Page 26 of Make Me Lie (Rich Demons of Darkwood 1)

He didn't answer me, and after another minute I sighed, grabbed my bags, and started to make my way around the building to see if there were any other entrances. I walked around the entire thing, dragging my ridiculously monstrous suitcase without seeing another entrance. I would have dropped my bag somewhere while I searched, but I didn't feel like making myself a prime target for some student who wanted to torture me.

What the fuck.

Sweat was dripping down my back and my face was red from a combination of the heat and embarrassment as I envisioned tiny cameras watching my every move as I walked around the damn place.

There was just so much ivy everywhere. I began to pat along the walls, growing angrier and more frustrated by the minute. Why did everyone on this planet seem to be an asshole?

For a second I thought about Cain and the look in his eyes...nope. I wasn't going there. I had imagined things because he'd given my pussy butterflies. That was it.

My nails scraped against the stone under the ivy. I walked down one entire wall before the stone finally gave way to something smooth. I pushed the ivy out of my way, my breath coming out in slight gasps because, motherfucker, it was hot. But I'd found a door. An industrial grey colored door that looked like it could withstand a bomb, but that was beside the point.

My knock was far less tentative this time around. I had no fucks to give. I practically beat on the door, prepared to jump anyone who came out.

It took five minutes of solid knocking, but finally the door swung open, barely missing my nose. An asshole looking guy I'd never seen before stood in the doorway with a cocky grin on his face that I really wanted to slap away. To be fair, he probably wouldn't normally look like an asshole; a lot of people would probably find him attractive, but I was too annoyed to see anything but "punk ass bitch" when I looked at him. Maybe it was the green mohawk he was sporting, or the fact that he was shirtless.

Either way, major douche.

I took a deep, centering breath and schooled my face of all emotion, something I wasn't sure was that effective considering how sweaty I was.

"Come on in, killer," the guy said with a grin. I rolled my eyes. Zero points of originality for that one, obviously.

I glanced nervously behind him. It was pitch black. It was easy for my mind to go wild and start imagining blood and all sorts of scary, freaky things being performed in the building's depths. What did they even do in a secret society anyways? Was it like a frat on steroids? I was going to be the only girl after all. Would there be hazing involved in living here?

I was in a well, treading water, my arms tied together to prevent me from using them. It was cold, and I was soaked to the bone...my teeth chattering so hard I was afraid they were going to break.But it wasn't the fact that I was exhausted, or that my clothes felt like they weighed a thousand pounds because they were so drenched with water...it was the darkness.

"You can't be afraid in this world," The Demon whispered from somewhere around me. His voice was everywhere at once somehow, like he'd installed speakers in this old, abandoned well he'd taken me to in the middle of nowhere. Which, I guess I couldn't put past him.

He was right, you weren't allowed to be afraid in this world. He’d taught me that. But it didn’t change the fact that I was terrified here in the darkness, struggling desperately to stay afloat as various debris floated around me. And the stench, it was so overwhelming I’d already thrown up once. It was the smell of decay and rot, and I had the awful suspicion that this was one of the dumping grounds for The Demon. In the dark, it was easy to imagine skulls and flesh floating around me.

"Are you coming in or not?" the guy said crossly, dropping his easygoing façade as he dragged me out of my past.

"Yeah," I muttered, exhausted from constantly defending myself in the past and present creeping up my spine.

He stepped aside to let me in, but I motioned for him to lead the way. I didn't want that guy at my back.

The door slammed shut behind me as I stepped in, plunging the room into darkness. Panic started to burn through my blood, but I held it back by biting my tongue until I could taste the tang of blood in my mouth. The act immediately calmed me as it had a thousand times before.

It was so dark that I couldn't even see where he was standing. It was only because of my training that I knew how to use his breathing to pick out exactly where he was standing in the room. The Demon had taught me that too. Once you've been trapped in a room in the dark with him somewhere in its depths, you learned fast.

The guy opened a door and light flooded into the room. He walked through the opening, and I hurried after him, afraid he was going to try and lock me inside the empty entryway or something. I found myself standing in a very elaborate hallway with cream walls and gold sconce lights situated every few feet. The floor was made of light, white oak planks, and there were gilded gold frames hung up with black and white pictures of what must have been prior members from the early start of the secret society based on their old-fashioned clothing and hairstyles.

"How many people live in this place?" I asked quietly as I followed him down the hallway. There were tall, black doors every few feet as well, a lot of them, and I was itching to get away from him and explore.

The asshole didn't answer me, of course; he just kept walking as I concentrated on not dropping my two bags that seemed to weigh a thousand pounds now that he hadn't offered to help me with them. He led me down a long staircase covered in heavy, burgundy carpet that looked brand new, and then walked down another long hallway until he finally stopped in front of a set of double doors.

"Is this my room?" I asked as he stepped aside.

"Go on in," he said with a smirk, gesturing to the door.

I hesitated but didn't want to look afraid, so I tried to stride confidently towards the doors.

I turned the knobs and threw them open and...

What the fuck.

The doors opened into a dark room, red light beaming from tinted spotlights.

And there was a girl, dressed in nothing but some black lingerie, on her knees in the middle of the room, her arms tied behind her back with what looked like cable ties. A guy dressed in nothing but a pair of loose black sweatpants held a long horse whip in his hand, and I watched in horror as he struck it against her back repeatedly, her loud screams filling the room as flecks of her blood flew all over the room. Long open wounds crisscrossed all over her back, signaling he'd been at it for a while.

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