Page 78 of Haunted Prey

Where to hide?

I looked across, thinking to just skirt under a table with a sheet over it when my gaze stopped on a large wooden cabinet at the far end of the room.

It wasn’t anything like my father’s gin cabinet but it would do.

I quietly opened one of the doors and slipped inside. Third time's a charm, right? I slid down and curled into a corner, trying desperately to quiet my panting so I could listen.

I didn’t have to wait that long before I heard doors opening and then closing. I shut my eyes and noticed how much slower he searched this time, less desperate, biding his time.

Still, in the darkness of the cabinet, it felt like the earth was shifting around me. For one crazy moment, I was back in my old house, hiding and waiting for the bad man to find me. The memory was so vivid I swore I saw the flicker of fire through the crack of the door and smelled the acrid smoke of the burning tablecloth.

Fear surged through me, but this time, it wasn’t the fear of death. It was the fear of being caught.

I peeked through the crack of the door and froze. There was the dining table, there was the knife in the birthday cake. But no bodies. No blood on the carpet or dripping from the table.

I was so creeped out by what I was seeing I almost missed the groan of heavy boots on the stairs.

I tensed, putting my hand over my mouth to try and quiet my breathing. A moment later I saw a shadow pass by. I heard things being moved around, heard him walking from one side to the other.

Eventually his shadow stopped pacing, and he blocked out the light entirely. The cabinet shook and the door flung open.

I let out a yelp and looked up to see Emery staring down at me. In a red skull mask. Where had he found it? Or was this just part of the memory?

“Found you, little rabbit,” he said, sounding all too ecstatic.

He lifted me out of the cabinet. I didn’t fight, not sure if it was because I didn’t want to or because I was afraid to.

The attic returned as he carried me. He took me downstairs, and I could see nothing as I clung to him in the dark, hearing him stomping his way back to the room. When he kicked it open, I looked around and saw my old dining room again, only there was a mirror at the end of the table that wasn’t there before. In fact, most of the room looked off, some things from my memory and some not. Like how above the mirror hung a streamer that said happy birthday and how dad’s cabinet was gone and there was the stained-glass window instead.

I had to be having a break in reality. But I was too speechless to say anything. Emery didn’t notice as he carried me inside and set me down on the edge of the table.

As he leaned over me, I stared at him in shock, at the mask I had become all too familiar with.

“So that’s where you hid?” he said, tilting his head. “I know you can do better than that. Too bad, you're mine now, Evee.”

He took out the knife on his belt, then grabbed a hold of my dress. “Say goodbye to this.”

I sucked in my breath as he slid the blade between my breasts. He ripped down the dress, cutting it in half like he promised.

Before I even had a chance to react, he was tearing the rest until I was naked and laid out before him.

“P-please,” I pleaded.

“Oh, beg some more. I like that.” He turned the knife over so that the handle faced me. He slid his other hand down my thigh, spreading my legs apart. I felt his fingers brush against mycenter, first stroking and then circling around my clit once then twice, before slipping two fingers inside.

I gasped, arching my back, goosebumps trailing over my skin as he slid in and out, until I was so wet I could feel my arousal dripping down my thighs, could hear the smacking sounds of his hand hitting against my pussy. I clenched around him as the heat pooled deep in my core. Then, his fingers slipped out, replaced by something smoother. I glanced down and saw the hilt of the knife slide in slowly, feeling the smooth bumps of the handle dip deep almost to the blade.

I trembled as he slowly brought it back out. “That’s it, that’s my girl. Don’t worry, I just wanted to get it a little wet. Here, you can hold on to it for me now.” He took hold of my jaw. I opened my mouth obediently, and he set the hilt between my teeth. I could taste myself on the blade as my tongue grazed against it. I nearly dropped it but Emery set it back in place.

“You keep that there, don’t drop it.”

I didn’t dare move as Emery took a hold of my hips and forced me onto my knees. There I could see myself in the mirror, on one elbow with my bad arm cradled under me. I locked eyes with him behind me, his skull mask smiling, his eyes taunting. He rubbed at my bad shoulder. “I’ll be careful of this,” he whispered. His concern didn’t match the heat in his gaze. He must have read the worry on my face because then he said, “I swore I’d never hurt you, Evee, and I meant it. But for tonight, it’s going to seem like a lie. I’ll be rough, but I won’t take what you can’t give. Understand?”

I nodded my head.

He spread me out a little more. “Good. Now watch me worship you like I’ve been dying to do since I first saw you.”

He brought up a chair behind me. He took a seat and, when I blinked, his mask disappeared. His hands gripped my hips and he breathed on me, making me tremble.

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