Page 3 of Make Me Scream

“Good. Let’s go.”

She leads the way out of the dungeon, moving slowly. She stops and listens every few steps. How she hears anything, I don’t understand; my heart pounds loud enough to drown out all else.

The first failure point of the plan was getting out of our cells; the next is leaving the dungeon. But, to our luck, the stairwell doors are unlocked. We believed Master left them open when we were in our cells, and we were right. If we fail now, though, he won’t make that mistake again.

We make our way upstairs and into the lounge. It’s pitch dark, save for the moonlight coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Exiting the lounge, we bypass the theater room and reach the main entryway. This isn’t Master’s home. That’s somewhere else, supposedly on the property. This building, the gallery, is just for entertainment.

Pet opens a closet and grabs us two coats. They hang down to our knees, but at least we have something to wear.

The front door looms in front of us.

“Ready?”

I take a deep breath. I nod.

Pet turns the deadbolt, cutting the silence with its heavy tumbling, then opens the door.

An alarm shrieks so loud it hurts. I cover my ears but it barely blunts the high-pitched howling.

“Go!” Pet shouts, grabbing my hand.

Outside, a second-floor window in Master’s mansion lights up. A dark figure stares at us for a second, then disappears.

“Move!”

We run, feet squelching in the dewy grass. Nocturnal chirps surround us as soft winds drag clouds across the moon. My throat goes dry, and I sweat hard under my stolen coat. I don’t look back.

“Where are we going?” I ask, barely able to expel the words, I’m inhaling so deeply.

“I don’t… know!”

Anywhere but here.

The further we get from the mansion, the harder the terrain: we reach tall grass, which hides the uneven ground below. Pet slips; I help her up. Rocks scrape our heels and catch our toes. When we reach the line of trees, we have to cover our eyes or they’ll be hit by branches and leaves.

Then I hear a motor; it’s not far.

“Road!” I gasp, pushing myself to go faster. “Find the road!”

Even if we can’t flag down a car to help us, at least we’ll be going somewhere.

Shielding our faces, we thread our way through the thickening woods until we reach a chain-link fence. It extends out in both directions as far as I can see in the dark, but the road is there, on the other side.

“Come on!” Pet growls, climbing up.

I freeze.

The fence is only a few feet taller than us, but that’s too high. Woozy, I have to close my eyes so I won’t see it.

“Chloe, what’s wrong?”

I shake my head.

“I’m not good… with heights.”

“Now’s not the time,” she says.

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