Page 2 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

“Okay, well you stay and play with that demon horse and”—I jerk my thumb toward the little door we came through—“I’m going back.”

He grabs onto my shirt. “Ugh. Wait. I want to show you something.”

A jittery feeling spreads through my body.

I don’t want to be in here anymore, but for some reason, I don’t feel like I should leave him.

Despite how mean he always tries to be to me, Grant is weak.

I can tell. Skinny and pale from how sick he is all the time.

One tiny push and he’d probably break into a thousand pieces.

“Fine,” I bite out. “But hurry up. My mom is probably gonna come looking for me soon.”

That’s a lie. We just got here. But I’m over this creepy room.

He doesn’t say anything, grabbing my hand in his skinny one and dragging me to an area across from the door we came through.

It’s just a wall, and pushed against it is a big wooden box filled with weird forks and spoons. One of the forks on top is extra weird. It has way too many points, making it much wider than a regular fork.

“The forks and stuff?” I ask in a bored voice.

He gives a quick shake of his head. “No, that’s just my grandmother’s old silverware.” He points at the wall instead.

I squint, but all I can see is the ugly wallpaper. “I don’t see anything.”

He huffs. “Look.”

I crane my neck closer. “I still don’t?—”

My voice cuts out when I feel his hand on the back of my neck, gently easing my face even closer to the wall. He whispers next to my ear. “You have to really look close.” His fingers trail away as he lets go, tickling my skin.

I try to really focus, turning my head in different directions. But I still can’t see anything.

“Grant. This is dumb. I can’t see?—”

The slam of a door interrupts me, and I whip my head around, searching the small room but see no sign of him.

“Grant?”

There’s a muffled laugh over by the door.

My heart starts to speed up as I realize what he did.

I run over to the door, bending down and trying to twist the knob but finding it locked.

“Grant!” I pound my fist on the door. “This isn’t funny! Let me out!”

There’s another chuckle, then the sound of shuffling as he leaves me here.

This is when the panic really starts to set in. I bang crazily against the door. Screaming at him to come get me. My brain scrambles to yell new and interesting ways to threaten him if he doesn’t let me out.

When that doesn’t help, I try working my fingers into the seam of the door, like maybe I could pry it open.

My fingers start to bleed, but I keep trying, refusing to look behind me at the creepiness of the room.

I can already feel that rocking horse’s eyehole staring at me, waiting to possess me the longer I’m stuck in here.

Tears stream down my face, blurring my vision as my fingers smear blood all over the door and wall. And even though the room isn’t that small, it feels like the walls are right behind me, slowly closing the distance between us. Pushing the demon horse right into my back.

My vision starts to tunnel. The gross smell of panic comes off of me.

I decide to give hitting the door one last try. Using all the might I possibly have left in me, I slam my fist into it.

By some miracle, I’m granted another chance at life and will not be possessed, because the door flies open, echoing a bang.

I crawl quickly, ignoring the pain in my fingers and stumbling out the other side.

I run out of there and through the hallway, trying to catch my breath while my heart thumps in my throat.

When I finally make it to the staircase, I stop short.

My mom, Mr. Nate, and Grant all stand by the front door. Everyone briefly looks up at me before turning back to their conversation.

Mom’s voice has a slight shake to it. “I swear, Mr. Caldwell. I didn’t take that. I’ve never seen it before in my life.”

I slowly go down the stairs. Grant stares at me the whole time, a smile on his face that seems scary with how sick he still looks.

Mr. Nate takes a slow breath. “Are you implying that my nephew is lying then, Ms. Moore? He says he saw you put it in your purse.” He turns toward Grant. “Grant Theodore Caldwell, you’re not lying are you?”

When he looks up at his uncle, there’s a weird nervousness that I usually don’t see in him, but he still shakes his head. “No.”

Mom widens her eyes and lets out a small whimper. When I reach them, I can see tears in her eyes. She keeps blinking a bunch of times, I think to make sure they don’t fall.

“I didn’t say he was lying. Maybe he’s just mistaken? I just… I’ve never seen that. I don’t know where it came from. I-I…” She looks around the room for an answer, but it’s clear she doesn’t know what else to say.

I look at Mr. Nate’s outstretched hand, the one holding the thing Grant says my mom stole, and my stomach drops. He’s holding that weird fork. The one that has too many points. The one that was just in the room with me and Grant.

I turn my head toward Grant to find him already looking at me—a stupid fucking smirk on his face.

There’s only one way that could’ve ended up in her purse.

“You’re such a douchebag!” I yell as I tackle him, sending both of us to the ground. My hands immediately find his neck, smearing the blood on my fingertips against his pale skin. I start squeezing. He doesn’t even fight back, just smiles at me as his face starts to turn a strange bluish color.

“Your mom’s a whore,” he croaks out quietly with that stupid smile on his face, right as I’m being yanked off of him.

Mr. Nate tosses me back beside Mom who is now sobbing apologies. “Get the fuck out of my home. You’re fired.”

She harshly grabs my hand and drags me behind her out the door.

I look back so that I can yell at Grant one more time. Tell him that he’s an asshole. A selfish, weird fucking brat.

I expect to see that stupid smile on his face, but instead he looks… really sad as he watches us walk away.

My head tilts in confusion, but before I can think more about it, Mr. Nate slams the door closed.