Then up ahead, following the bend of the corridor, I see faint light.
Flickering, but I don’t think it’s because of the faulty power.
It’s like a flame’s dance.
Yellow and orange, and as I let my eyes adjust, blinking a few times, I realize it’s beneath the crack under a door frame.
I drop my hand to my side, both now in fists.
There are only a few feet between me and the door. Me, and whoever is on the other side.
Sullen.
Please.
I lick my lips, gone dry in the tunnel, and I keep going, afraid if I stop to gather my courage, I will find I have none left.
The voices are more audible, but as I swallow and my ears pop, they seem to fade away.
The conversation is drifting.
Someone may walk through that door at any moment.
I keep going.
I will collide with them if I have to.
I will kill them, if it’s necessary.
I will do whatever it takes to find him.
I narrow my eyes and I don’t stop.
Heat seems to pour from beneath the frame, and for a horrifying moment, I wonder if they will burn this building to the ground, with Sullen inside. The hotel crashing into ash around my monster boy and I, two lovers whispered about in the lore of Writhe, their bodies never found. Maybe a more foolish pair will dig in the soot far off into the future, two people star-crossed and damned, and they will discover a sliver of a skull, a ribcage, and my skeletal hand intertwined with Sullen’s.
I push the thought aside.
I replace it with something better.
We run away and we never look back. We find a mountain home. We press on one another’s wounds but no one else ever gives us any.
I am safe with him and he is calm with me.
I reach the door.
The handle is not a lever, simply a small, metallic knob scarred with brown-red rust.
The voices are silent, but I hear a pop that reminds me of a fire pit, something my parents would have in our backyard when members of Writhe came over to get wasted and do lines.
They tried to shield me from the latter, sending me up to my room, but I know what handheld mirrors and bags of off-white are for.
I close my eyes and inhale.
The scent of smoke reaches my lungs.
My legs are shaky, my head woozy. I feel faint.
But I won’t turn around.
