Page 74 of Little Twisted Things

She wouldn’t wake up. I went into the kitchen, dug through the drawers, and found a small screwdriver. Maybe I could unlock the chains and set her free. I walked back into the living room, bent down, and began picking the steel lock attached to the chains. It took me a while, but it finally unlocked. I removed the chains and tossed them to the side.

“Wake up, Librarian. I need you.”

Suddenly, her eyes moved, darting from side to side.

“Dahlia,” she weakly spoke.

“Who is she? I need to know so I can stop her.”

“She was here before any of us.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” she weakly spoke. “She’s strong, Dahlia. She told me this was my last chapter.”

My eyes widened as I gasped.

“What did you say?”

“I think you had it all wrong. She’s coming, Dahlia. Run!”

My eyes flew open as my heart raced out of my chest. What the hell? Oh God. I jumped up from the bed. The Librarian told me she was here before any of us. How was that possible? But the one thing that stuck out was when she told me she said this was her last chapter. I paced around the room. I thought about Alex and the night I killed him. He kept saying he had no idea what I was talking about. He kept asking what was going on. Now that I thought back on it, he genuinely seemed frightened. But I was too focused on his cheating on me to see it clearly that night.

“Oh, my God. No.” Tears formed in my eyes.

I ran to the door and banged on it. “Hey. Hey. Let me out. I need to talk to Dr. Bondi.” I continued to bang. The lock clicked, and the door opened.

“Calm down, Katherine.”

“For fuck’s sake. I told you I’m not Katherine.” I pushed past him and ran down the hall. George ran after me.

I turned the corner and ran right into Dr. Bondi. “Dahlia.” She gripped my arms.

“Dr. Bondi, I made a grave mistake.”

“What mistake?”

“I don’t think Alex was The Last Chapter Killer.”

“Let’s go to my office. I got this, George.” She held up her hand.

She led me to her office and told me to sit down.

“Why do you think that, Dahlia?” she asked.

“I found The Librarian. She has her held captive in some old house. I was able to wake her up. She told her she was here before any of us. She also told her this was her last chapter.”

“Okay. Calm down.” She raised her hands.

“I can’t. I don’t think Alex killed those young women. I think this other alter did. Oh, my God.” I clutched the sides of my head. “I think that bitch set me up and made me believe that Alex was cheating and killing those young women. I killed him for nothing!”

“Dahlia, breathe,” Dr. Bondi said, glancing at her watch. She stood, walked over to the intercom on the wall, and pressed the button. “Can you tell Greg that I’m rescheduling our session for tomorrow? I will be unavailable for the next few hours.”

What was she doing? What did she mean she’d be unavailable for the next few hours?

“Dahlia, I want to try something. Something I think can help you find and talk to this other alter.”

“What do you want to try?”