Touch: Saving Ai | ✓

6

⚠️ Warning: violence and strong language⚠️

My chest hurt. I was soaked to the skin and out of breath. Ryo had fallen behind somewhere and was nowhere to be seen. But worst of all, I was lost.

All that time spent thinking that I was wasting time talking to Ryo and now I was standing around like an idiot because I didn't know where to go. Why didn't it occur to me to find out where she lived before? It was pitch-black at this hour. There were street lights but they were few and far between, and the rain wasn't helping visibility at all.

What was I doing? Maybe Ryo was right; maybe I was insane. A breathless laugh escaped from my lips. It was quickly silenced by a whisper from the Voice:

'You can save them.'

An icy breath hit the back of my neck. I spun. No one there.

Somewhere to my right, a streetlamp buzzed and flickered. A moment later the one beside it did the same. As did the next. And the one after that. The flickering spread down the street like an electrical contagion, turning the corner several streets down.

I stood there, frozen. I really was going crazy.

'Follow. Save them.'

The streetlight closest to me flickered again.

The inexplicable urge to burst into laughter hit me once again.It was like I'd just become the heroine in some bad supernatural slasher film. Dark, stormy weather? Check. Alone without a soul in sight? Check. About to do something incredibly stupid like follow ominous flashing lights without any idea where they'd lead me because a voice in my ear told me to? Check.

Crazy or not, it wasn't like I had any better ideas. Every minute I spent running around wasting energy was a minute less to save Ai.

Ignoring the instincts screaming at me not to do it, I chased the lights. They led me through the streets, left and right and left again. As I rounded a corner into Windchester Lane, every single light in the street in front of me turned off at once. It was like an electromagnetic pulse had just gone off – like the world had come to an end. There was no sign of movement. No sign of life. All I could hear was the pitter-patter of the rain and my own ragged breathing.

This would be the part where the heroine in that bad horror movie gets grabbed by the ankles by some demonic force and then dragged kicking and screaming into the darkness.

Fighting the urge to look behind me, I addressed the Voice instead. 'Now what, genius?' I did my best to sound annoyed, but the words came out so high-pitched that even I wasn't convinced.

The Voice said nothing. Five houses down on my left, a security light began to pulse. Eyes and ears alert for any sign of... well, anything, I made my way towards it.

It was a nice little place: brick walls, wooden gate and fence and a well-manicured front lawn – a typical suburban house. No one would ever suspect that something terrible was happening inside. Heavy tartan curtains hung in the windows, thick enough to block even shadows. Whoever lived there really didn't want to be seen. Which meant I'd have to get closer.

God, please don't let some unknown force drag me into that house by my feet.

The security light switched off with a click. The gate creaked open of its own accord.

Swallowing my trepidation, I tiptoed up the path. Muffled voices met my ear as I knelt to listen at the door.

The first was female – panicked. 'Oh god. Oh god. Oh god – '