Frank quickly leapt over the table, his teeth also abnormally long and pointy. Swaggering toward me, he leaned in close and licked my neck. A shiver of revulsion ran through me.
“You’re mine,” he whispered before moving and allowing the next man close to me.
I turned my face from them and pressed myself against the wall. Despairing, I closed my eyes letting the tears fall from the scrunched corners. I couldn’t escape.
After the last man leaned in close to my neck and inhaled deeply, Blake commanded me to leave. I fled to my room and locked the door behind me.
When I woke, I found a manila envelope shoved under my bedroom door. A Post-it decorated the front of it. I easily read Richard’s scrawl.
Run as fast as you can. Everything is in your name.
I gazed at those words with a sinking feeling of dread. Somewhere in the house, a phone rang. I quickly stashed the envelope in my pillowcase without looking at the contents and made my bed. Before I finished, a key rattled outside my door. David lingered in the doorway, eyeing me standing next to the bed tugging the quilt in place. I still wore my pajamas.
Since Blake needed Richard in the office and didn’t trust me home alone, he’d brought in David as my keeper. Well paid, David did as Blake said. I wondered if David knew about Blake’s teeth.
“You’re not supposed to be in here until I knock,” I repeated Blake’s rule.
“Today is an exception. Blake’s on the phone,” he said handing me a cell phone.
I stared at him a moment before I approached him to take it. What game did they play now?
“Yes?” I asked putting the phone up to my ear.
“Richard’s dead. This changes nothing. We’ll be back tonight.” The line went dead and Richard’s scrawled message ran through my head.
David walked further into my room a suspicious look on his face. He moved past me and pulled back the quilt. I looked at my shelf where my softball participation trophy from middle school sat. When he lifted my pillow, I quietly lifted the trophy. I could hear my brothers’ muffled voices on the other side of the wall, still locked in their own room. David never heard the envelope crinkle.