Page 10 of Fragmented Illusions

What the fuck was I thinking?

Stupid, stupid girl.

“I told you we don’t have time for that tonight. There are too many people at the house,” the deeper voice argues.

“Well, I don’t fucking care about everyone else,” the other person spits right back.

Their banter sort of makes me want to smile for some twisted reason. I’m terrified out of my fucking mind, and yet here I am about to break a smile at some words exchanged between two complete strangers who don’t even know I’m standing on the other side of this wall? In a desolate cabin… In the middle of nowhere…

Yeah, my brain is most definitely fucking broken at this point because my next move surprises even me.

I tiptoe back to the doorway leading to the other side of the cabin and grip the side of the wall as I peek around the edge of the frame. The light I saw earlier in the night is shining brightly against the wall nearest to the doorway, creating a semi-circle against the wall while the other part of it beams off and through the opening in the wall, landing near the window. Which explains why I could see it just now, but not earlier.

Maybe they had the light outside earlier?I ask myself, as if trying to figure out some reasonable explanation.

Forcing my eyes from the not so mysterious light, I drag them across the room, taking in everything I see.

Everything I never,everfucking wish I saw.

Regret instantly claws its way through me as what I’m seeing begins to seep in.

Blood.

There is so much blood.

I’m rapt as I take in the blood staining the wood floor below. Blood splattered across the wooden walls. Fresh… fresh blood pooled in the middle of the room and lying in that pool of blood is a… is a body.

Oh, fuck.

No.

No no no.

A shuffle of feet and the clatter of something bouncing against the floor snaps my attention from the very dead body to two faces.

Twomaskedfaces.

Chapter Three

Fallon

All the blood drains from my face as I make what I assume is eye contact with the masked men. One of them—the taller one—is standing at his full height with his arms folded across his chest. And I watch as the other one stands from his crouched position over the body. He stands a couple inches shorter than the other man, but that doesn’t make him any less terrifying.

In fact, maybe even more. Because now they’re both standing and staring at me, the gleam from the flashlight gives me a clear view of their masks and their bodies cloaked in black. It gives the illusion they’re floating above the ground because their bodies blend in perfectly with the darkness surrounding us.

Their masks are white and glassy with red speckled across them. They look as if they are made of porcelain, which is a silly thought because why the hell would I even think something like that when two murderers are staring at me.

The shorter one—the one who stood from the body—has the most blood splattered across his white mask. He then cocks his head to the side as they both continue to stare at me in deafening silence.

The only sounds I hear is the thundering of my heart and the rapid puffs of air escaping through my slightly parted lips, making a light whistling noise as it pushes past the fake fangs I have capped on my teeth.

I’m frozen in place. This fear coursing through me is like nothing I have ever felt before. Not even when I was standing on the bridge that night did I feel this terrified.

Though, of course, that was a choice of my own making, and this… This is entirely different.

But is it?

You came in here knowing something was awry.