Chapter 10 #2
Opposite each other, against the farthest corners of the stage, propped against the wall are two iron maidens.
They’re weirdly out of place. In all the years I’ve been here, I never learned their true purpose.
I did, however, learn the spikes inside have been removed, leaving just a few inches of space between the door and the back.
Like a tomb of sorts, or a claustrophobic’s nightmare.
The small slit where the eyes of a victim would look out are dark, full of ancient promises of anguish.
I approach the one on the left.
“Maverick, what are we doing here?” Everly asks, her hushed voice tight with worry.
“Just another minute, you’ll see,” I promise, a cold smile spreading across my face.
She can’t see it. Not with my back to her.
It’s gone by the time we stop in front of the iron maiden and I turn.
“I put something in here for safekeeping. I’m going to open it just enough for you to step in and grab it. Once you do, we can go.”
Everly’s wide hazel eyes look from me to the heavy antique torture device.
Her hands wring together in front of her nervously as she considers my request. I let her contemplate it, knowing how this will all end.
Her father, and possibly some of his goons, will pop out of the darkness when he realizes his plan to break me in this new way doesn’t work.
I’ll be dragged into a padded room within the Williamson Health Center, forced to endure solitary for as long as he thinks is necessary or a new round of torture will start up if he decides a stint in Rookwell Tower would be better suited for me.
What’s happening is so fucking obvious, it’s pathetic.
“Alright, open the thing,” she mutters, squaring her shoulders and dropping her hands to her side.
Yeah, this isn’t Little Evie. That girl would’ve balked at the sight of one of these things. Getting in would have been completely out of the question. This Everly knows she’s going to be saved, that someone is watching her back.
Without a word, I step up and grab the edge of the top.
When I pull, it takes a moment and a fuck ton of manpower for it to open.
The sound of metal grinding against the floor as I heave it open feels loud in the otherwise quiet chapel.
I open it just enough for Everly, who steps forward to peer inside.
With her attention pinned to the dark interior, I strike.
My hand lands between her shoulder blades, and I give her a hard shove. She stumbles in with a yelp of surprise. Before she can collect herself, I’m shoving the door closed with all my might.
The scream Everly lets out could wake the dead, and that’s with at least five or six inches of metal between us. The eye slot is hardly an inch wide and only about seven or eight inches long, not enough to really allow much sound through.
“Good try, Everly!” I say, hopefully loud enough for her to hear. “Did you really think I’d play into your little trap? I’m not a fucking idiot!”
“Mavie!” Everly really screams then. “This isn’t a trick! I swear ! Let me out of here! Don’t leave me in here!”
I roll my eyes. “I’m sure Daddy will set you free.”
“He’s not here!”
“I hope for your sake you’re wrong, because that thing is only able to be opened from the outside, and I’m sure as shit not doing it again.”
She can’t see it, but I spit on the tomb before I turn to leave her there.
As I jump the short distance from the stage to the floor, I lift my middle finger, hoping Everly does see it.
She screams. Just the small distance I put between us muffles the sound.
Smiling, I head for the exit. I don’t even feel bad.
If she hadn’t come up with this new way to fuck with me herself, if it was her dad, she could’ve at least warned me.
She didn’t say a damn thing. She just played along. So fuck her.
I try to pretend the small crack in my chest has nothing to do with disappointment, and heartache caused by Peter’s little sister and her game.
When I get to the door of the chapel, I throw it open knowing who I’ll see on the other side. I step out into the night, ready to sneer into James’s displeased expression.
I pause, confused, when I find no one waiting for me. What the fuck is this?
“Alright, James! Game’s up, you can come on out now!” I call into the night.
Nothing in the darkness stirs.
Fucking asshole, he’s going to make me work for this.
“I know you're out here watching this all play out, James, but it didn’t work! I saw straight through Everly. Honestly, it was clever using your girl. I almost fell for it there for a second.”
I brace my legs and cross my arms over my chest. He’s out here. If he wants to make his grand entrance on his own time, he can. Who am I to hurry him?
Time ticks by. The sounds of nature are the only noise out here. The leaves on the trees rustle in the slight wind, crickets continue to chirp, unfazed by my outburst, and somewhere in the distance an owl hoots. None of those things are James Woodrow.
He’s here. He has to be here. So why the fuck is he not showing his face? Is this a test to see how long I will wait out his bluff? Was he supposed to meet Everly elsewhere? Or…
Or is it possible Everly’s telling the truth?
