Page 30 of The Boy I Loved (Eternal Hell #1)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

HAZEL

A yawn tumbled from my lips as I stepped into my bedroom, sloppily running a towel through my damp hair.

There hadn’t been much time to clean myself up before leaving Rodney’s party, and as much as I enjoyed what happened there, the mixed releases from both Dom and I were making me feel dirty.

Now, I could go to sleep and hope that Dom hadn’t changed his mind from now and tomorrow.

Tonight was more than I could have ever asked for.

Dominic finally let his guard down after giving me the cold shoulder for the last couple of weeks, and he even told me he loved me again.

Hell, he told me he was sorry. I still didn’t understand why he’d treated me the way he had, but I was willing to let it all go if it meant I got the old him back.

A small smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, my mind drifting to the time I’d spent with him in that room. It wasn’t the ideal place for a hookup, but I’d do it over and over again if we had no other option.

I dropped the towel in the bin beside my door and crept through the dark bedroom until my knee bumped against the side of my bed.

Reaching for the comforter, I tugged it back some and slid beneath it, the soft mattress pressing into my side as I adjusted myself into a comfortable position.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on me, the alcohol and sex taking its toll—not to mention, I’d been up nearly all night, which was unlike me in itself.

Just as I was beginning to drift off to sleep, a thump echoed throughout the house, causing my eyes to fly open again in response.

Dad had probably already left for work. He was working out of town right now and had to leave by five in the morning, which meant he was probably long gone by now.

Mom usually didn’t wake up until eight or nine, but she might have had to get up to use the bathroom.

Deciding that was what it was, I closed my eyes again and forced my body to relax once more.

Sleep slowly began pulling me under again, but just like last time, that thump sounded again—closer this time.

I pushed myself into a sitting position, my eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness blanketing the room.

My heart thudded rapidly, fear sparking deep within me, coiling around my heart like a cold, crystal of ice.

“Mom?” I whispered through the darkness, fear clogging my throat.

Even if it was her, which it most likely was, there was a high chance she wasn’t able to hear me through the barrier of the wall, not with how softly the words fled my lips. One thing I knew for certain was that someone was one hundred percent in the hallway.

Maybe it was the house settling, and I’d convinced myself otherwise. All this talk about girls disappearing could have simply been getting to me, and it was nothing more. Still, it didn’t stop the pulse along the column of my neck from fluttering wildly.

Blowing out a breath, I kicked my legs over the edge of my bed and rose on shaky legs. I’d just peek out into the hallway for my own sanity. When nothing was there, I’d be able to sleep—hopefully. I crept along the wooden floor, wincing when it creaked beneath my feet .

God … I was totally that girl in the horror movie who went out looking for the source and inevitably got killed. A shudder rumbled through me at the thought, but still, it didn’t stop me from reaching for the doorknob and pulling it open a crack.

“Mom?” I whispered again, glancing down the darkened hallway.

Eerie silence greeted me in return, not even a sliver of light from my parents’ bedroom at the end of the hallway.

I was just about to say screw it and lock myself in my room when another thump sounded, this time, much like heavy footsteps.

Scratch that— multiple footsteps. They were fast, loud, and shuffled across the hard flooring, moving closer and closer toward me before I could even process where they were located.

Something latched onto my arm, a gloved hand. It jerked, tugging me forward until I was stumbling the rest of the way out into the hallway. A scream got lodged in my throat, but before it could make it past my lips, something sharp pierced the side of my neck.

A garbled sound escaped me, and I swayed, my vision blurring as the world tilted around me. And then it all went completely black.

Cold.

A faucet leaking.

Whimpers.

It all surrounded me in a tight cocoon of despair, barreling deep within me until they were the only things I could feel or hear.

Something rancid reached my nose, causing me to scrunch my nose in disgust, but my eyes refused to open.

My head was heavy, lolling to the side, but the energy in which it would take to move it, eluded me.

This had to have been some kind of nightmare. I’d wake up again in the comfort of my own bed, hating myself for how long I’d stayed up the night before.

Slowly, I forced my dry eyes to open, blinking a few times.

