XXIII

Odette woke up and realized that she was standing up in her bedroom. That was far from the strangest part as the air around her was thrumming with some kind of energy. She could feel the energy’s warmth in her teeth and the buzzing in her eyes.

Her hand reached out to the bedroom door and clasped the cool handle, the knob clicking mechanically. When the door opened, she came to understand that the hallway was not the same as it had been the night before. It wasn’t a matter of a change in décor, but the doors were missing and so were the windows. It was just blank and grey.

Stepping further into the hall, her door shut behind her and promptly vanished as well. Odette swore under her breath, pressing her hands against the solid wall, pushing against it, but there was nothing that revealed that there was once a door on it. She was trapped.

“This is just a dream,” she muttered to herself, punching the wall lightly.

She breathed out, frustrated, and turned around. The hallway seemed to stretch out forever in front of her but not behind her. If there was a way out, it would be down in the endless darkness. Odette kept a lookout for anything that resembled a door of some kind but there was absolutely nothing. Even more frustrating was that there were no turns or corners, and there was nothing that distinguished just how far she had come like a picture frame or something.

I’m so tired, Odette thought to herself. Maybe I should just curl up on the floor and sleep. Can you sleep in dreams?

And then she walked straight into a wall. Odette was more stunned than hurt; she hadn’t seen a wall at all. It had just seemed like the corridor kept going but, apparently, it didn’t. She rubbed her nose, which had taken the brunt of the hit and silently cursed the wall. She was about to turn around and go back to where she had started when a door just to her side caught her attention.

“Déjà vu,” Odette said to herself, reaching out to push open the door.

It revealed a set of steep, dimly lit stairs that went down and down for several floors. What was even worse was the nauseating, rotting smell that smacked her in the face as soon as the door was open. The air smelled like iron and it was bad enough to make Odette want to retch. She cupped her hand over her mouth and nostrils but the smell continued to break through her defenses. She found herself stumbling down the stairs, holding onto the walls for support.

The air was thicker down below and much warmer than what she was used to in the mansion. Sweat broke out along her hairline and she couldn’t help but gag. It smelled like something had died. And then she came to the conclusion that this must be another nightmare. When she would reach the bottom of the stairs, she would be greeted by the sight of death and have to live through it until she scared herself awake.

I don’t want to but I might as well get it over with.

The last few steps were the worst with Odette staggering and feeling faint. What greeted her was a prison or a dungeon of sorts. Bars lined the walls and the cages took up majority of the width of the room. It was dimly lit, only by one candle every few feet, and those candles did not cast a very powerful glow.

Odette, however, could make out movement further down in the cages. She could hear strange noises that went along with it, and the girl frowned. She began to walk as quietly as she could towards the sounds, clutching her skirt tightly in her hands.

The noises she heard became clearer the closer that she got to them—whimpers and quiet pleading, growling, and the sound of something sloshing and tearing. Odette furrowed her eyebrows, debating on whether or not to turn around, when something touched her foot.

It was warm and liquid-like and she jerked away instantly, gasping. The liquid looked black, but, upon further inspection, Odette realized exactly what it was. She couldn’t scream, not even as more blood pooled at her feet and stained them a bright red. She watched the trail with wide eyes, following it until she saw exactly where it came from. The very last cell.

She couldn’t run and she couldn’t scream. Her body worked on autopilot, creeping slowly towards the end of the darkened room and to the very last cell. There was only one question on her mind—whose blood was it? Deep inside, Odette didn’t want to find out but it was far too late to turn around.

She stood before the mouth of the prison and what she saw wiped her mind clean. For an entire ten seconds, her mind had completely shut down and she wasn’t even frightened. She just felt numb to the macabre scene in front of her.

Jethro … and Thorn … and Bonnie … and Nadia … and Grayson …

All in the same cell. All bloody.

Only… only some of them weren’t dead.

Bonnie and Nadia—they were very dead. Whoever had done it to them did so without a single shred of remorse. Their faces were unrecognizable, and the rest of them … Odette couldn’t even look. There wasn’t even a “rest of them.” Everything was too scattered and bloody to pinpoint what belonged to who.

Jethro was still twitching. That made it even worse to bear. Odette clapped her hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming. His eyes were downcast at his stomach and she couldn’t help but look in that direction too. That was her worst mistake. Whoever had done it to him had given him no mercy. She didn’t understand how he was still alive with his insides out.

