Page 83 of Creeping Lily
LILY
The first thing I notice is the pounding in my skull—deep, throbbing, like someone took a hammer to the inside of my head.
I force my eyes open. The room is dim, shadows stretching and curling along the walls. My limbs feel like they’ve been filled with wet sand. Heavy. Slow. Wrong.
“You’re finally awake,” a voice rumbles from the corner.
I know that voice. I know the scent. The charged air. My stomach drops even before he steps into view, mask in place, presence hitting me like a wall. His presence slams into my soul in the confined space of the room. I recoil on instinct alone, fear coursing through every one of my veins. His piercing gaze collides with mine, causing a shiver to run down my spine.
“Where am I?” I demand, my eyes narrowing as I struggle to keep them from closing again. “What did you do to me?”
His lips curl into a cruel smile as he steps closer, slow and deliberate. My hands shake when I touch my face, feeling the last traces of sleep clinging to me and a slick, cold film crawling under my skin like it doesn’t belong there. My thoughts are scattered, my memories flashing in and out at the edges of my mindlike flickering shadows in the dim light. I force myself upright, every muscle protesting, my heartbeat slamming against my ribs. A rush of panic races through me, cold and sharp, when I realize I’m not in any place I recognize. I’m in an unfamiliar room, the air heavy with the scent of the woods and something else, something unsettlingly familiar.
The room is substantial but furnished simply, and it does nothing to calm my nerves.
My voice quivers with a mix of anger and terror, my eyes wide and searching. I feel the tightness in my face as I feel for that elusive thing which continues to crawl along my skin.
“What did you do to me?”
My stalker steps forward slowly, his hands at his sides, his chest heaving as he breathes in and out; he’s so big, it’s hard to miss his movements, no matter how ordinary they may be.
“It’s the chloroform; it’ll wear off in a few hours.”
He says it so casually, it’s as though this is a common enough occurrence. Maybe it is for him, but it isn’t for me. My mind races, trying to make sense of what’s happening amidst the chaos of my thoughts.
“You drugged me?” My voice rises, edged with accusation. He drugged me. There’s no two ways about it. “You coward!”
My eyes skate over my body, my surroundings, looking for any evidence of violation. I see and feel none, but that does nothing to settle my thumping heart.
I scramble off the bed, my legs shaky as I back away from him. My anger ignites as my body rages. His mask remains unreadable as I lunge forward, but in my drugged state, I only grasp air and stumble, throwing my arms out to catch my fall.
His thick, heavy arms grab me around the waist, lifting me before I touch the ground and setting me back on the edge of the bed, where my head continues to roil with dizziness.
“Why am I here? Why did you drug me?”
My stalker snickers behind his mask. He’s not going to give me answers. He thinks he’s beyond that, now that I’m under his control. But I need answers. And I need to know who he is. I try to push past the fog assailing me to remember how I came to be here. Vaguely, I remember the ice cream Parlor and sitting in the car lot. Then he appeared out of no-where, and that’s the last I remember of anything. Oh my God, has he kidnapped me? Have I been abducted?
I tilt my head awkwardly and regard my stalker, as though seeing him for the first time. Why the fuck would he kidnap me? And what does he want? I travelled hundreds of miles away from Colt and the place where I first saw him; did he bring me here so he could get his way far from the prying eyes of the college community? And where exactly is here?
My breath comes in shallow gasps, my mind racing through a labyrinth of uncertainty.
“I can’t be here,” I gasp. “I need to leave. Now.”
Before he can respond, I lunge for the door, my hands fumbling with the lock in my haste. Adrenaline surges through me, overriding the dizziness and confusion that threatens to overwhelm me. That chloroform hits me like some heavy shit as it buzzes around in my system, throwing me off-kilter.
Fear, rough and pervasive, causes my blood pressure to spike. I don’t know what my stalker is capable of, but I know I have to get out of here and far away from him.
Just as my fingers find purchase on the lock, his hand closes around my wrist with a grip that is surprisingly gentle but firm. He pulls me back into the room and I spin around, eyes blazing with defiance and fear.
“Let me go!”
For a moment, it’s a tense standoff as we stand locked in a battle of wills. I try to decipher his intentions, but I get nothing;he’s hiding beneath his mask, and all I can see are his flat eyes as they singe me.
“If you were half a man, not the coward you are,” I spit “you’d take off your mask and face me like a man.” His hands at his sides twitch. His fingers flick against his nails. His gaze remains on me, brutal and intense. He doesn’t like what I’m saying, but he says nothing as he continues to watch me. Then he surprises me with his next words.
“If I were playing by the average man’s rules, I would have unraveled you a long time ago, Lily.”
It’s a breathy admission; the first time he’s said anything that remotely resembles any forthcoming information. And I finally realize that I’m in the company of a psychopath. Never mind that my insides tingle at his proximity. Don’t even get me started on how my knees got weak and my heart fluttered when he kissed me. The man kidnapped me off the side of the street in broad daylight. There’s no way he’s anything but a psycho.
