chapter eight
THE POISONER
I clutched the knife in my hand until my knuckles turned white.
Pacing the room, I glanced at the clock again.
One a.m., thirteen hours after our previous encounter.
Sleep was not something that would come to me tonight. Every sound the house made set me on edge, waiting for my least favorite bump in the night to appear. Intuition warned me in every way that something was coming.
That liar promised me a visit. I was not often asked questions I did not know the answer to, but the fact that he survived bothered me. I needed to know how. It would only be a matter of time before I found out, and then my anxiety would be laid to rest.
I was unsure when he would come, all I knew was that he would .
Then, this deadly dance would commence, and I had to win.
There was no other option. If I disappeared, who would take care of the men like him in this world?
He did not deserve to be here, but those girls he murdered did.
They had lives, families, aspirations—and he made out like a thief.
My hands and feet were cold, and my body had become clammy from the adrenaline pumping through my tired heart. With the knife still clutched in my fist, I lifted my hands up and down slowly, like a conductor, instructing myself on how to take in air and let it go.
I added extra soap to the bath as well as dried lavender. No herb would be strong enough to calm me, but the effort was admirable on my part.
I set the blade on the wooden stool beside the tub for safekeeping.
The hot water tingled as I lowered myself into it, forcing the blood back to my appendages.
I groaned as the water crept up to my neck.
The tension cracked like ice cracking in a water glass when I was finally submerged.
It would have been more enjoyable if I was not prepared to run at any given moment.
As much as I would cherish the opportunity to lie in the tub for hours, it would be too much precious time wasted.
Despite my efforts, my body betrayed me. It did not take long for my mind to swim, and I drifted into the void as a result.
A thud sent a shock through my heart as I woke. The whiplash from the sudden awakening cast an unpleasant spell of dizziness. My vision darted from the closed door to the clock on the wall.
Three a.m.
You fool, Alina!
I snatched the knife from the stool and lowered it into the water, obscured by the remaining suds. As much as I preferred not to be caught in this state, I might not have a choice in the matter.
The last encounter admittedly made me doubt if I could pull this off without some sort of chemical aid. Maybe if I was quiet, he would skip this room. My candle had already burned out, and I had not moved in some time. He could not know I was in here. I thought maybe I had a few minutes.
The heavy sound of a pair of boots echoed through the hallway, the old wooden floor whining under each step. My breathing slowed the closer they came. One after the other, leisurely in approach.
To muffle any noise my breathing would create, I placed my hand over my mouth. The sound of steps made it outside my bathroom door, and the knob slowly began to turn.
With a deep inhale, I sank under the water, hoping he would see an empty bathroom and move on. Now was a good time to test how long I could hold my breath. I tried to relax my body under the water, saving any oxygen I could spare as the muffled footsteps sauntered into the room.
My eyes clenched shut as I waited. I think I even caught a little voice in the back of my head praying. The silence under the water was deafening. My lungs ached, screaming at me for air.
Just a little longer.
Suddenly, a sharp pain of hairpulling made me suck in, but my lungs were met with water instead of the air they craved.
My head was yanked above the water as my hands clawed at the leather-covered hand that pulled on my scalp.
I choked out some water and met that familiar feral stare.
“Were you trying to ruin my fun by offing yourself before we began?” he asked, crouching beside the tub. “That’s not very sportsmanlike of you.” His eyes lowered to the soap suds covering my chest.
I spat in his face.
That only made him tighten his grip. “Don’t waste too much energy. The chase is only fun if you are actually trying, dear.”
“You creature,” I seethed.
“Well, well, that would be closer than your previous guesses!” A wild smirk, paired with a crazed look in his eyes, flashed before me. I would say he was enamored, but it was most likely the itch to kill me.
He pulled me closer to his face by my hair.
“Now, let’s get started, shall we? Let’s go over some ground rules,” he instructed, suddenly letting go of my scalp, causing me to slump upon release.
As the man stood, he smoothed the wrinkles from his dark coat and stepped away from the basin. “Get up. Let me see you.”
“That’s unfair. You’re fully clothed.” I hugged my body and sank lower into the tub. My fingers graced the hilt of the knife that rested on the floor of the tub under my legs.
