Page 106 of Dark Endures

It doesn’t take long to pop the lock. We need to fix that.

Does she have a deadbolt on the door?

It opens easily. I step inside and close it behind me. There’s definitely a dead bolt. Why didn’t she engage it when Adonis left? Was she too sick to get up?

“Mindy, it’s me. Maddox.” Why did I feel the need to shout my name? She knows who I am? There’s no response.

I rush to her bedroom.

It’s untouched. The boxes are where we left them, and the bed hasn’t been slept in.

Where is she? I check the bathroom and every drawer. It doesn’t look like she’s been living here. But all her stuff is still here.

Did she move into the pretty boy’s room?

Mindy said they weren’t dating. I believe her, but my feet move towards the other bedroom. The door is open.

Nothing. It’s empty, and there’s no sign of her.

Anywhere.

Her phone. Surely, she wouldn’t leave without her phone. I dial it. The ringer goes off, but it’s muted and in another room. I follow the sound to the living room.

Someone stuck it in a drawer.

Why?

The phone is so old it doesn’t even have the lock engaged. Why lock something no one would want to steal?

There are half a dozen missed calls and unseen messages. Mindy hasn’t checked her phone since Sunday.

Where is she?

Rough And Tumble Friends

Mindy

They weren’t kidding when they said I wouldn’t want to move much. Even with happy pills to take the edge off, moving around is only for essential tasks like going to the bathroom. I’ve given up showering or shaving. No one cares if I stink or have more hair than a dog. Well, except my mother would care. She’s the one who told me at eight that I was hairy and proceeded to show me how to shave.

If movement wasn’t literally impossible, it would kind of feel freeing not to do it.

For a couple of days.

I might go out of my mind. Literally.

It turns out I’m not a television person. And watching movies alone is…just sad.

There are only so many hours in the day that I can sleep. What happened to the dreams of watching television, sleeping, and eating bonbons? They died when Adonis beat me up.

There’s a knock on my private room in the medical department. I haven’t seen anything but this room since I arrived.

“Come in.” Everyone has been so thoughtful. They even turned my bed around so that I could see people when they came in.

“Hey.”

“I know you.” Where do I remember him from?

“That’s because I was the guard who carried you in.”

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