do it now.
The floor of the hallway was wooden and cold beneath my feet. In fact, the temperature beyond the room was a lot chillier. Right or left? The voices the other day had come from the left. So were there stairs or a door there?
It was a hallway with no windows.
Seriously, what was their problem with windows?
Tucking my wounded arm against my middle, I chose left and hurried. My ankle protested some, but I ignored it. I passed more closed doors, but I didn’t want to open every single one to check. Surely there would be stairs or something that—fuck, there were stairs. I almost slid to a halt on the wood. It was rougher here and bit at my feet.
Thankfully, I had callouses. At the top of the stairs, I peered down. Six steps, then some kind of landing. The light from the single bulb hanging above cast bizarre shadows. The walls were rougher looking than in the room too. Old. Dilapidated.
It also kind of smelled out here. Moldy. Disused. Wet.
I glanced down at the floor again. There were stains on the wood. But it wasn’t damp. That was something.
A shiver worked up my spine, and I looked back the way I’d come, then the other way.
Yeah, I really had no choice but to keep going. I wanted out, and I probably wouldn’t get this chance again. Not if they caught me.
That sent a far worse shiver up my spine. And my gut clenched.
Down the steps I went, slowing at the bottom and glancing around the wall to look down the next set of steps. Still nothing.
If this were a movie, the creepy music would’ve started playing right now. I descended the next steps and stared at another hallway, but this one wasn’t as long and there were open archways that revealed a pool table and carpeted area with sofas, chairs, and a television.
Well, look at that. There were posters up on the wall too. These were more of half-naked and never mind, all naked women with generous breasts and curvy hips. There were bottles of beer on the table. But no people.
Where the fuck were the guys? And how big was this place?
You know what, Emersyn, you don’t care. You want to get out of here, not sightsee.
Good talk.
I ignored the room and the other open archway and started looking for an exit. There was more light coming from the other end of the hallway, so I headed for it. A window. A door. I just needed one way out. The end had a door—with a window—that opened up into a warehouse?
Pulling the door open, I stared out into the drafty looking warehouse. It was all plays of shadow and light, with the light coming in from skylights along the ceiling that was easy two or three stories above me.
Son.
Of.
A.
Bitch.
The place was huge and ugly as sin. There were also cars parked inside. What were the chances those cars had keys in them?
That shit only happened in the movies.
I also had no idea how to drive.
I mean, it didn’t look hard, but I’d been driven everywhere, and the only free time I’d ever had had gone into my dancing and performances. Driving to school would have been a waste of energy.
Oh, the last thing I needed was her voice in my head, so I slammed the door on that and stopped hovering. If cars were in here, then there was an exit point. I did a slow one-eighty and there, with light shining down on it like it was a sign from the heavens, was a pair of huge doors. I didn’t waste any more time. I hurried across the open expanse and past the cars and the pair of motorcycles. The concrete was like ice beneath my feet, and I narrowly avoided a scattering of broken glass.
The door at the end started opening, and the grind of the automatic chain above pulling had me stumbling to a halt.
I jerked my head toward the only other door nearby and raced over to it. Please be unlocked. Please be unlocked. I shoved it open and ducked inside. It was like a huge utility closet. I’d barely closed the door when the smell of exhaust tickled my nose as the rumble of engines—more than one—rolled past.
Masculine voices rose up. Some loud, some softer. Most of them angry.
Or at least they sounded bent.
I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.
Come on, go away. The sooner they parked and went