Page 13 of Vicious King

5

Tatum

The wind howled outside,and a light drizzle of rain pattered against the gym windowpane. The clouds that had gathered since dawn blocked out the winter sun, dark and unyielding, casting shadows throughout the room.

I was running on one of the treadmills next to Pri. She hadn’t said a word to me, hadn’t even looked at me. Her eyes were hollow and her skin was marked with bruises. This entire week, I hadn’t heard her speak to anyone at all during our gym and shower sessions.

That was fine. I felt the same as her. No need to talk, no need to pretend everything would be okay. Nothing would ever be okay again, but that in itself was okay, because we all deserved to be here.

She must’ve done something terrible to whomever her master was. Just like me.

The winds grew louder outside. Even through the thick glass of the window, I could hear the creaking of trees as the relentless gales battered and tore at their branches.

When one of the guards opened the window for a second, stupidly thinking it might be good to let some fresh air into the musty room, the winds sounded as loud and powerful as a jet engine. He quickly pulled the pane shut with a muttered curse. “Any news about this storm?” I heard him ask another guard a moment later.

The other one nervously scrubbed a hand across his chin as he spoke. “Apparently it’s gonna be huge. I’m worried about the underground areas, to be honest. Conditions like this, they could flood.”

“How?”

“You know the tunnels underneath the place?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“They were built a long time ago. Aren’t exactly sealed off perfectly. They could flood if there’s too much water flowing into them in a short period of time. If that happens, the water could flood through the vents or cracks in the walls of the cells. And who knows what kinda structural damage that could wind up doing to the whole mansion? The base could start to crumble from all the water damage, and the top floors could start to cave in.”

“Oh, yeah. Shit.”

“Obviously that’s a worst-case scenario, but it doesn’t look good outside right now. So I’m gonna look at the weather reports and call King in a sec.”

The first guard sniffed. “I doubt he wants to come back here anytime soon. Not since he got….” He trailed off and motioned with one of his hands. I pretended not to notice out of the corner of my eye, but he was looking at me and miming the action of stabbing someone.

“Well, if this place needs evacuation, he’ll probably want to oversee it.”

A grunt. “Yeah. Guess so.”

The second guard stepped away with his phone, presumably looking at the most recent weather updates before making the aforementioned call to Tobias.

I glanced at the window again. The whole mansion seemed to be creaking and groaning now, sticks and leaves slamming against the glass as if some tempestuous spirit wanted to destroy the whole place. The trees outside were swaying with a violence I’d never seen before. It scared me. What if a huge branch ripped right off one of them, crashed through the window, and impaled someone?

I’d never been on an island during a thunderstorm, so I had no idea if island storms were usually this bad or if this was just a particularly wild one.

I tried to push the worries out of my mind and returned my attention to the treadmill. One of the other girls gave in to her fears and approached the guard who’d tried to open the window earlier, her face etched with worry as she asked if everything would be okay.

“It’s nothing. I bet it’ll blow over in a few minutes. Get back to your exercises,” he said dismissively.

No sooner than he spoke, the sky outside erupted with forks of angry white lightning and buckets of cascading rain, hammering loudly on the roof and windows as if it were demanding entrance. On cue, the power inside went out, and the treadmills and other powered exercise devices switched off along with the lights.

“Shit.” The guard stepped over to his friend, trying to peer over his shoulder at the phone screen. “What’s it say?”

The other guard looked troubled. “It’s practically a hurricane,” he said in a low voice, thick with concern. “Give it a few hours, the waves might be high enough to knock the fucking windows out of the third floor. Whole damn place is gonna flood.”

“Motherfucker….” The first guard let out a low whistle. “So we do need to evacuate.”

“Definitely. I’m calling King now. Lucky I still even have cell service.” He dialed a number, then waited with his lips pursed in a grim line.

I heard bits and pieces as he hurriedly explained the situation to Tobias. “Yes, sir. It’s meant to make landfall in about four hours. Maybe even sooner depending on wind conditions. I’m going to make all the staff aware, and I…” A brief pause. “I just… okay. Yes, I understand that. I know the girls aren’t ready for placement at the Lodge yet, but we must evacuate. I hate to be blunt, but either they go to the Lodge, untrained as they are, or they drown here.”

I closed my eyes. Drown. I felt like I was drowning here most of the time, slipping under wave after wave of numb exhaustion. Maybe if the storm carried me away in a few hours, it wouldn’t be so bad.

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