"Who wants to die?" Mr. Vincent asked. "It's interesting that you have sympathy for a woman who wanted you dead."
"You know what? If you're going to take me, I'm not going alone." All eyes swung back to Juniper. She raised her skirt and slid a kitchen knife from her tall, black boot. She lunged forward, sprinting toward Laney. I leapt in front of her and Juniper's knife dug deep into my thigh. I fell to the floor, and Laney screamed. My mouth opened, but nothing came out. Bracing myself, I tugged the knife out and looked up to find Juniper.She was halfway across the lobby, pushing through ghosts to go upstairs.
With strenuous effort, I got up, stretched, and started toward the stairs, knife in hand.
Fuck, this was getting old.
Rule 61 - Priest
Run.
My muscle was on fire and my jeans were damp from the blood pouring from my wound. I probably shouldn’t have pulled the knife out, but fuck, it hurt. I paused on the stairs and ripped off my shirt, tying it around the hole in my leg.
"Your stupid, slow stalking doesn't scare me, Michael Myers," Juniper mocked from the top of the stairs. "I'll kill you too before I let myself go down."
Yeah, that's not what was happening tonight. I only had a few more hours to escape; I wasn't going to fuck it up now. Laney and I were getting out of here alive.I finished the tourniquet and stood up, wincing under my mask. Testing my leg, I found it bearable and continued my trek up, slow, but on a mission.
Juniper waited until I was feet away before taking off down the hall. She was taunting me. She wanted to wear me out, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I'd done too much to get here. With each laborious step, I reminded myself of everything I'd done.
I killed Marco, the predator.
I agreed to go to a mental hospital to avoid jail. Knowing that it could be worse, and in many ways it was.
I had to pretend I wasn't in love with Laney. Each therapy session, I had to deny my obsession and my love for her. It hurt so badly; I tattooed her name on me in my room one night. It was that or murder my therapist.
Juniper slid the elevator door shut when she saw me coming and pushed the buttons to go up, leaving me to take the stairs. I knew the elevator wasn't coming back down. I clenched my jaw and kept moving.
I escaped Cunningham's, making myself a wanted man. I was on lists that had big money attached to turning me in. But I lost all self-preservation the moment Laney came home.
I'd do it again.
All of it, I realized, as I continued up to the next floor. I'd smash Moth's head in with the axe, I'd let Tristan hang himself, and I'd choke Annie to death over and over so long as I could keep having Laney. I'd awakened something in both of us that we couldn't just forget. She'd turned from the shy, virgin into a sex-fiend goddess. I had done that to her, and we needed to further develop this. I'd opened Pandora's box, there was no closing it now.
Juniper had her back to me, and I came upon her silently, shoving the knife deep into her shoulder blade. She screamed and fell to the ground. I held onto the simple kitchen knife and leaned over her.
"Please, don't do this," she begged.
If I could speak, I'd laugh. Downstairs, she was hellbent on killing both Laney and me, and now, she wanted mercy. I shook my head as she crawled away.
Juniper stopped, and I looked up to the end of the hall at what had frightened her so. The twins from before were standing at the end of the hall.They'd been the ones to hold Laney in that dark room and the same ones to hold her in themaze while Mr. Vincent overtook my mind. They were deviants. In sync, they tilted their heads to the left.
"We were sure it was Delaney that would be playing with us. It looks like you, sweet Juniper, will be taking her place. Come." They raised their hands and motioned for her.
Juniper struggled to her feet and backed right into me.
"No. Not you two." Her voice was filled with fear. She spun around and clung to me. "Please, don't let them take me."
I shoved her away and the twins moved forward, each taking an arm, and dragging her down the hall and into a room. I stood, waiting to hear a scream, but no wails of torture came. Instead, a loud bang and what sounded like a wet explosion came an instant later. My stomach tightened at the image that came to my mind of what happened, but I didn't have time to think about it. I had to get back downstairs.
The wound in my thigh was making it harder and harder to move. I took the elevator down, pausing at the second floor. I knew I had to get out, but I couldn't leave without going to our suite one last time. I found Laney's laptop and shoved it into a backpack, along with mine. I grabbed our coats and hurried down to the lobby. I stumbled out and found Laney where I left her, shaking with fear.
She slid on her coat and backpack, and I took her hand. The spirits of the Vincent, all but the twins, stood in the lobby silently. They bowed or nodded their heads as we left.Almost as if giving us permission to leave.
We ran to the garage, running right past Annie's body. Laney screamed, but I pushed her forward. I pulled the key Gloriana had given us and threw Laney into the van. I turned the key and it clicked once, twice, three times and nothing happened.I swore inwardly. Those assholes knew the van was dead.
I scrounged the floor for the key Annie had lost while we were out here, finding it finally. It took all of my remaining strength to get the snowmobile out of the garage. Laney was forced to help me push it out. I gave her the helmet and directed her to sit behind me. I started to take off my mask, but Mr. Vincent’s spirit began to return, and I slid it back down. We were still too close to the hotel.
Turning the key, the snowmobile roared to life and we started our trek down the snowy hill. While I hated the mask, it helped shield my face from the sting of the snow coming at us. Laney held tight to me and rested her head on my back, and finally, just as the sun was coming up, I saw Les’s car waiting for us at the bottom of the hill.
