Page 55 of The Player
Iran back towards the anteroom, bursting through the door. Hearing the commotion, Bryony turned her head, her body shaking with fear. When she saw me, her eyes widened.
“Oh my God, Will. Your ear. What happened?”
“Nothing,” I gasped, eager to make our escape. “We have to go.”
I didn’t give her chance to argue. I scooped her off the floor and into my arms, cradling her against my chest.
“Close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to,” I commanded, and she nodded, closing them tight. “Promise me you won’t look.” She nodded again, tears trickling down her cheeks as she held herself together as best she could.
“Is he… dead?” Her voice broke on the final word, but I wasn’t going to bullshit her.
“Yes.” Her sobs grew louder, and she shook in my arms. “But I didn’t do it,” I said, trying to comfort her, clinging to her and wishing I could take her pain away. “I promise you it wasn’t me.”
She didn’t respond, and I didn’t want to waste another second. We had to get out of here.
I pushed the door open with my arm, taking us through to the task room. The door to our freedom was still open, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I charged towards it. But as soon as I did, her sobs intensified, and looking down, I saw she’d opened her eyes.
“Fuck, Bee. I told you not to look.” I moved faster, heading for the door to escape, trying to get her away from the horrors as fast as I could, but the weight of guilt began to drag me down.
How was I going to get her through this?
What we’d been through was enough to destroy anyone, but seeing her dad like this… it was too much.
“What did he do? How did he…” She could barely speak.
“It was a fucking electric chair,” I told her. She deserved to know the truth. “He didn’t stand a chance.”
She clung to me; her face buried close to my chest as my words penetrated her heart. It fucking shattered mine too, but I had to keep moving forward. All of this couldn’t be for nothing.
I carried her up the steps, my arms locked tight around her like rods of steel. Each step purposeful, resolute, but still heavy and fearful of what lay ahead for us in the future.
Did we even have a future after what’d happened?
I knew one thing, if it didn’t include her, I didn’t want it.
When we eventually came up into the daylight, I blinked, and the feel of the cool air on my skin made me take a huge breath. My chest ached, my lungs burned, but the coolness from that breath reminded me that I was still here.
We were alive.
Frantically, I peered around at the dense forest where we stood, my body itching to move, to make the right choice and take us down the correct path, back to civilisation. But there was nothing here to help me, not even a hint of the underground fortress we’d just escaped from. All I could see was the hole we’d emerged from and trees that went on forever. That was it. I couldn’t even hear traffic or any signs of life in the distance. So, I had to trust my instincts. Push forward and run in a straight line in the hope that it’d finally lead us to a road or something, anything.
I started to run, but she shouted, “We need to go back!” Shocking me to my core. “I can’t leave him there, Will. Please,” she begged.
I knew she wasn’t thinking straight. Grief was drowning her, and she wanted to do something for her dad, but there was nothing she could do.
I had to take charge.
I had to think and act for both of us.
“If we go back, we die.” I put her down and took her hand, the urgency of our escape burning in my eyes as I pulled on her arm, forcing her to run with me. “This is our only chance, Bee. We have to run. Now.”
She moved, but I could feel her resistance, so I begged her to listen to me. “He’s gone, Bee. And I know the thought of that tears you up inside, but if he was here, he’d tell you to run, just like I am. He’d want you to get to safety. You have to do the right thing. Put yourself first and get the fuck out of here. If we don’t run, he’ll come back for us. Hell, he’s probably watching us now. We don’t have time for this. We need to go.”
Tears streamed down her face as she stared back at me, and even though I knew it was the last thing she wanted to do, she nodded and ran.
We bolted as fast as we could over the uneven forest floor. Our bare feet were scratched, sore, and bruised, but the determination to get to safety drove us on like an unstoppable force. Running forward, we never looked back. My legs didn’t even feel like my own as I powered through the undergrowth, pulling her with me. My eyes stayed fixed straight ahead, scanning the horizon for any signs of life.
I half expected him to shoot at us as we fled. Maybe this was another one of his twisted games. But to my surprise, he didn’t. And eventually, after fighting our way through the forest for what seemed like an eternity, we stumbled out of the trees, and onto the tarmac of a deserted road.
