Chapter 66

Larissa

The rhythm of the music made me bounce up and down, and I felt alive again for the first time in a while. I was made for parties. Or rather, parties were made for me . If there was one thing I was absolutely into, it was dancing. Nowhere was I more self-confident than on the dance floor.

I moved to the beat of Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO and stretched my arms upwards.

Maybe it had something to do with the three cocktails I'd enjoyed with Julie earlier, but as long as I could still dance without bumping into people, everything was great.

Every now and then, I caught myself looking up to the VIP area above the DJ, but that didn't bring Adrian DeLoughrey back to where he'd been standing with his guys thirty minutes ago.

I turned, and a guy was standing right behind me, dancing toward me. When he got too close, I moved backwards, but he followed me. I stopped dancing and showed him my middle finger. He raised his hands defensively, and disappeared into the crowd with the words, "Today's chicks aren't any fun anymore."

"Asshole!" I shouted after him, but he was already gone.

I was about to continue dancing, but when I turned around, I bumped into the next person.

"Now, I understand why Adrian has so much respect for you." A young man with a brown undercut man bun grinned with amusement.

My breath hitched for a second when I realized who it was.

"You..." I said slowly.

"Me," Miles said, his grin widening.

"Tell Adrian he can fuck off."

I tried to keep dancing, but Adrian's mean friend wouldn't leave my side. So, I stopped and turned to him.

"Do you want to dance with me or stare holes into the air?" I asked, challenging, but he just looked at me with amusement, so I kept dancing.

When I turned around again, he had disappeared. Strange guy...

"Larissa!" My best friend's voice reached my ears, and I turned to her.

"Do you want to dance with me, or do you just want to annoy me as well?"

I took a closer look at Bayla. Her eyes were dark underneath as if she hadn't slept, and that was with make-up on. Her hair also looked like a mess.

"I wish I could dance with you now, but I can't. We have to get out of here!"

And then she grabbed my arm.

She had an amazing amount of strength, and I wondered where she got it from. This afternoon, she had been lying on her bed like a piece of cheese.

"Where do you want to go?" I laughed out loud.

She stopped for a moment, looked at me, then inspected the club. Finally, she sighed and pulled me along.

"How many drinks have you had?" came out of her mouth with concern.

"Not enough!" I shouted loudly, and Bayla gave me an annoyed look over her shoulder.

"Why don't you tell me where you want to go with me?" I grumbled.

"Let's dance!" I shouted and pulled Bay toward me, who immediately tripped over my feet and slammed into a much older girl. The latter jumped back with a disdainful look. Bay apologized and looked back at me. She looked annoyed. Then she just pulled me along.

"We don't have time for this now!" She sounded annoyed.

"Don't be such a spoilsport," I laughed, amused, although I couldn't really understand why everything was amusing me so much. Maybe I really had drunk a little too much.

"Just come with me and trust me," she said, looking around frantically as if she was hiding from someone.

"Are we playing hide and seek?" I asked with a laugh. That had been so much fun with Mady.

"Yes, we're playing hide and seek," Bay replied, annoyed, and suddenly we were no longer surrounded by dancing people but outside in the cold, with the autumn storm whistling around our ears.

"Let's go back inside. What do we want out here?" I whined, pulling my robe further around my waist where the wind was seeping through the thin fabric of the dress.

" Larissa , listen to me carefully." Bayla stood directly in front of me. "You remember our trip to the DeLoughreys' forest?"

I remembered that crazy homeless guy who had been bothering us. There had been something strange about him... The memories made me start to feel a little clearer.

"I met one of those guys in there. He approached Grace and me."

"Oh," I said. I suddenly felt even colder as I thought about how we'd nearly escaped. "But what would a homeless guy want here in this club?"

"Larissa, it was the other one. He was talking to Adrian, and he's planning to do something with us."

"With Adrian?" I looked at Bay with a grin. "Adrian's pretty hot, don't you think?"

The memory of Adrian made me laugh.

"Larissa! Are you even listening to me?"

"Of course," I said quickly. "He wants to do something with us." I thought about it. "Do you think he meant me?"

"It was about me, and probably about you too."

"But what does Adrian want from you ?" I asked, puzzled.

"I don't mean Adrian." Bayla turned in a circle for a second. "I mean the man with the long felt coat, the slightly younger guy!"

Somehow, I couldn't keep up. And a funny picture had formed in my head.

"So does that mean we're playing hide and seek with Adrian and a homeless man with a coat?"

