Page 134 of Phobia

His hold loosened, giving me hope that I would get away from here unscathed, but I should’ve known that luck never followed people like me. Before I could react, before I could try to get away, he slammed me against the mirror, wrapping his hand around my throat, cutting off the oxygen intake into my body.

“L-let me g-go,” I stammered, trying to breathe through the painful grip he had on me.

“You were a bad girl, Danika.” The motherfucker chuckled, his masked face coming closer to mine. “But it will be fun breaking you.”

The pressure of his hand on my neck increased suddenly, and the black dots dancing on the periphery of my vision had me gasping for air, fighting him, clawing at his arms. Just as I managed to push away the hood off his head, revealing the pitch-black hair, I knew.

“Lazarus,” I choked out, before the darkness slammed into me, taking me into its cold embrace.

Chapter 6

My body was on fire, but I couldn’t move.

My arms burned from the sharp pain rushing through my veins and the weight on them. With heavy eyelids, I tried prying my eyes open with sheer will, but nothing worked. Voices around me told me I wasn’t alone, but my mind couldn’t register their words.

The limbo I was in was keeping me still, but something in the back of my mind kept telling me that I had to wake up. I had to push myself up.

Run, run, run, run, that one singular thought kept on repeating in my mind, but no matter what I did, no matter how much I tried to move, to get myself up, nothing helped. The bitter taste inside my mouth told me I was out for much longer than I first expected, and the panic I tried to keep at bay kept on rising, spilling over the rim of the glass it was kept in. I had no doubt that in mere seconds my heart wouldn’t be as still as it was now.

“Is she awake?” someone asked, and the sense of relief over the fact that I could hear them now shouldn’t have been this strong, but it meant I was closer to my goal.

Although, I wasn’t quite sure if being unconscious and in their hands was perhaps better than being conscious and aware of everything that was going on around me. Judging by the chill in the air, I highly doubted that we were somewhere nice.

“She isn’t,” a different voice piped in, and I immediately knew who it was.

Lazarus.

Lazarus fucking Morass.

I knew it was him who choked me until I passed out earlier. I knew that there was no tower where he would wait for me, and I knew that the girl who told me where to go was a part of their sick little game.

Something fell on the floor, the loud thud echoing around us, but this time I dared not to move. I could feel my toes and fingers better, and I knew without a doubt that if I tried, my eyes would fly open in a second, but I had a feeling that staying like this was a better option than letting them know I was awake.

The bitter, metallic smell of blood flickered through my nose, and the cackle of the other two men who were with Lazarus made me flinch momentarily. How many of them were here? What were they going to do with me?

I was no one. An insignificant member of this town whose life meant nothing in comparison to these people. Even after the fall of the Morass empire and everything that Mr. Morass had, Lazarus still kept on striving, or at least that’s what people said.

No one really knew what he was up to. The walls of his little mansion were far too high for anyone to see inside. After the charges were dropped, Lazarus simply disappeared as well. I had no idea if he went to college. I had no idea if he left this place, even if it was just to go into town. One thing was for sure—something sinister lurked in these hallways, something dark and vicious, something I should’ve seen from the moment I stepped inside the mansion.

I should’ve listened to Gabriel. I should’ve known.

“This isn’t right,” someone piped in, and I knew that voice as well. I yelled at him just before I entered the house. Just before this nightmare began. “We should let her go.”

“Now, now, Lacroix…”Judah. It was Judah talking, and I didn’t need to be a psychic to know that this wasn’t just some elaborate scheme scare me. No, this was much much worse. “We talked about this. We discussed it at great length. She’s the perfect candidate.”

A soft touch on my right hand almost had me jumping up, and I had no idea how I stayed down, as still as a statue, waiting to see what they were going to do. Like a snake slithering over the grass, foreign fingers traveled over the top of my hand, then slowly moved toward my arm, tracing shapes I couldn’t recognize.

“She looks so peaceful,” Judah spoke again, and for the first time since I saw him so many years ago, I recognized the predator hiding behind the mask of a perfect gentleman. He fooled us all.

Not only Judah, but their entire little group. This entire little cult they had. I could bet that the rest of the guys from the founding families were in the room, but the fear that was slowly becoming increasingly apparent stopped me from opening my eyes.

The unknown gnawed at my gut, my mind creating a thousand scenarios of how this could end, and none of them looked good for me. Every single one of them had the same outcome—with me dead.

“We need to start soon.” Lazarus spoke this time. Gone was the smooth, perfect voice and the softness in his words. Just another predator, another monster that entered my life. I was an idiot for seeking him out, for wanting to see this place just one time. Just to see if I was as insane as I thought I was, or if it was all in my head.

Just to see if there was another person out there who felt the same way as I did. Who suffocated under the pressure of life because I had no idea what I was going to do. But it was all a lie, a ruse to draw in people like me.

Lost souls searching for a place that could feel like home, who would feel familiar, because God knew my own house wasn’t a home at all. It was a tomb, marred with memories, both good and bad, piling on top of each other, with the two people who should love each other, but instead avoided talking altogether.