Chapter 51 #2
The woman doesn’t say anything for a moment. When she does speak, it’s not to me. She turns to look at the tallest nurse beside her.
“Go alert the White Stag their offering will be waiting for them.”
He doesn’t acknowledge her request other than to simply turn and leave the room. It’s not until he’s gone that the woman speaks again.
“Grab her and let’s go.”
The two remaining male nurses grab my arms and attempt to guide me toward the door. My feet slip and I stumble, scraping my toes against the stone floor. I’m unable to get my bearings as I search for any type of sensation in them.
“Wait, no!” I cry out, trying to dig my heels into the ground. “I need to know, please !”
I’m not sure if she understands me with how hard my teeth chatter together or if she simply doesn’t care to answer, but she remains silent as I’m dragged from the room and out into a hallway similar to the ones me and the guys had run through before stumbling into the room of death.
“Please, just tell me,” I beg. “Where are they?”
No one answers me. Maybe they’re ignoring me, or maybe they don’t know the answer. Panic pops and sizzles beneath my skin like overheated oil in a pan. My heart begins to race and for a second the air in the hallway tastes thin.
They can’t be dead. Please don’t be dead!
My chest constricts as a ringing starts in my ears. The thought of all three of them dead—their bodies growing cold and stiff somewhere in this awful place—is enough to zap me of my will to stand and fight.
No, I can’t panic. Not yet. There may be a chance I can slip away and save them. I’ve always been able to hide in plain sight. My ability to remain quiet and inconspicuous is a talent I’ve honed for as long as I can remember. I just need the opportunity to arise where I can slip away.
We don’t go far. The four of us round three corners, and they drag me up a flight of non-spiral stairs until we get to an ornate wooden door. The female nurse steps around me and opens it. When she steps aside, the others drag me in.
I blink rapidly as we enter a near pitch-black room.
I can see nothing—not the size of it or if there’s any furniture in it or if there’s someone already here.
The only light comes from a spotlight high above us and pointed downward in the middle of the room.
There’s nothing beneath it except a smooth tile floor and a thick, heavy chain attached to a metal d-hook bolted down to the floor.
I’m not sure how the nurses know there’s nothing in front of us, but as they drag me toward the light, we don’t bump a single thing.
Dread fills my lungs as we approach that spotlight and then continues to fill my chest and my throat. I can’t be hooked up to that chain. If I am, I know my chances of escape will drop to zero. So when the heat of the light hits my skin, an idea strikes.
One nurse lets go of my arm to grab for the chain on the floor and that’s when I act.
I jerk my other arm free, then slam my elbow into the nose of the nurse who lingered behind.
It’s not terribly effective given the mask he’s wearing, but it’s enough to startle him since I’ve been limp the whole time.
He stumbles back several steps, giving me enough room to whirl around.
As I do, I raise a fist and slam it into the woman’s gut.
I’ve never struck anyone before, but twice in nearly the same breath feels pretty impressive to me.
She doubles over with a grunt. Adrenaline keeps me moving.
I make it three steps, halfway out from beneath the spotlight, before I slip in the trail of blood from my feet.
It’s almost cartoonish how my legs go out from under me. I would’ve hit my head on the tile but the second male nurse, the one who’d gone for the chain, catches me.
“If your fate wasn’t already sealed, that would’ve done the trick,” he snarls as he heaves me back to my feet.
I fight his hold but the blood from the wounds on my feet has made the tiles too slippery. I can’t find my footing. It makes it easy for the nurse to drag me into place and to clip the chains onto the cuffs around my wrist.
“Go, the White Stag should be here any minute. They don’t like nobodies hanging around,” the woman orders sharply.
The two male nurses leave without another word. The door we came through opens, spilling light into the otherwise dark room, and then they’re gone.
The woman steps closer to me. Her strange mask tilts to the side as she appears to study my face. I try to step back but the chains only give me about a foot to move around. The nurse clears the distance until her mask is only inches from my face.
“I’m glad you struck me,” she admits. “Shows you still have some fight left in you. So I’ll give you this.
” She steps even closer, bends down, and kisses me.
The press of her mask against my lips feels weird.
Repulsed, I jerk my head away. She throws her head back and laughs.
“When you walk out the door, turn right and run. Turn left, follow that hallway to the end, then turn right. There is a hidden spiral staircase behind the bust of the stag. Go down it, open the hatch and jump. The lights will come on when there’s movement.
You’ll have to figure out what to do from there. ”
With that, she turns and leaves me here alone.