The Psychic Next Door

[First Draft] Chapter 14: Realize

The simple plan of just grabbing Polly and sneaking out immediately came to mind. I sat myself down next to her on the edge of the futon and gently grabbed her shoulder.  

"Polly!" I hissed, quietly as I could, as I shook her shoulder. "Polly, wake up! We have to leave!"  

But she didn't move. She continued to sleep, her chest rising and falling evenly as ever, though I shook her harder and harder. The more I tried, the more panicked I became. She may be alive but she wouldn't wake up. Her cuts seemed to be healing but maybe something was wrong internally. Was she in some sort of coma?

If she was, she needed to be in a hospital.  So why wasn't she in a hospital?  

Any sliver of appreciation I felt towards Luc for helping us disappeared. He was keeping Polly here when she needed serious medical attention. Maybe he wasn't helping us... maybe he was just letting us heal so he could draw out our torture for longer.  

I couldn't hesitate, I needed to get her help. My head swam again. Christ, what was wrong with me? Maybe I had something wrong internally as well, like a concussion. I felt like I might pass out at any moment... but I knew that I couldn't. I had to get help. Pushing myself past my sudden dizziness, I got up from her bedside and I stumbled through the curtain. I wasn't exactly dressed for going outside, but how I looked was the last thing on my mind; I needed to get out of this apartment and get her—us—help before he returned.

The door was right there on the other side of the curtain, almost immediately within reach. I charged for it, ready to wrench it open and run, screaming, into the street, desperate to find someone, anyone. But before I reached the handle, a hand took hold of my wrist and pulled me back from the door.  

"Let me go!" I shrieked, fighting against the iron grip on my arm. "I have to get Polly help!"  

"No," Luc said, calm as ever. "It's not safe to leave."  

I threw off his hand and tried to make another attempt for the door, but like lightning, he was between me and the exit. He grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me back through the curtain.  

"If you leave, that thing will attack you the second you step outside."  

That stopped me in my tracks. "What?" I whispered back, struggling to keep my knees from buckling beneath me.

"This apartment is protected. This is the only place it can't come in." Luc continued. "And that thing is through with playing around. If you leave here, you will die."  

I stared at him. "We're trapped here?"  

"Unfortunately," he sighed.  

"For how long?" I asked, my voice distraught.  

He avoided my eyes.  

"For how long?" I asked again, my voice even more frantic. My head took another woozy dive.  

"I don't know." he said at last. "A while."  

"So you're holding us hostage?" My mind raced with the horrible things he could do to us. I felt like I might be sick. That thing may get me if I were to leave, but in here we were trapped with a different kind of monster.  

"What? Hostage? No—that's not what I meant—" Luc stuttered as his face contorted with confusion.  

"What do you want with us? Do you think this is fun, torturing girls?" I screamed at him, backing away from him. My dizziness made me stagger around like a baby deer. I jumped when I collided with the edge of the breakfast bar and suddenly, just like before, I felt myself weigh down with the desire to sleep.