Page 59 of Elicit (Decadence After Dark)

Time to get back to business.

I WON’T STOP.

Not even when Jett calls after me. I’ll never stop until I’m gone. Until I disappear.

I fly toward the back of the house, into the service kitchen. I almost make it out the hidden doorway before Jett snags my arm.

“What the hell just happened? Where are you going?” His questions hit me like bullets. I have no answers, only painful regret and overwhelming fear. I tug on my arm, desperate to break free.

“Jett, I’m sorry,” I apologize frantically.

“For what?”

“This.” I knee him square in the balls, and he drops to the floor.

“Sonofabitch!”

Wracked with guilt, I disappear through the doorway that spits me out on a long narrow path leading to the backyard. I’ve explored this house enough to know where all the secret passages and alternate exits are.

Once I finally reach the edge of the house’s vast lawn, I head for the trees on the perimeter of the property. It’s dark but warm, and the full moon provides just enough silvery light to allow me to see.

Run, just run. Never stop running.

Panicky tears stream down my face, my leg muscles scream, and my lungs burn from the physical exertion, but I can’t stop. The extensive lawn seems to go on forever, the thick grass cold and wet under my bare feet.

I suddenly hear heavy breathing and weighted steps behind me. Terrified, I push my legs to move faster and my lungs to pump harder.

Run, just run. Never stop running.

“London!”My name echoes through the darkness, but I refuse to slow down. I won’t go back. I’ll never go back.

I barely reach the edge of the woods before I’m tackled to the ground.

“NO!”I screech, punching and kicking, unleashing my strongest fight.

“London, London,LONDON!”I’m finally overpowered and pinned down.

“No! No! No!” I continue to thrash in an insane fit.“I can’t go back! I can never go back!”

“Hey! London, look at me!” Jett’s voice penetrates the madness in my head. “London,look at me!”He grabs my face and shakes my head.

The panic-stricken tears start to pour.

“Jett, let me go! Let me run!” I push on his shoulders and ramble like a madwoman.“I have to run!”

“You’re not going anywhere until you calm down. You’re hysterical!”

“Jett, please!” I scream. “Before he finds me!”

“Who? Beforewhofinds you?” He keeps an impenetrable hold on my face as he tries to understand. “What happened inside?”

I cry inconsolably, my body succumbing to the fear, sinking into the cold, wet grass while trapped beneath Jett.

“London, please,” he begs earnestly in a soft, soothing voice. “Tell me all your secrets so they can become mine, too.”

“No,” I sob. “The only person who deserves to share my secrets is the devil.”

“There is nothing you can’t tell me. There isn’t anything I won’t understand.” He sounds so sincere, so worried. It makes the pain of the past harder to bear.

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