Page 24 of Grotesque
I turned slowly in the direction of the loose floorboard. One step at a time. I kept my hands lifted; my head turned in the direction of the sound.
“Warmer,” he said.
I lunged forward and brushed…something. He was turning from me. I heard his footsteps round behind me and I turned with him, following him back across the room in a blind dance.
“Much warmer.” The silk of his voice was closer, wrapping around me, leading me to him.
I bared my teeth when I bumped into something. A dresser, or the bed again, I didn’t take the time to assess.
“You’re on fire,” he purred.
I dove, my nails curling like talons as I aimed and struck true. My fingers latched onto the fabric of a shirt, the thrum of a wildly beating heart beneath it. “Got you!” I said, triumphantly.
The stranger slid his hands over mine. “That you do.” The weight of his gaze caressed me. My fingers flexed beneath his. “You win a question”
“A… a question? You kissed me and all I get is a question?”
“Rules are rules,” he purred.
“You’re making the rules up as you go.” I had the vague idea that he was shrugging.
“So? Are you going to ask?”
I pulled my hands away slowly. “Are you going to kill me?”
The stranger sucked the back of his teeth. “How boring. Of course not.” He sounded annoyed that of everything I could have asked of him,thatwas what I’d settled on.
A trickle of something slid down my spine. I wouldn’t call it relief but at least I could take comfort in knowing Quint wouldn’t find my strangled body lying on the floor in the morning.
Was Quint alright? Was he fast asleep downstairs? Or had the stranger lied and killed him already to toy with me freely?
No, don’t think that.One thing at a time. For now, I had to trust that the stranger was being honest. If I let my mind stray, I’d panic.
“Who are you?”
The stranger hummed. “You have to win the next round for that answer. You better try very hard this time, Sorcha, but you should know.” His hands slid up my arms, as his face pressed against mine. “I don’t like to lose.”
The room felt hot and airless despite the chills that spread over my arms as I searched for him. I had to win. He had taken a kiss as his first prize, and I hardly believed he would settle for only a second kiss, if the greed in his voice was any evidence.
“Work for it.” His voice whispered and echoed from every corner of the room. It was disorienting, the way he moved around me, taunting me. In the darkness the room had expanded, with seemingly infinite hiding places for him, while I was blind.
“Give me a hint,” I said.
A single knock came from my left, in the direction of the bedroom door…I think? I moved to it, one foot in front of the other.
A louder knock sounded on my right. I twisted only to hear a third ricochet above me. I flinched, moving into a half crouch as I pictured him crawling across the ceiling.
Screw not panicking. Now that the image was carved in my head, I couldn’t get it out. I staggered backward, following the sound of scuffling that trailed after me somewhere high above.
With a shaking hand I reached up to the ceiling. I rose up on my toes.
A hand gripped the top of my shoulder. “Time’s up,” he hissed.
I yelped in surprise, my arms flailing as I spun to push him away.
“Stop! Give me another round.”
“The game is over, little dove.”
