Tommy leans against the wall, his eyes slowly weeping tears of blood. He wipes them away, the smeared blood clotting on his cheeks. Not only the fact he's still infected, but he's now a human angel repellent.
It's a mutation.
We continue without a word. Val leeches onto me like a parasite. I see so much of my former self in his ways, it unnerves me.
"Your last name, it's Dubrevisk, right?" His voice has no emotion, no clue to his intention. I nod, unaware of whatever trap he's set for me.
"Why do you ask?"
"My dad knew your mother very well."
I killed my mother.
"I'm sure we'll be good friends then." I reply coldly, setting up my pawns to play. If you're friends with me, you'll end up just like she did.
"Quite." He quips conversationally, but there's a certain edge to his voice. Fear perhaps? Or psychotic excitement?
He's your half brother.
Makes sense.
You abandoned your half sister, do the right thing and protect him.
I can't trust this kid, knowing his relation to my past insanity, but at the same time he's too young to fend for himself if we get out of here.
"So how did a Frenchman end up in Ukraine?"
"Typical affair story. He traveled, loved her, left her pregnant and returned to France."
"He settled with your mum and had you ?"
"Kinda. Before he got himself killed in a hit and run in London."
Flash backs to a dark street, lit by a single flickering streetlight. Blood pools beneath the body, broken like a rag doll on the cobblestones. The bonnet of a Audi A5 crumpled and gilded in blood.
But this isn't Val's memory I'm stealing. It's the driver's.
The driver standing outside his car door, hands on his head, glasses askew.
"FUCK I FUCKING KILLED SOMEONE!"
I know that voice, that face, albeit intoxicated and younger. He kicks the tyre of his car, frustration mixed chaotically with fear.
It's Nick.
A pale nausea sickens Nick's face as Val mentions the accident. Guilty as charged.
We turn onto the final landing, relief and achievement surging through my veins.
Swiftly followed by supreme disappointment.
There is no door.
The wall is bare, facing us smugly in our numb despair.
"What the fuck?"
YOU ARE READING
PANIC ROOM II
Mystery / Thriller- second instalment to "PANIC" series- Tensions rise within the group, whom unable to trust one another, enter the second labyrinth. Challenges await them at every coil, forcing them to work together. But with trust, comes a price: a curse that will...