My stomach sinks as I frantically start searching the campus for signs of James. But… but there’s nothing. No one. My head starts to pound, a throb so intense and frantic it matches the rhythm of my heart.
He’s… not here? No, he has to be. He has to be.
Everly didn’t break onto Serenity Falls’ campus on her own.
I mean, how the hell would she have managed that?
And my room—how’d she know where it was without help?
The only reason she knows I’m here is likely because of James.
This is all his doing and Everly is just a pawn.
My eyes latch on to every shadow, analyzing each one until I’m sure it’s not him.
The longer the silence stretches, the more my confidence begins to waver.
If Everly is here because she’s trying to save me, then I’m wasting valuable time when we should be running.
My teeth grind together. No, the Everly I knew didn’t have it in her for something this grandiose.
This can’t be a rescue mission. It just wouldn’t make any sense.
Then again, it’s been five years since I’ve seen or heard from her.
It’s possible she’s changed. It would be a big one, but I suppose people are capable of it.
I know I’ve changed since she’s last seen me.
An internal war rages as I try to decide whether I can believe the girl I’ve locked up or not. Is this what James wanted? To watch me internally battle?
The pounding in my head increases. It's creeping down into my eyes, and for a second they feel like they’re bulging from my skull.
The air feels too thin. I can’t catch my breath.
The world begins to spin and tilt. I stumble, trying to gain my bearings.
It doesn’t help. The world just moves faster, leaving me nauseous and more confused than ever before.
What’s wrong with me? With a snarl, I bend at the waist—the heels of my palms coming up to press into my eyes.
What is going on? Is this James’s doing?
This is a trap. It’s a trap. It has to be a fucking trap. I know it!
“Are you done yelling?” a familiar voice asks.
I stop breathing. When I straighten, my hands fall away from my face, and fury returns.
It’s not James who comes creeping out of the woods; it’s Rowan Underhill.
His favorite lackey, Sheldon, is watching me with a sneer on his face.
Rowan, on the other hand, stares at me with contempt and only a hint of the disgust he typically holds for me. The feeling is mutual.
James may be my personal devil, but Rowan and Braum are Serenity Falls’ terrorizers.
The two enjoy inflicting pain and terror on others.
They’re the self-appointed kings here, and every patient and employee knows it.
The institution’s rules hardly apply to them.
Their desire to inspire misery within these walls is what drives me to continuously keep getting out of bed everyday rather than slit my wrists.
I’d rather suffer a thousand times over than allow them to run this place like it’s their own goddamn kingdom.
Everyone needs someone, and I might not be mentally all here anymore, but I’m right enough in the head to bite back when these two lash out.
“Rowan,” I greet between grinding teeth, tensing as I turn all the way around to face him. Fuck me, of course, out of anyone here, it had to be one of them to witness my meltdown. Pretending he didn’t, I demand, “What the fuck are you doing out here?”
“Waiting to get my hands on the girl,” he answers as he and his friend approach.
I scowl. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, you know who I’m talking about. I’m after the girl that visited you earlier,” Rowan jerks his head toward the chapel doors. “We’ve been waiting for her arrival all evening. The tail I had on you since this afternoon just came to alert me she’s here, inside the chapel.”
My body tenses as he closes the distance between us.
He stops just a few feet away, as does Sheldon, who I shoot a wary glare.
Sheldon is practically Rowan’s lapdog, doing as he’s commanded like the obedient pup he is.
But where are the other three, Bastian, Conner, and Jonathan?
Between those four, the kings always have someone watching their backs.
They must be with Braum, wherever he is.
“How the fuck do you know about Everly?” I ask him.
“Everly?” Rowan repeats, brows furrowing with confusion. Then he nods. “Ah, that must be her real name. No wonder we couldn’t find anything on an Anastasia Hutchinson. I’ll have to tell Braum once he and the others are done securing her”
My stomach knots. They were looking her up? Why?
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Rowan,” I snarl.
His upper lip pulls up in a sneer. “I’m not quite sure I appreciate the tone, Vick.
Especially since we’re about to do you a favor.
As to your question—Braum and I watched the video footage of you two in the gym earlier.
” Before I can ask why, Rowan gives me a cold smile.
“Grab him, Jonathan. We need time to prepare the surprise we have for him.”
I’m hit from behind—a blow struck straight at the back of my head. A bright light flashes before my eyes, blocking out Rowan and his two lackeys, and when it fades, so does the world.