Page 6 of Dead By Dusk

I sigh and look at Carmen telling her,“Just close your eyes and keep focusing on your breathing. I’ll go and give a quickupdate. She just shakily nods and places her head in between her knees, not moving from her spot on the ground.

I take that as my cue to get up and jog over to the stairs before anyone else heads up here and freaks out the same way she just did. When I make it down, I see a frantic Nathaniel cautiously beginning his trek up the steps, relief crossing his features when he sees me.

“What the hell was that? Who was screaming? What happened?” he asks, eyes still worried and face flushed. I see a slight tremble in his hand as he drops it from the railing, and I recognize it for what it is.

Fear.

Probably not for me or Carmen, but for the unknown, most likely. Which is fair, even if also unreasonable, considering that everything happening to us is just that: unknown.

“William is dead,” I say rather bluntly. There’s no reason to beat around the bush anyway. None of us have known each other more than an hour at this point, so my sympathies are rather limited for the man whose last few words toward me were demeaning. Maybe Nathaniel shares the same feelings, because he just looks at me for elaboration rather than looking like someone died.

“Okay, what happened? You don’t seem afraid or panicked, so I assume it was an accident of sorts?”

“Of sorts,” I say vaguely while looking a little sheepish and add, “How familiar are you with Turkish street food?”

A raised eyebrow is all I get in return. That’s all I get, and I don’t even think that I care because I have to fight the smallest of smiles before adding one small sentiment. “How do you feel about kebabs?”

He doesn’t laugh. He instead looks slightly horrified, questions dancing behind his eyes revealing all his thoughts at once, and honestly, I don’t care if he’s terrified. He can beterrified because I’m a little upset. I didn’t realize I was dealing with such a tough crowd, yet here I am.

“He slipped going down the roof. There was a trap that sprung up and killed him. It’s a mess. Carmen screamed when it happened but I got her to calm down a bit. It happened at the roof’s edge, so I’m going to take the same path he did, walk in between the gaps, and jump down to check the surroundings. I’ll call up to Carmen with the ‘all clear’ or the ‘no go’ order from there. Are the others up and moving yet?”

He looks at me like I’ve grown five heads and suggested we just live in the house the rest of our days and resort to cannibalism or manifesting that we’re plants and surviving on photosynthesis. He looks at me like I’mcrazy. That’s the second time a man has looked at me like my idea was outrageous in less than that many hours, and I’m starting to take it a little personally. But just as soon as I decide to comment on it, he neutralizes his facial expression and just runs his hand over his face before rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, they’re up and moving. We haven’t found any other way out yet, no paperwork, no weapons, nothing useful, really. No more people though, and that’s a win in my books. Six is more than e—”

“Five. There’s five of us now.” The abrupt interruption stopped him for only a moment. His cautious gaze roving over my form once again before continuing.

“Right, yeah. Five is more than enough kidnapped and clueless people. I explained everything to them, we’re still searching, but once we’re done, we’ll head up there. We may have no choice but to go through that window.”

I just nod my head and quickly look behind me before returning my attention to him. Tapping my fingers against the banister, I wonder what he’d make of the sealed door, and when I decide that it doesn’t matter and try to continue my way backto a shaken and skittish woman, Nathaniel clears his throat expectantly. Releasing a small exhale, I call over a shoulder, “There’s a door up here that won’t open. I don’t know what to make of it but it feels important. Just in case one of you wants to take a crack at it when you get upstairs.” I continue my path to the bathroom after I finish speaking, not bothering to wait around for any further questions. Instead, I’m bracing myself to try and explain to Carmen that I have to go outside to figure everything out.

As soon as I walk back into the bathroom, I see she’s right where I left her. Head tucked between her legs and arms loosely dangling over her knees, she’s doing her best to regulate her breathing and ease her anxiety.

I try not to startle her as I approach and bring my boots toe to toe with her converse, and she looks up at me with big light brown eyes, slightly glossed over from her tears that she had shed presumably from the aftershock of the adrenaline. I crouch down to her level, my knees almost touching hers and give a tight lipped smile which she returns with a wobbly one.

“I have to go out there,” I say calmly. Firmly. Confidently. I say it in every way I know I need to so I don’t freak her out, and for the first time, someone doesn’t look at me like I belong in an insane asylum, though she does look slightly unhappy and extremely unenthused by the idea of me doing what I’m suggesting. Honestly, that’s fair.

“Someone has to go. The spikes appeared so far down on the roof that it should be safe to walk now. I’ll be careful, but I don’t want you to watch. Moving his body might be the only way to get rid of the spikes, and I don’t want you to have to see that. So just listen for me, okay? Don’t go down there unless I tell you that it’s safe. Do you understand?”

She just slowly nods at me, offers another wobbly, unstable smile and a quick “Good luck, don’t die please,” before I allow myself to stand and walk away from her.

And then I’m out the window, taking small and cautious steps, not allowing myself the opportunity to slip and fall the way he did. When I get to the spikes, I take a closer look at the man I only knew for a short period of time.

In Carmen’s defense, he really does look quite terrible. Especially this close up. His head is turned towards us, jaw open wider than normal. His lifeless hazel eyes stare into the house, and his face is so much paler than it had been before he stepped through the window. The first spike went through his neck which explains why he never got a chance to scream. At least not one that was audible to us, but probably one that had sounded more like a gurgling gasp while he choked on the very blood that once filled his body. That same blood now pools around him and drips off the house.

The second spike shot through his back and lower abdomen, while the third hit around his knee cap. His leg is now bent at an unnatural angle, and even though I didn’t know him well, part of me hopes that he died on impact rather than having to live through even a second of the pain. All jokes aside, it isn’t a death I’d wish on anyone.

I use the spikes as leverage and wrap my hands around them. Sidestepping to where his feet are, I squeeze my body in between two of them before peeking at the ground below. The drop shouldn’t be any more than 10 feet which, yes, will make for an uncomfortable landing, but is manageable.

I can live with manageable.

I begin to shift and turn my body back to the house when I realize that I have no idea what traps lay below me. Instead, I decide to do something that others may think terrible, but I amokay with being thought of as such if it means that I live past this drop.

I unlace his boots, so similar to mine, and toss them on the ground below in two separate areas, and wait for a reaction. After a few moments of stillness, I figure it’s safe for me to resume my descent and lower myself to a sitting position on the ledge.

Twisting my body, I grab the edge and allow myself to drop. I hold on for dear life while I dangle several feet above the ground, hoping to brace for the pain and damage from the fall. Unfortunately, of all the things that I can’t remember, my brain decides that now is the time to remind me that heights and I are not friends. Not in the slightest.

And suddenly, the height is decidedly a little less manageable. But I know I don’t have much of a choice except to let go.

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