Page 48 of What Doesn't Kill Us

“And thank fucking god for that. But now, I feel like I shouldn’t have told you, and I’m gonna get in trouble.”

“You won’t get in any trouble, assuming we even get out of this fucking place alive. Do you think they’ve been able to pinpoint your tracker yet?”

She presses the button on my watch again, and I see her shake her head. “No. If they could locate me, they would’ve already come to free us. I’m assuming this metal prison fucks with the signal, so either we get out of here at some point, and they’ll be able to pinpoint where we are, or we’ll just rot here for all of eternity.”

“Always the optimist, Aggie.”

She drops my wrist as we fall back into darkness again. “I’m not afraid to die. I think my biggest fear would be dying last. Better to die first and not have to watch your loved ones pass on.”

“I get that. I don’t even know that many people I truly give a shit about, but the few I do, I couldn’t watch them suffer. I couldn’t live without them either.”

We fall into silence again, and all I can think about is Toni. I’ve done my damnedest to put it out of my mind while we’ve been here, but the silent, seemingly endless darkness echoes those thoughts back to me. I truly feel that if she was gone, I would know. That the emptiness inside me would become so finite it would draw me down into the earth itself. I worry for Lilith, too, though, that’s mainly for Antoinette and Agatha. And then there’s Matt and Tony. I didn’t see them in that warehouse, and that’s extremely concerning.

Regardless of whatever has happened, I’m sure everyone is playing their own version of the blame game—myself included. So, it’s all for nothing. Regardless of the choices any of us have made over the last year, it’s likely we all still would’ve ended up in the same place. Just like if it’s our time to die in this room, surrounded by darkness, then we’ll die here.

There’s a strange rattling on the far wall, and Agatha springs up and rushes to the far corner of the room. She’s been doing intermittent speed drills with those restraints for most of the entire time we’ve been in here. Now, I’m curious if she can get those things back on before someone opens the door.Ifsomeone even opens the door, since the last few times we heard something out there, nothing came of it.

This time, I hear voices or what sounds like several people having a heated argument. It quietens, and I hear the slide of deadbolts being drawn back. The door cracks open, light filtering through the pitch black. I squeeze my eyes shut as pain lances across them. I turn my body away from the doorway, squinting across the room at Agatha, relieved to see that she’s once again in position. We couldn’t come up with any kind of workable plan, so I figure I’ll play possum, and maybe I’ll overhear something useful.

They haven’t come into the room yet, but I hear their panicked voices scrambling from the hallway, and it sounds like someone’s in trouble. I’m trying to decide who they’re going to pin it on when I hear them talking about “that fucker” and someone “being dead”, and I assume they’re referring to me. I guess they’re lucky I’m not fucking dead.

Footsteps enter the room, and then someone says, “Well, he doesn’t look dead.”

An unknown voice says, “Doesn’t matter what it fucking looks like. Check him for a pulse.”

The first voice comes back with, “I’m not fucking touching him. You do it.”

Then all the voices argue at the same time about who is and who will not check me for a pulse. It’s so annoying that finally, I say, “I’m not fucking dead. Shut the fuck up.”

They all fall silent, and I feel their eyes on me. Slowly, I open one eye, checking out the group of fucking idiots in front of me. After a few moments, I open both of my eyes and since they’re still not saying anything; I move to sit up. They all jump back, and I can’t hold back my laugh as I say, “Oh, for fuck sake. I don’t bite.”

The big blond one who barely looks old enough to legally drink speaks up. “Yes, you do. I’ve seen it.”

I smile at him humorlessly. “Well, only if they ask nicely.”

He takes another step back but says nothing. Dark-beard guy next to him pipes in, “I don’t know, I don’t think I ever saw anybody ask for it.”

Blond guy jabs his elbow into the bearded guy’s rib. “I don’t think that’s what he meant, you fucking moron.”

I laugh then, and they all flinch back. This is comical but also strange. “I take it you lot are not with Vincent. Either that or he hires some questionable men.”

The blond guy speaks up again. “I don’t know any Vincent. All I know is we came across the shipping ticket about tending to the occupants of this room one time daily and realized that it was dated almost three days ago. So, we were a little concerned.”

“Then how would you know anything about my reputation?”

The bearded guy’s eyes widen. “Everyone knows the Beast.”

I roll my eyes. I’m so fucking sick of that name.

I move to stand up, shaking my head as they all step back again. What’s funny is that not one of them has noticed Agatha in the corner, unrestrained and ready to party.

She’s abandoned the pretending-to-be-restrained look and is nonchalantly leaning back against the wall. If she wanted to, she could’ve snapped at least two of their necks before the other three even noticed. I’m surprised she hasn’t, but I suppose she probably senses their level of incompetence amongst them. From the looks of her, she’s having a pretty good laugh. Likely at my expense, the bitch.

“I guess the real question here is, how much is it going to cost me to get you to drop us at a new location?”

Chapter Eighteen

Dare

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