It’s a basement, no windows, it used to be a laundry room. Big, outdated washing machines are on the far wall next to the large sinks and laundry baskets. I have no time to give the room a proper look because I’m dragged up more stairs and through a long corridor, which ends in a massive foyer of a very neglected hotel. I can see the long, half-broken reception counter on theright, and there’s a rusty luggage cart near the non-functioning elevators on the left. The imposing wooden staircase dominates the room; it has torn pieces of red carpet on the steps. The walls are cracked, and the ceiling chandelier is covered in dust and cobwebs. Everything is. There are holes in the floor, and glass and debris all around. As I look up, I count three more floors before I see a large round skylight at the end. It’s dirty, making it impossible to see the sky; the metal parts between the glass have blackened. This must have been a very luxurious hotel in the past. The front windows and doors have been boarded, so I can’t look for clues on the street outside. I still have no idea where I am.
I see men standing in various places, armed and scary looking. I’m pushed toward the stairs. I walk cautiously, trying to avoid the small pieces of rubble littering the stone tiles.
“Stay on the right,” the asshole orders me when we start climbing the stairs. As I look more closely, the left side of the steps look rotten. Even the right one, where I’m walking, gives out dangerously loud squeaking sounds. So I move quickly, wanting to reach the second floor before falling to my death. My hastiness makes me careless, and I trip on the last step, falling hard on the carpeted floor. My left hand lands on something sharp, forcing me to shift my body at the last minute, and I hit my shoulder on the dirty gray carpet. Noodle! I need to be careful not to crush him.
“What a dumb idiot.” The asshole keeps denigrating me. “Get the fuck up!”
I push myself up on my hands and knees and take a deep breath, coughing at all the dust entering my lungs. I should have stayed put. I let my worries control me again.
“Too fucking slow,” I hear the asshole hissing before I take another hit to the gut and nearly double over. This time, I take the pain with an angry growl. Because I’m so fucking sick of just enduring it and hoping someone will come. That’s not what my brother does, or Lori, or Ezra, or any of the others. Even Sari freed himself when he was kidnapped.
I feel the taste of blood inside my mouth as I bite my inner cheek and raise myself from the floor. I’m still scared shitless, but I need to keep alert. I can’t get away right now, there are too many men crawling around. But I can fight back or use my pickpocketing skills if one of them comes closer to find a way to escape.
I hear a door opening somewhere behind me, then a male voice says, “Boss wants you to take him in, now!”
One of them grabs my hood and yanks me toward two big golden doors, which open to what must have been a dining room. The tables have been pushed on both sides to create a path that takes us right to a woman sitting on a big golden chair—a throne. I know it’s her. Nine.
She is terrifyingly beautiful. Apathetic blue eyes, short black hair, straight red mouth pressed in a line. But that’s not what makes her deadly threatening. It’s her viciously domineering aura. I can feel it has the power to crush me.
My body starts to shake, and I’m forced to look down. Long red nails like claws are tapping on the throne’s large armrests as I feel her callous gaze on me. My gaze lowers to my feet. My heart is skittering, blood pulsing in my ears, mouth turned dry as I’m brought a couple of feet from her.
“Who let him slip in the tunnels?” Her icy voice makes me flinch.
“Well, I did, but…” The asshole’s explanation is cut off.
There’s a sudden change in the air. Ashinknoise, before blood splatters abruptly near my feet, dark and thick. I notice other red stains, older ones, over the hardwood floor. I hear a thump. When I look a little to the left, the asshole’s body is lying on the floor. His throat was slashed. Nine is towering over him, a long knife in her hand, the blade covered in blood.
“Give the body to the dogs. Dispose of the bones.”
Two men grab the corpse and take it away, as I realize the remains in the tunnels are all her doing. Even if I didn’t know her sins, I can clearly feel she is pure evil, a bloodthirsty murderer lurking in the shadows. The satisfaction in the curve of her lips is truly frightening. She enjoys it, the killing.
“Now that I took care of that, let’s see.” She cleans her hands with a wet tissue and tosses it on the floor. I get a glimpse of her wrist where the number nine was branded by the scientists who took her. So, it’s really her. She grabs a Red Vine candy from a glass jar on the table to her left and takes a bite.
“Eight’s toy.” Her penetrating, empty eyes study me once more. A few seconds later, her mouth twists with disdain. “I expected more, face-to-face. But you are just as pathetic and bloody as you were in front of the camera. Such a pity you didn’t die that day.”
Is she talking about the beating that almost killed me three years ago? Was she behind that, too? The way she nonchalantly chews on that candy, with blood still wet at her feet… This must be like a game to her.
“You don’t seem very afraid of me.” She sniffs, seemingly upset by my level of terror.
“I-I am,” I stutter. Tendrils of panic are curling around my spine, but I’m trying very hard to stay strong. “Too angry and shocked to be afraid.”
She lets out aha. “Fear can hide entire identities, isn’t it marvelous? Like frightened sheep, people should just bow at my feet silently.” She tilts her head toward her man. A kick to the back of my knees forces me to kneel on the bloody floor. My pants turn wet quickly. One of her men takes hold of my nape while threatening me with his red knife too close to my face. The sharp point of his blade near my eye makes me look up at her.
I’ve learned a long time ago that people as cruel and emotionless as Nine don’t want begging, promises, or apologies. For people as empty as her, words mean nothing.
“What do you really want from them?” I ask, stifling a moan of pain.
“Them?” She raises a perfectly arched brow.
“The…subjects.”
“Wasn’t I perfectly clear till now?”
My thoughts, which were a jumble of confusion, anxiety, and fear a moment ago, are now getting clearer. She is extremely powerful. Only the fact that she hid herself from Serena for years and was able to poison Meg under the guys’ noses is proof enough of how potent she is. So, why did she fail to kill them over and over again?
“You don’t want to kill them, do you?”
The corners of her lips push up into an almost demonic smile. “I was playing with them, just as I was taught to do.”
