His hand that was resting near my stomach moved up to my head and his fingers began running through my hair. “You’re going to relax because I have you.”
“What if I have a nightmare?”
“I’ll wake you if you do, but try not to think about that. I just want you to focus on me,” he said as he continued to run his fingers through my hair. “Nothing can get to you while I’m holding you. No one can hurt you.”
I took a deep breath and relaxed a little as I exhaled.
“There you go,” he said. His fingers never stopped stroking and combing through my hair. I focused solely on the feel of them and how good it felt.
I quickly found myself on the edge of drifting off. “My mother used to run her fingers through my hair,” I said sleepily. She’d done it to calm me and it had always worked, just like it was working now.
I thought I heard him say, “I know,” just before I tumbled off the edge and fell into a dark pit of sleep.
12
Mr. X began humming as he made his way down the hall toward my room. I worked quickly to untie my other wrist as I listened to him getting closer. Once my other hand was free, I glanced down at my tied ankles. I wouldn’t be able to untie them in time. Panicked, I searched around. There was a pen on my nightstand. I reached for it. My fingers were barely able to roll it close enough to scoop it into my hand.
Moving as fast as I could, I wrapped the rope back around each wrist, praying that he wouldn’t notice that they weren’t tied. I hid the pen in my clenched fist behind the taut rope. My gaze went back to the doorway just in time to see Shayla’s feet slide away.
My hand that wasn’t holding the pen squeezed around the rope so tightly it was painful. I needed that pain. I needed it to be worse than the fear that was threatening to paralyze me.
Mr. X stepped into view. Only he wasn’t alone. He was holding Shayla’s limp body against him with an arm around her waist and his hand held one of hers. Then he waltzed into my room, quite literally. Still humming, he spun around—dancing with her lifeless body. As he dipped her, he said, “Your sister always was the attention whore.” He stood straight and stared down at Shayla, whose head flopped around like a newborn baby’s. “Even though you two are identical, you couldn’t be more different.” He spun around again, swinging Shayla with him. “She flaunted herself about, gobbling up every ounce of attention she got like a greedy, spoiled princess. She may have been beautiful on the outside, but her soul was ugly.” He tossed Shayla’s body to the ground and his eyes flicked to me. “You, however, are perfection. Inside and out. You don’t have to flaunt anything. Your soul radiates a genuine and pure light. It calls to me.” He walked over to my bed. Eyes never leaving mine, he brought his knee up onto the mattress. “Your innocence draws me in like a moth to a flame,” he said as he crawled over me until he was straddling my hips. His hands cupped my face. “I covet that innocence.” His hands moved down and around my neck. “I want it so bad…” He squeezed. “I almost want to destroy it.”
He cut off my air completely. Panic surged through me, taking over. I thrashed and bucked beneath him, almost forgetting that my hands were free. I quickly worked to unravel them.
“You are mine, Shiloh. No one can take you from me now,” he growled as he continued to choke me.
I got the rope off my hand holding the pen. Do it! Do it now! I screamed internally. Fisting the pen in my hand, I swung it. I stabbed the pen through his cheek.
“AH!” he screamed, rolling off of me and off the bed. He hit the ground with a loud thump that shook my room. I didn’t waste any time and started untying the rope around my ankles. I got one untied pretty quickly, then jumped to the next one. He groaned loudly and crawled toward the bathroom connected to my room.
As soon as I had my last ankle untied, I quickly clambered off my bed. I jumped over Shayla’s body and ran for the door. I was caught by my foot and fell forward. The moment I hit the ground, I was dragged back.
I woke, gasping.
Hands framed my face. “Shiloh,” a voice barked firmly, capturing my attention.
Looking up, I saw Knox above me, and I felt relieved.
“You’re alright,” he said.
I pushed on his chest, needing space. He sat back on his haunches and I sat up against the headboard, pulling my knees to my chest. “They're never going to go away.”
His hard expression softened. “Only you have the ability to make them go away, Shiloh.”