Page 125 of Hide and Seek

“Because I can, my sweet kitten,” he says, lifting his hand and brushing his fingers down the side of my jaw before trailing them down to the base of my neck and slowly closing them around my throat, squeezing. “Because claiming you would be nothing more than a grand prize.”

He squeezes a little tighter, and my knees start to shake, and when he tilts his head just a fraction to the right, I realize this man is nothing short of a psychopath. “You won’t get away with this,” I say, gasping for air.

Despite the mask, I just know he’s smirking at me. His confidence tells me that he thinks he already has. “Haven’t you heard? You’re crazy,” he says, his eyes flaring on the word as the satanic, fanged mask inches closer to my face. “You couldscream it from the rooftops, but who’s going to believe you now?”

He laughs as horror blasts through my chest, and as I hear the sharp whoosh of a blade being freed from its sheath, I scream.

“There’s no escaping me now, kitten,” he says as I gasp for air, his fingers digging into my throat. “I’ve got you right where I want you.”

I squirm under his hold, clawing at his hand, and as my body finally runs out of oxygen and darkness dances behind my eyes, the sharp tip of his blade plunges deep into my waist.

He releases me, and I hastily gasp for air, sucking in the sweet oxygen as agony tears through my waist. I drop heavily to the dirty ground, and as blood pools around me, the masked man simply turns on his heel, wiping the blood from his blade on the thick material of his black pants. Then as he walks away, his words repeat on loop inside my head.

Who’s going to believe you now?