The Loony Garden (StemxStud)

20

I ran out of the path to the garden without sparing Danitha a glance. Poor Danitha, everyone always forgot her. I ran back into the building. I slammed open Sally's door that was hung crooked. D was at gun point and I closed my eyes to access my options mentally.

"Open your eyes, Laila. See what you haven't seen. See all of the players," Sally cackled.

A woman stood besides her without a tall man. The man shot the other woman and Sally stood with a gun cold against D's forehead. The man grinned down at the old nurse. "That fixed mortgage was worth it," she smiled. Confusion littered my brain.

"Come forward, Laila. You need to go to your king."

"My king?" I asked, frozen in the doorway.

I don't think I had ever felt fear before.

It was like frozen icicles piercing my every thought and slowing them only leaving behind a hot and aching primitive mind.

"Why, this is chess, Laila. The King always wins. Never the Queen."

"Mia," I breathed out.

The glass door to the garden slid open from behind me. I assumed it was Danitha who could maybe save me. The air behind me felt different. Actually, evil.

"You called?"

Her hand snakes downwards bellow my belly.

"It seems we share the same secrets."

**

Excerpt from "The Chess Castle", the third sequel after "The Loony Garden"

I sat in the back of an old house as I heard Mia bustle around in the kitchen, the smell of flowers wafting from an open window. The entire house smelled like old people and like a funeral home. The sun. I hadn't seen it in so long. I wore black jeans and a Purge shirt and creased black and white Adidas. Clothes I had ruined a week ago because of improper bathroom facilities. Well, actually the lack of. I could already breathe straight anymore and hunger ate at my already crazed mind.

My lips were cracked and my wrists and shoulders ached like I had taken a long swim in the deep end. My muscles were sore and tired and flimsy without protein and my ribs poked against my skin. I had already been able to feel my ribs before. Now all I had left to feel were ribs.

My eyes were dry and lazy.

My tongue was heavy and not in use.

My teeth ached because of how many times I had tried to bite the rope only to have the sandpaper like material scratch my fragile gums and make them bleed.

Mia hummed in the kitchen, making herself some breakfast. I smelled the sweet smell of pancakes and now understood Danitha's hunger to have her killed.