Page 49 of Free Me

With each passing second, I watched the spark of life within her eyes dim. My shared soul, the person who’d come into this world with me, was being ripped away. Disbelief was quickly yielding to the sharp power of truth and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it.

Mr. X unhooked his strong arm from around Shayla’s middle and shoved her forward. Without resistance she fell, crumpling to the floor in the hallway right in front of my bedroom. Blood pooled around her, seeping into the beige carpet, staining the ends of her cotton candy pink hair a bright red.

My heart raced at a painful rate, booming in my ears with a rapidthump! thump! thump!

I should have run like Shayla had told me, but I wasn’t in my body. My soul had left me, and it was standing next to her, begging for any sign that she was still alive.

Please move!

Her fingers twitched on the blood-soaked carpet and hope bloomed in my chest. My gaze tore away from her to Mr. X. His booted foot took an ominous, slow step over her body while his monstrous coal eyes held mine. There was blood splattered across his face, clashing against his alabaster skin. An evil smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as he took another step, then another, closing the distance between us.

I knew I needed to run, but I couldn’t feel my legs.

“Shiloh,” he sang my name. His voice was light yet haunting and made my entire body tremble.

Move!

Move!

If you don’t, you won’t be able to get help for Shayla!

The need to save my sister overshadowed my terror by a hair, but it was just enough to give me back my ability to move.

When I was almost within Mr. X’s reach, I spun on my heels and ran for the stairs. He didn’t take his time coming after me like he had when Shayla and I had run up the stairs. I could hear his boots pounding behind me, shaking the pictures on the hall wall.

My own feet raced down the stairs as I’d done so many times before when running late for school. I made it halfway down when Mr. X caught me by my shoulder and shoved me against the wall.

I tried to fight him by pushing and smacking him. He easily caught both of my wrists and pinned them high above my head with one hand. In the process, we knocked one of my family’s portraits off the wall and the glass broke as it tumbled down the stairs.

He pressed his body into mine. “Why do you love to run from me?” He leaned his head forward as if to kiss me and I quickly turned my face to the side. His mouth touched my cheek, and he ran his tongue along it until he reached my ear. “We are free to be together now.”

“I don’t want to be together!” I snarled.

He leaned back with an unhappy frown. “Yes, you do. We love each other.”

I shook my head. “No!”

“Yes,” he growled, clearly getting angry. “You are mine.”

“No! I’m not yours!” I cried.

He roared angrily in my face before he brought up his knife and placed the tip to my inner wrist. “Yes, you are.” He began carving something into my skin.

The pain made me scream and I thrashed. I got the bottom of my foot pressed against the wall to help propel me forward at the same time I flung my head toward his face. My forehead smacked his chin hard. It made him grunt and shocked him enough for me to push off the wall with my foot and shove him back.

What I hadn’t planned on was his knife slicing down my arm from my wrist to my elbow as he fell backward. The pain made me scream. It was quickly cut off when Mr. X’s back hit the banister and he jerked in pain, which caused him to push me away from him. I felt myself falling and, in an attempt to save myself, I grabbed his shirt. Because he wasn’t aware I had done that, he wasn’t able to brace for it. I took him down the stairs with me.

The wind was knocked from my lungs as I landed on my butt and ribs. My feet flung in the air as I flipped and I braced for what would surely break my neck, but as I came down again, I landed on top of Mr. X. He let out a loud exhale, as if all the air was forced out of his body. The both of us slid the rest of the way down and rolled along the floor. Mr. X didn’t stop rolling until he slammed into the front door. His body stopped me.

It took longer than it should have to remember how to breathe. When I was able to snap out of the shock, I gasped loudly, taking in the air that I desperately needed, and rolled over onto my stomach.

I need to get up.

My body hurt so badly that I struggled to do more than lie there and breathe.

Get up!

Mr. X groaned next to me. The fear that noise conjured sent a new surge of adrenaline through me. I made myself get on my hands and knees. Just to put distance between me and him, I crawled until I felt strong enough to push up to my feet.

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