Page 68 of Split

I can’t beat him in a foot race, so I make a mad dash for the manor, bursting through the front door and sprinting down the hall.I need somewhere to hide.The slap of my bare feet against the marble echoes around me as I pump my legs faster, bound for the study at the back of the house.

I hear one of the twins call my name, but there’s no way in hell I’m stopping to answer; not when my life depends on evading him. I dash into the study, straight to the bookcase with the hidden door behind it. Gripping onto the shelf, I throw my weight back to yank it open, registering the sound of footsteps pounding in the hall, approaching the room. The stone staircase descending to the tunnels is no more inviting than the first time I saw it, but I bolt down it nonetheless, intent on concealing myself in the dark.

My eyes don’t have nearly enough time to adjust to the pitch-black. I run as fast as I can, but I don’t make it far before I careen into a wall, the force of the collision knocking the wind out of me. I stumble back in a daze, spinning around in a circle as I frantically try to orient myself to my surroundings.

Run.

I need to run.

Squinting into the darkness, I just barely make out a diverging tunnel on my left, turning down it without any regard for where it leads.

“Eliza…”

One of them is down here with me.The deep, haunting voice echoes through the stone tunnel as I run faster, bare feet slapping against the cold slab underfoot. My chest heaves with exertion, throat raw from my ragged breathing.

“Eliza…”

I skid to a stop as I hear my name called again, this time seemingly from somewhere ahead instead of behind.

The other twin.

They’re both here.

It’s so dark that I can barely make out anything in front of me. Biting my lip to stifle a whimper, I reach out to run my palms over the damp stone walls, desperately feeling around for an opening. They slip and slide against the rough surface, both from the moisture on the rock and the blood on my hands.

Wesley’s blood.

They killed him.

My fingers claw against the craggy wall as I frantically search for a way out. Just like the hedges, these tunnels are a labyrinth; a maze designed to disorient.A game.

The rock suddenly gives beneath my hands as I locate an opening in the roughly hewn stone, tripping forward into the space it creates. My knees bang against the floor as I go downhard, a pained cry escaping my lips on impact. I slap a hand over my mouth to suppress the sound, mentally cursing myself for giving up my location by making a noise.

“There isn’t anywhere you can run to that I won’t find you,wife,” the disembodied voice mocks, echoing in the space around me like a death knell.

He sounds closer now.Too close.

I shove up to my feet, springing forward into the darkness at a full sprint. My panted breaths fog the air as they burst from my lips, my exposed arms covered with goosebumps. In the distance, there’s a hazy glow of light, and I can barely make out the rough edge of another opening– another turn.

I take it at full speed, immediately regretting my choice when I slam into a wall of stone, barely throwing my hands up in time to brace myself.

A fake opening.

A false hope.

As I stumble backwards, stunned and disoriented, a pair of strong arms suddenly wrap around my waist from behind, hauling me back against a muscular chest.

A scream tears from my throat as my feet scrabble for purchase against the cold floor, my fingernails digging into the flesh of the arms banded around my waist.

My captor leans down, his heavy breaths rustling my hair and his lips brushing the shell of my ear as he whispers, “Til death do us part, remember?”

“Let me go!” I shriek, kicking and clawing at him.

“Never,” he growls back.

My terrified scream pierces the air as he lifts me up and tosses me over his shoulder, banding his arms around my waist and thighs to secure me. I punch and flail, trying my damndest to escape him, but he’s too big; too strong. I’m at his mercy as he begins to carry me away down the dark tunnel.

A chilling wave of dread washes over me as the realization sinks in that this is it. I’m going to die, and there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. There’s no escaping the inevitability.

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