Flowers in the Window || W2S

14

I finally triumphed my seasonal illnesses, finally got back on track with my plan for this book, and how do I celebrate? by slicing the top of my thumb off while dicing an onion. I am literally the dumbest person alive right now. fucking stings. anyway enjoy this chapter that I admittedly wrote while partially under the influence of sleeping pills (not illegal I promise)

It took exactly nine minutes to get to the steel mill. You knew that because counting was the only way you could keep a level head right now. Every nerve in your body was ending in a live wire-one wrong move and everything would crumble and die.

Your arrival was met by nothing. Wes wasn't there anymore-you couldn't see hide nor hair of him. It made your heart rate shoot up as the organ dropped down to your feet. And Harry felt the same-you could hear his heart too, beating loudly through his chest, where your head was positioned as your arms locked themselves around his neck and his arm was around your waist, crushing you against his body.

The pair of you came in from the sky, to reduce the chance of being spotted by this evil queen you were now hunting. Harry found the main chimney easily, considering it was the biggest one there. The chimney wasn't even active-the Sionis steel mill had been shut down for at least five years now. He got in there easily, and soon, you were back on your own two feet, and with your brave, intelligent, kind, beautiful boy, you were off on a slightly underground navigation of the place.

"Where do you think she's keeping them?" he asked.

You had consulted an old map of the steel mill you'd found online while you were waiting for Harry to come and get you. "The smelting chamber is my best guess. It's got a lot of little storage spaces with shutters on them. She could be using those as cells."

"Good call," he said, and the bottom of the mask crinkled like he was smiling.

The vent space between the waste exchange and the loading bay was tall but not wide. Harry barely had enough room to squeeze himself through, and even you weren't faring much better. In the end, he had to twist himself around and web the bottom of the vent, which made it slippier, and therefore easier to crawl out of. Underneath the loading bay was a lot bigger, and you felt as though you could breathe again.

Until you heard voices.

They weren't quiet-it was suddenly no mystery as to how Wes heard them from all the way outside. A couple of terrified voices, a couple of more determined ones-and in the centre of it all, a sensual, high pitched one. One that seemed to command a strange sort of authority whenever the owner opened their mouth and used it.

"-now, now, girls, quiet down," she was saying. "The game hasn't started yet. It will start when the shoe arrives."

"What shoe?" The question slipped out without you initially realising.

"Maybe it's the one she stole a couple months ago?" Harry suggested.

You continued on through the below-ground section, and eventually came to the actual loading bay itself. The sight there was not as horrific as you were expecting on the surface, but the sinister undertones lurked, waiting to be released and free to play this sick woman's twisted game of havoc.

All nine girls were sat on one side of the loading bay in a row. Each one had a chain wrapped around their right ankle, and their hands appeared to be bound behind their backs. And from your keen vantage point, you could also see the witch herself-stood on the opposite side, wearing the exact same black gossamer gown she was wearing the first time you encountered her. Her ginger hair was curled around her face-her eyes were shadowed purple, her lips rouged, her feet clad in black heels, which you could just barely see poking out from the dress. Whatever she had planned, she'd clearly dolled up for it.