Page 71 of Body Tox

Where the fuck was she?

“Little Wraith?” I hollered, hearing my drunk voice echo off the attic walls.

I frowned when a ‘shut your face’ wasn’t hollered back at me. I tested the chains, my adrenaline spiking at her non-answer. Did she get lost in this damn maze of a church?

It was huge. There were at least five hundred pews alone, much less all the little doors we saw at the staircases.

Had she gone to snoop in one of the rooms?

I tried to recall where I last saw her. She was walking down the east staircase, using her foot to knock at the doors.

Most were locked, and I had gotten bored. I didn’t follow her after that and instead went back up the staircase.

Those statues of holy people freaked me the fuck out. Now I was regretting my leaving her to fend for herself. I thought about my knowledge of this place.

There wasn’t much I knew.

Shit, I never veered too far in here. In fact, most of the girls I saved were outside. They were always walking back to that creepy as fuck cellar near the woods in the back or in the parking lot, going to some undisclosed location for “purification.”

I lost a few marks that way.

They had stuck the girls in their fancy-ass limos and drove off, leaving me to watch the terrified women’s faces in their white nightgowns.

“Fuck,” I said. I’d left Echo in an occult church because I wanted to get laid…I shook my head, sobering up by the minute.

“Echo!” I said again, louder, the sound vibrating my chains.

Again, there was no answer.

“Fuck!” I cursed. I knew this shit was going to fucking hurt. I braced myself, suddenly happy for the buzz of the alcohol in my system.

An artist gave some chick his ear. Would Echo appreciate me giving her my thumbs?

The crack made me wince, the chains falling to the wood floor. I stared down at my mangled thumbs, bent at awkward angles.

I didn’t have time to focus on that. I bolted down the shit staircase, hopping three steps at a time, yelling for Echo with everything I had in me.

The grand staircase was dark now.

The thunder and lightning died down. I couldn’t see all that well, and I relied solely on the candles below lighting up the room in a flickering orange glow.

I didn’t bother being slow and quiet. I ran to each door and kicked the fucker in.

I searched six rooms on the west side of the staircase, not finding shit but old papers, ointments, candles, and a bunch of church shit.

I could see a door ajar on the eastern side of the large prayer area, and I took off in a sprint, hopping over the ledge of the staircase and landing on my feet at a dead run to that door.

When I got there, it was so dark. The candles were not reaching the area like they needed to, and the room was filled with pews.

I got on my knees, crawling forward and smacking into a shit ton of metal candle holders and feeling papers on the ground under my hands. I ignored the papers, slowly moving forward and feeling for her heat, searching the air for her scent.

“Echo? Where are you, my Little Wraith?” I said, my voice faltering with the fear that crept up my spine.

Finally, toward the back, I felt her silky hair in the darkest corner. It was wet, and my stomach dropped.

I could smell the blood.

My hands coated in her sweet blood.

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