CHAPTER 23 SHADOWS IN THE DARK #2
Cole exhaled a controlled breath that misted slightly in the dank air.
He raised the pipe above his head, his muscles coiling tight, and aimed as best he could in the sickly yellow light.
He brought it down with all his strength, the impact jarring his bones as the connector snapped with a metallic crack.
Gabe's wrists jerked apart, a small grunt of pain escaping his lips as the restraints bit into his flesh one final time, the broken cuffs dangling from each wrist like tarnished bracelets.
“See?” Gabe's smile cracked the dried blood at the corner of his mouth.
“Nothing to it. Come on.” He scooped up the pile of clothes that had been stripped from his body—jeans stiff with mud, a once-white T-shirt now rust-stained and torn at the collar.
His fingers trembled slightly as he pulled them on, wincing as the fabric dragged across raw skin.
“You're still bleeding,” Cole said, eyes fixed on the crimson line seeping through the cotton where it clung to Gabe's torso.
“I'll live. It's hardly a flesh wound. You didn't cut me deep.” Gabe's breath hitched as he bent to retrieve the handgun, the metal catching the pale light as he tucked it into the rear band of his pants.
The cold steel pressed against his lower back made him stand straighter.
“Now, let's figure out how to get the fuck out of here.”
We’re going to get you out of here.
Savannah clung to those words like a drowning woman clutching at driftwood. Cole and Gabe were here—somewhere in this labyrinth of concrete and rust—their presence both salvation and another knot of dread in her stomach.
They’re captives, too.
How would they escape? Did they know what these men were? What if they weren't strong enough? The doubts multiplied like maggots in her mind, writhing and consuming every hopeful thought, their poison spreading through her veins until her fingertips tingled with cold terror.
She pressed herself against the rusted bars at the back of the cage, the metal biting into her shoulder blades.
The concrete floor beneath her had leached all warmth from her bare thighs, and goosebumps pebbled her exposed skin.
She hugged her knees tighter to her chest, the thin cotton of her once-white bra offering no protection against the damp chill or the hungry eyes that might return at any moment to. ..
“Cole will come for you,” she whispered, her throat raw.
“He and Gabe will save you, they will.” She rocked back and forth, the cage bars digging into her spine with each movement.
Abel was safe. Abel was home. And Maddy…
Maddy was alive somewhere. Maybe. Cole didn’t know for sure.
But he knew that the boy she saw butchered wasn’t Maddy.
Please be alive… Please, God, let him be alive. Please help us get out of here—
The metal door creaked. Savannah's body convulsed, her spine slamming against the bars. Her heart exploded in her chest, lungs seizing mid-breath. She buried her face between her knees, hyperventilating until black spots danced behind her eyelids, snot and tears mingling on her upper lip.
No… no… go away! GO AWAY!
Her broken nails ripped through her filthy skin, carving crimson half-moons that welled and dripped onto the concrete. She bit her knee to keep from screaming, teeth breaking skin, the taste of her own blood filling her mouth. Please go away… please… please…
Metal shrieked against concrete as the door inched wider, the rusted hinges wailing like souls being flayed.
Savannah's entire body convulsed, her teeth chattering so violently she bit her tongue.
Blood filled her mouth as she choked on her own pleas.
“Please—no—please—” The words strangled in her throat, barely audible even to herself.
Her pulse hammered in her temples as she waited for that merciless bulb to expose her nakedness, but the darkness remained—somehow worse than light.
Something was coming. Tap-tap-scratch. Tap-tap-scratch.
Something skittered across the concrete floor—lighter than her captor's thunderous footfalls but somehow more terrifying in its alien rhythm.
Savannah's neck cracked as she jerked her head up, her vision swimming with black spots.
A sliver of silver—moonlight or something colder—knifed through the gap in the door, casting nothing but deeper shadows.
Whatever approached remained cloaked in darkness, but she could feel its gaze on her skin like ice water…
feel its hunger radiating across the room like heat from an open furnace.
Her spine fused to the rear bars, rust flaking into her raw flesh like hot needles. Her ribs crushed her lungs as she contracted into herself, each breath a shallow gasp that sent black stars exploding behind her retinas.
A silhouette detached itself from the darkness, moving with the deliberate stealth of a predator toward the cage.
Hands—human hands with dirt-crusted fingernails—curled around the corroded bars, knuckles whitening as they gripped.
Then came the sound: sniff, sniff, sniff —wet and guttural, nostrils flaring visibly even in the gloom.
Savannah's eyes widened as the figure pressed its face between the bars, inhaling her scent with primal hunger.
One hand released its grip, the arm snaking between the rusty rods with unnatural flexibility.
Fingers splayed toward her—not reaching but hunting—nails scraping across concrete with a sound like steel on slate, leaving pale grooves in their wake.
Savannah's muscles locked in primal terror, her body betraying her with violent tremors. A whimper escaped her throat—the sound of prey recognizing its end.
The visitor's head tilted at an unnatural angle, and its mouth stretched open in what could have been a smile on any normal human.
Lips peeled away from the gums like curtains drawing back to reveal a grotesque theater: teeth filed to gleaming points that caught what little light was present, each one a tiny dagger ready to tear flesh.
Savannah screamed, the harrowing sound tearing through her throat like rusted barbed wire.