Page 12

“No! No, no.” I stagger against the door frame as the room begins to spin. The space may be vacant, but I know it well. It wasn’t supposed to be real!

That strange impulse propels me forward, and I fight the urge to vomit with each step.

While my brain retreats in horror, my hands take on a will of their own, drifting along the cold metal table and matching chair bolted to the floor.

Thick restraints loop through strategic locations on both, and I feel nauseous as my eyes rest on the pattern of dried blood staining the concrete floor.

Every part of my head screams for me to run, but I can’t move as I fight to catch my breath.

The panic is magnified by the familiar details I’ve seen a few times now.

The monitors. The chair. If there’s a chair, then…

The other table.

I stumble on my way to the new nightmare.

It’s here, like I feared, with its neat rows of peculiar instruments.

A final damning testimony to my visions, and I clamp my hand over my mouth when I recognize one.

Shaking, I back away and collide with another table.

I turn to find a thick, tattered notebook lined up meticulously along the corner edge of the stainless steel surface.

I’m inviting disaster—I know it’s a mistake—but my fingers scale the cover and grasp the corner.

Daniel’s visions pound in my skull. Clausen.

The screams. I could’ve gone home hours ago, but I stayed for answers.

For this very room. How can I flee in the face of the first clue?

A single word is etched into the cover, probably a name, and I strain through the darkness for a glimpse. I see a “D.” No, my terrified brain only thinks I should. It’s… before I can confirm anything, the clap of distant footsteps echoes down the hallway.

I drop the book and rush to the door. Peeking outside, I’m relieved to see the intruders haven’t come into view yet and slip into the hallway. All evidence suggests this room will be their destination, so I squeeze through one of the other doors and duck against the wall in the dark.

Voices mix with the footsteps as they pound closer, and I clench my fists when the first becomes discernable.

“I didn’t do anything!”

“You were warned.”

“I still can’t believe you left the door unlocked, you moron.”

“You were the one who released the kid last time. That means you left it unlocked.”

“He stole it! I just wanted the fucking necklace back. It was my mother’s!”

Chills rush through me at Daniel’s distinctive voice. The visions come screaming back, now with a real-time soundtrack.

“This isn’t fair! I’m not letting you—”

“Shut up and sit. We don’t have time for this today.”

“No! I told you it’s not—”

“Sit your ass down!”

“Will you just—”

I flinch at a dull thud, followed by a groan.

More struggling. More blunted thumps. More labored breathing.

The clink of metal on metal. Scrape of something else that sends a shiver through my blood.

I can’t sit here while they hurt him, right?

I should call for help. I should run. I should definitely go home.

I don’t move.

I shrink further into the corner as a door slams shut and footsteps accelerate down the hall once more. Daniel shouts after them, still pleading his case, but the steady gaits don’t even hesitate. He finally releases a frustrated curse when it’s clear they’re gone.

I wait for several seconds, trembling in the darkness.

Paralyzed, I rest my forehead on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

Trying to make sense of something, because right now it’s just a chaotic hurricane in my head.

What are my choices in a scenario I don’t understand, where right and wrong exist in an entirely different plane?

I tuck my head further in my arms, but I can’t stay here forever.

Is that who I am? The girl who hides? The freak who knows too much and not enough?

There’s been no sound from either direction except an occasional rustle from that awful room.

I push up from the floor, using the wall for support as I regain my footing.

When I dare a look into the corridor, it’s clear I’m safe to retreat back upstairs.

No one will ever know I’ve been down here.

I’d been stupid to poke around. Isn’t this exactly what Clausen and Anna had been trying to warn me about?

My deadly curiosity and imagination dumping me into a problem that wasn’t mine—an entanglement I can’t begin to understand.

All for someone who doesn’t want me involved either, and I haven’t survived nineteen years by being stupid.

So, there it is: my choice, right or left.

Right to return upstairs to opulence. To promises.

To happy ignorance. And frauds. And gossip. And lies. And criminals like Ben.

My eyes burn, and I clench them shut. What choice? Was there any other choice for me the second I recognized his voice?

