Page 9 of Midnight Sanctuary

“I might. Would you like that?”

“Yes!” he cries out, stumbling forward and dropping the burger wrapping. “Tell me. I’ll do anything.”

“Like I said, all you have to do is play along.” I pull out his phone. “I’m going to send a text message to your boss.”

“He’s not my—”

He stops short when he catches the expression on my face. I’m confident he won’t interrupt me again. “I’m going to send a text message to your boss, and then I can guarantee he’s going to call right afterwards. You’re going to pick up and have a conversation with him. Keep him on the phone as long as possible. Be believable. He can’t know that you’re here with me.”

Despite the cold room, Alan’s forehead is suddenly tainted with beads of sickly sweat. “I… O-okay. I can do that.”

I take a step forward. “Let me be very clear: if you give anything away, whether by accident or intention, you’re a dead man.”

Alan nods. “I understand.”

“Good.” I open his phone and pull up the text message thread. I take a deep breath, then press send on the fake messages that Nikolai and I crafted.

ALAN:the boy got out. we’re combing the area but it looks like he’s long gone.

ALAN:call me back ASAP and lemme know what you want me to do

I can’t tear my eyes away from the phone once the messages have gone through. I’m guessing that Sobakin has his phone on him at all times, so it shouldn’t—

READ: 11:47 A.M.

Instantly, my whole world coalesces down to one word.Call. Call. Call, you motherfucker.I can hear Alan's uneasy rustling next to me. My breath plumes in the chill air in clouds of white.Call. Call. Call, you—

The phone starts to vibrate.

“You’re up,” I tell Alan. “I’m putting you on speakerphone. Make sure you play your part.”

He nods so hard that the sweat flies off his forehead. Scowling with disgust, I hitAccept.

“How the fuck did you lose the boy?” It’s definitely Sobakin on the line. His deep voice is unmistakable. “He’s a mental case.”

My hand tightens around the phone. Even Alan looks at me with wide eyes and takes a step back as though he’s worried I’m gonna blow up and he’ll be caught in the line of fire.

“I dunno, boss. Some of my men… they’re idiots.”

“All your men are idiots,” he growls. “It doesn’t matter. I got what I wanted. The boy doesn’t matter anymore.”

“B-but… he might go back to—”

“Let him,” Sobakin snarls with a dark laugh. “By the time he gets to his brother, it’ll be too late.”

He hangs up a second later and I feel my blood boil with fury. What the hell did that mean?It’ll be too late.Too late for what? Too late for whom?

“I-I did what you asked,” Alan whines shrilly. “I played my part. W-will you let me go now?”

My eyes connect with his. He shrinks back. Part of him must know what’s coming, even if some little shred is still holding out hope that he’ll survive this ordeal.

But it doesn’t take long to dispel him of that notion. I lunge forward and grab him. I beat the shit out of him until my fists ache from the effort. He screams and begs for mercy the whole time. But until my knuckles are coated in blood and he’s well and truly unconscious, I don’t stop.

It doesn’t seem to matter. Beating this uselessmudakto a pulp gives me no relief, no satisfaction. It doesn’t save anyone. Not Alyssa, not Polina. Not my own cursed soul.

All I feel is a gaping emptiness that gets larger with every passing second.

When I’ve had enough, I lock the cell and return upstairs where Nikolai is sitting at the makeshift table with his laptop in front of him.

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