"Hey!" his voice booms. "Get away from there!"
I flinch back against the door that the other children are behind. Their growing terror chokes me as the bald man shuts the door behind him and storms toward me. He grips my upper arm so hard that I cry out as he uses it to lift me off my bare feet.
He smells like smoke. His smile is horrible, and his verywrongfeelings are crushing me until more tears escape, and I can't breathe.
"Trying to be helpful, are we? That's the last of that. These ones have an appetite for pretty little legacies like you, so we'll start with you, girlie."
His grip is bruising me. Fear chokes my mind and heart until my eyes want to stop working. But just as the bald man turns to drag me toward the door he came out of, the boy appears again.
He grabs the man, who drops me in surprise, and they both disappear.
At first, I'm glad the bad man is gone.
Until it hurts.
Really bad. Everywhere, like lots of deep cuts and stinging and terror and pain and?—
I fall to the floor and cover my mouth, trying to stop the screams that want to come out as I feel it all. I can't scream, though, or the other bad people will come out and see something is going on.
Suddenly, the boy with purple eyes is back. He helps me sit up against the door as the pain cuts off suddenly. He's frowning. Even though all his emotions are so muffled, I think he's worried as he studies me.
"You felt that," he realizes. "You're an empath."
He talks the way some of Alaric's legacy friends do when they come to visit the Frosts from far away. I sense something like respect from him when I nod, still trying to keep my tears quiet.
"You saidus. You sense other children here?" he checks, speaking softly.
I look at the door at my back, where I feel their terror still twisting and darkening into something more horrible than I've ever experienced before.
"All right," the purple-eyed boy says. "Follow me."
Without making a sound, the boy pulls a key out of his jacket pocket. I realize he must have gotten the key from the bald man when he unlocks the front door of this horrible, dark place and takes my hand to lead me out into the woods. My inner animal is relieved to be out here, even though she's still scared.
The purple-eyed boy pauses, asking if I can still feel the others' emotions. I tell him yes.
He goes further and asks again.
"Yes. I'm a type four," I tell him.
I don't know what it means, but I hear my mom describe me that way sometimes.
The purple-eyed boy takes me a lot further this time before stopping. "Sense anyone in there still?"
I shake my head.
"What's your name?"
"Heidi. What's yours?"
"Crypt."
I sniffle, still shaking as my bruised arm finally starts to get better. "I've heard Ian and my brother talk about you before. I don't think they like you."
"I'm sure I don't like them either, whoever they are." He points at a nearby tree. "Stay beside this tree. Close your eyes, cover your ears, and hum a song. Any song you like, just don't move. I'll be back."
I don't know how long I hum songs to myself. I don't know what I'm waiting for, but I hope the purple-eyed boy is getting the other children out, too.
Finally, someone taps me on the shoulder. I open my eyes to find the boy beside me again, but I cover my mouth when I see red splashed all over him.
