He fucking can’t.
Conrad looks at me over his shoulder, his hazel eyes glowing with a tinge of scarlet, but both of them ignore me as his words are directed to her. “All those chances.” His lips curl up. “I was always going to get my way.”
“Louisa!” I scream, scrambling to get to my feet.
Conrad raises his voice over mine. “Get her out of my sight.”
Two men reach the doorway, grabbing my sister by the arms and dragging her out of the cells.
She doesn’t resist, and before her face disappears down the hallway, I catch her mouthing words. But she’s already gone before I can figure it out.
An oomph pushes past my lips, body folding in half as Conrad’s fist lands with a sickening thud to my stomach that leaves me breathless. My hand slaps against the wall as I catch myself. “Fuck y-you,” I gasp. “F-Fucking predator.”
His laugh is so dark, so loud, it feels like the entire cell is shaking. “Now, where were we?”
I rush towards him, and he catches me by the elbow, tossing me through the open door of my cell as my body crashes off the solid ground outside it.
I roll onto my back, the metallic taste filling my mouth and souring my tongue.
His footsteps are deafening. The only sound in this basement corridor is my rattled breathing and the sound of his shoes as they meet concrete.
Crouching down to his haunches, he hikes the leg of his suit trousers up. If I had a knife, I’d take out his fucking ankles right at this moment. All I have is the stupid pocket watch.
They don’t cause your fear, Indie. I do.
My eye lids squeeze painfully shut.
“Don’t cry yet, Indie. We’re only just getting started. You’ve got a lifetime of this to go.”
Yanked to my feet again, he holds me there until my vision clears. His thumb traces under my eyes, and I slap it away, voice rattling through the hallway. “Don’t fucking touch me!”
My boot connects with his shin, and it causes him to falter. I grab at the opportunity, throwing a punch that lands across his cheek and sends him on his ass.
I’m pinned to the wall in the basement corridor in a blink of an eye. The same two guards who took Louisa rush at my side. Another I hadn’t noticed helps Conrad to his feet, and he shoves them off, shrugging his suit as dust puffs into the air, wiping the blood off his lip. “Keep up the fight. You’re going to need it.”
My brows bunch. I try to shrug off the hands that are digging painfully into my arms as Conrad makes his way over to me. “We’re going to play a little game.”
“Do you die at the end of it?” I grit through my teeth.
Those wild eyes are back again, and he steps into me, my heart crashing against my ribs. Sweat beads my forehead; it coats every inch of my cold skin as my bones rattle.
“There’s only one rule, and one outcome,” he mocks, stepping back from me at the same time the guards release me. He puts his hands behind his back, turning to walk away from me.
His mutts follow him, hands ghosted over their guns as they walk towards a metal door on the far end of the corridor, never taking their eyes off me. The moment one of them opens the door and reveals a set of stairs, Conrad pauses at the threshold, turning to face me. “Run, Indie. That’s all you have to do.”
My eyes narrow on him. What the fuck does he mean? Run where?
My head swivels as I look down the length of the corridors beside me. When my gaze lands back on him, all I’m left with is his sickening grin. “Keep an eye on the clock. You’ll get thirty minutes.”
The door slams closed, the lock rattling, and I’m left alone as their heavy footsteps eventually turn to silence.
My feet are cemented to the ground. Where the fuck can I go? Is there another way out of here?
I finally manage to jolt into action, tugging out the pocket watch to see it reads 3.25am.
I have until 3.55.
My head snaps from side to side as rows of cell doors lie closed. I throw the one closest to me open, revealing nothing but an identical room like my own.
