His House

Chapter 11

There were now only thirteen of us. Six girls including Willow and I, and seven boys including Matteo.

The boys all followed Austin out of the door and made their way down the hall to the right. Once they were all out of sight, us girls walked with Ace out of the room in silence and then took a turn to the left.

"Where do you think he's taking us?" Willow whispered behind me.

"What was that?" Ace turned around and started walking backwards. "Please no mumbling, speak up."

"Um...." Willow glanced at me.

Ace arched an eyebrow. "Well?"

"I was just wondering where you were taking us," Willow confessed after an agonizing minute of silence.

Fear and worry turned my insides for Willow as Ace stared at her with a calculated expression. After what felt like an eternity of walking, Ace stopped in front of a door and came to a conclusion.

"You all smell worse than a decomposing body." He opened the door and gestured for us to go ahead of him into the dark room. "You need a shower."

Even if I didn't just witness Ace killing a bunch of children, I wouldn't have objected. We did in fact smell really bad, and really needed to wash up.

Willow and I followed the rest of the girls into the room and stopped just on the other side of the doorway. Ace came inside once we were all through and closed the door behind himself, flicking on the light switch.

The room exploded with light and I was finally able to see.

It was a decent sized room, with a wooden chair to the right and a cabinet on the left. On the far side of the room were the showers and drains on the tiled floor that looked like they needed a good cleaning.

I took a glimpse of some of the girl's looks of disgust and then turned my attention onto Ace, wondering if he was going to be leaving anytime soon.

"There are towels and clothes in the cabinet for you guys to use," Ace said as he side-stepped to the right, "and I would suggest you guys be fast. I don't want to be here all day." He then sat down in the chair before taking out a watch from his pocket and studied the face of it. "You guys have... fifteen minutes to be showered and dressed."

We all looked among one another, terror on each and every one of our faces. But not fear for death like we had been earlier. This was different.

It was bad enough that we were going to have to shower with the rest of us present. Now we also had Ace here, staring at us with his vacant blue eyes that looked hungry as he scoured our expressions.

"You're not going to leave?" A short girl with red hair asked quietly.

Ace raised his eyebrows. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Yes.

"No," the girl replied sheepishly.

"Good." His eyes made their way from each of our faces until he came back to the red-haired girl. "I don't want any of you to drown, you see. I won't make that mistake again." Ace leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Now, I recommend you hurry up. You're running out of time."

We stood, staring at each other, a moment longer before I finally made a move towards the cabinet. I opened it up, revealing the white towels and the clean, grey fabric. The rest of the girls came forward and each took a towel and then we made our way to the other side of the room, all while Ace's eyes traveled over us.

Once I got in front of one of the shower heads, -the one to the right of the middle- I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before bringing my hands to the bottom of my shirt and bringing it up and over my head. The cool air in the room hit my exposed skin, causing goosebumps to form along my pale body. I threw the dirty shirt to the ground and then made my way to the top of my grey slacks.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see all of the other girls slowly stripping out of their clothes and throwing them down by their feet. Each of them looking just as uncomfortable as I felt.

As I slipped out of my pants, I glanced over my shoulder and immediately regretted it.

Ace was leaning forward, resting his elbows on the top of his knees, and had his eyes roaming over each of the almost naked girls' bodies.

I swallowed past the sour taste in my mouth and turned back towards the shower. There was no other underwear that I saw in the cabinet, meaning we were going to have to continue wearing the same ones. This also meant we were going to have to take them off so we don't get all of our clean clothes wet.

I squeezed my eyes shut and ground my teeth together in anger, and then brought my hands behind my back to unclasp my bra. As soon as I felt the fabric leave my breasts bare, I placed my left hand over top of them as I turned around and placed the bra far enough away so the water would not touch it, all while avoiding Ace's eyes.

My anger towards the man in the corner never left me as I took my panties off and threw them where my bra was left. I then pressed the small button on the wall and the water overhead drenched me in the freezing liquid.

A few girls let out small gasps as they turned on the cold water and it sprayed them, including Willow who looked very uncomfortable as she reached for the bar of soap on the wall ledge.

I closed my eyes and inclined my head towards the shower head and the water that wasn't heating up whatsoever. I let the water attempt to wash my worries away, but no matter how much I tried, I could still see the eyes of the monster front and center through the darkness of my eyelids.