Chapter 13
“Ew…”
I woke up choking on the smell of mildew.
Concrete.
Dead mice.
My bag was full of fecal matter, blood, clothing scraps, and more.
Old water.
For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe, and not because anything blocked my airway, but because my brain had already realized where I was before my eyes opened.
The basement cellar.
No…
Not a basement cellar.
The basement.
My wrists jerked instinctively. Steel chains rattled above my head.
The sound echoed through me like a gunshot, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
No.
No, no, no.
My breathing came faster as memories crawled over my skin. I’d pissed off Natalie last night. My anger had gotten the best of me. I’d killed one of her pets, laid him out, and waited for the piggie to come sniff him out.
Now, I was back in my old prison.
The cold floor. The darkness. The screaming I’d swallowed because no one ever came for me regardless.
I pulled once on the steel.
Twice.
The cuffs bit deeper into my wrists and neck, and a manic laugh escaped me. Small and broken, like my withering spirit.
No.
I have a job to do.
“Funny, I like the burn.”
The basement door creaked open, and the heavy cellar door dropped open. Then there was the sound of footsteps.
“Cry Baby! There you are! It’s been three days. You really did it this time.”
Melodie.
She stormed down the stairs, and her pretty face was twisted with fury like her curly pigtails. “You stupid little bastard!” She grabbed both sides of my face and shook me, straddling my body.
“What the hell were you thinking, going after that damn cop? I warned you!”
I blinked at her. I was so hungry that the rat carcasses were starting to smell appealing.
“You hear me?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I just smelled her spicy perfume.
She shook me again. “A cop, Cry Baby! A fucking cop!”
“I know what he is.”
Her palm cracked across my cheek, and I tasted the blood.
“You deserve this! So fucking smug. Why did you kill one of Natalie’s packages? She is so angry. I have been working that nerd for three months, by the way, and you just ruined it.”
“I deserve a lot of things,” I said simply, the exhaustion in my voice audible.
“You don’t chase cops!” she scolded me again.
“I wasn’t chasing—”
“Don’t lie to me!”
She shoved me hard enough that the chains rattled and the resistance pulled on my collar. “You let him get inside your head, Cry Baby! Years of teaching you how to stay invisible, and you become obsessed with the one man guaranteed to destroy you!”
“I’m not obsessed.”
She laughed bitterly and raked her nails down my naked chest, drawing beads of blood. “You practically begged him to notice you by ripping away his fuck buddy!”
“He noticed, alright.”
“You’re impossible! Do you like Natalie using you like this? Starving, and shitting in a plastic bag for days on end? “ It’s like you miss this life.”
She shoved me again, and the bag she mentioned caught my attention.
Something inside me snapped.
I lunged at her throat.
The chain gave me just enough slack to reach the bag, and my hands wrapped it around her mouth before either of us realized I’d moved.
Her eyes widened in disbelief and terror.
“Wha—”
I squeezed harder, feeling her struggle on top of me. Her nails dug into my wrists, the bag popping from her nails. The smell hit me faster than the spewing vomit did.
She kicked at me, but I held the bag tighter, using my other hand to lock her against me.
We were covered. The mixture of blood, semen, saliva, shit, and vomit was spilling down her face and onto the ground.
It looked like paint.
I barely felt her jabs.
Everything around me disappeared, and all I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears.
Thunk.
The floorboard.
Upstairs.
The Mistress.
My entire body locked onto the sound.
No…
No no no.
Another step.
Closer.
My heartbeat became deafening.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
My lips started moving on their own.
“One.”
Melodie clawed weakly at my hands.
“Two.”
Another creak overhead.
“Three.”
Melodie’s face was turning red.
“Four.”
My fingers tightened without meaning to, intent on hearing the eight steps completed.
“Five.”
The footsteps crossed the kitchen.
“Six.”
Melodie’s struggles slowed, and I told myself to let go, but I had to continue counting.
“Seven.”
The panic swallowed everything.
The numbers were all I had.
“Eight.”
The footsteps stopped, and my chest burned.
No..
This should be it.
Why is she moving again?
Where is she going?
“Nine.”
Please…
Please stop walking…
“Ten.”
Silence.
No more footsteps.
No voices.
Nothing.
My vision tunneled, and I felt Melodie’s body sag in my grip.
The realization hit me like ice water, and my hands flew open.
She collapsed to the floor with a squelch.
I stared at my fingers, and they were shaking.
Melodie was on my lap, her mouth full of the mixture and some white foam. Her eyes were bloodshot, and there was puke all over her body.
I didn’t speak.
I knew the truth.
For just a few terrifying seconds…
I hadn’t been looking at Melodie.
I’d been back in the continuous loop I couldn’t escape and now...
I’d killed the only person who ever came back for me.