Burn (Virtues & Lies 1)

“That’s i—” The scream from the other side of the barriers shuts her up and has her moving out of the way when I move for the toilet.

My heart rips down my chest into my stomach with every motherfucking twist and turn I make before I reach the open toilet space followed by Christopher and Wayne.

“Cassie!” Christopher yells, and when the only thing I can hear is the echo of his voice I shout her name as loud as I can, letting it rip out of me. “Cassandra!”

“The toilets are empty,” Wayne growls, “she’s gone.”

No. No, no, no…no fucking way.

“CASSIE!” I frantically call her name as the image of my brother’s barely recognizable face enters my head.

Running into the dark tunnel it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. Everything is dark and sooty. The farther into the dark I get the quieter it becomes, and I lose count of the number of times I think I hear her scream again only to realise it’s in my head. Still ringing in my ears.

I’m replaying it like it’s going to help me find her, but she’s gone and all I can do is yell for her again, “Cass! Cassie! CASSIE!”

But there’s nothing. Nothing but polluted air that feels thicker than oil. There’s nothing but the sound of her screams in my head and the sound of my blood rushing in my veins.

“We need to go back,” Christopher says beside me. “We need light and, fuck! We need to find her, Leo.”

“I know.”

The anger inside me is making me shake, and my body is like a cage that I can’t break free from. The more I push it the more it fights me. But I’m not losing Cassie, I can’t, so I fight harder, and I’ll keep doing it until I find her.

Chapter 14

Cassandra

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I don’t want to die.

The more I chant the words in my head the harder I gasp for breath, and when he finally puts me down in front of another dark tunnel, tears spring to my eyes.

It doesn’t matter which direction I look in, it’s all dark now. And not the good kind of dark where there’s peace and quiet. Or the kind that belongs in powerful green eyes. This darkness is chilling.

“Move.” Pressing the gun to my head, he pushes me forward until I stumble through the thick, sooty gate. Turning, I can’t see past my assailant. He’s so wide and tall, I didn’t notice those things before. But now that I have, my panic multiplies because in the back of my head I had visions of Leo, Wayne, and Christopher finding me. I had hopes of this man getting his comeuppance.

Now? I keep asking myself, why didn’t I listen?

Leo warned me. He told me not to come. Not to leave his side.

I’m not going to see him again, that’s all that’s running through my head as I get yanked back around and pushed up against the rough, crumbling brick wall, my knees buckling with the force of his hand.

“Pity you have to be message, huh?” There’s a snivelling quality to the man’s voice that makes my stomach turn. “I could do many things with you.”

The menacing edge of his chuckle petrifies me to the point that I feel like a child scared of the monsters under her bed.

“Beautiful, with little girl body.” He laughs darkly, the muzzle of the gun sliding from the base of my skull down my neck, between my shoulder blades.

It keeps going down, down, down, until it’s between my legs, hoisting my clothes up and the barrel is flush between them.

“CASS!” Leo’s voice gets closer and a flurry of promise floats in my chest.

He’s coming for me. He’s going to find me.

“CASSIE!” His voice breaks and my fledgling hope breaks with it.

“So close. Not close enough.” The monster holding me grunts gruffly, pushing me flat to the brick wall until the side of my face is grating on the rough bricks.