Chapter Ten

Rowe

Where the fuck is she?

We’ve scoured our dark playground and can’t find her. Is the sweet little mouse getting better at hiding? Or is something darker at play? The four of us come together, removing our masks. Abel directs us to split up once more in our hunt and I take to the back of our kingdom.

She can’t have gotten far.

My skin itches. Tingling in irritation of something that just doesn’t feel right. An uncertainty of sorts niggles at me as I exit through the back of our makeshift world of scares, and back into the dark realms of reality. I scan the surrounding area, one picked for its remote and desolate feel, accentuating the aesthetic for our own purpose.

Her scream has me running.

The rundown office building looks like it will fall down any minute, abandoned to the elements and soon to be demolished. I don’t think our little mouse would be stupid enough to venture inside by choice. Nor would my brothers be so stupid to chase her inside, not while we are all hunting her right now.

I also know they won’t be far behind me.

The wire fences rattle in the wind. There to keep the public out, but the graffiti covered walls proves their lack of protection. And it won’t stop me. Not when I know she is in there. It’s hardly a challenge as I leap over, landing on the impacted dirt beneath on the other side. I stay quiet, hoping to hear her, but there isn’t a single sound alerting me to her presence. A growl vibrates through my throat as I stalk to the closest entrance.

I will protect what is mine.

With chains left dormant on the floor by the nearest door it’s easy to make my way inside. Quietly, I stalk my way through the lowest level of the building. Windows line the doors, and I check each of them as I pass, I grow more frantic. Boxes of junk, desks and chairs left uncaringly by the previous owner of the building.

But no sign of her.

A shadow casts across my path and my eyes narrow as I pause my movement. It’s not until I see the cocky little shit Kai waggle his fingers at me briefly that my shoulders relax, and I realise just how tense I have become. He points upstairs and then puts up two fingers. The other two are upstairs searching from the top floor down. I nod. This is how we work best. A team, forged by madness and bloodshed.

Room by room, floor by floor, we scour the building in our hunt for her. Finally, on the fourth floor, I hear her, relief is overtaken by gut-wrenching panic when her words hit my ears.

“Pimple-popper! Pimple-popper. You win okay, I’m scared, please, enough, enough. Please. Stop.”

Her little cries hiccup into a sob, it has my heart pounding as fast as my feet, Kai right behind me. Whoever our little mouse is with, isn’t going to listen to her ridiculous safe word like we would. She doesn’t understand. Doesn’t know she is in serious danger right now.

The two of us look through the window of the office and Kai pulls back, cursing at the masked man under his breath. I can’t make out who it is, but Kai clearly is aware of exactly who we are dealing with.

I want to get in there, but the knife perilously angled at our little mouse’s throat gives me pause. I grind my teeth, my brain in overdrive at how to deal with this situation. The slight gap between the frame reveals the bolt locking the door. I could easily kick the door in, but the surprise could make him accidentally kill her.

A hand comes to my shoulder, and I know the others are here. I step back giving them a chance to see within the square window. Abel’s shoulders tense, and Sergio raises his fingers to his lips. She must have seen him, and for that I am grateful.

She knows we are coming for her.