Page 20 of Bound to a Killer

It’s okay. Everything will be fine. I’m safe now.

I shut my eyes and wet my parched lips, my tongue scraping against the surface that’s already peeling. I’m too dazed to question anything further.

But then I see him shift out of the corner of my eye, and my heart slams into my chest, fast and violent.

“Good thing I found you before it was too late,” he says.

My nerves spike at the ominous tone, a chill running through me when he leans the other way to grab something. My ears start to ring, a loud warning siren screaming to get the hell out.

But it’s too late.

He’s on me before I can act. I scream, but it's muffled by a damp cotton cloth shoved hard over my mouth and nose, cutting off my breath. My lungs burn. I cry out into the cloth, thrashing my head back and forth, desperate to get away, but he holds me down, locking me in place, suffocating me.

The sickly-sweet scent of acetone floods my nostrils, reminding me of Clara and how she accidentally spilled nail polish on Kelsey’s sheets while we painted each other’s nails last night. I won’t ever see her again.

I won’t see anyone ever again.

Those are my final thoughts as my fight fails me, and my vision swarms with grainy black specks. The thudding in my chest gradually slows.

I stop convulsing in my seat and lose all fight as I slip into unconsciousness. The specs grow larger and larger until, finally, the dark consumes me whole.

7

LEDGER

Exhaustion clings to my face as I swipe at the haze blurring my vision. I tilt my neck, scanning every corner of the room until my eyes land on the empty bed.

Fuck.

How the hell did she untie herself?

Unease coils in my stomach as my mind spins, questions piling up until panic heightens, prickling down my arms and tapping at my side. I never should’ve shut my eyes. Not even for a damn second. I was too far gone from everything that happened, so drained I must’ve slipped into a corpse-like slumber. Not a creak or shift could’ve woken me.

Awareness crashes over me, the full weight of my carelessness slamming into my skull in a raging headache. She’s gone. And if I don’t find her soon, I might as well crawl back to the world of the dead, because that’s exactly what I’ll be.

I’m so fucked.

She must’ve been planning this the second I tied her up. Maybe even earlier. Who knows when she slipped out, or if it’s too late to catch up to her?

If I’m lucky, she might still be out there, wandering the dense, stygian woods, circling the same trees, lost, driven by nothing but panic and desperation.

Early sunlight slants off the dusty windowpane. Time’s already slipping through my hands.

A jolt of panic drives me to the bed. I snatch up the ropes still lying there, inspecting them like they can tell me how far she’s gone. I should’ve tied them behind her back; that way, she would’ve never been able to reach them. But no. I had to be fucking decent for once.

This is exactly why there’s no room for sympathy. One slip, one soft thought, and everything falls apart.

I press a hand against the front of my jeans, feeling the bulge of my keys through the denim. Still there. She didn’t get to them.

Relief barely settles before my phone buzzes in my back pocket. I reach around and yank it out, already bracing myself.

“Tanner,” I growl into the speaker. My free hand digs out my keys. There’s still a chance I can reach her.I won’t let her get far.

His voice oozes sarcasm through the line. “Rough night in the great outdoors? Miss electricity yet?”

“Don’t start,” I snap, throwing open the cabin door. My stride is clipped and fast, the slam behind me loud enough to echo off the surrounding trees.

When I find her, I’m never letting her out of my sight again.