“Alina, don’t make me ask twice.” His face went cold. Nothing in his tone insisted he was joking. “I won’t be a gentleman and ask next time.”
I took a shaky breath, stalling as much as I could to put off whatever fate I was about to meet.
Before sheepishly standing, I clutched the knife behind my back.
My hair fell in thick, wet tendrils down my body, thankfully covering my breasts.
My legs crossed awkwardly. Everything was too exposed.
The soap suds slid down my figure and back into the water from whence they came. My free hand covered whatever it could.
What is the point of this? Humiliation? Sadism? The former and the latter all at once?
He let me squirm there for a long minute, not saying a single word.
His eyes crawled over my body at a painfully slow rate.
I could not make myself look at him. I only imagined the hungry expression that would without a doubt be present.
Or maybe I was afraid of seeing a look of victory, of satisfaction.
Was this some sort of power play? To break me down before we began?
My cheeks burned, hot to the touch. It could have been the lack of sleep, but I felt like a million little bugs were crawling around my skin.
He finally spoke. “Do you like games? Let’s play a game. You hide, and I will seek you out.” He moved closer.
“How do I win?” I asked, shivering as the cold air from the cracked window licked my body.
“Hide until dawn. You have three hours until then.” He smiled, approaching until we were only a meter apart.
“Will you kill me?”
“No.”
“Then what do you win?”
“I get to eat you alive,” he said coldly, cocking his head to the side as his gaze ventured lower, watching me shake before him. “Are you scared?”
“I am cold ,” I hissed between clenched teeth, shrinking into myself to obscure his view.
“Is that how you will shake when I catch you? Or will it excite you to be under me in all the ways I plan to have you?”
I swung the knife, aiming straight at his chest.
My wrist smacked against his grip, his fingers squeezing around it.
His expression never faltered, and that wicked glint lit like wildfire. “I was wondering when my little snake would strike.” He let me push the tip an inch into his shoulder, then another and another. The white shirt under the dark coat turned wet and black from the wound.
How is he just standing there?
He cracked his neck to either side and leaned in close.
Something changed. Blood rushed to the whites of his eyes, filling them with darkness until there was just a halo of a silver iris surrounded by a sea of black.
“Our game starts now.” He hovered above me.
A wet split tongue slid over my lips slowly.
My eyes widened at the man— Creature —before me.
My shock subsided when he quickly pulled the knife from his shoulder. I dove under his arm and darted out of the room. There was no time to rationalize what I saw. This was beyond what I could have prepared for. This was never a fair game, and he knew it.
I moved light on my feet through the labyrinth of rooms. I made sure not to touch creaking doors and to skip squeaky floor panels I knew of. I managed to grab a robe that I had discarded on a chair to save some of my remaining dignity.
His pacing could be heard throughout the house before it stopped. He was listening for me, waiting for a mistake to be made.
It was hard to move fast without making any noise. A hiding place would be difficult, since it could not be as obvious as the closet. Hide-and-seek might be more difficult than I anticipated.
My weapon of choice was a sharp poker from the guest room fireplace. The first hiding spot that came to mind was to slip under the bed, hidden by the fabric trim.
Crashing, thumping, and rummaging could be heard nearby. That clicking sound erupted sporadically.
It was all starting to make sense. There was some odd comfort in knowing that my methods were not faulty. I just had not considered that he was inhuman, which I would have called myself hysterical for considering even if I did suspect it.
Species developed mutations often, though I would have never expected so many in one organism, a person least of all. His heavy boots moved slowly into the room, stepping from heel to toe.
Calmly, he approached the curtains, shoving them aside as if he expected to find something besides newly disturbed dust. The closet doors were flung open next, and a long pause followed as he stared inside, seemingly distracted by my clothing.
“Your scent is infatuating,” he said aloud. “I suspect you’ll taste like the equivalent of honeysuckle and cayenne when I bite past your cold composure.” He practically moaned, strutting out of view.
I lost sight of the movement, and I could no longer hear him. With what I knew at this point, I wondered if his threats of eating me were to be taken literally.