Page 49 of Scaredy Cat
I need a hiding place,I think to myself. Somewhere he won’t think to find me, or where he’s already looked. Finally I get the courage to tiptoe back into the main hall of the fourth floor, and I dart across it to one of the storage rooms closer to the stairs. He must have glanced in here already, at the very least. So he’d have no reason to come back. But I want something more substantial to hide behind than relying on the shadows with the ever-shifting moonlight changing how it illuminates the rooms. Even this space is full of windows, though they’re all missing their glass, and I use the light from the sky outside to navigate around the piles of old furniture, files, and cabinets.
When my gaze falls on the two-body mortuary cabinet, I just stare at it.
No way.Absolutelynot. There’s no way I want to wiggle into a place where dead bodies were once stored.
I’ve seen movies about this, and bad things happen to girls who hide in body cabinets.
Footsteps outside make me glance up, and I know I’m a sitting duck as the clouds shift so nothing at all is covering the moon. The light brightens, making everything the room stand out in stark relief, and my heart thumps painfully in my chest as the winding footsteps get closer.
Fuck it.I really don’t have a choice.
Quick and silent, I crawl into the bottom space of the cabinet, having to do so backwards so I can close the door that’s hanging open and almost off its hinges. But by the time the steps outside are close enough that I know he’s just about to the doorway, I manage to pull the door shut without making a sound so I’m hidden in the sudden darkness of the body cabinet.
I hate it here,I think to myself, barely able to do more than cover my head with my arms. My heart races in my ears, making it hard to hear his steps, and I will it to calm the hell down so I can figure out what’s going on.
God, I can’t fuckinghear him, I realize a beat later. I can’t tell if he’s gone, or if he’s still in the room, though belatedly I consider staying here all night. Or at least as long as I can stand, with the faded smell of sterile chemicals and something else in the cold, metal cabinet. I’m not sure how long I can make myself?—
Without warning, the door is ripped open and the drawer is yanked out, disorienting me with the way I’m slid across the floor. But I try to move too soon, prompting my wrists to bang against the top of the cabinet and pulling a pained yelp from my chest.
When I manage to flip over onto my back, I'm greeted with the view of the wolf-skull mask staring down at me.
“You’re bad at this,” my stalker informs me. “You’re supposed to be hiding, or running. Not napping in the body cabinet.”
Immediately I roll to my feet, stumbling a few steps to get away from them, even though he doesn’t seem too concerned with stopping me.
“Why the hell would you check there?!” I snarl, grabbing my flashlight off of a nearby overturned desk. “Who the hell hides in a body cabinet? Why would you even consider?—”
“Because my little Scaredy Cat can’t help herself,” he purrs smoothly. He jerks his head toward the door. “Go on. Go run down the hallway and try to find somewhere else to hide.” God, I hate how encouraging he sounds, when we both know he’s just being condescending as hell.
As I edge by him, I have the awful urge to grab his mask and rip it off his face. I want so badly to just?—
He lunges, and I jump backward as he chuckles under his breath. The knife flicks as he twists it in his hand. “I saidrun,Scaredy Cat.”
The urge to grab his mask disappears instantly, and I flee down the hallways with the sound of his echoing howl following me. “Fuck,” I whisper to myself, looking in different rooms and trying to figure out what to do. I turn through one doorway, and find myself in the stairwell.
I could go down.
I could scream and wail and shake my phone until it magically gets service. While there is Wi-Fi here, I chose not to pay the fee for it, since I’m not live streaming.
Which, apparently, was an exceptionally big mistake, seeing as I’m now being chased by a potential murderer who’s definitely a little unhinged.
I could justgo downa floor.
But his laugh that rings down the corridor has me shivering, and I know he’s too close for me to dart back out into the hallway to look for somewhere else to hide, unless he’s feeling benevolent enough to give me another thirty seconds.
Somehow, I doubt he is.
“Fuck,” I breathe, fingers gripping the sleeves of my hoodie.“Fuck!”I’m not willing to risk that he’s telling the truth, so I’m worried if he goes downstairs after me, he really will kill the first person he comes across, dooming me to a lifetime survivor’s guilt complex. So instead of taking the option that feels like thebetter bet, I launch myself back up to the fifth floor just as he rounds the corner.
“I almost thought you were going to break the rules of our game,” he calls after me, not making a move to hurry. But he doesn’t have to. Not when we both know the only way down from the fifth floor is this staircase or jumping off the roof.
I like to think I’m not at the point where I’m willing to jump off the roof. At least not quite.
Standing in the open area of the fifth floor, I look around at my options, and realize they’re all bad. I’m not going back on the roof, but the rec room isn’t that much better with all the glass missing from the frames. The only other option is one of the cluttered storerooms with collapsing towers of old construction supplies, and the bathroom where two nurses hung themselves decades apart.
My stalker’s footsteps on the stairs finally reach my ears. The wooden planks creak under his boots, and my fear builds with every step he takes. Terror chills my veins like I’m standing in a freezer, and I finally move into the bathroom in front of me, whispering an apology to any spirits of unrest that linger here.
“I am so sorry,” I breathe as I flatten myself against what remains of the wall beside the doorway. It won’t help me for long, but maybe just long enough. If I can just hide here until he goes by, I can find my way back down the stairs and look for a better place to hide.
