Page 76 of Twist Me

“He would be fighting or fucking, you know Judas,” I said, shrugging my arms. I was trying to hide the fear I felt creeping up my spine.

Micah faked a laugh. “Yeah, that boy never settled down, has he? We can go check it out.”

Falling in line with the detective, we made our way to the cells, and it was no shock that most of them were empty. There were sprays of blood and more bodies, and at the end of the row of glass containers, there were two guards.

One was dead and beginning to stink. The other was choking on his own blood.

Grabbing his shirt, I pulled him to my gaze. “Where is the curly brown-haired patient?” I barked at him.

The dying man gurgled, his eyes rolling back in his head.He didn’t speak but pointed to a hallway before he finally met his end.Not bothering to see if my brother or Quinn followed, I took off in the direction the guard had pointed. Blood was smeared on the ground, like someone injured had been dragged through here.

“Fuck!” I yelled, the sound echoing down and around the halls.

A female voice sounded from inside the walls, the seam opening and showing the pale face of one of the doll twins. This was Ezello’s friend.

“Where is she?” I begged, getting down to her level and looking her over. She had dust from the walls on her, and she looked dirty. Her vegetable sister was tucked under her arm. But there was no sign of my Little Lamb.

“I don’t know,” the doll twin said sadly. “We got separated.”

Shining my flashlight on her hands, I saw blood.

“Is that yours or someone else’s?” I flicked my light on her stained hands.

Tears filled her eyes, and she looked at my brother beside me. “It’s Megan’s.”

Roe let out a silent gasp, and I felt his shoulders slump a bit. He had been getting to know that little bible girl. They had been talking and shit. Pharaoh had been sorta normal for a bit. But now, with his new obsession dead, I worry what this would mean for him. Every single one of us had developed some sort of coping mechanism that made us the “nutjobs” everyone accused us of being. For Pharoah, he attached his emotions to people. She was lustful but maybe comforting.

“I’m so sorry, Roe,” I said, tapping his shoulder. Micah looked at Emmy and her twin. “I’m not going to ask how In the hell you two are in the wall, but I’m glad you’re safe.”

Emmy narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Thanks, pig. Go find my friend. If she’s not dead, too.”There wasn’t much emotion on her face, but she had tears streaming down her pale cheeks.

“Have you seen our brother?” Pharaoh asked. His mask of calm had morphed into pained features.

Emmy shook her head. “No, he was taken. They both were. We heard them from inside the walls.”

I frowned and fixed a glare on them. “Who?”

The doll twin looked haunted as she said, “The guards.”

Moving forward, I started calling out my brother’s and my girl’s name.Neither answered, and each time I was met with silence, my heart pounded even harder in my chest.

The back door to leave the facility was illuminated with the exit sign, and my brother by blood and my brother in blue pushed forward with me.

There was more death outside—bloody footprints and a dagger coated in a pool of blood.I started running, following the trail and ending at the river.My heart sank when I shined the light on two floating bodies.

One was a tattoo-covered male, and the other was my curly-haired, brown-eyed Little Lamb.

Floating in the river, I listened for any signs of an attacker, but so much was happening around us. I didn’t know what I was thinking when I woke up to those awful crooked guards laughing as they continued to shock Judas. Pretending to be passed out was my best option. I was thankful for them and their cruelty when I heard that unmistakable giggling approaching us.

I squinted my eyes open to see the light of the guard’s flashlight illuminating the deranged killer as he stabbed one guard in the face and the other in the throat. The guard was gurgling on his blood as the insane killer laughed in his face.

“Tick-tock! Another drops! Solider one and solider two. They killed the girl! Sleeping doll, and tick-tock me. Tick-tock me equals solider number three.”

His sing-song way of speaking rang in my ears. It took everything I had to smear the dead man’s blood on me and Judas and drag him out here where I could hide us in the river.

The shouting and screams were so loud, not muffled at all by the river’s rushing water. The shield of darkness was one thing, but now the sun was rising. The chill of the water was starting to make me shake, and I didn’t know how much longer Judas would actually be asleep.

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