla’s ear. “Don’t remember? You were in that cafe you love to go to with your friends. All you did was whine and complain to them about your pathetic spoiled life.” A smile stretched slowly across his face. “I was sitting at the table behind you listening. I was hoping to hear about how your father reacted to the video I sent him the day before, but you revealed so much more.”
All the blood in Shayla’s face seemed to drain and her wide eyes flicked to me.
Mr. X’s eyes rolled to me, too. “I don’t know why she is so precious to you. She is nothing more than a toxic tether holding you back from me, and I will cut you free from her.”
My sister’s brows scrunched together and something flickered in her eyes. Acceptance, maybe? Because in that moment, we both knew what was going to happen. She had accepted it—accepted that she was about to die, and she had done it so quickly while I stood there frozen, terrified, and unwilling to accept it.
“Shi, run!” she cried out just before Mr. X slid his knife across her throat, silencing her forever.
Blood poured like a crimson waterfall from her neck. Her gray eyes were wide, filled with terror as they held mine.
I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t look away.
I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing was real. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. I was certain that if I could close my eyes, what I was seeing would be undone.