It took a while, but my vision began piecing itself together like a broken puzzle.

That was when I saw it—the bars, the cold cement surrounding a thin mattress, the mattress in which I resided on, and a bucket in the corner of whatever fucked up cell I’d been thrown in.

My throat was raw and dry, and I hesitantly swiped my tongue over my lower lip in a pathetic attempt to add moisture to it.

Where the fuck am I?

A chill crept down my spine, my hands pushing against the thin bed, using it as momentum to push myself into a sitting position.

I drew my legs to my chest, glancing around the small space.

The sound of slapping sounded a few cells away, echoing through the murky area.

As if my senses had been dulled before, everything came rushing to me in a tidal wave.

Vomit, sex, urine, feces, death . It was absolutely horrid.

The last thing I remembered…

My stomach flipped with nausea. Someone had been in my house; someone had taken me from there. Whimpers reached my ears again, followed by the same, incessant slapping that refused to relent.

I wanted to call out, to demand answers, but I was frozen—unable to force the words past my lips. Instead, I reached for the thin blanket resting at the edge of the small bed, and tugged it over my lap, resting my back against the cold, hard wall behind me.

I couldn’t remember being this petrified in my life. There had been times when my own imagination had scared me shitless, but it was nothing compared to the fear pummeling through me now .

Footsteps echoed down the cement, growing closer and closer with every step they took. Whoever it was, they were confident and sure of themselves; I could tell by the way they walked, even if I hadn’t seen them yet.

At last, a shadow descended upon the cemented floor a few paces before me, and my eyes bounced upward, locking on a pair of light blue ones. My lips parted in surprise, but as usual, nothing came out.

Mason.

He’d been the one to bring me here? But … why? Suddenly, everything Dom had said before came crashing down on me and making a hell of a lot more sense.

“Good morning,” he purred, his voice slipping through the bars of my cell, wrapping around me like a false blanket of comfort. “Hungry?”

I had so many questions. So many things I wanted to say and do, but I was far too weak for any of them. Hell, I couldn’t even ask him a simple, three-letter word. Maybe it had something to do with my dry mouth, or the drugs that had been pumped into my body.

His lips twitched in response when I didn’t offer him an answer. He reached for the keyring jingling from his belt loop and unclasped it before inserting the key into the lock and twisting. The metal door of the cell creaked open, the sound echoing through the building.

“Come on, H. You’ll need your strength for what we have planned for you.”

He’d called me that once before. It was one of the few nicknames Dom had reserved for me, and I hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, not until now.

I swallowed thickly, attempting to dislodge the lump in my throat. “W-wh-where am I?” My voice shook with every word, the cold air forcing a shiver from my body.

“Hell,” he replied casually. “For you, not so much for me.” He held out his hand in an expectant gesture as if he expected me to hop out of bed and run into his arms. He had to have been fucking delusional.

I shrank further into myself, confusion shooting through every limb I possessed.

If Mason was here, did that mean … No. I refused to believe that Dominic was involved in whatever this was.

This place was awful. I didn’t know what the slapping sounds meant, but I knew that it wasn’t anything good.

Nothing about this place was good—not even remotely.

“Don’t make me ask again,” he snapped, authority threading throughout his tone.

I’d always known there was something off about Mason Byers, but never had I suspected anything like this. However, I knew he meant business, and I wasn’t sure I had the strength to fight him on something so small.

Slowly, I forced myself to stand. My legs shook beneath my weight, dizziness clouding the edges of my vision. Repulsion bubbled up within me from the foul stench and I had to force my breathing to remain even despite the floor tilting beneath me every step of the way.

As soon as I reached Mason, he snapped his arm out, wrapping his fingers around my upper arm with aggression and tugging me from the confines of the dingy cell.

Long gone was the charming boy from … was it yesterday?

Fuck. How long had I been here? Instead, he was all hard edges and angles, his jaw feathering with aggression.

Even his light blue eyes had somehow darkened.

My stomach flipped with repulsion when my bare feet slid against something cold and wet, sending a current of vomit rushing to the back of my throat.

“Faster,” he barked, tightening his grip around my arm and tugging me down the walkway.