“Come on, this way.” He opened the door at the top of the stairs, not going in but waiting like a gentleman for me to go through. As I climbed the stairs, another uneasy feeling crept up on me. I didn’t want to go in there. “After you.”
I backed down a step. “I’ll wait outside for you.”
“Oh, no, not after you nearly trapped yourself this morning.” Greer stepped down and took my hand.
I didn’t expect him to hold my hand. It was so sudden and unexpected. I felt a blush rise in my neck and fill my cheeks. Instantly, I was warmer, safer, like whatever made me apprehensive was nothing as long as he held my hand.
“Come on,” he said.
His hand was warm. I followed him up the stairs. He waited by an open door. So much a gentleman. I took one step inside, and he let go of my hand and promptly shut and locked the door, leaving me alone in the strange room.
I pounded on the door. “Greer!”
“I’ll be back.”
“That’s not the point,” I said, but he was already gone.
So that was why he had been so nice. So much for believing things were improving. What a jerk! Oh, yuck. Who does that? It humiliated me. He could have just asked me to wait for him. He didn’t have to trick me. Why hold my hand though? The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. He must have thought I had a crush on him. That explained why he thought holding my hand would trick me into this room. Well, he had completely misread me. I did not have a crush on that jerk.
And I was locked away again.
Oh, I wanted to throw up or die. I wanted to die right there in the room because I was beyond embarrassed. Because I didn’t have a crush on Greer. No. Not at all. He assumed too much. I should have dropped his hand the second he took mine. That would have shown the smug jerk, because guess what? I didn’t like him.
Was he good-looking? Annoyingly so. Did he save me all the time? Yes, but so what?
I listened at the door, but I didn’t hear him.
I jiggled the handle one last time, knowing it was hopeless.
Defeated in so many ways, I sat on the bed, and the silky green comforter sent dust into the air. Out the window, a large gray cloud loomed in the sky. It would rain soon and judging by the size, it would be a severe storm. I slipped my sunglasses into my front pocket.
At the foot of the bed was a dresser and mirror. One drawer was half opened, a pile of nylons and slips on the floor. Curiosity eventually got the better of me, and I rose and went to the drawer. There I found underwear and nighties and lots of bits that sent me into a whole new atmosphere of red blush. The next drawer had corsets and lingerie. No real clothes; the woman who stayed in this room must have walked around in her underwear all day. There wasn’t much I could use on the road, at least not without being super uncomfortable. I’d have been happy with an untorn shirt and a pair of jeans.
I brushed the grime away from the dresser mirror with my shirtsleeve and was shocked by my appearance. I ‘d lost weight from the long hike, and it caused my cheeks to sink in. Large purple circles underlined my dark gray eyes. I was unrecognizable to who I had been a few weeks ago.
Rain clinked against the window, and the air chilled. Walking would be hard that afternoon.
An amethyst hair clip lay on the dresser and with it, I pinned back one side of my hair and scrutinized myself. I couldn’t decide whether it looked better or worse. In the end, I let my hair fall back over my face. I pinched my cheeks. I needed color; I needed sleep. I needed a hot bath and an actual meal.
Still, on the bright side, the lack of real shampoo had kept my hair from being an entire frizz ball. I was checking out the side view of my locks when something gray streaked behind me. My heart fell, and my skin went icy. I wasn’t alone in that room and I couldn’t get out of there. My imagination took over, and my mind jumped from one horrible animal to another, finally resting on a cobra or a rabid raccoon. I refused to turn around. Instead, I watched the mirror and waited for the animal to show its ugly head. When it didn’t appear, I decided to look for it myself. Resigned, I closed my eyes, held my breath and turned around.
Crawling up the wall, growing and multiplying to nightmarish heights, was a black, shapeless figure. It moved forward, engulfing everything it passed over: the walls, the bed, the windows. Closer and closer it crept towards me. The darkness covered all, the blackest of blacks. Shrieks of a thousand human voices erupted from the blackness, hundreds and hundreds crying out. The black went overhead, boxing me in. I went to my knees, and it enclosed around me. The blackness was going to attack, and I couldn’t stop it.
“Waverly,” Greer said calmly from the other side of the room. “Did you lose something?”
I looked up. The shadow left, and I was alone on the floor.
“Are you crying?” he asked disgustedly. “Look, I kept you here for your own safety. You don’t need—”
Tears overwhelmed me. “What happened here?”
“I was about to ask you.”
“Tell the truth. What happened to this place?” I was crying very hard at that point. He came over and offered his hand. When I didn’t take it, he sat on the floor next to me.
I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “Something awful happened here. The reason no one pillaged this place—what was it?”
“People think it’s haunted.”
