Page 24 of Twist Me

“Well, is there a basement or something here? An office?”

Emmy giggled, her creepy laugh giving me goosebumps. “Oh yes, there is a basement!”

I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.Sighing, I shook my head and walked away. Okay, so there was a basement. Great. All I had to do now was find it.Excited at my discovery, I hustled toward the entrance.

“Oof!” I slammed into a wall of…Pharaoh caught my arm before I fell, but the look in his eyes said it was out of habit, not kindness.

“Thank you. I almost fell?—”

He put his hand over my mouth. “No. Don’t speak. You are trouble, and whatever you think you are here to do, just stay the fuck out of my way. You may have Goliath and Judas wrapped around your pretty little fingers, but you try that on me, and I’ll break more than a nail, princess.”

I frowned at him, pulling away from his hand. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I?—”

The wind was knocked out of me as I was slammed against the door frame, Pharaoh’s face an inch from mine. He inhaled deeply, his nose lightly grazing the skin on my neck, and looked over at his brother, who was staring at us curiously.

“People that come here see us like broken little toys to fix.Thatis my problem. Some people can’t be fixed, sweetheart, and some….” He moved to my ear, his breath leaving goosebumps on my skin. “Some like doing the breaking.”

Shoving away from him, I began to walk the hallways, trying to get a feel for the surroundings and shake off my frustration with yet another freaking annoying devil from this asylum. Afew times, some guards shoved me back toward the main hall. I guess I couldn’t cross the median, and I was stressed, thinking the basement was most likely in that part of the freaking building.

However, I remembered the tunnels Emmy had mentioned. The only one I knew of was sealed up by concrete now, thanks to Goliath and his control issues. He thought he could block me from escaping him again.

Well, we’ll see about that, the big brute.

I ran my fingers along the line of the walls, irritated when I didn’t feel anything but dirt on my fingertips.

There was a door at the far end of the hallway. I vaguely remembered this led to the administrator’s offices and another door, but I didn’t know what was behind it.Knocking on the wooden entrance like a dummy, I froze as the door creaked open. Blinking, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the room.

“Hello?” I said.

When I could finally see what was in the space, it shocked me. There was a metal medical table in the center of the room that looked like an oversized dental tray. Also, there were various items spewed across the ground and a pile of cloth that looked like ripped fabric.

What the heck happened in here?

The room was dank, and I didn’t need to look in the cupboards to know I’d find medical supplies. I wasn’t sure why exactly a room like this was here, but clearly, it had been used recently.I continued running my hands along the wall, and I could see a rickety counter at the back wall. It was wobbly. Sure enough, it rocked forward when I pulled it toward me, and I could see another tunnel entrance. A triumphant smile spread across my mouth.

Could it be that easy?

I wiggled my way inside, and this hole wasn’t as small as the others. Anyone could fit in it. Maybe another patient besides Emmy had found this spot?I tried to pull the counter back into place and crawled blindly into the darkness until I felt another metal hinge attached to another hidden door. I pushed hard, and I tumbled into a locker room that had just been recently used.

That was convenient, but I wasn’t about to question the luck I was somehow finally getting. Quickly, I grabbed a white lab coat hanging on a hook on the side wall and fastened it over my scrub outfit.

I tried to look inconspicuous as I made my way around corners and halls to where I could finally see the prison. Hospital Twelve was separated from the prison itself, and I breathed a sigh of relief to know Goliath and the brothers were still in the asylum.

Catching the door to a nurse entering a room with a keypad, I continued, and the unmistakable clanging of metal and chatter filled my ears.

If I were in a basement with important files, I’d be hidden with many menaces to society.

It had taken me a bit,I had to admit, and I had been grabbed by prisoners through their bars more than my comfort allowed. Shuddering, it still felt like their hands were on me and their eyes were following me. It was like a constant burn on my skin.

“Hello, Little One.”

I yipped at the sound and spun around, coming face to face with the most unusual of the triplets.

What was it with these freaking men? And why was he skipping?

“We’re loving the costume.” Judas pointed with his finger. “Although I think black is more your color, white washes anyone out.”

I looked around to see if anyone had followed him, but there was no one. Why was he even over here? Answering my unspoken question, he tapped his head.

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