Page 97 of The Monster of Hotel No. 7
“You are beautiful,” he says quietly, in front of everyone, and it’s as if we are the only two people on the entire planet right now. “I’m going to take you away from here.” His voice grows softer as the storm rages on, the red lights flaring dark, then bright, casting his face in an eerie shadow, giving the illusion that everyone around us has disappeared. “I’m going to take you where no one can find you. I’m going to kill you, Karia Ven. After I destroy everything good about you.”
I clench my teeth, my nostrils flaring as I try to keep breathing while voices yell on the opposite side of the door and everyone else inside the shop is silent.
“Because you can never leave me. I won’t let you go now.”
The floor seems to tilt, and I realize it’s not from his words. At least, not solely. The thunder shakes the room, the lights go out and don’t come back, everyone plunged into blackness. Upstairs, the sound of a door slamming against a wall ricochets throughout the shop, footsteps pounding inside, the sound of heavy rain like sprays of rapid gunfire.
But even in the blackness, I see the amber glint in Sullen’s gaze.
And he reaches for me, his gloved hand coming to my wrist, jerking me forward. I fall into his arms, my cheek against his chest. His body is trembling, mine, too, but I know we can’t just stand here in this twisted embrace.
I push up onto my tiptoes as people move around us, but strangely, no one speaks, no one rats us out, and I put my lips to Sullen’s cheek.
“We have to go,” I say. “So you can debase me.” I paraphrase his words, then lick his skin, right beside the corner of his mouth.
He holds me so tight I can’t breathe, let alone move.
Then Maude speaks, her voice a hushed whisper. “You two are fucking psychotic,” she says, her drunken words slurring near my ear.
“Don’t give her to them.” Cosmo’s words in the dark, contradicting his earlier blame on me about who the people upstairs are looking for. I don’t know if it’s police or soldiers from Writhe; tonight, they all serve the same purpose, but one will be worse than the other. They haven’t said a word to announce their presence though, so I assume it’s that one;Writhe.
“He’s the danger. You heard what he said.” Cosmo is speaking rapidly in the darkness.
“I’m high as fuck,” Fleet drawls slowly, but there’s no amusement in his tone anymore. “What the hell is happening?”
“Elliot.” Alivia’s voice. “I’m tripping.” There is panic in her words, and I feel someone—probably Elliot—moving towards her voice in the dark.
“Our dinners can never end peacefully, can they?” Elliot says quietly, as if he is all out of patience. But none of them seem as freaked out as I feel. Maybe they have this kind of drama every week. But they have no idea Writhe shouldn’t be fucked with.
“Cosmo.” It’s Maude’s voice, and I know that tonight, in this shop, she’s going to be making all the decisions on whether to give us away or not.
I shouldn’t have thrown that punch on her or drowned her phone, but too late for regrets now.
“You have a lot of explaining to do before you are invited to the Emporium again. We don’t want interference, and wedo notgive up fugitives.”
I roll my eyes in the dark; it sure as hell seemed like she was going to make a call to give me up, but then again, she didn’t, even before I dunked her phone.
My body is still pressed to Sullen, and he grips me tighter as we wait. We are both silent now, listening as footsteps sound up above. It’s as if we are waiting for a verdict from the rest of the misfits here. Cosmo’s fellow performance artists.
“I hear voices. Down here!” someone yells from the first floor, and we all grow silent.
The power stays off, though, but I see a needle of blinding white light tilting down the stairs and several people head for us here, following the path of the flashlight.
Sullen clutches me so hard it hurts; he is shaking all over.
He has lived the horrors. He knows what he might go back to. In some ways, I think that’s worse. I have no idea what will happen to me, but Sullen will not survive for long after Stein gets his hands on him again.
I bury my face in the crook of his neck, standing on my tiptoes, and I breathe in the scent of him, dark and sensual. In another life, we would be doing this in the light. He wouldn’t be shaking from fear. I might have him trembling for something completely different.
But now, as the footfalls grow closer, I do not know what to do.
It feels impossible, escaping.
The light sweeps across the main dining room, illuminating our scattered chairs and empty glasses, the wine bottles on the table. There is quiet now from our hunters, and Sullen dips his head, his lips brushing the shell of my ear in some semblance of a kiss.
I squeeze my eyes shut tight and curl my fingers into the fabric of his soft hoodie.
For long moments, no one moves. No one breathes. I don’t know why Cosmo changed his mind and is keeping silent but perhaps now he’s felt the fear of Writhe, he can’t bring himself to give me up.
