“Get away from me,” I repeat, but that only pisses Guy off even more.
“Not possible, Collins,” he grits, tapping his temple. “I’ll never be far. Always up here, even when my corpse is rotting away from six feet under. I’ll still be here to have my fun with you.”
“Shut up,” I demand through clenched teeth, hoisting the heavy object in my hand.
“A lifetime of getting to feed off of your fear? Your screams?” He laughs, and the sound is pure evil.
“Stop—” I shout, backing up a step and tripping before catching myself.
“Every cut.” His eyes drop to my thigh. “Every scrape, every bruise…I’ll be there to fucking drink it in. Swallowing every last ounce of fear that seeps from your bones like it’s a fucking delicacy.”
I shake my head vehemently, the tears building and welling in my eyes spilling over, “This—y-you’re not real.”
“I’m not?” he mocks, twirling his blade between his fingers. “You sure about that?”
“It can’t be, it’s not—” I spin in a slow circle, taking in the room around me. Nothing seems familiar, and I can’t put a name on where I am. It’s not the room Riley and I were held in. It’s… “Riley.” I breathe his name.
“You mean the boy we just set ablaze and buried in the woods?”
“You’re lying?—“
“Am I?”
I hear muffled sounds coming from somewhere in the distance, but I stand my ground. He lunges for me, and it knocks me into a wall. A sob rips from my lips as I stare at Guy’s blurring face. “You’re not real.”
“I am real.” His voice shifts, sounding unlike himself as hands hold me down.
“Fuck you!” I shove, and he stumbles back. Bending down, I grab the heavy object I’d found earlier and hurl it at him as hard as I can, just as a low-toned scream rips past my lips.
He ducks, and glass shatters all around me. The walls and doors begin to rattle violently as I dive down, cutting my legs and feet to grab the largest shard. Blood trails down my forearm from how hard I’m squeezing as I hold it out, keeping Guy at bay.
That doesn’t stop him, though. Because with a malevolent grin, he strikes.
Chapter 40
Creed
“ARE YOU WITH ME?”
Ijolt awake with my heart pounding so hard that it threatens to explode in my chest when a haunting, blood-curdling scream pierces the silence of the night.
Riley and I are out of bed in an instant and darting toward the bathroom door. He twists the handle, but it’s locked. “Snow?” he calls out, jiggling the handle again, “Collins, open the door, baby, come on,” he pleads, his fist rapping against the door while Collins continues to cry out, and a struggle from within.
“Collins!” I shout when another scream is followed by a thud that filters through the door.
I’m in a panic because Riley and I are both banging on the door and shouting, but Collins doesn’t answer.
“You’re not real—“I hear her muffled voice through the door.
“I am real,” I respond, hoping she can hear me.
“Fuck you!”she cries. My brow furrows in confusion for only a moment before it hits me. My eyes shoot up to Riley’s. “She’s dissociating,” I murmur.
We both flinch, our eyes widening in tandem panic when the sound of glass shattering echoes off the walls.
“What the fuck?” I mutter at the same time Riley asks, “Did she just?—”
“Creed!”Asher’s shout is loud enough to rattle the walls.
