Page 11 of Twist Me

“What happened to the lights?” I knew I was asking a lot of questions, but I needed to get my bearings fast. “Is my partn—err…is my jailer okay?”

She studied me closely. She may have a curvy body, but her features gave her an eerie, childlike look. Honestly, she looked like a living doll. It matched the theme of what you would expect from a mysterious asylum that was hauntingly beautiful.

She shrugged, twirling her dress and giggling.

“I don’t know. He may have been taken or killed. Maybe eaten by tick-tock Joe.”I blinked, waiting for her to say, ‘Gotcha’ or something, but she just started rummaging through the food cans on the shelf.“As far as what happened to the lights, that was your secret admirer’s doing.”

I frowned, not understanding what she meant.“I don’t know anyone here. What do you mean?”

“Goliath knows you. He’s been watching you on the television for a week,” she said casually, as if this was just an everyday conversation.

I balked at that, but she didn’t give me any attention after telling me, ‘I had been basically stalked.’

“The triplets like to play.” I think she meant that quite literally.

“And what…I’m their new toy, now?” I growled at the thought. I didn’t let anyone play with me. I had no interest in being a doll like my new “friend” here.

She giggled again. That creepy, childlike tone of hers sounded like a broken melody.

“That depends.”

I hated that I had to pull complete answers from her.

Was she playing with me too? Did everyone in this place enjoy hazing the newbie?

I tamped down my anger and my suspicions because she had helped me escape, after all.

“On what?”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer, especially with the way she looked at me, so unbothered and curious with a hint of humor.

“On how fast you can run.”

As I stalked down the hall, I was surprised that my prey had gotten away for the first time in a long time. I adjusted the night vision goggles on my face, fixing the green hue I saw all around me.

These were military-grade and had certainly come in handy. Plus, they made my games more fun. Getting them to me from the adjoining prison on the other side of the building had costme a fortune. Hospital Twelve was a fun little add-on for the prison patients deemed “criminally insane.” We were separated by a large corridor in the far west wing with about fifty guards, ensuring we stayed that way.

I had strayed over there a few times only to be escorted back with some electric shocks up the ass.

I flipped my cell phone on—another thing I’d smuggled into this place—and dialed Dex.

I had paid that fucker a ton of commission to ensure the lights were shut off and the main doors leading to the cafeteria, administration offices, and the study had been locked tight. My Little Lamb was going nowhere. Her areas to run were limited to the main hallway, where I’d be waiting to greet her at the far end.

That was where I’d originally trapped her and her little piggy friend. He was knocked the fuck out and put in a small room that was used for clinical purposes at the far end of that hallway. I resisted the urge to hang him by his flashy cotton boxers on the library’s flag pole.

“Dex…I have walked the halls and checked the library and the study. I even checked the clinical room, and she’s not…anywhere. What did you fuck up? She only had hallway B to go scampering off in, and regardless of that damn place being an endless trek, it’s been fifteen minutes. She would have gotten to the admin’s office by now.”

Dex was the epitome of a nerd. He was in this place because he decided it would be funny to electrocute an entire board meeting full of stuffy, rich people. His family had a shit-ton of money, which they used to put him in here with us.

“I-I, well, I am honestly not sure. My device shows that the mechanisms are all locked per your order. I do not know why she isn’t in your trap. My cameras show that all other facilities and rooms are functioning as normal. I also sent out a maintenance request for the floors you’re using, so no clinical staff, personnelworkers, or guards should bother you. I did everything you asked Goliath, I swear!”

I flexed my jaw and continued scanning the area.

I was about to tell the fucking dweeb he’d pay for his mistake when I noticed a crunching sound under my boot.Confused, I leaned down and examined the shards of glass. Following the trail, I came to the window that joined the hallway parallel to the one I was in.The window wasn’t super high up, but could she have gotten through it?

It was rare that I felt genuine surprise, but this Little Lamb had me smiling at her wit. Upon closer inspection, the frame revealed droplets of liquid on the ground and the window edge. Wiping it with my finger, I licked the substance. The taste exploded in my mouth like fireworks.

“Mmmm…incredibly sweet.”

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