CHAPTER 33
Noah
Again the lights flicker.
This time, though, it’s in rapid succession. Five times and then they stop. I count thirty seconds in my head and they turn on once more in the same sequence. Then off, then on.
They are messing with me, but I have one thing on my side. I saw where Agnes went and followed. With a hand on the wall for support, I walk in the dark and just as the lights come back on, I make the same turn she did.
It’s another long hall with no doors. The sole illumination in the room comes from a single low wattage bulb at the end of the bloody corridor.
Her heels clack on the cement. An annoying click, clack, click which I both loathe and thank every deity above for.
Halfway down, and she pauses with her back to me. Agnes tilts her head. She’s listening to something. At least, that’s what it looks like from my end.
I take two steps closer and her hand goes up to stop me. The glint from her knife catches a small bit of light and I can just make out a touch of red near the handle.
There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s blood.
“Not another step, Noah. The masters aren’t ready for you just yet. Patience, my son.”
“Where is she? Bring her to me.” Not caring about her request to stay in place, I rush forward. If need be, I’ll punch the cunt without a single ounce of remorse.
I’ve been taught all my life that a real man never hits a girl, but she’s neither innocent nor one, so fuck the shite rules.
Agnes is a beast. A demon. An uncaring soul that deserves no mercy after what she’s done. The lives taken for someone’s sick and demented fantasy.
For a second I close my eyes and flashes of that poor woman run through my mind. I see her, then Anne who turns into Ivy.
My worst nightmare.
They defiled, mutilated—broke that poor individual for no reason. These arseholes don’t care.
With determination, I snap my eyes open and she’s now at the other end and standing beneath the bulb. Same beads in hand. Same routine where she counts in a low prayer.
How the hell is she moving so fast?
“Tut tut, Mr. Barker. Don’t force our hands so early in the game.” No sooner do those words pass her lips that the bulb above her goes out. Breaks into a thousand tiny shards and I’m bathed in black. Not a single flicker of anything. “Wouldn’t want poor, little Ivy to pay. Now would we?” Agnes tinkling laughter pulls me forward a few steps, but then the next giggle comes from behind me. Then from somewhere far away.
What. The. Fuck?
I whirl around in a circle, reaching out and touching air. Nothing. It’s like she’s all around me, then gone.
“Show yourself,” I demand, moving forward while keeping a hand out for any walls I might slam into. “Afraid of me? Of just how uneven the playing field might be one on one?”
It’s a taunt. A stupid one, but I have nothing left to lose if I don’t reach Ivy in time.
“Your tenacity is one of the things my mistress loves about you. So brave.” Fabric skims the back of my calf and I turn around with my back against the wall. With both hands I reach out, but again nothing. Nothing is there, but that obnoxious laugh of hers meets my ears once more.
Agnes is close, but the fear-fueled, drug-induced adrenaline pumping through me is making it hard to pinpoint her location. She’s just out of reach.
“Enough with the games,” it rumbles up my chest in an angry growl, the sound unlike anything I’ve made before. “Enough with the hiding. Face me.”
“Word to the wise, Noah. Not everything is as it seems . . .” Suddenly, a burning pain rips up my leg and I feel something wet drip down. “It’s so much worse.”
With a shaky hand, I reach down and touch the cut on my leg. Blood drips from the wound in a steady rhythm, but luckily it’s not deep. No more than a superficial mark.
A warning.
I’m going to return the favor tenfold when I get my hands on her.
“No!” A scream rents the air and there’s no mistaking who it is. Ivy’s voice is full of a panicky pain that causes one knee to buckle. It meets the concrete with a muted thud. The cold from its surface seeps into my bones, but it’s nothing like the ice running up my veins at her pain-filled cry.
“Dammit, baby. Where the bloody fuck are you?” I yell out as an emergency sign turns on and a flash of white latex appears at the corner of my eye.
Agnes’ been just a few steps away from me this entire time. Fucking cunt.
“You’re lying. You fucking, bitch. You’re lying!” Ivy screams.
Her pain is like acid in my veins. “Ivy, can you hear me?” My voice echoes, but nothing comes from her. I stand, find my footing, and walk a few feet down the corridor. Another turn; this one’s a dead end with a door at the center.
