Page 54 of Irreversible

One, two, three…

Wiggling my toes, I think of the spider. Wonder if it’s near, keeping an eye on me.

But I don’t feel it anymore.

Even it has left me.

12

The chain rattles as I drag it across the tile, scuffing a pathway over the piddly number of square feet I’m forced to exist in now.

Five, ten, a hundred-thousand paces—a chant pounding in my head with every step.

What. The. Fuck.

Clank, clank, clank.

What. The. Fuck.

I’ve officially lost my damn mind.

Isaac, he called me.

Isaac.

Me.

Time blurs. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. How long I’ve been pacing. Back and forth.

Back

and

forth.

My ankle nearly gives out, but I keep going until my walk turns into a pathetic sort of hobble. My muscles itch with the need to run several miles, injuries be damned. My brain can’t process when I’m just sitting around like a useless asshole.

So, I hobble some more. Back and forth.

Trapped.

Trapped and alone.

This place has turned me into the proverbial caged tiger, and I swear I’m going to rip my motherfucking keeper’s throat out the next time he gets within my line of sight.

Fifty thousand laps around my room—more, or less, I don’t know—and I keep rehashing everything he said. My name, the details of the night my sister disappeared, the desperate sounds Everly made as he was dragging her away…

But first, she said my name.

I wonder if Sara called my name. Called and called, and I never came.

Like an adder, my hand strikes out, slamming into the wall.

“Fuck.”

There’s no response from the other side. Hasn’t been all day.

Hoisting the chain to shoulder level, I hurl it at the wall, cursing the monster who’s keeping us here, the loss of everything that matters, and my miserable fucking existence.

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