Trick Me Twice

Passing my phone to Xavier, I showed him Raine’s earlier text, and he immediately came to the same conclusion. “You know, she was telling us about all this stuff that had happened to her, earlier. She thought Ana might have been behind it. Do you think this Dylan guy could be the culprit?”

I shrugged. “I have no proof, but…yeah. Yeah, I do.”

He nodded. “Then we need to act. And fast.”

“Where has he taken her? We don’t even know his address.” The panic was rising again. “Fuck. What do we do? Do any of you know where he lives? Can we…wait. Can we get into the school records?”

Across from me, Lena cleared her throat. “Maybe I can help with that.”

We all stared at her. A small smile flickered across her face, before she turned her attention to her phone, her fingers flying across the screen. Eventually, she raised her head. “We just need to wait for a few minutes.”

Standing in the cold night, we fell silent. Every one of my senses was on high alert. After the longest few minutes of my life, Lena’s phone beeped, and she smiled triumphantly. “Got it. Full name, address, date of birth. I’ll forward you the info now.”

Less than thirty seconds later, I was staring at the information on my screen, memorising the address, committing all the details to memory, before I forwarded the information to Kian and Xavier.

Already moving towards my car, I spun to face the others. “Ready?”

Dylan Rossiter was going down.

38

When I awoke again, I was lying on a soft surface. Blinking my eyes open, I attempted to focus. My vision was blurry, and my head was swimming.

The room eventually came into focus, although it appeared fuzzy around the edges, giving everything a dreamlike quality. I was in my bedroom. Relief flooded through me. It had been a nightmare. A very realistic nightmare, but at least it wasn’t real.

Something was nagging at the back of my mind, though. I squinted at my bedside table. Where was my lamp? As I looked around, everything became clearer, and I let out a deep, shuddering breath.

This room…it looked so much like my bedroom.

Except. This wasn’t my bedroom.

“Hello, Sleeping Beauty.”

I jumped at the voice coming from a dark corner and spun to see a shadowy figure rise up and come to stand in front of me. He watched me carefully for a moment, before he sank down onto the bed next to me. “How are you doing? Is your head okay?” Dylan’s concern was at absolute odds with how he’d treated me so far. As the slightly hazy memories came back, it sank in that he’d drugged me not once, but twice, he’d kidnapped me, and now he was holding me somewhere that bore such a close resemblance to my own bedroom, it couldn’t be a coincidence.

I tamped down the fear, locking it up tight. I had to be cautious and look for an opening. The courage I’d been working so hard on gaining was there inside me, I just had to do what I always did—fake it until it became real. Fear was not allowed any place here. Not now. Closing my eyes, I visualised myself putting on a mask, a mask that would hide my true face and protect me.

I opened my eyes.

“My head is a little fuzzy, but I’m okay.” Thankfully, my tongue didn’t feel swollen like it had done the first time, and other than my incredibly dry throat, I was able to speak almost normally, although my voice sounded hoarse and scratchy to my own ears.

“Good.” Dylan smiled at me. “How do you like my room?”

I stared around me, pretending to appreciate it, rather than show just how much it creeped me out. “It feels very familiar.”

His smile widened. “I decorated it as closely to your bedroom as possible. I wanted you to feel comfortable here.”

Smiling was an effort, yet somehow, I managed to make the corners of my lips turn up. “You did a good job.” I took a breath, my next words cautious, although I tried to keep a light tone. “How did you know what my bedroom looked like?”

“I can’t reveal all my secrets now, can I?” He laughed, and the sound chilled me.

“Talk to me, Dyl. I can call you Dyl, right?” My breaths were becoming shallower, and a wave of dizziness overtook me. Taking a deep breath, I counted to five in my head. I had to keep it together, to not allow my mask to slip.

“Dyl. I like that.” He shuffled a bit closer to me on the bed and reached out, clasping my clammy palm in his cold hand. “I’m sorry I had to sedate you.” His thumb stroked across my skin, and I barely suppressed my shudder of revulsion. “I don’t want you to be afraid, Raine. I’ll never hurt you. Not unless you give me reason to.”

“I believe you, Dyl,” I managed. “What was this big gesture all about?” I waved my hand around to encompass the room.

“Everything I’ve been working towards is for you and me.” He shuffled back on the bed until he was resting on the headboard. “You’ve always been so sweet, so kind to me.” His grip on my hand tightened. “We’re perfect for each other. I just needed you to see it. I suppose things changed at Fright Night. You looked so beautiful, almost irresistible. From the moment I saw you there, like some kind of goddess, everything changed for me. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”