So, maybe it’s stupid. Fine. I still turn left when any reasonable person would’ve turned right. But nothing I want waits for me up there, while answers pile up down here. I grasp the handle of the forbidden door and throw my weight against it.

“What now?” a voice grunts before inhaling sharply when our eyes meet. “Rebecca,” he says in horror.

My chest tightens as I shut the door. “This is where you go?”

“What are you doing here? You can’t be here!”

The room glows with unnatural shadows from a small desk lamp, and I almost prefer the darkness.

His pained expression is too much, shredding my resolve until I have to look away.

My eyes trace the restraints on his wrists instead.

His ankles. The way his powerful body seems to accept them as normal. I go cold.

“They just leave you here like this?” My voice cracks against the rocks of that reality.

He leans forward, his muscles contracting beneath his shirt in renewed urgency. “You have to go. If they catch you here—”

“I’m not leaving you.”

I move toward the table.

“Don’t touch that stuff!”

I withdraw my hand at the panic in his tone, but I continue staring at the horrible instruments. “What are they? Have they used these on you?”

When he doesn’t respond, I know what I have to do. I’m not going to be the girl who hides anymore. I return to him again and brace myself for war.

“What are you doing?” Alarm spreads over his features when I reach out my hand. “No! Stop, Rebecca!” He tries to jerk away, but I clutch his arm and wince through the searing vision. It’s recent, and he’s here like I hoped. Clausen too. Several others, and then…

I flinch away, fighting for air.

Our gazes lock, and my pulse pounds violently. “What is this place?”

“You had no right to do that!”

I don’t have words as I stare back at him, eyes wide.

I probably should nod, accept his answer, and go home.

That’s what any sane person would do. But there’s no hope of that with the sudden sparks snapping through me.

This driving need to connect with a stranger who, for some reason, isn’t one.

No, he reads me completely. I sensed it in that first look, and now?

He’s deep in my soul. I feel him there. For the first time in my life I feel known.

I touch his hand and gasp at a startling new image: the present.

Never have I experienced the present in a vision, another mystery surrounding this boy I can’t surrender, no matter how much he wants me to—how much he’s practically begged me to.

Disaster echoes around us as we stare into each other’s souls on two levels—in reality, in my head—his hypnotic gaze penetrating the very recesses of my existence.

It’s the loudest silence I’ve ever experienced.

Sensual. Haunting. Living the moment inside and out sends my heart racing, my blood burning hot to every hidden part of my body.

He must feel it too as his pulse hammers against my fingers on his wrist. Addicted, I need more of this intoxicating connection, and move in.

Our lips meet in a blistering explosion. One taste feeds my hunger, and I spread my hands through his short, dark hair to lock us together until his kiss consumes me. The longing becomes unbearable, such a basic need I’ve been deprived of for so long.

“Daniel…” I breathe his name, wondering when he’s last heard it said with such reverence. Ever? I climb onto his lap, melting into him. With better access, I’m able to fuel his own desire. He groans when I rock against his hips and instinctively seek to fill a hole he’s also been forced to accept.

I hate the rattle of restraints at his reflexive reach for me.

“Wait. Hold on. You don’t—”

I cut him off, my body taking on a will of its own as it reacts to his. Hard and warm, every angle is a drug I want to sample. “I know it makes no sense, but I don’t care,” I whisper against his skin. “You know what I’m talking about.”

He leans away, eyes closed. “We don’t have that luxury.”

I shake my head. “You want me too. You know there’s some strange magnetism between us.”

“It’s called being a guy.”

I pull back, glaring at him. “You really expect me to believe that?”

“Believe what you want. It doesn’t matter. You can’t even begin to understand what’s happening here.” But he doesn’t look at me when he says it. No, his entire body betrays him, still pleading for mine, even as he braces against a secret only he knows.

“Exactly. Something’s going on here.”

“Yeah, you’re trespassing.”

I straighten to study his face, still dizzy from the intoxication of him. “Fine. You don’t want to talk about it. Just tell me what to do then.”

“You’re not hearing me.” He pulls at the restraints, hard gaze boring into me. “There’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing anyone can do. You need to leave, Rebecca.”

“Leave? Are you joking?”