Dead End >> c.h au

Chapter Twelve

        Sally wanted to cry, but she was too scared to shed a tear. Her eyes refused to water. Her body refused to move. She was frozen in fear. She had never experienced such paralyzing terror before in her life. She just wanted to go home.

                “I am more powerful than you could ever imagine,” Leo boasted. “The longer I’m here, the stronger I get.” He was pacing back and forth in front of the three of them, swinging his arms cheerfully. He turned away from them and started walking towards the bar.

                Michael took the opportunity to try to get away. He bit his lip to hold back a grunt as he fell to the ground. He was unable to move most of his body as he tried to roll away, desperate to find a way out for him and his friends. But, he didn’t get far.

                Leo suddenly appeared directly in front of Michael, peering at him menacingly. He put his foot on Michael’s side to halt his momentum, like he was a football rolling down a field. “There’s no use, Mikey,” Leo said. “The hotel does whatever I tell it to. You can’t escape.” He crouched down and put his face so close to Michael’s that Michael could see each individual pore on his face. “You can’t win.”

                Sally suddenly got an idea. “Why don’t you let us try?” she squeaked.

                Leo’s head snapped in her direction. He let out a low laugh. He stepped up on Michael and sauntered over to her. He threw himself down next to her with his legs crossed and rested his chin on his hands. “And why would I do that?”

                Sally’s entire body was shaking. She could see Calum out of the corner of her eye. The idea of keeping him safe fueled her with unstoppable motivation. “B-because you’ve never done that before,” she stuttered. Leo looked interested so Sally kept going. “You said to me that you like trying new ways of killing right? So…so why don’t you let us try to escape? It’ll be like cat and mouse. You have nothing to lose.”

                Leo pondered for a moment, staring at Sally. He didn’t blink and didn’t look away. His face abruptly broke into a wide grin and he clapped his hands. “I like the way you think, Sally! I knew there was something good about you.” Leo leapt to his feet and danced around the ballroom.

                Leo sighed, satisfied. “Alright, I’m the cat, obviously, and you’re my mice.” he said. “I’ll give you ten minutes to try to find a way out of the hotel, and I’m allowed to interfere whenever and however I want.” He smiled gleefully. "Oh, I have so many tricks up my sleeve that I have been dying to try out.”

                Leo looked at each of his mice hungrily. “Tick tock,” he sang creepily. And then the floor vanished.

                Sally didn’t even scream this time. She had become used to falling through the ground in the hotel. Calum and Michael gasped as they fell to the basement, gathering speed with every second.

                “No!” Michael cried out. There was no way he was being sent back down there. He would have preferred if Leo had killed him in the ballroom.

Calum hit the ground hard. He let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding and he instantly regained control of his own body. He scrambled over to Sally and pulled her into his arms. He almost forgot Michael was even there.

                “We’re gonna die, Cal,” Sally sobbed. “I’m so sorry…I should have listened to you.”

                “This isn’t your fault, okay?” Calum assured her. If anything, this was his fault. It was his idea to come on the road trip in the first place. And if he had just treated Sally properly from the start he wouldn’t have been jealous of Leo. Calum had figured that Leo was the one that caused their car to break down. “This is Leo’s fault.”