Blood Right

Chapter Four {Well, At Least I'm Learning The Importance Of Life Insurance

Chapter Four {Well, At Least I'm Learning The Importance Of Life Insurance

Wᴏʀᴅ Cᴏᴜɴᴛ: 2 376

“Lᴏᴏᴋ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ’ᴠᴇ done!” yelled the shorter man. I could imagine his entire face lighting up in red, though I couldn’t see. Not with my eyes closed as they were, giving the impression I had passed out – or possibly died, if you didn’t notice the shallow rise and fall of my chest.

I felt a trickle of blood inside my mouth.

“She deserved it!” The way Blonde Boy’s voice changed and I could tell he was standing up, but no less angry. Heavy footsteps told me he was walking away in an obvious rage, and I came far too close to smiling and ruining the entire façade.

The shorter man, apparently already more calm with Blonde Boy gone, sighed, and walked up to me. He grabbed my ankles and dragged me across the cement. I could feel more blood well on my lower back, and knew I was going to have a very impressive graze next time I got the chance to look at myself. If I did ever get the chance to look at myself again.

Maybe 20 seconds later, I was dumped into a cupboard carelessly, crumpled into the corner.

As soon as the shorter man’s footsteps faded and I was sure nobody would look for me again anytime soon, I immediately scrambled for my phone. I was sure it had been there – I always had my phone with me. Unless, of course, I’d just woken up and was in my pyjamas. But, thank God, I hadn’t taken the time to change the night before, and was still in my jeans and t-shirt.

Only my phone wasn’t in my jeans.

I cursed softly – that had been my only way out. I considered trying something else, but no other ideas came to me. None but one.

Cautiously, I pushed open one cupboard door and peeked out. It was the first time I’d really seen where I was, and was not impressed when I did take it all in.

It reminded me of a warehouse: impossibly high metal and concrete walls, catwalks, rusted stairs, and almost completely abandoned. I slid silently out and closed the door behind me.

Not for the first time, my heart was beating uncomfortably fast, but I didn’t have the luxury of focusing on calming it down.

I sprinted on quiet feet to the nearest, darkest corner, which just happened to be another flight of stairs. I made my way up them as quickly and surreptitiously as I could. This time I didn’t stop moving – I went straight around the corner head first into a place I had no idea about.

There were doors. There were lots of doors. None of them meant anything to me. I dared not go into them, should somebody be there.

But my caution was useless, as I could do nothing to stop anybody walking out of one of those doors, as a stranger was right then. They were looking at the ground tiredly, and hadn’t yet noticed me, though I couldn’t promise for how long that would last.

I did the first thing I thought to do – I opened and slipped through the nearest door, closing it softly behind me and thanking my lucky stars it hadn’t been locked.

The room was grey and concrete and plain, with no outstanding features save for a few blood stains on the wall I hoped I’d never have to see again. I stood as closely to the door as I could without actually touching it, and listened for footsteps. I could hear the man muttering something about pay as he passed, before there was silence again.

I waited another minute or so before opening the door a crack and peeking out. When I was sure nobody was there, I slipped out, closed the door gently behind me, and ran down the corridor.