His House

Chapter 8

"You, you're next."

Fear engulfed me, drowning me. I took a deep breath before walking towards Ace, passing Willow in the process and the other teens. I picked up one of the cardboard boxes and then looked up at Ace's empty eyes.

"Name."

I cleared my throat and took a breath. "Um.. Zoe."

He scribbled my name down on the notepad before looking back up. "Anything you remember?"

I shook my head and stared down at the box that was clutched in my shaking hands. I could feel the sweat forming in my palms, causing my box to become slightly slippery.

Ace scribbled down on his paper some more and then looked back up at me. "Alright, good. Please return to your spot."

It felt like a weight being lifted off of me. I took a shaky breath in as I turned around, the breath quaking as it left me. I returned to my place and finally was able to breathe properly again. The eyes of the teens in the room left me, and focused back onto Ace.

"Alright, you. Come on. We don't have all day."

Willow made her way up to Ace to retrieve her box and answer all of his questions. Then once she returned to her spot, one by one, everyone else in the room took their turn; all stating their name and then telling Ace that they didn't remember anything from the time before waking up in his house. Everyone answered that last question the same as the person before them, until we came to a brunette that was around fifteen.

She made her way up to Ace and carefully took hold of the last cardboard box that was on the trolley. She looked up at Ace and from where I was, I could see the tension in her shoulders and the slight shake in her legs.

"Name."

"Rebecca," she replied with a crack in her voice.

Ace wrote her name down and then looked back at her, a small raise to his brow. "Do you remember anything?"

"I want to go home!" Rebecca exclaimed through a wave of tears that were now making their way down her cheeks. "I want my parents! And my sister!"

Ace's brow lowered and his lips formed into a crooked smile as he side-glanced at Marcus and Austin. Rebecca was too busy in a fit of hiccups and tears to notice the small exchange that went down, so she was caught off-guard when Ace clamped his free hand onto the top of Rebecca's arm. She had been so startled by the sudden touch that she dropped her breakfast and let out a small yelp.

My eyes widened and my breath hitched. I could feel everyone else in the room do the same as we waited for Ace to make his next move.

"You'll be coming with me," he said down to the terrified looking Rebecca. Ace looked away from her and back up at all of us. His eyes flicked from one side of the room to the other as he observed our stares of utter horror. "I want all of you to eat up and then rest. I will be back in two hours to retrieve you."

With that he left, dragging a screaming and crying Rebecca all the way out. Austin and Marcus followed closely behind them, closing and locking the door behind them.

As soon as they had gone and we heard the just audible click of the lock, we all relaxed once again, but not as much as we had wanted. Questions of where Ace had taken Rebecca swirled around in my head, causing my stomach to turn as I sat down on my bed.

"Do you think he's going to kill her?"

I felt the cot shift next to me and looked up at Willow. She had her unopened box clutched in her hands, the same way mine was.

She took a breath and looked over at me. "Do you?"

"I-I don-"

"'Course he is," Matteo interrupted, sitting down on the floor in front of us, folding his long legs underneath him. "He clearly didn't want us remembering anything and then that Becca girl remembered her parents and apparently a sister."

"Then why didn't he just kill her here?" Willow asked down at Matteo.

Matteo shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't care." He looked past Willow and I, and at the boarded up windows behind us. "We have to find a way out."

I stared down at him and arched an eyebrow. "Remember when you told me that Ace would be watching me? Well now I'm not the only person he'll be keeping an eye on. Especially after a certain someone got on his bad side."

"Don't remind me," he said darkly. "But what does that have to do with getting out?"

"Are you stupid?" Willow asked, sounding astonished. "You're going to be having a hard time finding a way out if he's keeping an eye on you at all times."

Matteo glared at her and then at me. "First of all: don't call me stupid, and second of all: I was just reminding you guys what our main focus is."

Willow rolled her eyes. "Well then, no shit Captain Obvious. Of course we need to find a way out."

I huffed a breath and glared at the two of them. "Can you two please stop?"

"Sorry," Willow said to me before scowling down at Matteo. "Just someone needs to get into a better mood."

"'Better mood?!'" Matteo scoffed. "Ah, yes! Being kidnapped and memory wiped and watching people being killed will definitely put me in a good mood."

"Fine then! Just at least pretend to be in a better mood." Willow looked around the room at all the teens who were silently hunched over their boxes of food. "We could do with a little less depression and maybe a little more hope."

"I don't know what you're on about."

"'I can guarantee a few more of us are going to get killed at some point.'" Willow spoke, quoting what Matteo said the day before.

Matteo raised his eyebrows. "Did I lie?"

"Alright." I stood up. "I'm going to let you guys fight while I eat up and prepare for whatever Ace has planned for us." I went to walk away but Willow grabbed onto my grey shirt and stopped me from making my escape.

"No. We're done now." She nodded her head and stared down at the box in her hands. "You're right, we should probably eat like Ace told us to do."

I sat back down and Willow let go of my shirt. The sound of our rumbling stomachs broke us from the sudden flash of anger. We all opened our boxes and dived into the food, and fell into silence as our mouths were shoved full of cold food.