Page 31 of Corrupt Game

Night time was when I’d let all those feelings out. By the time I’d hit my teens, I had even quit crying when no one could see. There was no point in wasting tears on things that couldn’t be changed. All tears ever did was exhaust me, and I had to be on high alert at all times.

Andy’s death was one exception to the rule I’d made. Even then, I had only cried for a few moments. I’d dried my eyes and focused on finding his killer.

Action was the only thing that could help when all the other options were unavailable.

Mr. Holdt might be super smart and think that he would be the winner of this game we were playing. I knew what his game was. He wanted to break me.

How had he known the one thing that would get under my skin was darkness?

Andy was the only person that knew about my fear of the dark which seemed to be a coincidence and not a planned problem.

Granted, most adults were afraid of the dark. It was a good guess on his part that I would succumb to that fear.

Well, I wasn’t going to let him win. That was all part of his plan.

I stood. Hands out in front of me, I felt my way to the kitchen.

The steps I’d memorized and counted helped to make sure that I didn’t trip or stub a toe.

The refrigerator door was yanked open, but the light I was expecting to come on never did.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing happened.

The microwave was on the counter, and it should have had a light inside.

My hands felt for the door handle and pulled.

Darkness once again.

The lights on the microwave clock were even off.

His voice sounded through the room in a creepy way.

“Did you really think I’d forget something as trivial as the appliance lights? What would be the fun in that?”

The rhetorical question hung in the air.

I growled at the invisible man who was annoying me to no end. Then I turned toward and flipped off the room.

His laugh filled the space.

“Remember, you chose this.”

The echoing silence seemed to repeat the words over and over again until they faded into the darkness.

I was beginning to hate those words.

Chapter 11: Ian

I sat in my office, watching her reaction to the complete darkness. She fumbled around, unsure of herself. Tears still ran down her face.

This was wrong in such a fun way, I was beyond caring what anyone thought about my secret activities. It was none of their business.

Darkness brought people’s deepest fears to the forefront. Anything that could be imagined seemed much worse with the absolute blackness. All the things that could normally be explained or talked through were amplified by the dark.

While I did want to teach her a few lessons and rules later on, I needed to see how she reacted to things that were out of her control. Would she be able to handle not being able to fix things?