Page 69 of Desecrated Saints
A single light built into the ceiling.
There’s a bed to my left, the sheets disturbed from where I fell. No windows. One door and a serious-looking lock. Pushing up on my hands and knees, I hear a snort from across the room.
“Graceful, Brooke. You mind keeping the screaming down? My head still hurts from when you bashed it in with your bare hands.”
Trembling all over, I force myself to meet the wide, expectant eyes of my best friend, Teegan. Framed by flowing, bright-red hair, heavy eyeliner and her usual gothic armour, she stares me down with the corner of her mouth lifted in a grin.
“Tee?” I whisper fearfully.
“The one and only. Long time, no see.”
“What are you doing here? Where… where are we?”
“Neverland, obviously. I’m waiting for Peter Pan to come save us.”
Sprawled out in the corner, she props her Creepers against the wall. I clutch my chest, feeling like I’m having a heart attack. Did Incendia catch her too? Are we both prisoners now? I have to find the guys. I won’t let anyone hurt them just to get to me.
“Where are the others?”
Teegan chuckles. “You’re going to get them killed, you know.”
“Where the hell are they?”
“Not here,” she singsongs.
Getting my jelly legs beneath me, I manage to stand. The room is still swaying with the aftereffects of the drugs, but I make my way to the door without faceplanting. It refuses to budge, no matter how loud I shout and rage. We’re trapped in these four walls.
“How long have you been here?”
Teegan sighs. “All I ever wanted was to be your friend, B. That’s it. Where did that get me, huh? Three surgeries. Intensive care. They had to wire my jaw shut. All your fault.”
Before I can beg on my knees for her forgiveness, a slow, mocking clap fills the room. With my back against the wall, I nearly jump out of my skin. Hudson’s glaring at me from the empty bed.
“Landed yourself in more trouble, I see.”
“Hud?”
His smile takes a venomous edge. “I never regretted what I did to you all those years ago. You needed breaking in. I wanted to ruin you, watch you scream and suffer, desperate to escape.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I wrench them open again, ready for him to disappear in a cloud of shadows. His sharp gaze remains, digging beneath my skin like a parasite. Each step towards me has my hammering heartbeat racketing even higher.
“You should have died on that roof last year,” Hudson spits. “Everything was perfect until you came along and fucked up our lives. Now, we’re all dead because of you.”
Teegan concurs with a gleeful hoot. “Don’t worry, Brooke. She’s coming back for you. You escaped fate before, but not this time. Once you’re dead, we can all live in peace.”
“But… what if… what if I want peace too?” My voice breaks right as my knees give way. “I don’t want to be alone anymore. I… I think I want my happy ending.”
Frigid cold races down my spine as a pair of lips meet my ear. Rubbery and hard, the brush of the dead is unmistakable. Vic will always live inside of me. I can’t dig out his poison wrapped around my bones.
“You don’t deserve your happy ending,” he taunts. “Thought you’d gotten rid of me, did you, darling? I’m never far away.” His skeletal finger taps my temple. “Right here, until the end.”
“No! Get me out!” I curl up in the tightest ball imaginable. “Please… please let me out.”
My voice deserts me, drying up into oblivion. Tears flow and my body shakes with tremors. I don’t know how long I lay there, sobbing and pleading for an escape. The choir of voices breaks my solitude with their taunts and constant barrage of vitriol.
When a hand clasps my shoulder and shakes, I scream again.
“Hey, Brooke! It’s me!”