I snapped back to the present. The storm. The dark room. My breath caught.
In the mirror above the pig figures, something moved.
A shadow slipped behind me.
I spun around, but I was too slow.
Something hard cracked against the side of my head. The pain was instant and white-hot. My knees buckled. A sharp sting pulsed through my skull as the world twisted sideways.
Then everything vanished.
Chapter 25
I was in the garden, here at the Breakers.
Warm sunlight kissed my face as I crouched behind the wide rose bush. The air smelled of roses and salt. A low giggle escaped me. Someone else giggled too. It was another child, not far off, searching.
A slow shadow passed nearby. It didn’t feel threatening. How could it, with laughter still bubbling from my chest? We had to be playing hide and seek.
The crunch of tires on gravel broke the spell. A car had pulled into the driveway.
My heart kicked against my ribs in fear. I rose and stepped out from behind the bush. Thorns tugged at my hair.
“He’s back!” I called out. It sounded like I was warning the person I’d been playing with. As if things were about to get bad.
A firm hand grabbed mine. I was yanked back, stumbling to keep up as someone dragged me away. But before I could turn to see who was fleeing with me, my eyes flew wide open.
I was lying on a stone floor, cold and wet. Blinking against the haze in my vision, I heard the muffled roll of thunder. It wasn’t outside a window, but farther away. I seemed to be underground.
The basement.
I sat up fast.
It took a second for the room to sharpen into view. A single candle flickered on a rickety table, casting shadows across walls I didn’t recognize. This wasn’t any part of the Breakers I’d seen before. The air smelled like mildew and old metal. The space was bare.
I started pushing myself to my feet but stopped when I heard the scrape of metal. I looked down and found thick iron chains circling my wrists and ankles. The chains were bolted to a rusted ring in the wall.
Panic lit up every nerve.
I leaped upright, yanking against the chains with a force that rattled the hook and tore at my skin. The metal scraped hard against my wrists, biting in, but I didn’t care. My heart beat in my throat.
The chains didn’t budge.
My eyes darted around the dim room, searching for anything useful. Dusty, strange wooden machines leaned against the wall. I’d seen something like them in a picture once—twisted pleasure chairs some king had back in the day. A pair of cracked horsewhips hung nearby, limp and coated in dust. In the corner, a broken wooden bed frame sagged.
“What the fuck?” I said. Tears blurred my vision. “What the actual fuck?” I yelled, jerking again at my chains until blood dripped down my wrists. My arms trembled. So did my legs, but I couldn’t stop.
This was bad.
No, this was Hollywood-level horror movie batshit crazy.
“Daniel!” I yelled, my throat hoarse. The sound echoed in the basement. Useless. No one could hear me. “Daniel!” I screamed again anyway, louder.
Suddenly, a hand clamped over my mouth from behind.
I fought at first, but then a voice hissed in my ear.
“Be quiet,” Cynthia whispered. Her breath smelled sour.
