Page 27 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
I vaguely recognize the voice but so little of Stein’s Writhe members spoke to me, it’s hard to parse out who it is.
“Is he…” The voice trails off and I imagine whoever it is looking up, straining to see in the dimness, the angle, trying to findme.
I think I may have to run. They could easily grab the flashlight. Reveal all of me.
If I get caught like this, Stein will kill me. He will decide his transcendence has arrived and this is the moment he’s been waiting for. I know I will suffer greatly before he completes the final task.
Fear balloons in my low belly, pressing on my bladder.
I want to turn and run. I am not sure where I will go but there must be hidden places on the upper levels, too. And if it came down to it, I would rather fling myself over the balcony and die in that manner than let Stein scrape me to the bone.
I lift my eyes to Karia’s face.
She is not looking at me.
I wonder when she will rat me out.
It would be easiest for her. Be done with this entire thing. She has nothing to lose in giving up this game. Everything to gain in the name of her own safety.From me.
But slowly, she shakes her head. “No, Ms. Croft,” she says.
Shella Croft.Isadora’s mom.
She has always seemed to kind to me—any soft word given to me from the others was from her—and despite the odds, a fraction of relief spreads like warmth through my body.
I still don’t move.
I do not exhale.
There is a moment of jagged quiet. I wonder if Shella is deciding whether or not she believes Karia. Surely, she can’t. I may even be visible from this spot; I don’t know.
Then Karia adds, so softly it’s a whisper,“Please.”
I watch her chest rise, exposing more of her core. She is holding her breath now, too.
Then I hear, “Nothing here, Rig,” spoken by Shella Croft in a rather loud voice, as if she is calling out to her husband.
After another second, maybe three, the door slams closed.
I watch Karia bow her head, her spine crumpling for a moment as she exhales loudly, and I do the same.
We stand there longer than we should, until she finally lifts her chin and her blue eyes flick to mine. “I don’t know how much longer she’ll be able to divert them. Let’s go?” She asks it as a question, as if I have a choice.
But I enjoy the illusion of one.
I nod once. I think of the lab. The dental chair. If we get through all of these obstacles in our way, I will strap her down in it and we will play and maybe I will feel guilty, because of this moment in time when she saved me, and Shella did too, and neither of them had to.
Neither of them should have.
Chapter15
Karia
We are nearly to Septem.
I left the flashlight behind. I dropped it on such a high level, if it’s found, it’ll be a good diversion.
We keep going down.
