Jack In The Box novel Chapter 31

Riley

“Here are the rules of this game.” Ezra declared. “I’m going to let you run and hide. You can try and escape from the hospital if you want. If you get down to the ground floor and tell anyone, games over and Maddy’s throat will be cut.”

“No! Please!” I shrieked.

“If you manage to get out of the hospital, you win. If I find you, well, you loose. And you’ll do exactly as I tell you to. I think that’s fair game.”

“We can get you the help you need, Ezra.” I said. “Please don’t hurt anyone.”

“Run as fast as you can, Riley,” Ezra said. “I’ll give you a two minute head-start.”

He was standing in the passageway in a relaxed manner. The chain that he was restrained with earlier was dangling on the floor. Blood dripping down his arm. The lights above had almost gone out, leaving only a dim light on that left a silver shadow on his face.

It was a scary image.

I climbed to my feet and took off in the opposite direction I ran all the way to the end of the floor. The howls and cheers of the other patients rang as I jabbed the elevator buttons.

“Come on, come on!”

Deciding against taking the elevator, I pushed through the Emergency exit stairs.

I could hear Ezra calling out teasingly. “Three...two...one. Here I come!”

I heard the eerie sound of the chains dragging against the floor. Ezra surely didn’t know about the old abandoned wing that only staff used. I ran to the farthest end of the floor, entered a room and shut the door behind me.

I heard the sound of the chains dragging inside. Fear cut deep inside me like a sharp razor. I hadn’t experienced fear in such a way before.

Jack had never engraved fear inside me the way Ezra was doing. With Jack I knew what to expect, with Ezra I didn’t. I could die here and no one would find out until they saw me hanging somewhere like a piece of meat in a meat farm.

I shuddered at the thought. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to fight until I drew my last breath. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and pressed Aaron’s number. It rang for an eternity. I tried his phone a few more times but he didn’t answer. Next I called Agent Flint, and the call went straight to voice mail.

“This is Agent Flint Knight. Leave a message after the beep...”

“Agent Flint! Please help me...it’s Ezra. I...I think he’s going to kill me and frame Jackson for it. You’ve got to inform the authorities.” I said on the phone.

My hands were shaking as I called nine-one-one next but my phone ran out of battery. I could sit here in the abandoned wing for an eternity and wait until someone realizes I was missing and not answering my phone. The chances of Ezra finding me before the police or the hospital staff were higher. At this time, I could just be sitting ducks.

I opened the door and walked out into the darkness, feeling wary and anxious about ever shadow and sound. I walked into the main wing, heading straight to the administration office. There had to be at least one person working there. Before I could open the door, I saw a tall figure walk by. Ezra was prowling around on the same floor. I hid behind a wall and waited. When the sound of the chains vanished, I opened the door of the office and went inside.

No one was there. The sound of footsteps were closing in. I hid under the table quickly and my breathing intensified.

“It’s okay, Riley. I won’t hurt you.” I heard him say. “It’s a promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“You can come out now. I said I won’t hurt you. You have my word.”

I covered my mouth with my hand and watched from the surveillance footage on the screens mounted on the wall as he prowled around the room far from my hidden space. He couldn’t see me.

“You wanna play hide and seek? That’s fine with me. You know, when I was little...I always managed to find the other kids. Grown ups even.” He chuckled softly, the same masculine voice with a boyish charm that I’d fallen in love with, but now the same voice ran a chill down my body. The only difference was that this voice belonged to the man that I didn’t love.

Something crashed loudly. He’d damaged the emergency lights, pulling the room in pitch black darkness. He was getting closer to where I was hiding.

As if he’d heard my mind he reached for a broom stick and smashed camera one, followed by camera two and three. “That should solve the problem, I guess. Now, you wouldn’t be able to know even if I’m right behind you.”

The screens went static and then turned black. From the corner of my eye, I watched his shoes walk past me. I held my breath and a shiver ran down my body as I wondered what would happen if I were caught. A few minutes later, I heard the door open and close. I waited for a few seconds, listening to any other sound in the room but all I could hear were my heart beats. Cautiously, I crawled from beneath the desk to check around and thankfully he was no-where in sight.

I let out a sigh of relief and climbed to my feet, taking a few steps towards the door. Once I was out of the room, I’d make a run down the hallway and get help from the doctor or anyone for that matter.

I stepped out to find the lights switched off. I’d seen a number of slasher movies, and had always laughed at the victims for being too gullible or stupid, never realizing that I could be in that situation someday.

My life was no better than a horror movie.

The lights flickered as I tried to walk quietly but the sounds of my canvas shoes echoed through the empty hallway. I heard soft footsteps behind me so I picked up pace and turned around the corner when a pair of strong arms seized me. He whispered. “Gotcha! Play times over, Riley.”

And my head was spinning and a total blackout was surrounding me.

I couldn’t tell what day or time it was. For a moment, I didn’t even know what was going on until everything started coming back to me in flashes. Me walking into Ezra’s room to give him food. Ezra getting out of the restraints and chasing after me.

I took a lungful of breath and coughed.

“Easy there, you don’t want to hurt yourself.”

My head snapped towards the man of the voice. “Did you drug me?” My voice was barely audible to me.

My hands were shacked to a chair. I tried to wiggle out of it but it started to bite my skin harder. “Why are you doing this Ezra?!” I asked. “Do you understand that people are going to find me missing and they are going to start looking for me. Once they track me down, they’ll get to you too! Let me go.”