Page 169 of Phobia

He groans weakly and rolls over onto his side. I release his eyelid with a frown and step back into the corner of the room where the shadows still linger.

A single, dimly lit, yellow bulb hangs from a cord in the center of the room, a few feet in front of him. I tap it as I pass, sending it swinging into the air.

“Nngh,” he groans as he rouses. A spike of adrenaline to my heart. He slides his palms across the floor, wincing. It takes him a few long, agonizingly slow moments to right himself, but the second he’s vertical, it’s like it all slams back into him at once.

My lips twitch. Slowly curl upward.

“Oh, shit.” His feet shove him backward, where he slams into the wall, his skull bouncing with a crack that echoes so wonderfully. A symbol of our isolation. He cries out and drops his head between his raised knees with a whimper.

Shuddering, he jerks his head back up just as fast, as if suddenly remembering he’s not alone.

His eyes are wide and glassy, pinned with potent fear.

My heart rate accelerates.

I cock my head to the side. This boy is just a mess. I almost don’t have to work to scare him—he’s doing enough of that all on his own.

His brain must be a wildly mesmerizing place. But that just won’t do…

No, that won’t do at all.

I purposefully rap my knuckles against the wall before I shove back, sending me out of the room. I cackle at the sound of his scream. The way it echoes through the halls of Mayhem. The way it echoes right intome.

The door he was pressed against creeps open. Footsteps thunder down the warped hall, taking him deeper into my domain.

Time to chase my little prize.

Chapter 4

Blinding, white light flashes in a disorienting rhythm, making the floor and the walls skip as I try to blink through it.

It only makes it worse.

But then the fog starts to seep out from the cracks in the walls. And a high-pitched wail screams from above me.

I’m attacked from all sides—but not physically.

It’s all in my head, and I can’t fight it.

The wet slaps of my shoes against the black and white tile floor resounds in my head. It’s distorted, a warped, white noise as I push down with every ounce of strength I have, but just as I think I’m finally gaining distance, I collide with a wall.

“Nngh,” I groan as my face smacks into the splintered wood. A sliver pierces my nose. I wince.

My hands finally catch up with my brain and slam against the wall, two seconds too late. My nose throbs and burns. Wetness trickles out of my nostril. My cheek stings from the fresh scrape.

The wetness slips into my mouth, and I shudder at the tang of copper as it slides over my teeth and seeps into my porous tongue.

A bellowed wail sounds somewhere to my left. Or maybe my right.Jesus,is that coming from above me?

Slaps of shoes hammer on the floor. More follow. A flash of movement has my every muscle tensing, locked in place. “Shit! Fuck!” Panting breaths so close. “Oh, God, no!” someone howls. I barely hear, let alone recognize their voice through the racketing clamor blaring.

A vibrating growl accompanies. I grip the wall, curling my fingers around an exposed beam as I try to scale it, to get thehell awayfrom whatever’s coming. My feet leave the ground just as a shadow moves through the drowning fog.

All I see is black. Flashes of white. No eyes. Just black, soulless holes. My chest heaves and contracts as air whistles out of me, faster than I can replenish it. Sweat slicks my palms. I can’t look away from the horrifying creature coming right for me.

Oh, my God, I’m going to die.

My breath stutters. Tears spring to my eyes. I slip from the wall and cower, curling into a ball. Wind whips past me. The flash of cold amongst the heat singing my skin makes me jerk and whimper.