Page 73 of Hey, Daddy

A steady whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

My hands shook as I tried and failed to back away.

My body was no longer cooperating.

A knock sounded, and I turned my head toward the sound.

The knock sounded again, more insistent this time, but nothing followed.

I couldn’t open my mouth to reply.

I couldn’t do anything but look.

Staring blankly.

I don’t know how long I sat there, kneeling in the congealing blood of the man that was supposed to protect me.

It had to have been hours.

Maybe days.

I didn’t know.

What I did know was that something was wrong with me.

Very wrong.

My brain wasn’t working correctly.

I knew this, yet I didn’t move.

Didn’t shift a single inch.

I was so lost in my own head that when my phone started to ring, I didn’t react.

I did react when the one in Daniil’s pocket did.

I looked down at his phone as if it was something alive that was sent to this time and place to kill me.

The phone stopped ringing, and then started again.

It kept doing this for so long that I got used to the constant sound.

When it abruptly stopped, I almost felt like a piece of what kept me breathing was removed from me.

A click had me glancing up, once again focusing on Daniil’s missing skull.

“Nastya?”

I frowned and looked away, my gaze going over my shoulder now.

“Nastya, are you here?”

Haze.

Haze was here.

Where had he been?

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