We stopped at the bottom of the stairs at the edge of the long, dark throat. Blood rushed through my veins, my head felt off center, and my legs were shaking. The door on our right was thick wood, the kind they locked people behind and they were never seen again. Fear curled through my body.
“I want to go back,” I said, my voice hoarse.
“What are you telling yourself is down here?” he asked, touching my arm. It was to reassure me, but it felt like shackles.
I couldn’t tell him it was monsters. That would be a fast trip to a psych ward. I shook my head.
“Breathe. I’m here. There is no one down here but us. I would hear anyone, Amelia, you are safe.”
He would keep me safe. This was his home. I was safe.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
He reached across and opened a thick old wooden door. My heart took off again, terror crushing my chest, blood pounding against the walls of my head. The darkness, cold and musty, rushed out and swallowed me. In an instant, everything went black.
My whole body spun, tilted. Somehow I was flat on my back, the cement cold as ice beneath me. I swear I heard a chain rattle. Seconds flew with the sound of my terrified heart. Then from corners I saw them, swelling toward me, rushing like streaks. Cloaked shadows. Monsters.
“Please don’t,” I begged, my voice coming out like a terrified child.
I must have blocked moments out again, or maybe it was my mind flipping scripts? Nothing made sense. There were just fragments colliding together. There was a rough, calloused hand digging into my thigh. I wanted to get up. I was screaming in myhead,Get up, Amy, get up.But my muscles were paralyzed with fear, and I was pinned to the ground.
A sharp pain in my wrist, a glint of silver made me cry out. The room tilted, and the darkness smothered me like a thick blanket. Warm liquid rushed over my face. I couldn’t breathe. My mouth opened, gasping for air. Liquid swelled down my throat. It was thick and sweet and coppery. I was choking, drowning on … blood.
The wind howled, screeched, chanted.
There was a screeching sound, a terrible clash of metal.
My eyes blinked open. I was in the car, hanging upside down. I tasted blood in my mouth. My ears were ringing, my head pounded, and cold air rushed over my body.
“Amelia,” my mother breathed. I turned my throbbing head. She was hanging upside down beside me, blood rushing down her face. She looked at me, her eyes wide and terrified.
“Uhn,” she gasped, blood splattering from her lips. The light caught the crimson beads on the glass shards. I found myself thinking how could something so devastating be so beautiful. Her voice tinged with fear and panic as she desperately urged, “Amelia, run.”
The next moment I was in the basement on my feet and running, pounding toward the steps. The lights went out—pitch black crashed over my vision. My foot slapped against a step and I fell. I heard a crack like an axe into wood.
Pain shot through my forehead, stinging like a swarm of wasps.
A hand slapped around my mouth, dragging me back. I smelled pine, I smelled smoke, I smelled blood. I tried to scream, but it was lost in the thick of his palm. Wild with terror, I struggled and fought, scratching at his face, my fingernails ripping through his skin.
Whack!
The sound of the punch landed in my stomach and curled my guts in half. I folded like a half-shut pocketknife. I couldn’t draw a breath, I gasped and heaved, tears spilling down my face.
Why would he do that, why would he do that?
I died inside in that moment. Pieces of me shattered by pain I knew I would never recover from.
“Bad girls deserve to be punished,” his voice sounded distorted, not like Karson at all. But it was him. He was the only one down here. My terror transcended the horror of what was happening. My power exploded from my raised palms. I heard another hard crack as his body hit the wall.
Heart pounding, legs shaking, I scrambled for the stairs. Toward the light. Toward Ethan standing at the top, staring down, his body blurred against the tears in my eyes.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Ethan shouted.
I rushed past him onto the top floor into the light, blinking at the burst of brightness.
“You stupid son of a bitch,” Ethan snarled.
Karson flashed up and stopped in front of me, his eyes wide, his breathing rapid. “I was trying to get her to face her fears.”
