Page 70 of Hunt Me

I try the handle but it’s locked.

Several windows line down the same wall, and I check each one.

All locked.

The back entrance is my next thought, and I go around continuing to check doors and windows as I go.

Just as I am about to round the corner, the one that I imagine would lead me toward the back entrance movement has me halting. My body freezes.

‘Liz,’a female voice whispers from around the corner. Their steps are rough against the uneven flooring, and the sound of snapping twigs fills the nighttime air.

It goes completely silent.

I know I’m not in sight, and I can’t see them, so it must be something else. Internally, I make a prayer to Fauna’s weird apocalypse gods that the two bawbags I call best friends stayed where I told them to. For their sakes more than mine because if I find out that they haven’t then… I shake my head.

Not bothering with the back entrance now I know for certain it is guarded and I’m not in the mood to fight off my little deer’s friends, mainly since that will ruin my surprise. I try my luck with the door closest to the front entrance. If the back is guarded, they are probably grouped in that direction.

Wood splinters as I unpick the metal lock. It is so old that the rust covered lock practically jumps out of its place in the door. How unlucky for my little deer.

The corridor is abandoned, with no sign of life. Moonlight shines through open windows, guiding me as I creep further into the building.

My heart pounding harder and harder with each step. It’s been years since I have felt such an adrenaline rush, and it is all thanks to my little deer.

My emotions have changed since I woke up to find her gone. I think back at how weak I was hours ago, how much power I had given her over myself.

Now I want revenge. And the only way I will get it is by taking it from her. Mercilessly.

Fauna will never leave me again. I will make sure of it.

Chatter comes from my right, precisely the direction I was expecting. I make my way towards the noise at the back of the building.

Yellow light shines through the opening of one door. Next to it piles of paperwork have been shoved together in an attempt to tidy the place up a bit.

Each step I take is silent and purposeful, and there is not a single movement out of line as I press near the corridor wall.

Shadowed in darkness, I listen.

‘I don’t buy it, she’s acting weird.’

‘It’s Fauna, not exactly one to give everything away.’

‘She’s hiding something.’

They speak over one another, voices animated as they discuss my little deer.

‘Stop talking about her when she’s next door, for fucks sake,’there is something about this one voice. Maybe it is the venom in how she speaks, but it feels familiar.

No time to think too hard about the voices, I put the familiarity down to coincidence and focus on the crucial information I’ve overheard.

Next door.

My little deer is in the room behind me, which is currently in complete darkness. The only light available is the moon.

The perfect way for me to find her.

Careful not to make a noise, I push the wooden door open just enough to allow myself to slip inside.

Nostrils flaring, I breathe deeply and look down to see Fauna, my sleeping deer.