Page 111 of A Thousand Cuts

His voice echoed in the space, making Liam flinch. His heart was racing, his blood pumping in his ears. He looked at the camera, begging for help that was too slow to come.

“And if I can’t have you…then no one can.”

A hand reached for him and his life flashed before his eyes just as a broken, crooked television that was hanging on the wall with its wires sticking out the back suddenly lit up.

Reflected back at them on the cracked screen were their own figures.

How is that possible?

“You’re recording this,” the man said before Liam’s brain could fully process what he was seeing. “You tried to trick me.”

Liam’s stomach dropped. “N-no…”

The stalker snapped his head around to look directly at one of the hidden cameras and walked over to grab it. He held it up and bared his teeth. “LIAR!”

Liam bolted.

He heard the stalker scream and a smash as he trashed the camera and followed.

Liam sobbed in fear as he pushed his legs faster, aiming for an escalator at the other end of the atrium. The plan was completely screwed. Everything was messed up. He didn’t understand what had happened, or how it had gone so wrong.

He just needed to get out of here.

He passed a massive fountain halfway that had dried up long ago and screamed when it erupted with water, soaking him as he passed and continuing to spill out like a waterfall.

Curses.

These were all curses.

He knew it deep down as his chest started to get tight, not just from lack of air as he ran. There was something tugging on him.

A Thousand Curses.

Fighting the sluggishness that wanted to swallow him like quicksand, he pushed on, hitting the bottom step of the only escalator that wasn’t completely ruined or destroyed. He washalfway up when it turned on suddenly, the steps moving under his feet and dragging him back down.

Liam pumped his legs faster with a cry of anguish, barely reaching the top and dragging himself on his hands and knees to the second floor.

He scrambled back to his feet as the stalker glared at him from the bottom and yelled incoherently, running for another way up.

Liam sprinted in the opposite direction, knowing there was a store that was split-leveled on the opposite end that would lead him down directly to a side door on the back of the mall and out.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket with trembling fingers as he ran, Fix’s name the only one he could think of. As soon as he did, he could see that it was stuck on the front-facing camera and it was recording.

Liam tried to swipe out of it but it wouldn’t respond.

He watched his own face fall in hopelessness as messages started to appear at the top of his screen.

Unknown:It’s a curse

Unknown:I can’t stop it

Unknown:The police are on their way

Unknown:Get out of there if you can

Unknown:I’ll get Fix

“LIAM!!” The voice echoed in the space, full of fury, and he saw a shadow emerge to his left, eyes glinting at him from the dark.