Now she’s gone and solely for the reason of showing kindness to a girl who she probably considered to be a lost cause.
I drop my head to my knees and prepare myself for one hell of a sob fest when a soft howling cuts through the room. My gaze snaps up and I hold my breath, realizing that I might not be alone in this fucked-up little room, you know, apart from Snow White in the glass coffin.
My gaze snaps from corner to corner, glancing past every dark shadow, but there’s nowhere to hide in here. The room is practically a blank canvas with nothing but a glowing coffin in the center of the room.
The howling continues and I push to my feet, slowly trailing around the room and following the sound like a lion stalking its prey. It sounds almost like wind blowing through a small gap, but there’s no windows in here, no holes in the walls to allow the breeze to flow in, nothing at all that could possibly allow such a noise to break through the structure of the room.
The walls are all dark and nearly impossible to make out their texture, but as I make my way around the room, studiously ignoring the body that seems to surround me with every step I take, I brush my fingers along the rough walls.
The castle is so old that a layer of dust builds up under my fingers, but on the third wall, I get nothing but a soft, smooth texture. It’s newer than the rest, different in every possible way. My knuckles wrap against it and I quickly realize that it’s a false wall, put in to deceive the true size of the room.
I push against it and it wobbles just a bit, but not enough to tear it down. The possibility that there could be something even worse on the other side weighs down on me, but I have to know, I have to find where that noise is coming from.
Looking back around the room, I find absolutely nothing that I could use to break through the false wall … except for the glass coffin. But like … where is a girl supposed to draw the line? Surely if this is their mother and I disrupt her decaying body in any way, they’re not just going to shrug it off. They would be pissed.
The only option that leaves me with is, well … me.
I let out a shaky breath. I’ve only seen this shit done in movies and they make it look so easy, but I have a feeling that it’s really not. But what have I got to lose? My life? Because from where I am, I don’t think that’s even mine to lose anymore.
What the hell. I’m going for it.
I back up as far as the room will allow and shake my head, knowing all too well just how fucking stupid this is, but if there’s an open window on the other side, then I’m taking it. I can’t risk being found by Giovanni.
I run full speed ahead, and as I approach the wall, I throw myself into the air, tucking my head under my arms and curling into the fetal position just in time for my body to slam against the drywall.
“Ahh, fuck,” I groan as I tumble to the ground, adrenaline pulsing through my veins.
My body is bound to hate me for this reckless abuse, especially after the world of shit I’ve already put it through, but after I glance up and find a big crack in the drywall, it makes it all worthwhile. I have to keep trying. The howling gets a little bit louder and my determination only gets stronger.
Backing up again, I study the wall, looking over the big crack and trying to catch my breath. One more time should send me flying straight through the wall.
My hands pulse at my sides as I clench my jaw, knowing I have to run even faster, but I can do this. I’ve been through hell over the past few days. If I can endure that, then this is nothing.
Not giving myself another second to try and back out, I take off like a fucking rocket. My feet push off the dirty ground, propelling me toward the cracked wall, and at the very last moment, I throw myself forward with every last bit of momentum that I’ve got.
My body slams into the wall and my shoulder instantly burns, but the pain pays off as I crumble right through to the other side, the drywall falling in pieces around me.
I slam down against the dirty ground, my body tumbling with the force of my fall until I come to a brutal stop against the old stone wall of the castle.
I groan, gripping on to my shoulder, but as the howling tears through the room and I glance up, the pain is almost forgotten. A hole the size of a small window sits in the wall with loose stones around it, probably created after years of damaging winds and storms. It’s most likely gone completely unnoticed.