Chapter 23

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TW: INTENSE SCENES OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND VIOLENCE

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I paused Brockhampton, before I took a deep breath.

Without the usual buzz of my earphones, the night felt eerily stagnant, oddly silent. The breeze that had flowed from the South Hornston river had dropped as soon as I rounded the corner of the street. The sky was inky black above me and the sliver of a crescent moon faded into its abyss.

My skateboard rolled to a stop by the gutter and I felt oddly displaced in the empty street.

My father had left little over an hour ago and told me to stay in for the night, but he hadn't taken my skateboard off me.

I hadn't intended to go anywhere. Let alone here.

I glanced down at my phone and blinked rapidly to adjust to the harsh white light. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, or waiting for. Maybe he'd text me back, tell me that he was safe and that his father hadn't found him, but the longer I stared at the word delivered, the longer something unsettling grew in my chest.

I picked up my skateboard and walked further down the street. The houses were dark, and they loomed above me with sharp, wire fences and barred windows. I shivered fearfully and resisted the urge to look behind me.

A haunted feeling crawled up my spine as I looked up at the house before me. My legs felt weak when I noticed the soft, white light peaking from his curtains. My heart thumped loudly in my chest.

Fear is uncomfortable. In that moment, I had never wanted to run more that I had ever before, but I took another step and another, until I was standing in front of Greed Fischer's window with my phone in one hand and my finger on his name.

If I didn't hear his phone ring, I would leave.

I told myself. Repeated it over and over until I was sure that I wouldn't hear anything. Until, I was certain that Greed was far away from here and I would go home back to my warm and safe bed, where pedophiles and bad police officers didn't exist.

I squeezed my eyes shut and felt my stomach drop unlike it ever had before, when I heard the buzz of his phone as it vibrated on his dresser.

His window was ajar slightly and I bit my lip tightly as my fingers shook around the panel. It sickened me to the stomach how easy all of this was. I let out a harsh breath as I climbed through it.

Greed's room was exactly as bare and empty as it had been when Greed's father had thrown me against his cupboard. I tried not to think about that.

His ceiling light was still on and despite the new found vision, it did little to calm my raging heart.

His door creaked eerily as I slowly pushed it open and I held my breath as I peered down a dimly lit hall. Wallpaper peeled down the sides of the walls and a voice cut through a room and down the hall to where I was standing.

"He's special, isn't he?"

Horror crawled through my stomach as I froze. My heart beat was so loud in my ears that I struggled to hear the rest of his sentence.

"...such a shame, really...you're just like me...aren't you, darling?"

I was paralysed. All I could hear was his voice, like he was standing above me, that black snake squeezing mercilessly, fangs glinting with poison. Fear was all consuming. I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. But I couldn't move a muscle.

"I could hurt him...you wouldn't like that, would you?" His voice echoed through the walls.

I walked closer to the room, where warm light had slipped from the open door and illuminated the cracking wallpaper. I pressed my sweaty palms against the wall and winced hard when the floorboards creaked underneath my weight.

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