He lets out an inhuman snarl, but I’m already running away from him, fingers intact. I hear footsteps, and his hand brushes against mine. I open the door and slam it shut.
Fuck, I’m now trapped in my bedroom.
The door vibrates behind me as Dalton slams against it.
I look around to see if I can move something to barricade the door. No, I don’t have time. It’s already cracking, his body ramming against it repeatedly.
I switch on the light and run towards the in-suite bathroom, closing the door behind me. One more barrier.
I reach for my phone, but of course, I left it on Matt's kitchen counter. My heart is going a mile a minute. My entire body is trembling. I'm hopped up on adrenaline, but I have nowhere to run.
At least I didn't freeze this time.
When I hear a loud crack outside, I duck behind the bathtub and huddle against it. I pick up my back scrubber, an impulse purchase, and hold on to it tightly like it will protect me against the werewolf.
Werewolf. The word appears out of nowhere. My show's characters. That’s who Dalton was behaving like.
It sounds funny. So funny. I would laugh if I wasn’t on the verge of screaming.
The glowing eyes. The expanded height and body mass. The eighty-year-old walking with inhuman speed, bulked up with muscles. The growly inhuman voice. It’s all that I write about week after week.
This is so silly. How is this my life right now?
The bathroom door shakes with a loud bang, followed by another. I just sit there, wide-eyed.
Oh yeah, there’s the freeze response.
I grip the stick tightly, almost cuddling it.
The wood gives out with another crack. A final bang, and there’s a large hole in the wood. My mind takes a second to appreciate how the tightly screwed hinges didn’t give out until the very end.
Myvery end.
Dalton’s face thrusts through the hole. He smiles at me, his face more defined than normal. There’s barely any fat on it, and his jaws are sharper. He’s almost human but not quite.
His smile is pure evil. His eyes are trained on me like I’m his next meal. He slips his hand in and flips the lock.
I can’t hear a thing over the roar of my blood and pounding heart.
Suddenly, Dalton is smashed away from the door. A loud grunt, and he’s not in the frame anymore.
I get a glimpse of another face. Matt. A wave of relief crashes over me, and I nearly sink into the floor.
But then I look at him closely. His sharp jaws are so much sharper than before. His face is human but not quite.
The relief is immediately replaced by fear, maybe worse than before. I push back against the tub, my body wanting to create as much space between us as possible.
His face drops right in front of my eyes.
Then he’s pushed away.
“Matt!” I shout, standing. Fuck, I need to save him! I dash to the door and see Dalton and Matt fighting.
I pull it open before realizing it's not much of a fight, not really.
Matt punches Dalton hard in his abdomen, and he goes down like a sack of bricks.
I shut the door and slump against the wall next to it. My body screams that it still isn’t safe to go out. Not yet.
