Page 21 of Starve
“Here, starving, yeah. I heard you.” I don’t mean to be rude and cut her off, but I don’t know what else to do. My heart races and I glance back to the door at the sounds of footsteps running in a nearby hallway and a door slamming. There are also raised, panicked voices that echo in the hallway, but I keep my attention on Hattie.
I can’t open the door, so I’d rather focus on figuring out what Hattie knows. “Who’s starving?Whatis here?” I walk toward her once more, trying not to seem threatening but also hoping I can get her to actually say something that will be helpful to me.
But really, I shouldn’t be surprised by how she just watches me with mild interest before sitting down on my damn bed. She stares at me as I pace, like I’m an exhibit in a zoo and this is just some normal Tuesday.
“HATTIE!” I shriek again after I hear another set of screams, this time closer to my room. “Hattieplease!Tell me what’s?—”
Something slams against my door and I whirl around, unsure of what to expect. But when Sam’s eyes meet mine and I catch sight of the blood spattered across her face, I freeze.
“Help me!” she gasps, grabbing at the handle of my door. “Fern, please, you have to help me!” She’s shaking, wide-eyed with absolute terror, and I bolt to the door so I can see her more clearly through the small glass panel. The lights outside my room flicker on and off, like they’ve been partially knocked out, and with the tiny window, all I can really see is her face.
“Open the door!” I yell back, looking down to see the handle jiggling slightly, though it isn’t turning all the way.
“It’s stuck!” Her desperation is contagious, and she turns to look down the hallway, freezing as a soft whimper leaves her throat. “Fern…please…” she breathes out, and it looks to me as if she’s paralyzed.
“Come on! You have to work on the door!” My distress is rising, and I jerk hard on the handle, trying to get it to do more than jiggle.
But Sam looks back at me, tears running down her face, and she just looks hopeless. It sends a visceral, painful reaction through me, and my stomach clenches just as she’s jerked sideways without warning, hard enough for me to know it wasn’t by her own will.
Then the screaming starts. I lean forward, trying so hard to see what’s going on. But just as I catch sight of something that might be her hand, Hattie wraps her arms around me, dragging me away from the door with her head to my shoulder.
“He said not to look,” she murmurs, hiding her face in my shoulder. She’s surprisingly strong enough to easily keep me against her near the window, rather than letting me go back near the door.
“We have to help her!” I manage to choke out, fighting her half-heartedly. “Please! Hattie, we have to?—”
Sam’s screams come to a halt as Hattie shakes her head against my shoulder. “We can’t help them.” The words are a whisper in the sudden, deafening silence. It’s dark in my room,and the lights out in the hall are still flickering wildly. I count my heartbeats in the quiet, until someone else screams further away, sending another shudder through me.
A sound I don’t recognize finds my ears and I flinch, watching as the handle falls off the door then rolls across the hardwood. I can’t move, I can’tbreathe.I can only watch the door swing open slowly, creaking on its hinges as I stand there frozen in place with Hattie wrapped around me.
Standing in my doorway is a monster.
The same monster I’ve seen in the woods since I got here.
Chapter 10
I can’t scream,because that would require me to be able to breathe. Instead, I stand on the spot, paralyzed, feeling completely aware and also like I’m not really in my body at the same time. It’s not quite like when I dissociate, but it’s close.
The creature rises to stand on its back legs, and I see that while it’s vaguely human, there’s no way I could ever mistake it for one entirely. Its skin is pale and grey-tinged, with hollow cheeks and round eyes that reflect the light flickering in the hallway behind it.
Hattie holds onto me tighter, and I hear her breathe something in my ear that sounds something likejust don’t move.
But seeing as I’m very clearly paralyzed, that isn’t a problem.
When the thing opens its mouth, it reminds me of a crocodile. Its mouth is too wide, too long, and reveals a set of sharp, blood-stained, fang-like teeth that are dripping with thicker things I don’t want to identify.
It takes one step inside, then another, before dropping to crouch on the floor of my room with its head tilted upward, as if it’s trying to scent me. Its eyes flicker from one side of the room to the other, never quite focusing on me or Hattie, though I know we sure as hell aren’t really hidden. Belatedly, I realizeI’m trembling. I can’t help it, and I move a little, just enough that the floorboards creak under me. Unfortunately, it’s also enough to get the thing’s attention back on me.
Itchirps.A strange, animalistic sound, before opening its mouth wide to literally scream up at me. Then it’s standing again, blocking out the doorway and rolling its shoulders like it’s prepared to pounce.
I’m going to die.
There’s no way I’m not going to die here tonight.
In a detached sort of way, I wonder if Dr. Radley will be disappointed that she missed this, given that she seemed interested in the idea of something supernatural going on here at Bluebone Ridge. But she’s lucky, since she gets to go home at night.
The thing takes a step.
Then another. It’s still so far across the room that it’s not close to reaching distance, but I have nowhere to go in order to escape. But just when my heart seems ready to slam right out of the cage of my ribs, another sound comes from the hallway behind the monster.
