Page 100 of The Road to Ruined

"I don't understand," I tell him. "What am I looking at? It's just an empty hallway."

"Exactly," he says. "That's your hallway, Teagan. I've watched the entire footage from the time you last texted me until you open the door for your sister the next morning, and there's nothing there. The video has been replaced with a loop. So, do you want to try again? Who were you with the other night, and how did you get back into the room, Teagan?"

"I don't know…" I blink, sending tears rolling down my cheeks.

He grabs me by the hair and pulls me toward him, screaming, "Stop. Fucking. Lying."

"Sebastian, please stop," I cry. "I don't know what's real and what's not!"

"Well, tell me how youthinkyou got back in the room," he says, his voice calm again.

"I think that…"

"Teagan, you have about five seconds before…"

"I'm trying, okay? I think that…I followed what I thought was another hallucination out of the club and then onto the roof. I was going to jump, but he pulled me back."

"Who?"

"Declan. Declan did."

"And then what?"

"And then he…he gave me a water bottle, but I think it was roofied. He told me he was sorry and that he loved me and I wassafe, and then I think he brought me back because I woke up here, sick."

He slams the laptop shut and stuffs it back into his bag.

"Sebastian…what are you doing? Where are you going? Are you mad at me?"

"Am Imadat you?" he scoffs. "Teagan, I've never been this fucking angry in my life, and that in itself is a big fucking problem."

"I didn't do anything wrong."

"You should have called me the moment you fucking saw him. He was explicitly instructed not to come back."

He was told not to come back. That's why I've been alone, and he knew it. The realization hits me like a punch to the gut.

"So, you lied to me. Theydidwant me. It's a punishment like he said."

"Yeah, well, now you're a trap. Let's see how you sleep at night. It won't be with me because I'm…fucking compromised. But someone will be watching you, Teagan—your every fucking move from the second you leave the hotel. They're already in position."

He turns for the door, and I grab him by the arm. "Sebastian, please don't go!" I cry.

He pushes me off hard enough that I fall flat on my ass on the ground. "You have no idea how close I am to snapping your fucking neck. I'm hanging on by a fucking thread, Teagan."

"I didn't do anything wrong," I repeat weakly.

"You said you loved me!" he shouts. "You're a liar. You're sick, Teagan. It might be months, it might be years, but they're going to take you out, and good fucking riddance."

"But I do love you," I tell him. I crawl to his feet and wrap my body around his leg like a fucking child. "You don't mean it. Please, Sebastian! Please, don't leave me; everyone always fucking leaves me."

"Well, I wonder why. Get off me, Teagan," he says, shaking me off again. "You have no idea what you've done."

"But…where are you going? Are you going to be in trouble?"

"I'm going to go spend a few days in a sensory deprivation chamber to get my head straight and try to figure outhow the fuck I was manipulated by a twenty-one-year-old girl!"

"I didn't do that. Iwouldn'tdo that."

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