Odette staggered back, her only saving grace was the stone wall behind her. The trembling in her knees wouldn’t cease. There was so much blood … so much carnage … it had to be a dream!

But the worst of all was Grayson … Oh God! He was drenched in blood from head to toe; his eyes as dull as his expression. His pale skin glistened under the lighting and she could see the last bits of sweat on his brow. The only sign he was still alive was the rapid rising and falling of his chest and the flushed color of his cheeks.

“What have you done?” Odette clutched the brick wall behind her for support. There was so much gore, too much for someone to have witnessed in their lifetime—let alone in a time span of a minute.

Thorn was trembling in the corner of the piles of bodies, his one good eye trying to tell her something. But he wasn’t innocent, she could see the blood on his clothing and the knife and chain in his hand.

“M-Miss—”

“Shut up, you stuttering idiot!” Grayson roared. His fists clenched and two brilliant blue chains made of light wrapped themselves around Thorn’s neck and wrists. The scent of singed hair and blood invaded her nose.

Thorn dropped his weapon and screamed like a wounded animal, his face becoming the picture of pure agony. He collapsed to his knees and tried to claw at his chains but it did him no good. He was powerless against his supposed master.

Grayson watched him with no expression, no pity or mercy in sight. He was only a cold shell. Odette cowered against the wall, her eyes darting towards the exit.

Every single bone in her body told her to run. That was no man she was dealing with but a cold-blooded killer—a beast.

Odette had pushed herself off the wall when Thorn stopped screaming. Grayson turned around to face her, all sympathies gone. Her blood ran cold the closer he came towards her and she stumbled back. The blood made the ground slippery and she nearly fell into it, but she caught herself by grabbing onto the bars of the cell closest to her. For a moment, she wasn’t sure he would be merciful towards her. She feared for her life.

“Don’t kill me, Grayson, please! I thought you loved me? Why would you do this?!” she cried, scrambling back.

Grayson scoffed, “Why would I kill you? I did this for you!” He reached out and quickly snatched her hand, pulling her off the ground. All of the blood that covered him smeared onto the once pristine gown she was wearing. “I did this for us.”

Her skin crawled feeling the blood on her. It was still warm.

Odette struggled against him. “No! Don’t you dare use me as an excuse for what you just did! Let me go!” This has to be a dream. This has to be a dream. This has to be a dream. Thorn’s here, yeah? Isn’t he always here in dreams? And a “dream Grayson”? This is just a nightmare—!

“Just listen to me! They had to go!” Grayson insisted, shaking Odette by the shoulders. “They all had to go because they were taking you away from me. Grandfather for—for trying to get you to go to the police behind my back; and those skanks that my sister associates with, they were just going to let you die, you know, when Greer tried to drown you.

“Then there was the noble and courageous Zeke who wanted to take you away forever! He said that you had to go to the police, that I couldn’t keep you all to myself. He was always meddling in our relationship. What does he know about our love?!

“And then there was that stupid gangster who tried to shoot you. You weren’t meant to find him—no, not until I was with you—but that pesky cat of yours got in the way. You understand why she had to go too, don’t you? I hated seeing you so torn up about that rodent but she was a distraction. I must say its death gave me the perfect opportunity to comfort you, so something good did come of it. You are so pretty when you cry, it’s unfair.”

Grayson laughed bitterly, licking his pale, blood-smeared lips. “Then … your parents tried to separate us. You were generous to warn me about them but my own past made me merciful. I should have listened to you. When they kept you from me for an entire two weeks, I was so angry. You don’t even understand how much energy it took to stop myself from going over there and stealing you away in the middle of the night … BUT … you came back to me so willingly and I knew that you loved me then too.”

“GRAYSON, STOP IT!” Odette screamed, crying harder than she had in her entire life. “You’re the monster h-here! N-not Greer, no-not Jethro. You killed m-my parents! Y-you killed my c-cat! I hate you!”

He growled. “No, you love me. And I love you!”

Grayson threw Odette against the bars of one of the cells, the metal rattling with the sudden weight. Odette cried out, her head erupting with the splitting pain. She was too disoriented to fight against him when he pinned both of her hands beside her head and glared down at her.

