YesterWorld (Book 2 of the Down World Series)

Original Edition: Chapter Nineteen

Love to hear your thoughts on chapters 19 and 20! Thank you for reading! - Rebecca

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Ow!" I screamed as Ado sliced into my raw skin with the edge of a razor blade, after having soaked it for several seconds in rubbing alcohol.

Ado laughed at me. Apparently he hadn't become any less of an asshole since the last time I had seen him. He wiped my blood off on a towel and brought the razor back to my wrist for the second slice.

We were in the basement of Sage's diner. George had escorted us here through a twisting path in the woods that hadn't existed last time I'd been here—a path that allowed us to completely circumnavigate the hotel and its insidious residents.

Caryn, the sweet waitress who had had a bit of a crush on Brady the last time we were here, sat nearby, concealing a chuckle as she watched me grimace. She looked thinner than she had when I'd last seen her, and her light brown hair hung limply by her ears. But it was her pale blue eyes that showed the effects of the passing time the most—there was something dull and tired about them that made me look away in pity.

Sage hadn't said anything to me when we got here, ignoring my awkward attempt at a hug. Instead, she just let us into the diner, and Ado and Caryn took us downstairs while Sage stayed above to deal with any potential customers.

"It hurts like hell, doesn't it?" Caryn asked.

"It really does."

"You ready for the second cut?" Ado asked, relishing my pain a bit too much.

I felt woozy from the sting of the first slice, but I didn't want to admit that to Ado, who would have gotten too much pleasure out of my pain. He was a big-boned guy with dark skin and glinting brown eyes, who might have been handsome if his belligerent personality wasn't always getting in the way. Trying not to give him the satisfaction of seeing me squirm, I simply turned my head away, squeezed my eyes shut, and groaned something that sounded affirmative.

For some reason, this cut hurt twice as much. Maybe it was hitting a nerve.

"Shit!" I screamed, embarrassed immediately as I heard Caryn and Ado laughing again. But Adam, who had been sitting in the corner waiting, didn't seem to think it was funny. He walked up to me now, inspecting the damage.

"You're cutting too deep," he told Ado.

"It's the same as I was cut."

"Let me do it."

Ado gave him a look that said he wasn't interested in handing over the razor, but Adam didn't seem to care. He grabbed it from Ado's hand and then pushed him aside.

"I don't do well with pain," I admitted to Adam, looking around the basement of Sage's diner. The door the bathroom was open, and my eyes landed on the picture of President Koenig they kept over the toilet—the one with the bull's eye on it.

"No kidding," Adam sarcastically responded, taking Ado's seat. He then grabbed an extra towel, rolled it up, and handed it to me. "Bite down on this."

I did as he instructed, and closed my eyes while the searing pain of the third cut ripped into the delicate skin of my arm. Before I knew it, he was done.

I looked down at the three identical bleeding slashes on my wrist while Adam went to get some iodine and cellophane. When he got back, he poured the liquid into the wound, causing me to grab onto his arm in agony.