Page 55 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
This is the calmest moment I have had in… so long. And on the run as we are, I know it is fantastical, but it’s true.
Water drips from somewhere.
Another hiss from a rodent.
I don’t let myself be the monster to her.
I won’t.I will not.
Another sound which I think comes from a rat.
Then a different noise.
Then…there is the sensation of falling.
I am tipping backward with Karia in my arms.
I try to find purchase as I realize the wall has given way behind me and I am stumbling.
No.Not the wall.
A door.It slams open against the wall with my weight.
I pitch back into thick, oppressive darkness, like the tunnel was freedom and this is the opposite. But I don’t let Karia go and instead, I find myself cradling her closer to my chest.
The door slams shut, a loud, thundering clap in the quiet, and I turn to glance over my shoulder, my eyes scanning the space, but I can see absolutely nothing. The air is damper here, colder, too, and the scent of mildew and rot is so much stronger, evenIwrinkle up my nose.
I want to call out, but that’s a human instinct that could get Karia and I both killed. I dip my head as I press my nose to her hair, one arm still under her thighs and my other hand cradled inside her strands. Her scent is soothing, so much better thanthis,and I cling to her just as much as she depends on me right now.
As I stand in silence, I start to think I should just walk forward, find the door, get back on my pathway out of this hell. I clearly triggered a hidden entryway I was ignorant to, but there’s no reason for me to stay here. As it is, I think I hear an entire pack of rats scurrying in the sludge, tiny nails clicking on the cement.
A shudder runs down my spine and I take one single step toward where I came from, when a voice speaks from somewhere behind me.
“Leave her.”
My throat feels tight as I hug her even closer, her limp form slipping for a moment in my grasp, but I adjust, pulling her body into mine.
I don’t turn around, even as it feels like spiders crawl along the back of my neck.
My lungs constrict, squeezing against one another with each breath, and I don’t know if this is someone from Writhe, if Stein could possibly have guards down here, ifthat’show he knew of my lab, or—
“Let me have her, Sullen. Lighten your load. Where you are going, it’s plenty dark as is.” It’s a man’s voice, and my mind conjures the image of someone far older than Stein, and unused to conversing, much like…me.
I still do not turn around. There would be nothing to see, as it is.
But I swallow hard, then push my tongue through the gap in my top front teeth, the space where an incisor should be, as I try to think.
What is happening? What is this?Whois this?
I hear liquid drip from somewhere, creating more sludge on the wasteland of these tunnels.
And although I want to leave through that door,now,I know nothing is ever that easy. Walking away from my own misfortune has proven impossible all of my life.
“Give her to me.” The man’s voice again, but it sounds like a plea rather than a command.
“No,” I say, the word jagged in the darkness. I add nothing else. It’s all the man needs to know.
“I know you, Sullen Bram Rule.”