“Tell me you love me,” he demanded, squeezing her wrists with such a force she was certain he would break them.

“I hate you, Grayson! You’ve ruined my life!” she spat. She kicked at him, trying to nail any weak point, but he was very much in control of the situation.

Even though he had never shown true anger towards her before, Odette couldn’t be certain that he wouldn’t. It wasn’t his face that displayed his true feelings but the strength of his hands that were making hers pop. Odette screamed in agony and begged him to stop. She knew that she provoked him but she didn’t mean to. She just wanted him to stop.

“You know,” he started, his grip loosening just a little. “I can always make you love me. You’ve come so far, you’ve already accepted to be mine. There’s no way to escape this, Odette. The only way out is death and I can assure you that, when the time comes, it will be me that ends you.”

Grayson smashed their mouths together. She was twisting and screaming against him but he wouldn’t let her head move. There was something metallic that filled her mouth—no doubt from him—and the more she fought, the more frustrated he grew with her.

He slammed her head against the bars once more, sending her reeling. Her eyes opened but everything she saw was Grayson and he was all blurred. What she could make out, though, were his narrowed eyes, daring her to fight back more. It was all a game to him. He wanted to see how far they could push one another before they both broke.

He shoved her away with a huff, wiping his mouth off on his shoulder. When he turned back towards her, he had calmed down. It was only surface-deep; she had learned a long time ago that his true emotions were shown in his eyes.

Grayson licked his lips and sighed. “You know, Odette, I never really wanted you to find out about any of them. But you just had to go and be so nosy. Your curiosity is one of the things that just make you so beautiful, though. You can’t help it, can you? Sheltered all your life and you just want to be free, so you let it get the best of you.”

The boy took a lock of her hair between his fingers and twisted it around, as if he were enthralled by it. He then pushed it back and petted her, slowly and methodically.

“Please, Grayson, just let me go,” she sobbed, turning her face away from him. She couldn’t stand it, the fact that he had been a killer the whole time and tricked her into feeling things for him.

Grayson cackled like some kind of super villain. “And where will you go? No one will love you like I do, princess. No one. They’ll all pity you, yes, but they’ll never love you. I’m the only one you can ever trust. I can keep you safe!”

“Let me go!”

His grin slipped. “Is this—is this because I didn’t kill Greer? I can’t, she possesses the same powers as I do, thanks to that good-for-nothing angel, so we are evenly matched. But I could hurt her; I could torture her for you if that is what would make you feel better. You and I, we can hurt her together!”

Odette screamed, kicking her legs out again. From the corner of her eye, she could see more of the blood crawling out of the cell. It sickened her that he could stand the smell.

“No! Just leave me alone!” Odette didn’t want anything more from him.

Grayson was ripped away from her by an invisible force and tossed against the wall roughly. He grunted and collapsed, not moving an inch. She held onto the bars behind her, her legs almost too weak to hold her weight.

“Run!” Thorn shouted. His arms were extended like he was holding something back.

Odette put two and two together, how Grayson couldn’t move and the stance that the angel had taken. He was helping her. A large hole appeared in the cement wall across from her. The edges of it looked like silver wisps, like fire was surrounding it. What was outside of it, she couldn’t tell.

“Through there!” Thorn urged her.

There was no time to hesitate. She just had to trust. Odette leapt through the hole and didn’t look back. She was suddenly outside of the mansion, outside of its gates. The rough terrain scraped against her feet and dirt clung to her feet, mixing with the blood. Odette spared the mansion one last glance, the magical hole that she had jumped through sealing up instantly. She knew that she only had a limited amount of time as a head start, so she sprinted in the direction of the town.

Adrenaline pumped in her veins, a sudden burst of energy filling her body. The trees on either side of her were rocking and swaying in an archaic dance due to the hectic winds that blew against her. The sky was a muddy gray mess. There was a brief flash of lightning that illuminated her way. Odette wanted to scream. She wanted to tear her hair out and throw herself into the sea. Maybe that would purge her of the feeling of sickness that was plaguing her. The horrors that she had to see. She threw herself towards the trees, knowing that it was better to be hidden by them than out in the open should she be chased down. Branches and twigs scraped her face and pulled at her dress, tugging her and pulling her at every direction. She became scared with every pull, every time her hair would be yanked and tangled, because she believed that that mad man had caught up with her.

