I a killer? The idea of it tortures me until I can’t think of anything else.
I have to break through the illusion.
Tiptoeing to the door, I open it quietly and peek into the dark hallway.
Empty.
Across from where I stand, another bedroom door hangs crookedly on its hinges. It’s charred black, and even now the smell of smoke lingers in the air.
I suck in a breath and dart across the hall into what is apparently my room.
Inside, everything is trashed.
The door is burnt badly, but more than that, it’s as if a tornado blew through. The bedcovers have been ripped clean off and tossed around on the floor. The clothes that had once been neatly stacked are strewn everywhere, including hanging off an overturned lamp on the floor beside a nightstand stripped of its drawers. A quick inspection of the attached bathroom shows the drawers in pieces on the cold tile beside the sink.
Who did this?
“You’re really powerful.”
I whirl, half-expecting a ghostly visitor, but it’s a girl.
The young one from art class.
She’s dressed in flannel pajamas that are baggy on her too-thin frame. Her pale skin is white enough to make me wonder if maybe she is a ghost after all.
“What did you say?”
“Your power,” she says, gesturing to the destruction around us. “We’ve never had a witch as powerful as you. They don’t know what to do with that. How to contain you.”
“You mean... I did this?”
She shrugs. “You were mad. I get it.”
She doesn’t sound upset at the fact that I almost burned the place down.
“Are you a witch too?” I ask.
She looks startled by my question, and I wonder if it’s offensive to ask.
But then she shakes her head and speaks quietly. “No. I’m a vampire.”
My breath hitches. “You drink blood then?” I ask and shove away images of her trying to feed on me.
Is that why she’s here now? In the middle of the night? To eat me for dinner?
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she says, and I realize my fear must be easy to read.
“How did you get out of your room?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Lately, they leave some of the doors unlocked on this hall.”
“You mean on purpose? Why?”
“I think they like to see what we do. Except for you, of course. They don’t want you getting out.”
I stare at her, horrified at that.
In a whisper, I can’t help but ask, “Can they—can they see us?”
Her expression darkens. “I don’t know what they can see.”
She looks angry. Furious, really, and for a moment I see the flash of predator inside her. But then it’s gone and there’s only a little girl, too thin and cold and innocent for a place like this.
“I’m Celeste,” I tell her.
“I’m Holly. I saw your painting. It was really good.”
“Thanks.” I bite my lip. “What did you paint, if you don’t mind me asking?”
She tilts her head like she already knows the reason behind my question. Instead of answering, she says, “They make you see things here. It’s part of the experiment.”
My breath hitches. “Is that what this is? An experiment?”
“It’s different things on different days.”
“And today?” I press, because this girl knows things. Things that I don’t. And if I’m ever going to break free, I need to know what I’m dealing with.
She glances back at the burnt bedroom door. “Today, you reminded them they don’t know as much as they think.”
I frown, trying to understand what that means.
Before I can ask, there’s a click of footsteps in the hall that echo as they approach. By now, that particular click-click cadence is all too familiar. Nurse Schmidt. Even the sound of her heels on the floor give me chills.
Holly tenses. “Don’t let them catch you wandering,” she whispers.
It’s the same warning Maria gave me.
Before I can ask how she intends to get out without being caught, she’s gone. The blur of her limbs as they move is mind-boggling. I stare after her, mouth open, unable to make sense of her speed as the door clicks shut behind her.
It should be impossible.
Like everything else here.
The approaching footsteps remind me of the urgency, and I leap into bed just as they arrive and my door swings open again.
Shutting my eyes, I force my breathing to even out and my chest to rise and fall with the rhythm of sleep.
A long moment passes and I can feel Nurse Evil staring me down from my open door.
Finally, her footsteps start again and I listen as she leaves.