Play with Fire

Chapter 22

Delilah had read the book cover to cover twice. She was stuck between the struggle of belief and betrayal, she was trying to decide which hurt more. She thought Caspian was her friend, they'd done nearly everything together. All that time his motives were corrupt. She sighed. Maybe she just wasn't meant to have friends. Rhys had killed her brothers, Maisie couldn't keep a secret for her, Caspian was a private eye... who else was out to get her?

She slammed the book shut with both hands and launched it across the room, ignoring how the papers flew out all around her. She tilted her head back onto the wall and closed her eyes. The tears stained her skin. How did it all come to this?

She looked over to where the book had landed. It had hit the pink dollhouse. Something caught her eye. She crawled over to it and picked it up. She dropped it and saw a drop of blood seep from her skin. She stuck her finger in her mouth and looked down at what had hurt her: a piece of glass. She looked to the dollhouse and saw one of the windows was missing. She opened the front of the house and examined the other windows, they were all made of glass. She found the biggest window and began to pry the sheet of glass out. It wasn't very big, but it would do. She brought the glass back over to the bed. Once there, she ripped a corner from the pillowcase and wrapped it around one end of the glass. She then placed it under her pillow.

She sighed and stood on the bed. She reached up to the small window and peeked out; it was night-time. She had no idea of the exact time due to the lack of a clock, but she imagined it was near midnight. Her estimation was based on how long it had been since she had eaten. Liam would bring her food at around six PM, then she heard nothing for the rest of the night. She remembered staying up many nights to fill out paperwork or make up for lost time. It was always around midnight she would be getting hungry again.

She fell down onto the bed and pulled the thin sheet across her body. She lay on her side and took a deep breath. She wouldn't cry. Not because of Rhys.

Her eyes opened when she heard a noise. Her sleepy mind identified it as the door handle moving. She glanced up to the window and saw it was still dark. Liam had never come to her in the night. Her mind immediately jumped to the bad thoughts. If he was going to try something, then this was her chance to try and attack him and possibly get the key to her shackles from him. She threw the thin sheet off of her and reached under the pillow for her makeshift weapon. She moved over to the door as far as her restraint would let her, trying to be as quiet as she could.

The door handle continued to rattle.

She readied her weapon as her heart began to beat faster. Her hands were shaking just as much as her legs were, but she was able to steady herself.

The door opened.

Delilah lunged forward with her weapon and swiped as fast as she could.

The dark figure jumped back and landed with a thud just outside of the door.

Delilah tried to move closer to the figure, the weapon still in her hand.

"Nice to see you too, doll," a voice said.

Delilah paused and lowered the glass. "Jerome?"

"No, it's the Easter bunny. Heard you wanted some chocolate eggs."

Delilah immediately knew who it was. She reached for the light switch and pressed it. She looked back into the doorway and saw a familiar ginger on the floor with one hand on his cheek. "Jerome?!"

Jerome wiped the cut on his cheek with the bottom of his shirt. "Sorry, I thought you were Rhys." He chuckled. "Don't be, I should have warned you." he stood up. "Don't I even get a hug?" he asked with a smile.