A door that is wide open.
Without a single thought to the danger that could await me on the other side, I step through. In succession, a row of lights turns on and I’m met with a long hall with doors on both sides. Some are open, while others show the glow of a strong white light through a tiny window.
“Ivy!”
“You’re closer than you think, Noah. Question is, just how close? Or did you miss her entirely?”
Ignoring Agnes, I push open the first door to my right. The bang from the door meeting the wall echoes loudly. Causes a sharp pain to run down the center of my head and I flinch.
Inside the room there’s a hospital bed with a pair of handcuffs dangling from the railing. A small set of cabinets are on the wall across with a few jars filled with cotton balls, tongue compressors, and a box of latex gloves beside that. A small sink sits near the wall’s edge within the unit and the basin is full to the brim with white bandages—unused and in their packaging.
I exit that room as if my ass is on fire, darting across the hall for the next door. This one is open and empty. White walls with white tile flooring. It reeks of ammonia and bleach. As if they were just done cleaning it.
Turning from it, I come face to face with Agnes leaning against the wall. “Tick tock . . . tick tock.”
Time’s running out and I know it. Fuck, fuck. “Please, just tell me—”
A loud wail rents the air and it takes me a moment to realize that I can hear it without the aid of the speakers. Motherfuck, she’s close. More than likely at the other end of this hall.
I take off, my feet carrying me across and toward the rooms all the way at the end. My skin vibrates. My entire being visibly shakes knowing that I’m in time.
We’ll be together again.
I’m five doors from the end when the power is shut off all at once. Pitch black. Not so much as a glow from any light source.
Doors open all around me and I turn around in a full circle. Simultaneous effect, they creak open and then slam shut.
Another mindfuck.
The padding of feet—light steps follow, the sound becoming lighter as whomever is there walks away. It’s amazing how in tune one becomes with their surroundings when you lose one of your senses. Could almost say my hearing is sensitive now that I can’t see a damn thing.
“You’re getting colder. So cold.” Agnes says this and the lights flicker on. There’s four doors down ahead of me and I think they’re wide open. “How about a challenge to make this interesting? What do you say, Noah?”
I ignore her and walk into the first room. This one is like the last, but it’s an all red room with a BDSM theme throughout.
A Saint Andrew’s cross.
Armoire with its doors open and everything from floggers to clamps are hung up neatly.
Motherfucking padded bench with restraints at every angle.
Jesus.
“If you find her within the next half hour I’ll grant you some playtime in this room.” Agnes stands just outside the door as I exit, and quickly enters the one across from her. “Just you and her, no audience.”
Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.
Taking her life before I have Ivy safe is something I can’t afford to do. They would kill my girl before I ever got to her.
Next room is empty except for a single box at the center. Nothing big, it’s the size of a small lamp. It’s taped up and has a blank shipping label at the top.
Not going anywhere near it. I’m afraid to even consider what’s inside.
Next room seems to be storage and I don’t waste more than two minutes inside. Just enough to make sure my doll isn’t knocked out behind the piles of crap in there.
“Twenty minutes left on the clock.”
“Fuck off,” I snap, having had enough of her taunts. Pushing. Trying to break me mentally.
It’s been hours since they took her. Hours where God knows what kind of torment they’ve inflicted upon her.
“Your penance will be watching her bleed out for me. Each drop will wash away your sins.”
At the last room, I realize the door isn’t open. Not like the others and my hands begin to sweat—heart wants to beat out of my chest.
Something in my gut tells me she was here. This is the room where they—no. Don’t think it.
Twisting the handle, I pull it open with more force than necessary. The loud bang sounds like a gunshot in the night.
It’s dark, and I feel around on the wall next to the threshold for a switch. I find it and flick it on, wishing immediately that I hadn’t.
My stomach heaves, but nothing comes out. Horror—deep, heart crushing fear pulsates through every nerve-ending as I process what I see.
Blood, smeared and in droplets, decorates the all-white tile floor. Those drops form of a line—follow a pair of tiny feet across the room and toward the door.
There’s no doubt in my mind it’s hers.
My Ivy.
She’s brilliant enough to leave me a sign.
My name is spelled out in the dark red liquid with an arrow pointing out.
And then it hits me. I just missed her.