Page 22 of Grotesque
“That’s right, I know the rules. And you’ve broken every single one, which gives me the right to punish you. Now, are you going to play with me?”
A garbled sound came out of me before I found my voice. “Don’t hurt Quint.” He was innocent in all this. And the stranger was right, I knew the rules but had brought him in anyway. I’d subjected him to this psycho’s whims.
“Don’t make me,” he purred.
I nodded. “Ok,” I whispered.
When I tried to crane my head back the creature hissed. “Not yet, little dove. You may not look upon me yet.” His nose pressed to the side of my head as he nuzzled my hair again. “They always send me sparrows, little birds that do not satisfy my hunger. But you, my dove, I think will fill me up.”
My stomach flipped and roiled. I was going to be sick. I could feel my gut churning violently. Burning erupted across the back of my throat and I heaved, gulping in air like it was the last time I’d ever get a taste of it.
“Shh,” he crooned. His fingers worked over my throat, easing their grip as he rubbed the tension from it.
I shut my mouth when I realized I was gasping. It was near impossible to breathe through my nose but I focused on each exhale, trying to calm my nerves. Freaking out wasn’t going to help me.
He slid his hand from mine, trailing those sharp nails over my stomach and up my chest. The press of his fingertips over my beating heart intensified the pressure building within me.
I exhaled slowly. “What’s the game?”
“Close your eyes,” he said. “And then sit up. If at any point you open your eyes, the game is done, and I kill your boyfriend.”
This guy was fucking psychotic.
Warmth flooded my body when he rolled away from me. I hadn’t realized how cold I had been, or that he was the source of it. His sudden absence ran shivers down my spine. I sat up slowly, my hands trembling as I placed them on either side of my hips.
Reluctantly, I closed my eyes, letting darkness shroud me.
I flinched when I felt his cool presence move in front of me. It was all I could do to not shrink back when he took my hands and pulled me to my feet.
“I’ve already seen you.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I slammed it shut. My teeth clacked together so hard I felt the impact in my jaw. I shouldn’t have told him that. He would kill me now that I had admitted to catching a glimpse of him last night before the door slammed in his face.
A spiteful chuckle rumbled from his throat. “No, you haven’t.”
He led me away from the bed. Once satisfied with my position he began to turn me, moving his hands from shoulder to shoulder. I could feel the room shifting around me as I lost my bearings. Round and round I went until both of his hands slid down my biceps to still me.
“So you don’t cheat.” Something soft banded across my eyes. I opened them instinctually, but only blackness stared back. He had blindfolded me. Tightness clawed its way back up my chest. I wouldn’t say I was claustrophobic, but it suddenly felt like the walls were closing in around me.
“The rules are simple.” His voice circled me. “Figure out where I am, and if you can touch me, then you win.”
Wait…what? That didn’t sound that hard. The room wasn’t that large and there were only so many places he could gobefore I found him. It was too easy, which meant something was terribly wrong with his proposition.
“How do I lose?”
I could practically hear the smile in his voice when he said, “You have two minutes to find me. If within that time you have not caught me, then I win.”
I clenched my fists at my side.
Teasingly he asked, “Don’t you want to know what happens if I win?”
The fear simmering beneath my skin twisted as my blood began to heat. My instincts sharpened as I tracked his slow circles around me. He paused somewhere on my right, by the way the hairs on that arm tingled.
“What?” I spat between gritted teeth.
“I get to taste you.”
Heat bloomed over my face. Curling my hands into tighter fists. I scoffed. “Absolutely not. You’ve had plenty.”
He chuckled again, a deep thrum within his chest. “Not near enough,” he breathed against my left ear. I’d been so certain he was on my other side.
