At her feet, he actually whimpered.
He did. The door to the room opened, and the mist beyond it looked sinister and cold. She turned back to the pathetic figure huddled on the floor and as abruptly as he had broken through the barrier and made contact, he was gone.
The room was empty now. Cass closed the door.
“Come on, Cass. It’s time to go.”
Cass could feel Chris tugging on her arm and lifting her to her feet. With the man/monster gone, she was able to give all her attention to his daughter.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She hurt, but for the first time since making contact with the beast, she felt as if her body was back under her control.
“Don’t make me use the knife,” Chris pleaded, digging the sharp blade against Cass’s side. Cass knew that with just a little more pressure it would slide through her sweater into her ribs. “I really don’t want to hurt you. But if I have to, I will.”
Cass turned her head and saw the fire moving in on them. With the knife at her side and the fire growing more threatening, the smoke practically robbing her of breath, Cass decided to let Chris lead them out of the apartment. She would stand a better chance of confronting her once they were on the street.
Together they made their way to the door, where Cass saw her cats waiting, she knew, for their mother to save them from the fire.
“My cats. I have to take them.” Pretending she was worse off than she was, Cass reluctantly let Chris tug her along, allowing her knees to buckle from time to time to show Chris how weak she was.
“No, you can’t take them. Daddy doesn’t like pets.”
“I’m not leaving them to burn.”
“They can get out when we open the door.”
Chris let go of Cass and made a move to unlock the door when a loud knock came from the other side.
“Cass! Cass, are you in there! There’s smoke coming out from under the door and near your window!”
It was Malcolm. Oddly, Cass found herself wondering what he was doing there and then realized she’d just been saved.
Chris pulled away from the door as if stunned that something wasn’t going according to plan.
“No. No, we have to leave. We have to escape. Everyone has to think you’re dead.”
The girl stomped her foot and stood glaring at the door as if it were the enemy. Struggling to hold her breath, Cass used the distraction Malcolm continued to provide by pounding on the door. The knife practically dangled from the girl’s hand.
Glancing to her right, Cass saw her single frying pan sitting on the stove where she had left it the last time she made an egg. Praising herself for being the lousy housekeeper she was, she reached for the pan and swung it with all her might at Chris’s right arm just at the elbow.
Chris screeched and reached for her arm, but, more importantly, dropped the knife. Diving for it, Cass felt her hand wrap around the wooden handle. But as soon as she did, Chris was falling on top of her, pulling at her short hair with enough force to tear it from its roots in an attempt to get Cass to drop the knife.
“No! Give it to me!”
“Cass!” This time it was Dougie shouting from the other side of the door. “We’re here, Cass. Open the door! Now!”
How typical, she decided, for a man to be giving her orders at a time like this. Rolling from side to side, Cass struggled to unseat Chris from her back. But the girl had the talent of a bull rider and held on with all her strength. She let go of Cass’s hair but only to reach over her to try to wrench the knife from her grasp. Together their hands grabbled for the sharp blade, vying for control of what really wasn’t much of weapon. But to Cass it felt as if all the power rested with the knife and the first person to gain control of it would win the deadly battle.
“If you don’t give me that knife, I’m going to cut out your tongue!” Chris growled in her ear.
“It’s over, Chris,” Cass tried to reason even as she used her elbow to jab at the girl’s ribs. She heard a whoosh of breath, but Chris fought back, using her feet to kick any part of Cass she could reach. “Can’t you hear them? They’re waiting for you on the other side of the door. You can’t escape now.”
“No! I have to. I have to get away from him. You have to help me.”
Cass heard the panic in her voice and in just that second, she tore the knife away from Chris’s hand. Cass rolled to her side and brought the knife closer to her chest. At that moment, Chris leaped on her, and without having a second to think, only to react, Cass pushed the knife out in front of her and sank it deeply into Chris’s chest.
The first thing that registered was the girl’s eyes. They were dark and brown and filled with both pain and sadness that seemed hauntingly familiar.
“No,” Cass gasped even as she turned and let Chris roll off her. The base of the knife stuck morbidly out from her chest directly over where her heart beat. It had cut through the thick sweatshirt and had sunk in all the way to the hilt.
Scrambling to her knees, Cass leaned over the girl and contemplated the harm or benefit of pulling the knife from her chest. Instinct told her to get it out. Get it out quickly and maybe it would be like it hadn’t happened, but reason took hold.
“Chris. Just stay still. Don’t move.”
Cass tried to stand. She needed to unlock the door. Dougie was still hammering away at it. She could hear him shouting. She didn’t know where Malcolm had gone, but if she could get the door open and get some air, she could pull Chris free.
The sound of breaking glass registered, as well as the call from another voice, but she was too focused on getting to the lock. Smoke clouded her vision and the air in her lungs felt heavy and hot. What had seemed like such an easy thing at the time, reaching and unlocking the door, now felt almost impossible. The lock was so far away, and standing up, where the air would be so much thicker, didn’t seem like a good idea at all.
In front of her, she saw her cats moving around each other, pawing at the door, sneezing in the way that cats do when something smells horrible.
“Cass!”
She didn’t know where the shout was coming from this time. From the other side of the door, from inside her head. It was hard to keep it all straight. She looked down again at Chris, whose eyes were open and focused on Cass. Smoke swirled around them, but Cass could still see the desperation in Chris’s face. She was going to die and she knew it. Cass felt the weight of what she had done, what she had taken. Chris had come looking for someone to save her, but Cass wasn’t sure that she could anymore.
Worse, she wasn’t even sure she could save herself.
“I’m sorry,” Cass whispered to her. The last bit of oxygen left her lungs and she slumped down to the kitchen floor.
“Don’t be sorry,” Chris wheezed. “You saved me. I don’t hear Daddy anymore.”
Her grandfather’s voice might have been reassuring if she weren’t so certain that he was wrong. Cass tumbled over Chris’s body as consciousness quickly slipped away. Her last thought was that she hoped one of the guys would be able to get through the door before the fire got too bad so that at least Spook and Nosey would make it.
Chapter 19
Cass blinked her eyes open and quickly closed them. Everything before her had been a blur, but it had also been white. All white. For a second, she feared she was back in her room with a monster there waiting to pounce. Then she realized her mind was quiet. Free from voices, human or otherwise. Was this death? It didn’t feel like it. She was too conscious of the aches in her body.
She opened her eyes again. Yes, the room was white, but it was real. Solid. She turned her head and saw a machine that beeped steadily to her right. She saw that there were bars on the bed, and she felt the outline of a
