Page 33 of Ramshackle
My knee is throbbing and has been shooting sharp stabs of pain the last few flights, so I decide now is as good a time as any to rest.
I sprawl out on the landing to catch my breath. Every noise sends my heart into overdrive, and panic grips my lungs. I haveto talk myself out of it each time, finally deciding that there must be plumbing running along one of these walls and I’m just reacting every time someone uses the toilet or washes their hands.
No one here willingly takes the stairs. Only an insane person would take the stairs when there are two sets of elevators per wing. I think I may be partially insane at this point with how fucked my head is, so the reasoning still stands.
After the pain in my knee begins to subside, I take a deep breath, suck it up, and keep moving.
Onward and upward.
I take another break, albeit a shorter one, once I reach the floor I need behind the door. Even with the pause, my knee is not having it anymore. No amount of sitting or lying down is helping it this time. So, when I decide it’s not going to improve and I may as well get this over with, I stand and limp into the hallway.
Gordon’s room, or suite, is at the end of the hallway in the corner unit. I move quietly inside, once again thanking his arrogance that he wouldn’t need to lock his door. Even on the island growing up, the only locked doors were the ones in the labs or certain offices. They felt no need to fear the children because the children allwantedto be there.
Or so they thought.
Gritting my teeth against the pain in my knee, I take another step toward freedom.
It may not be freedom from GE or this island, but the only one that really matters to me right now is my freedom of self. I can only get that back with Gordon’s death, and then after that, I have no clue what I plan to do.
I can imagine Aiden’s voice chastising me for not being prepared with a plan.
I have never been great with thinking things entirely through. Some of what I think Aiden tried to tell me a bunch of times, but I refused to listen.
Pushing thoughts of him and the others from my mind, I try to focus solely on my task. Most of the suite is open, and I can see all the rooms without barriers and a doorway in the back. I hobble through the rooms carefully. I have to avoid a bunch of furniture in the dark, which isn’t easy, but at least all of the windows in his corner suite allow for more moonlight, and I can see the basic shadows of shapes to avoid.
My gaze catches on a map sprawled across a table with penned markings by Gordon. Taking the extra seconds, I memorize what I see before moving on.
I peek through the opening into the bedroom. There’s a shape in the bed moving up and down slowly. No sign of a light to say he’s still up.
Perfect.
The clock on his bedside table shows just after two in the morning. It took me over two hours to get from my room to his. That doesn’t bode well for my escape, but maybe I can find something in his room to help me off this island.
I creep closer to the bed. My hand is raised with the knife at the ready. He gives the slightest motion aside from breathing, and I’m stabbing him immediately. I move into position over him, staring at his prone form as he sleeps peacefully.
How can a man so evil sleep so well? How can he look like just an ordinary man when he sleeps after all the things he’s done? After all the things he’s made others do for him?
My hand shakes as I look at him.
Do it.
Do it.
Fuck, why am I hesitating?
I think of Mallory. Of the words he’s whispered to me on repeat for what feels like half of my life. I’m alone. Worthless. He’s the only one who sees anything in me. The only one who says I can matter.
The shaking intensifies. I’m not sure if my body is having a full-on seizure standing here as I have a mental breakdown about what I’m going to do.
I think I’m hyperventilating, which only throws me further into a panic as I struggle to get some form of bodily function under control. I bring my other hand to join the first on the knife as if having two hands on it might help me drive it downward.
This man…he’sruinedme. Taken everything from me. Broken me and remolded me into what he wanted. He deserves to die.
Now!
His eyes fly open, and my arms swing down.
The knife buries itself in the mattress after it passes right through him.
