Chapter Twenty-Two
Mia
“What the actual fuck is going on out there?” I said, staring at the ceiling from where I lay on the bed.
Everything in the room was old. Most of the room was covered in dust and debris, but the bed had been cleaned, as had the bathroom. It wasn’t great, but it was, as Tor had said, livable. For a night.
That, however, was before the explosions, or whatever they were, had started going off nonstop outside.
I glanced out the singular window, but all I could see were dark clouds rolling in.
Was a tremendous storm brewing just out of sight causing all the cracks and rumbles?
It certainly sounded like a thunderstorm.
Finally, I’d had too much. I couldn’t take it. I went to the door and hauled it open.
“Tor!” I shouted into the empty hallway. “Ty?”
The only sound I heard was my voice echoing off the walls and floor. I stayed put in the middle of the doorframe, looking up and down the hall, trying to judge what to do. Across from me, the windows looked out into the center courtyard. But again, still no sign of what was causing the noise.
The thunderous rumbles paused for a bit. Maybe they were over. But then, they started back up again at almost regular intervals. No way was it random, storm-generated lightning. Something was making those noises. Could it be guns? Were Tor and Ty having a shootout with Rica? Was she that crazy?
I had to find out. He couldn’t expect me to stay put throughout it, could he? That was insane.
“Tor!” I shouted, making my decision. I knew where I was going, and screw anyone who told me otherwise. I was tired of being kept in the dark, not to mention being a half-prisoner. People didn’t do that. I needed to know if I should call the police.
There was still no sound of anyone approaching, so I decided to stop calling out for them. After all, they would probably just tell me to go back to my room. Instead, I started creeping along, sticking to the carpets as best I could to muffle my footsteps.
In no time flat, I was at the double doors, beyond which lay Tor’s private area. I stared at them and the twin brackets of blackened metal, one per door. All I had to do was reach out and slide one of the doors open. Then I could see what lay beyond.
Earlier, I had seen nothing but a hallway. Clearly, there was more.
“You can do this,” I whispered, trying to amp myself up. Breaking the rules wasn’t exactly my style, and I needed a bit more time to gather my courage first.
Finally, I reached out and slid the door open, far enough to slide through. Then I stopped and waited, looking to see if any traps sprung or alarms went off. When nothing did, I stepped across the threshold and closed the door behind me. Again, I waited, but no sounds could be heard.
That was, at least, nothing but the ceaseless booms above me. They were a constant presence and somewhat frustrating, because they would do a great deal to mask the approach of either Tor or Ty, making it harder for me to avoid them.
The hallway was just as dirty as the rest of the house, so it wasn’t as if the area had received special attention. After discovering the first two doors were locked, I continued to wander deeper into the manor.
“So this is where the rest of the basement is,” I said as I reached the next hallway junction.
A hallway lined with doors extended to my left and right, a door at the end of both sides.
In front of me, however, there was a wide set of carpeted stairs that descended below ground.
I’d been below ground in the parking garage, but that section of the basement was tiny compared to the rest of the house.
Now I knew why. Most of it was completely separate. Again, I wondered why. What did Tor keep there that he didn’t want me to see? There was only one way to find out.
I went down the stairs. However, there wasn’t far to go.
A large steel door blocked the way perhaps thirty feet from the last step.
It was completely blank, except for a pair of rods that extended out.
They were unadorned metal cylinders, perhaps three or four inches in diameter, sticking out about a foot from the wall.
“Well, that’s weird,” I said, reaching a hand out toward them.
I felt a buzz through my fingertips as they neared the rods, forcing me to snatch my hand back quickly. Were they electrified?
“What on Earth is this place?” I muttered to myself, looking around for anything else. How did one open this door? There had to be a keypad or lock somewhere, right? I searched both sides of the wall, pressing and feeling each stone, but nothing seemed out of place. Nothing except the door.
“So weird.” Finally, giving up and deciding to head back up the stairs and explore the other hallways, I turned to go.
With a soft hiss, I heard the door behind me open.
“Who are you?” a voice asked.
I spun back, only to find myself staring at someone’s chest. My head jerked up until I met the smoky gray eyes of another tall, muscular male in a bright blue shirt and burgundy pants.
His hair was a light blond, falling well past his shoulders.
He might be easy on the eyes, like Ty or especially Tor, but there was nothing friendly about the look on his face.
“Uh,” I said, stepping back, hands coming up. “I don’t want any trouble.”
That movement, away from the giant, allowed me to see past him into the room beyond.
I gaped at the sight before me. A large bronze metal arc could be seen on the top of a raised dais in the center of the large domed room.
That was bizarre enough on its own, but what’s more, the space below the arch flickered with blue-white lightning, turning the entire space opaque. I couldn’t see beyond it.
“What the hell is that?” I gasped.
“Intruder!” the man barked, reaching for my neck.
I dodged under his swipe, moving fast, and ducked to the side, managing to get past him. I darted into the room but came to a halt as someone came through the archway.
They didn’t appear from behind it. They came through it. There was no other way to describe what I saw as the blue-white lightning field parted and they walked into the room.
“Holy shit.”
Aliens. They were freaking aliens disguised as humans. Coming through some sort of portal to take over Earth.
“Gotcha!” the first alien-man cried, a thick, meaty, superhuman grip closing around my neck and holding me tight. “You’re coming with me, human girl.”
Human girl. He called me human. Meaning he’s not.
I was in way deeper shit than I’d ever suspected.
Why couldn’t it have been a sex dungeon?