Page 55 of Tempt Me

“No, I am sorry,” I responded, watching her stand on the desk and twirl her dress in her gleeful excitement.

“Find me, Daddy! Don’t let the bad man come back.”

My heartbeat quickened, the sound thrumming in my ears and making it hard to hear the world around me. I vaguely noticed my brother and his companions staring at me.

I was sweating, and I wiped my forehead, feigning a smile like I wasn’t fucking insane talking to my dead kid.

“Pharaoh?” Goliath said, concern, lacing his deep tone.

I waved him off.

“I got some shit to do, brother. Think I can check back with you later?”

Lith looked at me silently, staring at the spot where Xenia was giggling and twirling on his desk.

“Uh…yeah man. Anytime but—”

I ran my hand through my hair, turned my body toward the door, and started walking to the exit.

“I’ll be waiting!” Xenia said, and she faded into a fit of giggles that carried around me like the warm breeze.

“I gotta’ go. Later, brother,” I said, ignoring his calls for me and pulling out of his hands that tried to grip my shoulders.

The exit felt like a godsend, complete with ‘Hallelujah Bells’ when I finally pushed through, and the silence of the hallway met my ringing ears.

“Fuck…” I tried to catch my breath.

I leaned into the wall, trying to stabilize myself and feeling dizzier by the minute. The long hallways seemed to grow before my eyes like a labyrinth, not offering a single hint of where the fuck the exit was.

I shook my head, smacking my cheek to get rid of this foggy cloud swirling around my brain.

Why was it so fucking hot in this place? I was sweating to the point that I could see droplets fall off my nose. Finally, I caught sight of that other guard. His black uniform was a beacon in that fucked hallway. Chatter surrounded me, and I realized I was in the cafeteria.

God damnit.

“You okay, bro? You don’t look so good.” I ignored the guard and bumped into him, pushing off his body and past the tables where people were still eating. The paper scrubs brought back memories of the hell of Hospital Twelve, and I didn’t want to fucking see a sea of them.

I growled, seeing a door by the back, pressing forward to smash through it.

I fell forward into a railing out of the back exit, leaving a blaring alarm bell to wail at me because of the security door.

The guard ran forward and tried to get my attention, but I kept walking, gulping the fresh air like I was starved in a desert. He must have used some key or code because the annoying shrill noise stopped, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I followed the line of the railing, leading me down a flight of concrete steps and into a big plaza that had a turf playing field complete with a basketball hoop and weight station.

More guards at the large gate at the end of the recess area looked at me like I was an escapee. I couldn’t form any other words than “Fuck off.”

One of them chased me while the other went to his radio.

After a minute of chasing my ass down the pavement and into the parking lot, I heard the other guard holler for the other man to stand down, and finally I was free of that place.

I still couldn’t calm my beating heart. It felt like cymbals inside my chest, banging around and making my teeth chatter. My eyes were burning, and the liquid was running down my cheeks.

A new yellow pole that showed dumbass cars where to stop practically tripped me, so I sat down and leaned against it. There was a parking garage just a few feet away, but as dizzy as I felt and how blurred my vision had become, I doubted I would make it to my truck.

I held my chest, trying to smack the damn thing into submission.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a red light blinking in the darkness of the car garage. I squinted, trying to cup my hands over my eyes to block out the sun and see what it was. A flash blinded me more before strawberry blonde hair came into view, the red light on the device disappearing as she ran.