Page 49 of Ruthless Riches
13
Alexis
I awoke with a start,even though I had no recollection of falling asleep. I had no idea where I was, but I could see a dark figure with a mask standing a few feet away from me, behind a row of bars.
I could tell the person was looking at me. I couldn’t see their eyes behind the mask, but I could feel the weight of their gaze.
“What’s going on?” I murmured sleepily.
A robotic male voice started playing from a phone held by the dark figure. “What’s your name?”
I blinked slowly. “Alexan… I mean, Alexis.”
“Where do you live, Alexis?”
I frowned and rubbed my eyes. Everything in my mind was a confused blur, with random images whipping around as though they were being blown about by a hurricane.
“Um… Avalon Island,” I said.
“Since when?”
I blinked again. “Just a few weeks. I used to live here when I was a kid, but now I’m back.”
“Can you tell me the date?”
I shook my head. I wanted to lie down and go back to sleep. “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I can’t remember.”
“Give me your best shot,” came the robotic response.
“March 2019,” I said, trying to remember the exact day I returned to live on Avalon. I remembered stepping off the ferry with all my things like it was yesterday, so it couldn’t have been very long ago. “The 15th, maybe?”
The masked figure nodded in a manner that denoted satisfaction. “Why did you move back to Avalon?”
I swallowed hard as I considered my answer. I didn’t want this stranger to know about my plan to clear my father’s name. I didn’t even know who they were, or why they were here. And what the hell was going on with these bars?
Was this some sort of escape room that I fell asleep in? Who would I even visit an escape room with? Sascha wasn’t interested in that sort of stuff, and I didn’t really have any other friends or family on the island.
I closed my eyes as confusion continued to bloom in my brain. I kept trying to grasp at other memories, but I couldn’t focus properly.
“Answer the question, Alexis,” said the robotic voice.
My head was pounding now, and I could barely remember the question. I winced and opened my eyes. “Um… I moved here because I’m applying to Blackthorne University. I want to get a journalism degree from there,” I said. It occurred to me that my voice was slightly slurred.
The figure nodded again. He seemed pleased.
The hurricane of random images started up in my mind again. Pain lanced through my skull at the same time, and I grimaced and rubbed my temples as memories poured back in. Suddenly the last several months returned to me.
Ruby. Laurel. Greg Lockwood. Edward Paxton. The Golden Circle. Nate.
Oh, Nate…
I sat up straight and stared right at the dark figure. “You’re the Butcher,” I said in a low voice.
I heard a dissatisfied sniff from behind the mask. Then he tapped out another message on his phone for the text-to-speech program to read out loud. “I really thought that worked. What a shame.”
I frowned and tried to stand up, but my head hurt too much when I moved, so I immediately sagged back onto the velvet seat. “What did you do to me?” I asked, eyes fearfully wide. “How did you make me forget?”
There was a heavy silence in the tunnels as the Butcher wrote another message. Then the robotic voice echoed through the air again. “The food and water I gave you was laced with drugs. I’m surprised you didn’t notice the taste, to be honest.”
