Page 132 of Sin Like the Devil

Squeeze my eyes shut.

Reopen.

Still there.

I’m not sure how long I stand here. At some point, I must start screaming. But I can’t feel or hear it. People arrive, and hands usher me outside where I collapse against the wall. Vision unfocused, all I can see is my best friend. Or rather, the remains of her.

Guards arrive. Staff arrive. Medics arrive. Footsteps. Shouts. Barked orders to clear the floor. None of it registers beyond the basic observations of a detached mind. I’m left here, huddled in a ball and gasping for each breath as they take a body bag out.

That’s when I look away. Only for a moment. My head turns, allowing me to catch sight of the two patients who haven’t been escorted to another floor. They stand at the end of the corridor, shoulder to shoulder. United in their success.

Seafoam rage.

Midnight detachment.

Something fractures inside me. It’s almost a visceral thing—the breaking of my sanity. Like an overstretched rubber band that snaps and recoils but never reverts back to its original shape. I watch Lennox’s lips lift into a grim smile. Like he’s performed a hard but necessary task.

Xander’s expression doesn’t change a bit.

He just stares.

Transfixed by the sight of my life falling apart at the seams as my best friend’s corpse is removed. That’s when I start screaming again. I don’t stop until the sedatives are administered.

Thunder rumbles.

Deep. Sonorous.

Enraged.

My mum used to say that thunderstorms are just God moving furniture. She was religious in the way that most Brits are—made to endure weekly Sunday school as a kid but never truly committing themselves to the idea of faith. Being force-fed the notion of religion kinda destroys that possibility.

The rumbles continue, each louder than the last. I wonder if the reception is flooded now? I really should go check on Raine. I wouldn’t want him to get stuck or hurt.

Raine.

With the distant memories of Holly’s death still swimming in my mind, awareness slams back into me. Finding Raine unconscious. Blue and lifeless. The medics taking him away. Lennox’s threats. Passing out.

With each mental flashback, my senses trickle back in. The frigid cold hits first, then searing heat in my wrists and arms. Groaning in pain, I force my eyes to open.

It makes no difference. I’m in total darkness. My body is shivering, it’s so cold. I can feel that something tight and painful binds my wrists together.

It feels like I’m tied to some kind of metal pipe. The pain in my arms must be from hanging all my body’s unconscious weight on whatever binds restrain me.

Attempting to move, I feel water slosh around my legs. The sound of torrential rain echoes all around me in what sounds like a cavernous space. It collides with whatever water I’m submerged in. I’m soaked to the bone.

“Hello?” I call out hoarsely.

The emptiness answers me.

Thick, desolate silence.

“Hello!”

Echoes tell me I’m somewhere spacious. It feels empty. Still. The smell of old chlorine burns my nose, shoving out the last dregs of drowsiness. Kicking around in the water, my foot collides with an unknown object, causing me to yelp in fear.

A sudden burst of lightning cracks above me, illuminating my surroundings for a few seconds. I look around as quickly as possible, ignoring my sinking sense of dread. Then everything falls back into blackness.

Lennox. Fucking. Nash.

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