Page 123 of Massacre Monday

When I do, I’m met with a baseball bat to the head before everything goes black.

thirty-nine

The last thingI remember is telling Mitch I didn’t want to go inside Sanguine Manor, losing control of my body, then…darkness.

My head feels heavy and filled with warm, fuzzy things. Knives scrape at my throat as I attempt to swallow, but my tongue is like sandpaper.Drugged. He drugged me. How could I have trusted him?

It’s so difficult to pry open an eye and kick out a foot, but I do, only to be met with loud clanging that makes me want to cover my ears. But my hands are bound together. Chained above my head on a wall.

Blurry waves coat my vision, and I blink rapidly to clear them. It doesn’t work. I shove my heels into the concrete to stand, but my legs are jelly.

Helpless.

The room is dark, only lit by the dying light of the evening coming in through a thin, small window at the top of the wall.A basement. In the center is an old symbol baked into the stonefloor and a flash of Gwen’s body in the woods comes to mind. Am I the next ritual sacrifice to an unknown god?

As if in answer, a wooden door flings open, and I scramble against the wall. A cloaked figure enters, the hood lowered until I can’t discern their face. Fear strikes my heart, which thuds harder in response to the foreboding presence. The person seems to scan me over, hovering near the open frame, but not entering. Satisfied, they leave with a solid slam and a slide of a bar on the other side.

Instead of relief, I’m alert, but only for another few moments before my consciousness clouds over once again. And as I fall into a daze, I think…

Tenebris unitas.

Darkness unites.

Startling awake,I gasp.

Where am I?

Oh, yes. Sanguine Manor, likely. I’ve heard about sacrifices here, but I thought they were rumors to scare initiates and torture pledges. A story spun to make us run on Thriller Thursday.

It’s so dark within the room, I can’t tell if my eyes are open or closed. Surely, it hasn’t been terribly long since I was taken. I’m not starving. I don’t have to pee. The only thing I feel is a hazy mush in my brain.

Ryan will be looking for me now. Maybe even send in Aiden, Henry, or someThetas. I wonder if he told my brothers or my father.

Unless…

Terror jolts me.

What if this is an order?

Is this it? Is this my ending?

It’s a long while before a specter flickers beneath the door. Footsteps shuffle near until it opens with a loud sliding sound and a creak. A candle in a chamber stick is all I can make out until the person holding it enters the room. The small space illuminates with yellow light that dances among ominous shadows.

She looks different. Perhaps it’s the robe she wears over her regular clothing. Was she the cloaked person I saw before? What if she was in the woods?

Which god does Professor Hall serve?

A wooden chair scrapes along the rugged stone floor. The same that cuts into my ass as I lean heavy against the wall behind me.

She sits and sets the candle down next to her, then leans forward, her face hidden in darkness.

“Look at me,” she commands, her voice bringing me into full awareness.

Once she’s satisfied with my attention, she continues. “First, you’ll be raped. In every hole. Body parts will be removed slowly while that’s happening. Eventually, you’ll bleed out here. Alone.”

Dread makes me tremble until the chains around my wrists rattle. My teeth chatter. My insides feel like they’re vibrating with anxiety. Is there a way out of this?

Where is Ryan?