Chapter 34 #3
The lights dim, making the memories of my life playing on all the screens like a fucking horror film, voices I haven’t heard in years catching me off guard.
But I can’t let them distract me. I’m sure that’s what they want, my head so fucked up that they win.
Trying to block it all out, I run from aisle to aisle searching for an escape, but this room goes on forever.
I come to a dead end. Heavy footsteps clomp down the concrete behind me.
I know one of them is there, and fresh panic erupts through me, but I don’t stop moving.
I come back the way I came and shoot off down another aisle.
If they catch me, I’m fucked. I won’t let this be my life, trapped with them all because of some bad choices my mother made.
She was the dumb one, falling for a man who corrupted her.
Changed her. Used her for her brain then killed her when he got what he wanted.
Pure fucking evil, that’s what he is, and I’m sure his kids are the same.
I have seen the signs. I should have listened to my gut when it was warning me.
A flickering neon-green sign up ahead catches my eye, and I head right for it, shoving open the emergency door and out into a parking garage that stretches on for days.
Sweat trickles down my forehead, and I swipe it away.
This place is like a maze; just when you think you might escape it, there is more.
Fear consumes me as I look from left to right, trying to work out which way to run.
“Dove, stop running.” From somewhere in the distance, I hear Slater’s voice call to me. It vibrates off the concrete walls as if he’s coming from the other side.
From up ahead, I see a shadowy figure that could be any of them. He’s tall with wide shoulders, but I can’t make out his face. I duck around a corner and stop, trying to suck in a breath before I pass out. My lungs burn and my legs feel like jelly.
“Hey, babe, stop running from us, we just want to help you,” comes River’s voice from not too far away, and I know they are closing in on me.
This is an actual nightmare, one of those ones where you pray to wake up just to get you out of it alive. Frantic to get away from them, I turn a corner and run straight into a wall of muscle and the sharp tip of a blade. A pained, terrified cry flies from my lips as I grip my side where he got me.
The shadowy man leers over me from under his dark mask, his lips twisting.
His shoulders are broad and his frame tall, at least six feet.
“You think you can run from me.” His voice is a low murmur and a puzzle, difficult to understand.
Then there is nothing but gut-wrenching pain as he pulls the sharp object free, my blood glistening on the sharp blade as he inspects it.
“I know what you did, little bird, and it’s time for you to pay. ”
I sway on my feet, nausea consuming me. Fucking move, Dove!
I scream at myself, but my body is trembling so terribly, it’s hard to know how.
When he moves to strike me again, my legs finally catch up with the program and forge ahead.
Holding my side where blood is leaking out at an alarming rate, I run as fast as my legs will take me down the side of the parking garage and out onto the sidewalk of the main street.
His boots slap the concrete behind me, and I know he’s closing in.
But I can’t die like this. I refuse to. The evening traffic flies past me in a blur of lights and car engines.
Sickness swims under my skin, both cold and warm at the same time, as my body shakes violently.
I take a quick glance over my shoulder. The man’s shadowy figure not far behind me, I do the only thing I can and run out into the busy street, searching for help.
Bright lights blind me from all directions. A car swerves to miss me, their horn blasting my eardrum as it screeches to a stop just inches from me. I blink several times, trying to get my balance, but it’s like I’m on a boat, swaying from side to side.
The piercing shriek of tires echoes in my ears, along with the blinding white blur of headlights from an oncoming car that is far too close, and I know it’s too late for me.
I turn from one way to the other, trying to find a way out.
Glass shatters, the scent of petrol fills my nostrils.
My head swims as pain erupts throughout my body, and I fly to the dirty street below in a crumpled mess of limbs.
And then, just like the creepy room where my life was playing out on film, everything flashes before me. I hear my name murmured by voices around me, but it doesn’t make any sense.
No, no, no, not him. In a surge of panic, my mind begins to race, a chaotic jumble of fears. “You’re safe with me, birdie.” My vision dims, leaving only Kasen’s dark eyes as he holds my still body, the sharp pain dissolving into nothingness.
The End
Dove's journey is far from over. Pre-order Power Plays now to continue her story in Book Two.