by Ford, Hannah
Noah was standing over me, his dark eyes wild with relief and worry as he took in my condition.
“You’re here,” I said in wonder.
“I’m here,” he said.
“But how?”
“I got Josh to drop the charges,” he said. “They let me go.” He shook his head. “That’s not important right now. I’ll explain everything later.” He reached up and touched my shackles. “The police are on their way, but we need to get you out of here. The key, Charlotte. Where’s the key?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, struggling to remember if I’d even seen the key. When I’d woken up, I’d already been locked in. “It might be on the tray.”
Noah walked over to it, his jaw tightening as he saw the instruments of torture that were laid out. He picked through them until he found a small silver key and then he got to work, unlocking the cuffs and removing them from my wrists and ankles.
“He killed Katie,” I said. “And Nora and Dani, too. He was going to kill me.”
“I know,” he said. “Are you… can you walk?” He voice was controlled and calm, but his eyes were crazed with worry. He picked me up off the table and set me down on the ground. I was still wearing the high stiletto shoes on my feet, and my legs wobbled underneath me.
“I think so,” I said, taking a couple of experimental steps.
But before I could get any further, the door to the room opened and Professor Worthington appeared in the doorway. He held a knife in his hand, one with a long and narrow ridged blade.
When he saw Noah, his eyes widened in surprise. For a moment, his face darkened with anger, but then he smiled, a long, slow, evil smile.
“Nice to see you, Noah,” he said, then reached behind him and shut the door. He locked it with a click. “I’m so glad you’re here. Now you can watch.”
A whimper escaped my lips, and Noah stepped in front of me. “It’s okay, Charlotte,” he said. “He’s not going to hurt you.”
“Stop lying to her!” Professor Worthington screamed. “You’re lying to her. I am going to hurt her. I’m going to kill her and hurt her and you’re going to watch.” He turned to me. “Back on the table,” he commanded, brandishing the knife.
“No.” Noah’s voice was calm.
Professor Worthington stepped toward Noah, placed the tip of his knife against Noah’s side. “I’ll cut him,” the professor said to me. “I’ll plunge the knife right into him. I’ll gut him and you can watch him bleed out all over the floor.”
“Okay!” I said. “Okay, please, no… I’m…I’m getting back on the table.”
“Charlotte, no,” Noah said, but I was already moving onto the table, getting up on top of it and starting to lie down.
“Why are you doing this?” Noah demanded of Professor Worthington. “Why are you acting like such a sick fuck?”
“Because I’m sick of your type,” Professor Worthington said simply.
“Is this because of the Walsh case?” Noah asked. “Is this because – ”
“Stop talking about that!” Professor Worthington shrieked. “I don’t want to talk about that ever again!” He looked around wildly for the key to the shackles so he could lock me back in, but he couldn’t find it. He turned to Noah. “Where’s the key?”
Noah shrugged. “I don’t know.”
This infuriated Professor Worthington. He stepped toward Noah, the knife drawn. I started to get up to help, but I caught a look from Noah.
No, he seemed to say. Stay put.
“Give me the key!” Professor Worthington screamed.
“I don’t have it.”
Professor Worthington turned back toward Noah. Noah tried to take a step back, but Professor Worthington slashed the blade of his knife against Noah’s side. A pool of blood stained Noah’s shirt crimson red, and I gasped and jumped off the table. I ran at Professor Worthington, but as soon as I got to him, he pushed me away and I fell onto my ass, hard.
“Stay away, whore,” he said.
“Let Charlotte go,” Noah said. His cheeks were flushed, but other than that, he wasn’t showing any signs of being hurt. It must have been a shallow cut, designed to scare him. But next time, Professor Worthington wouldn’t be so charitable.
“Why the fuck would I do that?” Professor Worthington asked.
“Because you can have me,” Noah said. “Go ahead, let her go and you can do whatever you want to me. Isn’t that what you want? To hurt me?”
