Page 81 of Twist Me

“I’m sorry,” I screamed. “Please, I’m so sorry! I should have helped you all!”

The eerie laughter of the insane man grew in my ears. The sing-song shrieking became so loud and clear. I felt heat beside me, and a rotting stench accompanied the air. My body seized up, and the light of the moon was suddenly shadowed.

I opened my eyes, and the voices, all but one, were gone now. A looming shadow of the blood-soaked Reaper was standing in front of me. He looked down at my body—a morbid curiosity played on his twisted face. The blood had dried on his skin and clothes, and a broken chain rattled on his ankle as he walked toward me.

“Tick-tock!” The warped sound of a hushed little baby came out of his mouth, and I tried to stand, my legs shaking. As I turned my back to run from him, he used his boot to kick me in the back, knocking me into one of the graves.

Sputtering and trying to scramble up from the dead body under me, I clawed at the wall of the hole. I was far down and couldn’t get purchase on the crumbling walls.

The Reaper turned around and scratched dirt onto me like a dog, cackling maniacally.

I was being buried alive.

“Tick-tick! I seeeee you! Hahaha, sleep tight, tick-tock, sleep tight.”

“Did you hear that?” I said, my gut rolling like I was about to lose my fucking lunch.

“My stomach growling from this mindless ass-task? Yeah, I hear it,” Pharoah grumbled.

It was true. We had been at this too long. It was officially starting to suck, and now on top of my annoyance, I had sore feet.

Fuck, I was feeling an overwhelming urge to hurl.

“What the fuck is it?” Judas asked, steadying me from falling on my ass.

“I don’t know, man. I just feel really off.” My brothers stared at me like I belonged in the white cells.

There was, again, a muffled sound…like a scream?

Laying down on the ground, I put my ear to the earth, waiting until that sickening sound once again vibrates in my ear.

“Were they sure all the people in those graves were dead?”

Now, my brothers definitely looked at me like I was nuts. “Uh, bro? They were carved up like hams.”

Sighing, I shook my head. Maybe I was having flashbacks to Ezello’s screams that night I had found her in The Reaper’s grasp. It felt so real, though…

“Guys, I’m going to double back to the graves. I just feel so weird, and I can’t explain it. You can head back. I will meet you when I’m done.”

They exchanged a look, and Judas gave me what I assumed was an incredulous look, but they shrugged. Not bothering to wait for a reply, I just beat-feet. I felt so shaky, and the sounds of that muffled noise increased the faster I ran.

I was practically blind with sweat and wind in my face when something hard slammed into my side, plowing into me.

Trying to collect myself on the ground, I realized I hadn’t found my prey, but it found me. The fucking Reaper, with his stench breath, was sitting on top of me and hurling a knife down toward my throat.

I rolled my head out of the way as his eerie sing-song tone filled the space.

“Pretty little doll goes to sleep now! Shhhh! Tick-tock time for the little doll! Tick-Tock time!”

Scrambling, I tried to decipher his words.

Pretty little doll?

“What did you do, you sick fuck?” I roared at him, bashing his knife-wielding hand onto the ground. “Who did you kill now?”

The sound came again, a desperate whimpering plea for help. The Reaper stopped and tipped his head to listen.

“Music! Hear the doll drop? Hehehe!”

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