Odette threw her hands up to protect her face but it was useless. Nature was lashing out at her for not seeing it before, for not seeing how crazy in love he was. Normally, the stinging pain would have brought a kind of clarity to her but not this time. It only added to her agony as her skin felt like one open and raw nerve left to be tortured.

The faces of all of the dead were surrounding her in the forest. They were every branch that pulled her hair, every twig that scraped her face, every rock that cut her ankles. She wondered if they wanted Grayson to find her, as if Grayson was like a shark that could smell her blood and her torment.

Odette’s foot was caught under a root and she splayed out onto the damp earthen floor. For several seconds, she didn’t move and allowed her entire body to ache. That was when the entire world seemed to have gone abnormally silent, with no more wind and no more thunder. Alone in the dark, Odette found that she wasn’t scared of the trees anymore, nor the monsters that she used to create.

She was only scared of him.

“ODETTE!” His voice was purely animalistic, chilling her down to her very core. “ODETTE!”

She couldn’t tell where it was coming from; his voice echoed all throughout the woods, from the top of the trees to the floor where she laid down. What she knew was that she had spent enough time lying around and scrambled to her feet.

“ODETTE!”

She choked out a whimper; she refused to let him get to her. He was a horrible person … not even a person but a monster. He was pure destruction. Why? Odette wanted to scream. Why did you have to be like this?!

He was too perfect … so his flaw had to be horrendous. Worst of all was that Odette found that a tiny part of her still cared for him but she would smother that part out. She would destroy that part of her until it was nothing but a distant nightmare.

Odette tore through the police tape that sealed off her old house. It didn’t matter to her that she was passing it; she didn’t even think about what it was until she was already several yards past the charred remains and nearing the town.

Businesses dotted either side of the road but the whole place was abandoned. It must have been the middle of the night but Odette had no clock to check if she was correct. Not that it even mattered. She ran down the sidewalks, her legs burning with exhaustion. She wouldn’t be able to keep it up much longer, her body would shut down soon and she would be left to the mercy of Grayson should he find her.

Odette couldn’t bring herself to glance behind her. If she did, she was certain that she wouldn’t like what she would see. He could be right there, ready to tackle her to the ground and drag her back to that prison by her hair. He’ll claim it’s for her own good. Odette stifled a sob.

In the corner of her eye, Odette spotted an abandoned church. She didn’t think, she only did. Odette threw herself at the wooden doors and they burst open without much more shoving. Splinters poked at her through the thin material of her dress but she didn’t care.

Odette slammed the doors shut, squinting into the darkness. Graffiti was all over the walls and many pews had been overturned, but, in the front, the altar stood relatively unscathed. The cloth that covered it was moth-bitten and torn in places, but it reached the floor and made for the perfect hiding spot.

Stumbling through the darkness, she slid underneath the altar as fast as she could. Odette pulled at the cloth, hoping that it was low enough to hide her away. Her hands were trembling with exhaustion but she was too afraid to close her eyes. Her breath came out fast and uneven; she couldn’t hide it, and her heart was beating too fast.

Wind howled, whistling through the cracks in the walls and making the whole building sway. The thunder seemed to have no compassion for her nerves and picked up, going from low rumbles to loud, threatening crashes.

Through one of the many holes in the altar’s cloth, Odette was given a view of Jesus on the cross. He, too, had been defiled by those who graffitied the holy building. The statue seemed to be looking down at her with a pitiful face.

“Please, God,” Odette found herself whispering. “Don’t let him find me.”

Lightning flashed and illuminated the Son’s face, the shadows casted making him seem like he was crying. Odette didn’t take that as a good sign. She squeezed her knees to her chest, inhaling the scent of blood, sweat, and earth as fat tears rolled down her cheeks. When would this end? Could she hope to survive the night and maybe make it to the police department? What a sight she would be, coming out of the church? What would people think?

Odette hiccupped quietly, pressing her eyes on her knees. She wished that her parents were alive to help her but that wouldn’t make much sense, would it? If they were alive and they tried to help her out of this situation, Grayson would wind up trying to kill them again. I wish we never moved to this awful place!

“Please,” Odette repeated. “Please, don’t let him find me.”

And the doors of the church slammed open.