Don't Let Me Fall Again

Chapter Sixteen - Baby, It's Cold Outside

‘Out,’ Travis said, unbuckling my seatbelt and untying a couple of the ropes so I could get out.

I sighed, swung my legs out of the car and stepped out. I looked around, expecting to be somewhere familiar, but I didn’t recognise a thing. We were certainly in the middle of nowhere, which wasn’t a surprise since he didn’t the cops to catch him any time soon … Colossal trees surrounded us and the house we were standing outside, and I could even hear a wolf howl nearby. What was he going to do? Chop us all up and feed us to the animals?

The house was so big it was almost intimidating. It reminded me a lot of Quinn’s mansion-and-a-half of a home, except it was probably two or three rooms smaller. The walls were grey and mouldy, probably because it was so old, and the wood of the door and the frames of the windows seemed to be decaying. The place must’ve been abandoned for decades, or whoever lived there was very bad at housekeeping. Did Trav’s family own this place? His parents never usually seemed to have too much money … but I used to always be wondering how Rebecca could afford all of her Marc Jacobs totes …

There was a light on in a room upstairs, but the dark curtains were closed and only a small slice of light was glaring down onto the wild forest of a front lawn. A shadow fleeted past the window, and I wondered who it was. Someone on my side, or someone on their side? What were they going to do with all of us? They couldn’t just let them go, because that meant that they’d tell the cops what happened and both of the gangs would get into trouble. But I needed to find a way to get them out, no matter what they told anyone.

Travis grabbed my arm and pulled me along with him. The ground was like an ice rink, and I could barely keep my balance with my feet constantly sliding in all kinds of directions. Travis ordered Quinn to hold onto my other arm to prevent me from falling, which was kind of surprising because I thought he just wanted to hurt me as much as possible. I supposed I’d get a bruise after the way he was squeezing my arm, though.

The door was opened by the man I recognised to be Lewis, and he grinned evilly at me. ‘Shouldn’t have tried to get Gabby, Laura …’ he sighed, patting my shoulder. ‘If it wasn’t for you, none of your friends would be stuck here …’

‘Well, it’s not like we didn’t expect she’d rebel,’ Quinn said, taking off his leather jacket and throwing it on a table covered with dust and cobwebs. ‘I think it all worked out for the best, though, don’t you?’

Lewis nodded and winked at me. ‘It sure did, and tonight we can finally finish all of this.’

‘How’s everyone doing upstairs?’ Travis asked, still squeezing the hell out of my arm. I was pretty sure he’d stop the circulation pretty soon if he kept it up.

‘Most of them are too upset to even bother, but some of them are putting up a fight … especially that Sinead … that bitch sure is feisty,’ he smirked, causing Quinn to laugh.

‘NO! No, please! Stop it! Don’t do that!’ someone suddenly began screaming upstairs, causing me to leap with fright. ‘Get off of me! Please, stop! James, help me! Someone help me!’

‘What are you doing to her?’ I demanded, fierce tears gathering up in my eyes. ‘Leave her alone! She didn’t do anything! None of them did anything!’

‘Just consider this as a way to make sure you do as you’re told. But don’t worry about Sinead, I know she likes all that kinda stuff,’ he said, dragging me towards a dark room to the left, shoving me in violently, then slamming the door and locking it. I kicked the door angrily, while Travis and the others laughed their sadistic little heads off on the other side of it.

Wincing from the pain now shooting through my ankle, and the noise of Sinead’s screaming, I looked around to see if there was any way I could escape. There was a large grimy window that looked quite fragile … I walked over to it, my hands still roped behind my back, and sat down on the wooden windowsill. The windowpane to the right looked fragile enough to smash if I gave it a good kick … but if I escaped, where could I go? I needed to get everyone else out first …