Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
BELLATRIX
“Fucker could have at least returned the favor,” I grumbled to myself, remembering to count my steps in case I needed to spin around and go back. “You know, take a few extra minutes out of his busy psych ward schedule to show me to the door.”
These tunnels weren’t all that different from the ones from back when I was a kid. Which left me to wonder what Prescott Estates had in common with the history of Briarwood Sanitorium other than the fact that Dr. Adrian Lambert had a connection to both. And now so did I.
It wasn’t a coincidence. People didn’t just wake up one day and decide to build a whole underground tunnel system.
They did it because they felt like they didn’t have a choice.
They did it to prepare for something. They did it to hide or escape or both.
They did it because the creatures creeping around here were far less scary than the monsters out there.
A giant rat brushed against my foot, and I closed my eyes, bracing one hand on the wall to keep from tripping over it or anything else that might be crawling by.
The rats and insects didn’t bother me. Now or back then.
It was a good sign that they were here. Meant there was enough oxygen to sustain life.
It also meant there was likely a way out.
Rats didn’t like feeling trapped any more than I did.
It would have been better if I had my gear and my gun.
More to eat than a half a protein bar and whatever edible bugs I found along the way.
I tried a few of them when I was younger, popped them into my mouth like a piece of chewing gum, knowing better than to eat anything that had bright colors or was too quick for me to catch.
I’d been curious and probably a little unstable for an eleven-year-old girl.
“Good thing you grew up and became a slightly more unstable adult, Trix.”
I laughed at my own joke, since there was no one else here to do it, and continued to walk farther and deeper into the darkness until turning around was no longer an option…
It took several hours, the rest of my protein bar, all my insulin shots, the sealed bottle of water Casper had tossed into my cell with the tray, and more beetles than I cared to admit before I finally spotted a sliver of light in front of me.
I blinked my eyes a few times, to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, closed the distance and stared up through the circular opening.
It was late afternoon. Bright, especially after being stuck in the dark for so long. And it smelled like outside. Like grass and trees and something flowery. It also smelled damp. But that could have been coming from me or the puddles of stagnant rainwater pooling around me.
I glanced down at my clothes and cringed.
I was covered head to toe in sweat and mud and probably looked like something that crawled out of a lagoon.
Not that it mattered, because this was where the tunnels ended.
A large stone wall and a giant hole in the ground.
Too high up for me to climb out of without anything to boost me up there.
Fuck.
I looked around, my eyes still adjusting to the light before they caught on a giant metal ladder lying on its side.
That wasn’t a coincidence either. Whoever put it there wanted to be able to get out without letting anyone else get in.
They also must have had help moving the damn thing from view.
It didn’t just fall and land against the stone like that.
I shook my head. I needed to stop making everything a puzzle and focus on getting up there. It wasn’t so easy when you were curious, though—never quite grew out of that one, huh?
Grabbing a middle rung with two hands, I took a deep breath and slowly started dragging the ladder over to the hole. Fucker was heavy. And long. But I guess it needed to be to make it to the top.
Once it was centered on the opening, I lifted with both arms while hoping I had enough strength left to keep the damn thing from falling back on me before it caught on one of the lips.
Sheer luck had me landing it in place on the third try. I knew it even if my ego didn’t.
I adjusted the feet, making sure they were stable on the ground, then tested one boot at a time.
Slowly climbing my way out. Rushing could cause the whole damn thing to sway or pivot and lose balance and it wasn’t likely I’d survive a fall this far onto solid concrete.
And if I did, I wouldn’t survive long after that without anyone to help patch me up.
When I finally made it to the top, the sun bearing down on my cool skin and the wind blowing my hair in my face, I threw myself over the side, landed on my back on the grass, and laughed.
I was fully aware I looked like a crazy person.
A crazy person who literally just escaped a nuthouse.
But I was way too fucking tired to care.
My ankle was throbbing after walking all night and the piece of sleeve I’d torn off my shirt to stabilize it wasn’t doing much to help anymore.
I took a few long pulls of fresh, non-tunnel air before pushing to my feet. Then I stumbled over to the hole, which I now realized was made to look like one of those old-timey wells, and peered over the side. I couldn’t see anything but the top of the metal ladder and more darkness.
It took me a minute but then I realized something else. I knew this well. I knew these woods. I spun around, narrowing my gaze to see past the overgrowth and the towering trees in the distance until a large silhouette came into view. A house. An estate.
I was back at the place I grew up in. And I was right. Briarwood and Tate Prescott were definitely connected in some way. Or at the very least, the people who worked there were.