“What?” Professor Worthington seemed startled by this idea. He cocked his head to the side, almost like he was considering it.
“Let her go. Then you can torture me as much as you want.”
Professor Worthington grinned. “Why would you let me do that?”
“Because I love her,” Noah said softly.
My heart clenched. “I’m not leaving,” I said.
Noah shot me a warning look, and Professor Worthington ignored me. He took another step toward Noah, who was still standing upright, even though the blood stain on his shirt was becoming darker and darker.
“I would never, ever let her go,” Professor Worthington said. “She means more to you than anything. I could never hurt you more than if I hurt her.” He was getting worked up now, his breath coming in gasps, his voice excited. “You can watch her die. And they’ll blame you.” He laughed and laughed and laughed, tilting his head back so far the light glinted off a filling in the back of his mouth.
“Is that what you did to Nora?” Noah demanded.
Professor Worthington grinned. “Nora,” he said. “Oh, Nora. She had a nice tight little pussy, but you knew that, didn’t you, Noah?”
I saw Noah’s face change, saw it constrict in pain.
Professor Worthington moved closer to him. “She struggled. She struggled while I choked her. I told her they would blame you for it. I told her that I was doing it because of you, that if she hadn’t been such a whore and ended up with the wrong man, she wouldn’t be suffering.”
Noah’s jaw clenched, and he rushed at Professor Worthington, but Professor Worthington stopped him, slashing at Noah’s hand with the knife. A jagged cut appeared on Noah’s palm.
Professor Worthington pushed him up against the wall. “You are done winning,” he said. “You are completely done. This is my time now.”
Noah’s eyes met mine, and I saw him glance toward the door. And then I realized what he’d been doing. He was trying to get Professor Worthington to go after him, so that I would have a chance to escape.
He was letting Professor Worthington come after him, was letting him hurt him so that I could get away.
I hesitated.
I could make a run for it.
I might make it.
At least I would have a chance.
He might catch me, but Noah would be behind him.
I could run.
I could call for help.
I ran for the door, turned the lock and bolted into the hall.
“Run, Charlotte!” I heard Noah scream. “Run!”
I run down the hall as fast as I could, slipping my shoes off so I could run faster. I waited as long as my self-control would allow before glancing behind me to see how far behind me Professor Worthington was, if maybe Noah had been able to delay him.
But there was no one there.
Professor Worthington wasn’t coming after me.
Why wasn’t he coming after me?
I glanced around wildly at the different corridors and rooms that feathered off of the hallway. I had no idea where I was. I hadn’t even been awake when Professor Worthington had brought me here.
If I could make my way to the main room, I could ask someone if I could use their phone. Or maybe the police would be here by then, since Noah had called them. I could show them down here, if I could remember where it was I’d come from.
From behind me, down the hall, I could hear a tussle going on in the room I’d just come from.
I stopped.
I couldn’t leave him
.
I couldn’t.
I knew he wanted me to get away.
But there was no way I was leaving him.
I ran back to the room.
Noah and Professor Worthington were locked in a struggle, the two of them on the floor, Noah on top of the professor.
Noah looked up at me. “Charlotte,” he said. “Go! Get out of here!”
The distraction was enough to give Professor Worthington an advantage. He pushed Noah off of him and stood up, then came at me, his eyes crazed. He looked like a demon, his eyes burning with black rage.
This time he would waste no time torturing me.
This time, he would go right for the kill.
I didn’t know I was going to do it until it happened.
I pulled up the stiletto I was holding in my hand, and using every ounce of strength I possessed, swung the heel at Professor Worthington’s face.
He was bearing down on me, hunched over, and the heel struck him right in the eye, wedging into his eyeball and staying there.
I gasped in horror as blood spurted from the socket and he screamed in agony. His hands flew to the shoe and he tried to pull it out, but Noah was up and struck him in the face, knocking him out in one blow.
