Page 17 of Not Your Hero

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. None of them get the answers they want. Why am I here? What is happening? What I will tell you is this. When the lights go off, there is no talking. If you talk, you get the hose. If you get the hose, you’ll be cold. That’s going to be the only warning you’ll get, understand?” he asks me, but I don’t understand. I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know what’s happening or what this place is.

“Who are you?”

“For all intents and purposes, I am your keeper.”

“My keeper?”

“I’ll be the one to decide if and when you eat. I’ll be the one to decide if you’re cold or hot. In fact, I’ll be the one making all your decisions from now on. That bucket there in the corner,” he says as I turn and look before looking back to him. “That’s your bathroom. You’ll shower when I say you shower, but seeing as you like to talk, you just got one.”

“I don’t understand!” I yell this time. He just laughs and slinks away from the cell as I step forward and grab the bars, shaking them. “What the hell is this place?” I scream right before the cold water hits me again. Now, I step back, drop to the floor, and curl into a ball on the floor until the water stops. When I can safely pry my eyes open, I see the girl next to me. Her arms are wrapped around her knees, her fingertips as bloody as her knees. She lifts her head to look at me, and dull, lifeless eyes burn straight through me.

“Don’t even try to get out. We all have,” she mumbles, her voice hoarse.

“What is this place?” I ask as I start to tremble from the cold.

“No one knows. Once you leave here, none have ever come back.”

“What do you mean?”

“They take groups at a time. The others never come back.”

“How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know. No more talking,” she says as I hear something, a motor of sorts kick on. Just when I think things can’t get any worse, they do. Cold air blasts me, causing me to gasp. The small light that had been on is now off and all there is is darkness and cold.

Tears run down my cheeks as I close my eyes and lay on the floor, curled into a ball. I don’t know what hell this is or how I even got here.

But now I’m afraid to find out.

Chapter 11

Gannix

I tug at my hair as I look out the window of my office, pacing back and forth, waiting for Ren to get here. I was down with that fucking headache for days, just like I knew I’d be, and now everything is fucked.

I can’t believe it either. I can’t believe that she’s fucking gone, and I have no idea where she is.

The door opens, and I spin around to see Ren coming through the door.

“I have nothing, Gannix. Nothing at all. I have no fucking idea where Emerson is,” he reports after I sent him over to her house to check on her. I should have had him checking the whole fucking time I was down, but I didn’t, and that’s my goddamn fault.

“No signs of breaking in?”

“No. Nothing.”

“This doesn’t make sense, Ren. She wouldn’t go anywhere. She doesn’t fucking know anyone!” I roar this time.

“I’ve checked her cell and everything, Gannix. There’s nothing. No new phone calls or texts. It’s like she just fucking disappeared.”

“But we know that isn’t possible, so where the hell is she?”

“What do you want me to do here?”

“I want everyone out looking for her. I want the cops on this, too. She’s out there, and someone knows where she is,” I tell him. He nods his head and pulls his phone out, sending off multiple text messages as I continue to pace. I’ve already punched three holes in the walls and busted nearly everything on my desk. My nerves are shot. I don’t know where she could be, but she certainly isn’t with her ex because I took care of his ass.

“I got messages out to everyone,” Ren tells me. This is all fucked. Completely fucked. But it’s my fault. I wasn’t watching her because I was down. I should have been watching her, just like I have been for so long.

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