She’s Actually Priceless
SHE’S ACTUALLY PRICELESS
Nightshade
Isleep like the dead, always have, but especially when I’ve had my fill of Red’s sweet cunt. Maybe that’s why something suddenly jerked me awake just now – because I haven’t had her tonight. And now I can’t get back to sleep.
The asylum is quiet. Eerily so. The night is heavy with an oppressive darkness.
I had every intention of leaving Kayla to rest. Hatchet texted me earlier saying he was taking her hunting tonight, so I know she’ll be tired. If she’s even back yet.
But I can’t shake the need to see her. It’s a gut-wrenching need that has me sitting up straight in bed, palming my dick.
I’ll still leave her alone. Won’t indulge in my fantasies or partake of her exquisite nectar. I won’t even allow my fingers to skim her curves, or my tongue to trace her beautiful patchwork of tattoos. I won’t feed my cock between either set of her plush pillowy lips.
Even though my dick is rock hard just thinking about her.
I climb out of bed and pad barefoot, in just my tented silk boxers, across the hallway to her room.
Opening the door, the light from the hallway behind me spills into her room, illuminating her empty bed.
The sheets are flung back like she’s just climbed out of bed, but the door to the bathroom is open and the light is off.
“Kayla?”
No answer.
I take a step towards the bathroom and a sudden chill runs down my spine. I pause, listening to the silence. It’s not just quiet, it’s dead. I can’t even hear the sound of my own breathing.
“Red?” My voice trembles.
A strange feeling of dread begins to fill me. The kind of feeling you get when you know something is very wrong. A feeling I’ve only ever felt in life-or-death situations.
My body becomes drenched in a cold sweat as panic grips me.
I take another step, and then another, making my way to the bathroom. I’ve never been one to scare easily, but there’s something about this silence that’s getting to me.
As I reach the door to the bathroom, a sudden movement catches my eye. I whip around, my heart pounding in my chest, and see the outline of a figure standing in the doorway I just came through.
“Kayla?” I whisper, my throat suddenly dry
“No. I couldn’t sleep. I feel I owe her an explanation,” Ghost says, his eyes wild and sleep-deprived. He looks rough, but I can’t muster up the energy to care about him when she’s gone.
“She’s not here. I don’t know where she is.”
Where is she? She never leaves her room at night. I should know, I fuck her into the sweetest oblivion and leave her so sated she doesn’t need to go looking for relief elsewhere.
She’s become my anchor in this sea of madness, the only reason I’ve managed to hold on to some semblance of sanity. I just hide it better than the others. from the moment she offered me a drink, I was a goner for her.
“Wasn’t she out with Hatchet tonight?” he asks me carefully, as though he can sense the tension rolling through my body and is suddenly wary of me. Of what I can – and will – do when I snap.
I nod but it’s a jerky, involuntary movement. “Yeah. Do you think they’re still out there?”
“One way to find out.” Ghost pulls his phone from his sweatpants pocket and rattles off a quick text.
“Try Kayla’s phone. Call her,” I instruct. It’s pointless calling Hatchet, obviously. Ghost tries Kayla’s phone, and it comes to life on her nightstand, lighting up the darkened room and buzzing across the wood. My mind races with dark, terrifying thoughts. Where is she?
“Fuck. She can’t be out with Hatchet still. She’d have her phone with her to communicate with him.”
Just then, Ghost’s phone beeps with a message and my heart soars. Maybe she’s in Hatchet’s room with him.
“He says they’re back. He saw her to her room and left. She should be in bed.”
“Well, tell him she’s fucking not!” I snap, as anxiety churns in my stomach. My grip on my rage is slipping. My control is ebbing. “And while you’re at it, go and wake the others. Check she’s not with any of them. If not, we need to start a search party.”
“Alright, on it.”
Ghost disappears, rushing along the corridor calling the others’ names, and I’m left in the dark.
The sudden silence is almost deafening. The usual noises of the facility – muffled cries, tantalising whispers of darkness, the occasional scream – are all absent.
It’s as if the world has gone eerily silent, save for the rapid thumping of my heart.
Kayla should be in her room, in her bed, or in one of our beds. She shouldn’t be able to move around the asylum because they lock all of the doors at night. With the exception of our rooms, which don’t have locks, and the door to the outside because we’re on a fucking island and where would we go?
It’s about keeping us from snooping, not keeping us safe
What if she’s not even inside the building? She could be anywhere on the island, and I know she’s not been out much to explore. She could easily get lost, or even hurt in the dark.
