Page 26 of Hollow House
I unlocked the door quickly, her blood-covered appearance panicking me, urging me to help her. She knew my name.
Was it the woman from before, the one in the window?
The door flew open, and I was met with nothing. Not a single person stood in the bathroom, and silence hung in the air. Impossible.
She was there just a moment prior…
I rubbed my eyes, smudging my glitter eyeshadow a bit, and looked around again. No one was in the bathroom with me. I swallowed hard and approached the sink. The water ran freezing cold when I turned it on, and I let it splash against my skin, snapping me out of whatever delusion I was stuck in.
The lights flickered, and I tried to rinse the soap off faster. I couldn’t grab a paper towel before the lights completely cut out. My heart stopped, and I sprinted for the door.
My hands scrambled against the wall in the dark, searching for it. I bumped into something and realized it was a trashcan as I maneuvered around it. A sound behind me made me move faster, and I nearly tumbled out into the hall as my hands found and pushed open the door.
I ran down the hall, back the way I came, without looking back. It wasn’t until I was back up on the second floor that I paused to catch my breath and slow my heart rate.
What the fuck had I stepped into…
Chapter 14
I wanderedthe halls until I found one that looked vaguely familiar. After a few more minutes, I found the hall of rooms where the Wraith had left me. I poked my head inside the door, but he wasn’t there waiting for me.
Instead of returning to the room, I slid down the wall beside the door and sat. Exhaustion swept over me after everything I experienced in a short few hours, the adrenaline crash real.
The events of the bathroom were still fresh in my mind, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be trapped in any room alone now, not without an easy escape. The woman disappeared; I never fully saw her, but I couldn’t shake the feeling she had really been there.
Not a trick of my mind.
My arms wrapped around my knees and my eyes felt heavy. I let my head fall a little, drooping until I stared at the floor. The plush carpeted halls were a deep red, the color of blood. I closed my eyes, trying to forget the bloody woman I’d seen.
My head bobbed and lifted suddenly. Had I nodded off waiting?
I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, trying to wake myself more. I wasn’t built for partying through the night. Those days were well behind me.
Voices carried up the hall, and I tucked myself closer to the door, too tired to flee but not wanting to disrupt someone else’s fun.
Perhaps it was the man I was waiting for; I couldn’t leave if it was.
Two men rounded the corner, and neither was him. One was shorter, with sandy blond hair and a navy suit. The other was the exact opposite—dark features and an all-black ensemble.
They paused when they saw me seated on the ground, clearly not expecting anyone in this secluded corner of the house. The blonde man leaned in and whispered to the other before moving toward me.
I felt the urge to move away, too aware of how exposed I was on the floor alone.
“Are you okay?” the more jovial man asked.
“I’m good! Just waiting for someone,” I admitted.
He gave a glance back to the other man, who had stopped walking.
“You look upset,” he noted, turning back to me. “You should join us.”
“Join?” I asked.
He grinned at me, and a shudder ran down my spine.“No one should be this displeased at Hollow House,” he said, smiling gently at me.
He held out a hand and, skeptically, I took it.
The man behind him watched quietly, waiting patiently by the door he stopped in front of. His face read of a mixture of annoyance and defeat.
