and knocked on one door. Before I could respond, her footsteps echoed as she ran upstairs. I laughed quietly and retraced her steps until I found the basement door. The key fitted perfectly in the hole, and the click of the lock was oddly ominous.
I knew what horrors lurked in the daylight... Never mind the darkness.
I'd never admit it, but I hated the dark. I didn't fear it; I simply hated it. Somehow when the only things you could see were the things you conjured from the depths of your own mind, the dark was brutal.
All I saw whenever I was surrounded by it was flashes of the horrible things I'd done and the lives I'd taken.
Each one necessary, I knew that, but it didn't mean I liked what I'd done.
I ran my hand along the rough, cold wall of the basement as I took the stairs down. It got darker with every step I took, and I clenched my jaw shut as the one creaked beneath my foot. It seemed to scream through the dark space, and although my eyes were adjusting slowly to the change, it wasn't quick enough.
I slowly skated my foot forward as it felt like I'd touched the floor. When it went several inches without dropping off the edge of a step, I figured I was there, and put both hands on the wall.
A torch and batteries should be in a safe house at all fucking times for this very reason. No one should be forced to feel up a basement's walls in the pitch black.
“Hey, I found a—”
“Fuck me!” I yelled when an orangey spot flashed at me. I jumped backward and almost tripped over my own feet, which forced me to lean against the cold wall.
“...Flashlight,” Adriana finished. She centered the beam of light on me from the top of the staircase. Her eyes fell on me, and she promptly burst into a loud fit of giggles. “You... look... so scared...” she forced out through each laugh.
“You scared the shit outta me, Addy. Bring me the damn flashlight so I can turn the power on before it gets dark.”
She gripped the banister tightly, using the light to come down, still laughing. “It's right next to your head.”
I turned to where she was shining the stream of light. “Fucking hell.” I lifted the casing and flipped the switches. The lights all came on, indicating the start up of the power, and I took the flashlight from Adriana. “Where did you find this?”
“In the safe.” She smiled sweetly. “Turns out when Mamma thought of everything, she thought of everything. I just had to put the batteries in it. The problem is, the only food that's here is Ramen noodles, and they're all out of date by at least a year.”
“Great. Looks like the guy on the gate is taking a pizza delivery.” I guided us both upstairs with the light, then locked the basement door behind her. “Here.” I handed her back the flashlight and turned into the kitchen. “Did you find any phones?”
“Yes.”
I waited for her to continue talking, but when she didn't, I turned and met her eyes. “Just, 'yes?'“
“Well, yeah.” She handed me a small box. “I don't know how to set these things up.”
I picked up the box and looked at it. Slowly, I looked back at her. “So let me get this straight. You want to travel across the country, kill your father, and take over a multi-million dollar family business that deals in very dark, very illegal practices, but you can't set up a disposable cell phone?”
Adriana pursed her pink lips. She'd been nibbling at the lower one for hours now, and I could see how it was chapped and the skin was flaking. It looked like a fair cry from the soft lick of flesh I'd kissed just yesterday. “Yes,” she finally said, slumping onto a chair and resting her chin on her hand. “That is exactly it, Hunter. I wasn't aware my ability to do all those things hinged on whether or not I can operate something I have never, ever used.”
“It doesn't. Technically.” I opened the box. “But then again, that's like saying a virgin can never have an orgasm because they've never kissed anyone else.”
“What virgins do you know that have ever had an orgasm?”
“I had one when I was virgin.” I inserted the card into the back of the phone and clicked the battery into place.
She blinked at me. “Can we not discuss this?”
“Didn't