Page 52 of Twist Me

“Okay…”

The small ATV came to a stop at a sizeable, menacing-looking gate. It appeared to have been painted red and white once, but now it looked like tattered cloth hanging from old corroded metal.

Was he taking me somewhere to kill me?

No. He would’ve allowed The Reaper to finish the job had that been the case…but still.

Turning off the engine, he got off the ATV, picked me up like I weighed nothing more than a feather, and sat me on the ground. He didn’t make contact with any part of my body. His hands barely even grabbed me fully when he picked me up. His grip around my waist was more like what someone would do to a toddler, not a woman they had relations with, relations I thought he enjoyed.

Maybe that was it. I hadn’t been able to take care of him when his sister barged in…

Was swallowing my pride and my embarrassment the problem?

I walked up to Goliath and reached for his pants, trying to unbutton them quickly. His eyes widened as the button finally released from the clasp, and I was onto the next. Trapping my hands in his, he leaned down and looked me in the eyes.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“I…I was going to…you know.” I made a gesture to his groin, my cheeks flaming with the heat of my naivety.

He crooked an eyebrow and looked at my eyes, bouncing from one to the next. I didn’t know what he was trying to find in them. I felt so stupid. His rejection stung as much as the tears starting to build in my eyes.

“Little Lamb…you don’t need to do that.”

I angrily wiped at my face, my stupid emotions always making me look weak, and I didn’t want to feel weak next to him ever, especially him.

“You don’t want…my mouth?” He grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. “Fuck-yes, I do,” he said, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “Just not…”

As he trailed off, I followed his gaze toward the creepy-looking fence rattling in the wind.

Sighing, he began to speak. “Look. I brought you here because I wanted you to know how to fight when that asshole comes back for you. And make no mistake, men like that won’t stop, Ezello. You need to know how to run, hide, and defeat your captor.”

I listened to his words, but I wasn’t following what on earth he meant.

A dangerous smile formed on his lips, and his icy eyes darkened. “Your birthday present isn’t taking you here, LittleLamb. My present gives you exactly twenty-three seconds to run. One second for every year you have been alive.”

My breath caught in my throat, the incredulity I felt cementing my feet to the ground. He couldn’t be serious…could he?

“After the twenty-three seconds is up, I will come looking for you, and when I find you, I am going to teach you all the delicious ways to sin with your devil.”

I blinked, my mouth gaping open. Goliath walked over to the ratted old fabric strewn over the metal gate and ripped it off. A hauntingly beautiful labyrinth of an abandoned carnival theme park peeked through the holes in the fence.

Goliath yanked open a part of the fence that had clearly been sawed off and ushered me under it.

The massive park glowed with an eerie light. More lights were working after Goliath smashed down a huge switch. Awful, truly terrifying, warped sounds filled my ears. Music that was skipping beats, a clown’s laughter, and children giggling in morphed chilling volumes.

I was absolutely terrified.

Turning around to look at Goliath, I stopped. “No, no, no, I don’t want this. Clowns horrify me. Take me back to the cabin, Goliath.”

I knew I was whining, but I was shaking like a leaf.

Looming over me, he smiled an absolutely psychotic bone-chilling grin. It was the kind of smile that made me all too aware he was very much an escaped psychopath from the asylum.

“Run, run, run, Little Lamb. Your time starts now.”

I screamed as a huge crank was lowered on the wall. The lights went completely out, the music and warped sounds of a haunted house still surrounding me, but now, in darkness. The only light was that of the moon and little orange lights on the far side of the park.

An exit?

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