I watched as Professor Worthington fell to the ground.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Oh my God, Noah.” I rushed over to him, and Noah put his arm around me.
“Shh,” he said. “It’s okay.” His ran his hand through my hair. “You’re okay now. You’re safe.”
I pulled back and looked at him. His face was pale, and his other hand was holding his side.
That’s when I noticed my feet were standing in something thick and slippery.
“Oh,” I said, looking down in surprise. It was blood. I was standing in a pool of blood. Another drop slipped and splattered against the top of my foot, and I was startled to realize it was coming from Noah.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Noah, you’re hurt.”
“I’m okay,” he said. But blood pooled around his fingers, and his skin had gone ghostly white.
“You need to sit down,” I said. “Here, sit on the floor.”
He sat down on the floor, and I took his suit coat off him and used it to put pressure on his wound. But there was so much blood.
“I’m just… I’m going to stay here with you until the bleeding stops, and then I’m going to go and get help.” I glanced over to Professor Worthington, but he was still knocked out cold, the heel of my shoe sticking out of his eye. It was sickening. I wondered if he was dead.
“Charlotte,” Noah said. “Charlotte.” He reached up and grabbed my forearm, and I shook my head. I didn’t want him to talk, didn’t want to hear what I knew he was about to say.
“I’m just going to stay here until the bleeding stops,” I said again firmly.
“Charlotte, you need to know how much I love you,” he said. He swallowed, and his lips were almost white. “You need to know that I want you to be happy, no matter what.”
“Stop!” I said. He was so pale, and there was so much blood. His jacket was already soaked, and I didn’t know what else to do. I looked around wildly for something else I could use to stop the bleeding, but there was nothing. There was so much blood. I could smell it in the air, the metal scent so intense I could taste it on my tongue.
“Charlotte,” he said, and his voice sounded weak.
“No,” I said. “No, Noah, please. I’ll go get help.” But I knew if I went to get help, he would die.
“I love you,” he said, his grip on my forearm loosening. “I wanted to spend my life with you. I wanted to marry you. I wanted to be with you forever. It’s important to me that you know that.”
“We can still do all that,” I said, and I was crying now, the tears sliding down my cheeks and dripping onto my lips. “Please, just… you need to stay with me, Noah. Help will be here soon.”
“Do you know that I love you, Charlotte?”
“I do,” I said. “I do know that, Noah.”
He let go of my arm.
“You changed me,” he murmured. “We would have been so happy together. You...” He trailed off, a wet gurgling noise rising in his throat. He stopped talking, his hand going limp in mine.
“No!” I screamed. “Noah! No!”
I reached for him and began performing CPR. I placed my hands on his chest and started the compressions, but I could tell it wasn’t helping. My hands were covered in his blood, so much I couldn’t even tell where it was coming from.
“Noah, please, no,” I said. “Please, no! Stay with me…”
The door flew open and I my head whipped around.
Two policemen stood in the doorway, their guns drawn.
“Oh, thank God,” I said. “Please, he needs help, he’s hurt.”
One of the policemen rushed to Professor Worthington, the other ran to Noah.
“Please,” I pleaded, hearing the desperation in my own voice. “Please, you need to help him.”
The officer spoke into his walkie talkie. “We need a medic down here, immediately. White male with severe stab wounds.” He looked at me. “Are you okay, miss?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” I said. “Please, you have to help him.”
“Who did this to you?” he asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “Please, he’s dying. You have to help him, you need to do CPR or something on him, please, he needs help.”
The policeman looked at me, his eyes filled with sympathy.
“HELP HIM!” I screamed.
Noah wasn’t moving.
The world started to spin as paramedics rushed into the room and began to work frantically on Noah, pumping his chest and tending to his wounds.
Please, I thought, please don’t die.
I closed my eyes and prayed.
Please, don’t let this be the end, please…
END OF BOOK FOURTEEN – Look For Book Fifteen, Coming Soon