vintage Misery: Part Three (special preview)

I had a headache by the time I woke up. My neck hurt, which was probably what was leading to my headache. I sat up in the bed and looked around, eyes bleary, mind hazy. I was having trouble piecing together what had happened over the last day or so.

The floor was wooden, so it was extremely cold to my bare feet. I hissed, considering staying in bed until it got warm. But everything was so dark, I couldn’t tell up from down, day from night, or even right from left.

“Neil?” I muttered as I rubbed my eyes; the one I hit with a rock was still very sore. “Neil? Where are you?”

No answer. That was new.

“Shit.” I got up from the bed and felt lightheaded. Lightheaded with a headache, that’s new. I fumbled around the room for a moment. “Neil, I could really use you! Come out now!”

The door opened and light flooded in. I covered my eyes, as they might as well have been thrown onto a grill.

“Oh, look, Beth’s little friend is up.” The woman stood there and chuckled as she strutted into the room. “Beth’s not here at the moment. Why don’t you just get back in bed?”

“I really have to go,” I grumbled. “Have you seen my bag?”

She put her hand on me, leading me back towards the bed. “No.”

“Who are you?” I grumped.

“Yvie,” she stated simply as she had me sit back down upon the bed. My eyes were focusing more and I could see Yvie was one of the girls I had passed that night the girls had been murdered. She had long, slick, straight hair with razor-like bangs. She wore big dangly earrings and wore lots of clanky, clunky bracelets.

“I’d like to just go please,” I muttered. “I need to get the bus. What time is it?”

“Beth will be back shortly.” Yvie touched my face and smoothed away my hair. A strange gesture for a first time meeting. “You feel a bit cold.” Her fingers swept across my forehead. “You should warm up a bit.”

“I have a headache,” I huffed. “You’re getting a bit close.” I put my hand on her shoulder and pushed back a bit.

“Alice, was it?” Yvie smirked. “You’re just as cute as Beth said you were.”

My cheeks prickled as color tried to rush to them. “Listen-”

“-out,” Neil’s voice faded in and out like bad radio signal. “-bad thing! …...out!”

I pushed more against Yvie as she came closer to me. Her lips touched against mine and I was too weak to fend her off. She pushed me down onto the bed and bit my lip. I was pinned to the bed, barely able to move and then the bed toppled. One of the legs must have given out, or Neil came through for me. We fell off the bed and I quickly escaped from Yvie. I stood up and put a chair in front of me while Yvie just laughed. It wasn’t until then I realized my lip was bleeding.

“You don’t want to have a little fun with me?” Yvie chuckled.

“Not particularly!” I wiped my lip. “You’re a little too rough and a little too forceful for my taste!” I snapped.

Yvie licked her lips. “I’ll make you feel so much better, though.”

I held up the chair and moved around Yvie. “I’m good!”

I saw my bag on the floor, dropping the chair to grab it and run out the door. I didn’t care if I never found my shoes, I’d go barefoot if I had to. I went down the hallway with Yvie not too far behind me. Another girl popped her head out of a room. She had a massive mop of hair that was crimped and curly dirty blonde. She smiled, coming out of her room to block me, trapping me between her and Yvie.

“What have you got, Yvie?” She giggled.

“I’ve found Beth’s new friend, Millie.” Yvie snickered. “I think I scared her.”

I looked back and forth then scoffed. “You’re both fucking weird!” I pushed my way around Millie, using my bag like a shield. I remember there had been four of them that day, including Beth. So I needed to be ready for the next one to pop out and scare me.

I was in the foyer now, so I could see the front door and my freedom straight ahead. “Run!” Neil’s voice was still in the distance, fading in and out of my conscious mind.

I grabbed hold of the door but I was grabbed around the waist from behind and pulled back. My bag hit the ground and I was set at the foot of the stairs.

“Be nice to her, Adele. We’d hate to return her to Beth bruised.”

Adele was tall, not exactly big but not exactly petite either. She had a lovely face, although I didn’t think any of them were particularly attractive at that moment. She had buzzed, platinum blonde bleached hair with a braided headband wrapped around her skull.

“Beth told us to keep her here,” Adele said. “I was just making sure she didn’t go.”