Page 10 of Fire Island
He—
He drugged me.
Panic explodes throughout my insides, flying up and hitting the wet blanket still descending over me. I claw at the floor as a strangled noise escapes my lips. I jerk, fighting the pull.
As the sunlight finds the base of the lamp and fractures the light around the round room, a whimper tumbles from my throat and the brilliance succumbs to darkness.
Everything bobs. Something digs into my stomach.
My hair hangs around my face . . .
The floor moves in my line of sight.
It swells and dips.
The thing digging into my stomach groans as hands—not mine—tighten around the back of my thighs.
Blood rushes to my head.
Upside dow?—
Steps tread, one after the other.
Downward.
Gasping for air, I slip back into the darkness.
The pillow under my head is soft. A luxury that’s like a dream. I roll over, and Cal’s scent folds in around me. I snuggle closer to his warmth. For a moment, I wonder about the nightmare I’d been having. T had found me. I was in the lantern room. I was cold. Scared. And Cal was?—
I jerk from sleep, and a scream rips through me.
Large, bony hands push me back into the mattress, holding me down. “Shhh. It’s only a dream. Go back to sleep.”
I shake my head, my eyes focusing in the dim light.
I turn my head to find stars outside through a round opening. Then, the small desk that sits under the window in the room where I’ve sat for the last nine months.
I’m in Cal’s room.
With T.
With . . .
I struggle against his hold. “Get off me!”
“No, no. Eve, this is how it’s meant to be. Calm down.”
“What did you do!? Where is he?” I spit at him.
He clenches his jaw. “He. Is. Gone. Forget him.”
“No! No...” I wail. I struggle against his bruising grip. He moves over top of me, and I freeze.
“Calm. Down. You’ll see, soon enough, I’m who you are meant to be with.”
I search his face, tampering back the sobs that slam into the stone blocking my airway. And it hits me—if I cooperate, I might have a chance to escape. Or run. At least.
So, I nod. It’s a shallow, indecisive gesture.