Bayla took a deep breath and continued, "We have to hide very far away from here now, Larissa. Somewhere, preferably at Mum's house."

I nodded. But I still understood just as little as before.

Without hesitation, Bayla pulled me across the parking lot and the music became quieter and quieter.

"Do we have to hide so far away?" I broke away from her and hid behind a large stone at the exit of the club.

Bayla looked at me impatiently, then came to me and pulled me up. " Yes , we have to go to my place. It's better there and above all, it's safe ."

Tiredness overtook me out of nowhere. I usually lasted a long time at parties. Student life was damn exhausting...or I'd just had one drink too many.

"Alright," I whined and put an arm around Bayla, who scooted to the side.

Bayla supported me all the way down the street through the industrial district and all the way down the main street too.

I was tired, and actually I would have liked to just lie down on the bench in front of us. But at every bench, Bay picked up speed and I didn't have a chance to even ask for a break. After what felt like hours , we turned into the street where Bayla lived. I recognized the street sign. We must have been walking for a while. And Bayla was still holding me.

"You're such a good friend, you know that?" I laughed, feeling incredibly comfortable by her side.

Bayla looked at me with a grin, although there was also a hint of concern in her gaze. Then she looked around, probably hoping that Adrian wasn't looking for us yet. And suddenly, the thought seemed far too abstract. Why would Adrian do something like that?

The wind swept across the street, giving me goose bumps. My legs froze, and suddenly, another gust of wind came up and made an eerie noise in the treetops. It cracked behind us. I looked around, as Bayla had done, but there was no one there.

"Playing hide and seek is scary," I said and pulled my cloak even further around me.

"Let's walk faster, please."

Bay sounded scared, exactly like she had a few weeks ago in the forest when we'd met those men. And right now, it was exactly the same. Dark, cold, and windy, just like it had been on campus when Adrian had taken me with him.

Crack.

Bay and I startled and wheeled around.

Crash.

A branch had come crashing down directly two meters behind us, where we had just been standing.

"Holy shit," I whispered, immediately feeling much more awake.

Bay looked at me, terrified.

"It's just a branch," I laughed, but she pulled me on.

Then it suddenly became pitch black as the lanterns went out.

Bay sucked in a sharp breath.

Countless Halloween pumpkins glowed around us, but so dimly and threateningly that my goosebumps intensified.

"The lanterns always go out at this time of night," Bay said, quickening her pace.

"And what about that one?" I said and stopped abruptly.

A single lantern flickered in front of Bayla's house. But it wasn't the lantern that suddenly put me in a state of shock.

A man dressed completely in black was standing there, grinning in my direction, his eyes pitch black.

Bayla must have seen him, too, because she grabbed my wrist.

"Larissa, do you see that, too?"

The branches creaked above us in the treetops, as if the next one was about to come down.

"Yes..." I confirmed in a shaky voice.

The bald man smiled.

We ran off. I pulled Bayla with me, but she was slower than me, even if she didn't trip over the branch I got stuck on.

"Larissa!" Bay shouted in panic and pulled at my arm. My balance was so off.

"Where are you going, ladies?"

Bay and I both screamed at the same time as the man appeared right in front of us. He grinned grimly and showed us his teeth. They were all pointy.

My eyes widened in shock.

It suddenly smelled disgustingly of decay.

I got to my feet and pulled Bayla in the direction of the lantern.

We had to get out of here!

Bayla and I ran, and the wind pushed against our bodies. Leaves flew across the road, and branches continued to crack in the distance. However, we came to a halt just before Bayla's garden fence.

"So, you want to play with me, pretty girls?" The man landed on the ground in front of me and straightened up. Had he just jumped this far? "Because I love games."

I backed away, but that didn't stop him from grabbing me by my neck and yanking me to the ground, where I banged my head on the hard curb.

Dazed, I grabbed the back of my head, which felt strangely wet. Black dots and white spots danced before my eyes.

"Larissa!" Bay shouted behind the man, but it was too late.

I tried to wriggle free. Panic rose up inside me. Endless panic.

The psychopath had found us, and now he was pinning me to the ground.

I was about to die.

He began to wrinkle his nose and sucked in a deep breath. Then, the veins around his black eyes began to stand out.

I screamed as loud as I could, and as he moved his head closer, I squinted my eyes and thrashed around, but he grabbed my hands and squeezed them on my stomach.

Then, three seconds later, I felt a sharp pain in my neck.