I take off across the hallway to my room, needing to put some clothes on to go look for her.
Once I’m back in my room, I leave the door open, then turn on the light. I’m no longer tired. I feel awake and uncomfortably alive, the way I used to when the last kill didn’t give me the high I needed to sustain me until the next one.
I rummage around in the back of my closet, looking for something appropriate to wear.
Seems stupid, to be worrying about clothing when Kayla might be in danger, but if I’m about to go traipsing all over the island looking for her, I can’t very well do that in my usual three piece suit. But it’s virtually all I wear.
At the back of the closet I find the gym bag I sometimes use, and pull out my workout gear.
It reminds me of the day in the pool. When everyone was forced to confront their demons but me. I don’t have any demons. No skeletons in my closet. Nothing haunting me.
Or so I thought.
Watching Kayla battle with the water, and knowing I couldn’t help her, nearly drove me insane. Like now. The possibility that she could be hurt, or gone…that’s my demon. The force of my feelings for her.
I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her.
I step into my black sweatpants, pull on my black T-shirt, slip my feet into black trainers, and don a black hoodie. I’m just zipping it up when my phone beeps with a message and again, my heart soars, thinking it might be Kayla.
That’s what I mean about demons. Caring for someone. It fucks you up. I know her phone is on her bedside table, but I still hoped it could be her.
I exit the closet, grab my phone to check the message. It’s from Hatchet: Want me to search the woods?
I type back a quick message: Yes. Please. I’ll speak to the others first and we’ll hunt in here.
Snow chooses that moment to pop his head through my partially opened door.
“What’s going on?” he asks, running his hand through his hair.
“Kayla’s gone. She’s not in her room. She’s not with one of us, and she’s not here,” I tell him with a calm, matter-of-factness that I’m definitely not feeling on the inside.
Snow’s eyes widen and then his face contorts into a mask of frustration. “Shit, man.”
“I know. Hatchet is hunting for her outside but we need to search the facility. If there’s no sign of her we’ll go to Seytan.”
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
“Keep your phone on you, and text me if you find anything!” I call out, as Snow turns and starts running around the corner towards the common room.
I take a moment to compose myself, and then I leave my room.
Moving quickly, I run down the hallway to the next room, and then the next, checking each one of our bedrooms. There’s no sign of her
Did someone take her? I’m running out of options.
I come to the dining hall and find it unlocked, which immediately sets me on edge. Even more than I already was.
Several steps of footsteps enter behind me and I whirl around. But it’s only the others. One by one, they enter the dining space, their faces etched with confusion and concern.
We’re all psychopaths, until now only bound together by our shared darkness and the asylum that contains us. But not anymore. Now we’re bound together by her.
“What’s going on?” Honey asks, his usual smiling expression gone, replaced by a pale face, gaunt with worry. “Ghost said Kayla’s missing?”
“Kayla’s gone,” I reply, my fear transforming into anger. “She went out with Hatchet earlier but he brought her back and saw her to her door. There’s no sign of her. He’s gone back outside to search for her.”
“Okay. Where do you need us, outside too?” Honey offers.
Snow, with his penchant for being a dick who only cares for himself, growls. “Let’s tear this place apart.”
I shake my head. “The dining room wasn’t locked, so now we need to check every floor, every room to see which doors have been left unlocked and to try and find her. We need to split up.”
“I’ll check the roof,” Snow offers.
“Good. Ghost, can you search the art room, supply closets, that sort of thing up there?”
“Yes.”
“If Donnelly and Silas want to help and get involved, let them. We need all hands on deck.”
“Oh, I’m already here and raring to go,” Ghost says in the voice I’ve come to recognise as Donnelly’s. I give them a brief nod of acknowledgement and turn to Honey.
“Honey, you take the recreational areas. It’s highly unlikely, but I’ll go and check the gym and pool, changing rooms, all of that area. Bones, you take the therapy rooms.”
“No problem,” Bones agrees.
“If your area’s clear, go help Bones. Keep your phones on you, and text if you find anything!” I call out, as they all split off and disappear in different directions.
United, but separate, we storm through the asylum, our frantic footsteps echoing off the sterile white walls. I’m too impatient to wait for the lift, so I run along the corridor to the emergency stairwell and take the steps down to the pool.
As much as I want to find Kayla, I really fucking hope she’s not down here. I’d dread to think what state she’d be in if she was.