Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Pushing off the counter, I move to the door. “Yeah. He’s not as bad as K Diamond, but I’m starting to rethink my choice of thoughts.”
“He take something from you?” It’s an honest question. I know that whoever this group of guys are and whatever they’re doing here, they’re good people. Not the kind I was raised around. Not the kind I am.
“K Diamond?” I shake my head. “Nah. But Skully? Fucking definitely.” K Diamond had nothing to do with Poppy. I know that deep down, but was he bluffing about her being alive? A big part of me wanted to believe he was telling the truth, but I gave up fifty days ago. I haven’t really given a fuck about much else since.
“You wanna get out, brother?” Sicko asks, and I slowly shift my head over my shoulder, my eyes resting on his.
“Nah, but I’ll help you lot get out.”
“You don’t want to get out of here?” the nerdy one sitting on the edge of the bed asks, staring at me with wide eyes. Probably not a very fair assessment. He may not be that nerdy at all, and once upon a time, I called Ruby nerdy, and that little freak crawled her way onto my lap naked the first chance she got. I’m a shit judge of character—clearly.
“I don’t care enough to do it. It’s not about want. I don’t know what I want.”
His brows cross together, but the guy beside him, I think Sicko called him Orson, shakes his head. Before any of us can say anything else, someone emerges from the forest, wearing a dark robe. The hairs on the back of my head stand straight. She’s small. I can tell she’s a girl from the short space of her shoulders. Everything dies out behind me, and when she finally comes close enough for me to see the outline of her face, I stop breathing.
“Poppy?”
She keeps the robe over her head and I bang on the glass with my fist. Leaning down to where the food is slid into, she points down with her head. I open the flap and grab the tray, sliding it inside.
“Lenny, he’s going to kill me. You have to get us out.”
“I will, Pop. Stay strong.” I slide the tray in, tossing it to the back where Sicko is, and watch as she runs her way back through the clearing.
“Fuck!” I bang my fist against the glass. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” She has been alive this whole time and I am in this fucking hellhole rotting.
Storm hasn’t moved from his area on the bed, and Orson has started walking back and forward in the small space, constantly. It has been three days since K Diamond threw them in here with me, and none of us have been fed. It is a warfare of epic proportions, only we don’t know what weapons we need to use.
“I don’t get it…” Royce runs his hand over his face. “I did what he asked me to do, and what the fuck even is this place? None of this shit makes sense.” He stares off blankly, and I watch as emotions fall over his face. From confusion, to anger, to sadness, and repeat. “He wants me away, then I’ll do it.”
“We’ve got to get out of here.”
“How?” Orson asks, finally stopping his walking and staring blankly back at me. “How the fuck do we do that when we don’t even know what he wants?”
“That’s the problem, though. I do know what he wants…” I murmur, sinking the sharp corner of the razor into my wrist. None of them have said a word when I do it. As though they let me have this moment. I respect that. “He wants our compliance. With Skully, it was always about compliance. They’re brothers, they have to want the same.”
“So you’re not here because of K Diamond? You’re here for his brother?”
I toss the razor up and into the sink, watching as the blood drips from my wrist. “Correct.” My eyes shift to the camera, and I raise my brows. “Then come on. Let’s play…”
Before any of them can say anything, the speaker breaks in, as if he has been sitting behind the computer, watching us for days on end. He probably has.
“Your task for today, and if you skip, your first day will reset and you will be here longer.”
“How long are we in here for?” Royce asks, stepping closer to the camera. He jerks his finger up at it. “How many days?”
Silence. A deep chuckle rips through. “That’s not for you to know right now.”
Royce sinks into the bed as the final emotion washes over his face. Defeat.
“I want a show.” His voice is laden with a fake sense of power. Something he thinks he has but doesn’t. “I want all four of you to give me that. Let’s see how much you can all follow instructions, and just maybe—maybe I’ll let you eat tonight.” I swallow back the chuckle that threatens up my throat. There were whispers around TI about how Skully’s brother was worse than him. How he was the darker of the duo who bared nothing but evil. Skully is fucked up in himself, so the thought that there’s an even worse twin is almost too depressing to think about.