Page 123 of Muted

The taste of the chemical fills my mouth, a sickly-sweet flavor that makes me gag. Kicking my feet, I try to pull away, but he has me pinned to the ground perfectly.

Gently, he lays his cheek against mine, conveniently keeping his nose away from the chloroform saturated cloth.

“I’ve been waiting hours for you to leave the house. I considered coming in to get you, but leaving evidence behind wouldn’t be smart. You’d agree if you could.”

I refuse to let his words penetrate and look around, hoping someone is seeing this happen. I’d take help from anyone at this point.Please!I scream inside my head.

Black dots begin to dance as I look around, and my monster just shushes me.

“If you calm your breathing, it’ll happen more quickly. Five minutes at the most. I will admit, I did sneak inside for just a moment to watch you. Like I said in my text, you look just like your mother in your sleep.” His monotonous voice is causing my chest to suck in air more quickly, and I cough against the fumes.

Why is he so relaxed? So goddamn calm?

The way he lets out a light laugh fills me with dread, and a new wave of energy fills me as I scramble underneath him harder. Tears are streaming down my face from the fumes and frustration that I’m not making any progress in freeing myself. It’s a futile effort.

“Shh, shh… I know. Iknowthat might be confusing. You’re probably asking yourself how I would know what she looked like asleep. It certainly wasn’t when she was passed out in a drug-induced coma after fucking my son.”

The way his voice turns into a seething hate as he says the end makes me want to fight harder, but my muscles are failing me. Darkness finally creeps in as the chloroform does its job.

“That’s it. Finally,” he coos, brushing his cheek against the side of my head again in what I’m sure seems like a soothing gesture.

Just before I pass out, I hear his whispered confession and I just know. Iknow…I’m going to die.

“Laura wasn’t really asleep though, was she? I’ll put you to rest right next to her. My blood will die with you.”

Nightmare 5

My hair streams in front of me as the hands drag me back through the darkness. I can’t see anything, no hint of where we’re heading.

There are quick flickers of neon lights, but before I can focus on them, they’re gone. The fingers are clawing at me, digging into my skin, unwilling to release me.

I’m just about to scream again, but they all drop away at the same time. My body slams into a wall of metal, which shifts under my weight. It sounds hollow.

Sliding down the smooth surface, I hit the floor, wincing at the pain in my hip, and I rub at it as I try to gain my footing. Rubbing my eyes, I shove my hair out of my face, only to be slammed against the wall again.

Turning my head, I look down the length of the hallway and realize I’m back in high school. My back is being pinned to a row of lockers, the metal vents digging into the back of my head.

“Wha—” I start to ask, but a distorted voice cuts me off.

“Shut the fuck up, you whore,” it sneers at me.

Narrowing my eyes, I try to make out the face of my attacker, but they’re featureless. I can’t even tell if the body in front of me is male or female. Different memories of my classmates flicker across this person’s face and multiple hands stretch out from its torso.

The voice sounds both feminine and masculine, like a chorus of voices speaking in synchronicity. A fist flies from the side and slams into my stomach, forcing me to double over and gasp for air.

“Worthless. Pathetic. Trailer trash with a coked-out mom too busy fucking everyone in town to even bathe you. Why don’t you just fucking end yourself?” my taunter spits out.

I jerk my body to the side to run away, but those hands stretch to me, grabbing my hair and shoulder with a hard pull to stop me. My feet trip and I slam onto my back as more feet than I can count begin to fly, all different shoes driving into my sides and legs.

Rolling over to my side, I do my best to protect my face and peek out through the legs, only to let out a soundless gust of air when I see my monster standing at the end of the hall.

Arms crossed, he smirks as he watches on, no hint written on his face that he has plans to stop them. Fury runs like an electrical current through every fiber of my being, and I fucking explode.

“I DIDN’T FUCKING KILL YOUR SON! HE KILLED HIMSELF WITH HIS OWN, SHITTY DECISIONS!”

My monster drops his arms to his side, and a darkness shrouds his eyes as he takes a step forward. “Enough,” he hisses, and the faceless attacker disappears like they were never there, leaving me alone with HIM.

Groaning, I fall to my back and blink up at the ceiling. I’m just… done. “I want this to be over.” I hate the way my voice pleads with him, but I’ve moved past any pretense that begging will get me anywhere.

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