The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback (Astra and Zayne) novel Chapter 158

Chapter 158

ASTRA

I cried until there was nothing left. Then exhaustion dragged me under sometime after that.

The pale morning light was already warming my face when my eyes opened.

For one thin second the ceiling above me was just a ceiling.

Then the rough wooden beams came into focus. The stale air and then the absolute quiet.

A cold knot formed in my stomach.

Not a nightmare.

Still here.

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I pushed myself up and every muscle immediately protested. My throat felt scraped raw, my eyes swollen and gritty.

Daylight made the room look even smaller than it had in the dark. A narrow bed. A weathered bedside table. A wardrobe with one door hanging loose and a single chair pushed beneath a dusty window.

There were no photographs or personal clutter. Nothing that said anyone had ever chosen to live here.

It felt like a place people were put.

I stood carefully and my legs held this time. I moved through the room methodically: wardrobe empty, drawers empty, under the bed only dust and the faint smell of old wood. I even pressed my palms against the walls, half-hoping one of them might give.

Nothing did.

My gaze snagged on the window and hope flickered, sharp and stupid. I crossed the floor in three steps and shoved the curtains aside.

Trees.

Nothing but trees.

An unbroken sweep of tall pines and dense undergrowth stretching in every direction, broken only by thin dirt paths that vanished almost immediately under the canopy.

No roofs. No roads. No sign of another living soul.

The ground looked impossibly far below, three floors, maybe four. I was in an attic, then.

Whoever had brought me here hadn’t simply locked a bedroom door. They had put me high enough that the forest itself became the cage.

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9:23 Mon, Jul 27

Chapter 158

My fingers found the latch. It clicked open and relief exploded inside me.

I shoved the window with both hands.

Nothing.

“Come on…”

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I pushed harder until my arms trembled. The old frame creaked but refused to move, years of rain and swollen timber sealing it shut far more effectively than any lock ever could.

Even if I somehow forced it, the drop alone would break me.

I stepped back, breathing too fast.

I raked both hands through my hair, fingers catching and tugging hard enough to sting. My chest felt too tight, like someone had wrapped steel bands around my ribs and was slowly tightening them. I pressed a palm flat against my sternum, gasping, bending halfway over as the room tilted.

*In. Out. In. Out.*

It didn’t help.

My lungs refused to fill. Every breath came short and shallow, burning. Tears blurred the wooden floorboards. I was going to pass out. I was going to die right here on this dusty attic floor and no one would ever know.

The lock twisted.

My head snapped up so fast my neck cracked.

The door swung open.

A man stood in the doorway.

Not the clown.

This person was dressed in all black, black tactical pants, black long-sleeved shirt, black gloves. A black baseball cap pulled low and black face mask covering everything below his eyes. The only thing visible was a pair of sharp, cold silver eyes locked directly on me.

My blood turned to ice.

“Come.”

That voice.

The same low, rough voice that had spoken to me last night. The same voice that had belonged to the clown.

It was him.

He turned without waiting for an answer and started walking.

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9:23 Mon, Jul 27

Chapter 158

I stayed frozen for one second.

*Where is he taking me?*

*To kill me?*

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My legs felt like they belonged to someone else, but I forced them to move. I stepped out of the attic room and onto a narrow staircase.

Every board creaked under my weight. I followed him down, eyes darting left and right, memorizing every turn, every door, every window.

*The second he gives me even a little space, I run.*

We reached the bottom.

A living room opened up in front of me, simple, rustic, almost normal. A worn leather couch. A low coffee table and a stone fireplace with cold ashes. It looked like any cabin in the woods.

He walked straight into the kitchen off to the side without glancing back.

I stopped at the foot of the stairs.

The front door was only a few steps away.

*If I can just…*

I looked at him. His back was turned as he pulled things from a cabinet.

My eyes locked onto the front door.

So close.

Maybe fifteen feet away.

My pulse quickened.

Now.

Before I could lose my nerve, I ran.

My bare feet slapped against the wooden floor. I grabbed the doorknob with both hands and yanked hard.

It didn’t budge.

“No!”

I threw my shoulder against it but it still didn’t move.

A strangled cry tore from my throat.

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9:23 Mon, Jul 27

Chapter 158

“Ahhhhhh!”

Behind me, I heard the cupboard close.

“Come sit down, Astra.”

:

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His voice came from the kitchen, calm and almost bored, like he was inviting me to breakfast instead of holding me prisoner.

I spun around, chest heaving, back pressed against the locked door.

He was watching me now over his shoulder, silver eyes completely unreadable above the black mask.

I didn’t move.

Neither did he.

The only sound in the entire cabin was my ragged breathing and the soft clink of whatever he was setting on the counter.

The sound of my name on his lips made every hair on my body stand on end.

He knew exactly who I was.

My lips trembled as I forced the words out.

“H-how do you know my name?”

He didn’t answer.

He simply held my gaze, silver eyes giving nothing away, until the silence stretched thin enough to snap.

Then he turned fully toward me.

“I know a great many things about you, Astra.”

A cold ripple moved down my spine and my fingers tightened around the doorknob until the metal bit into my skin.

“… Who are you?”

Nothing.

“What do you want from me?”

Still nothing.

Instead he pulled out a chair at the small wooden table, the legs scraping softly against the floor.

“Sit.”

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9:23 Mon, Jul 27

Chapter 158

“I’m not sitting down.” I shouted. “I’m not doing anything until you tell me who you are.”

Those silver eyes rested on me for another long second.

Then, almost mildly:

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