My Last Breath (Book one of The Portal Series)

Nothing Will Ever Go As Planned. CHAPTER TEN

Scampering throughout the building is just as frightening as day time, even though almost every hallway we go through is completely vacant. The darkness eats away at me, causing me to second guess my hearing. Without sunlight to depend on for lighting, the halls only have a dim bulb once and a while so people can find their way at night.

The girls continue to peak around corners even after I admitted I have a strange sense of hearing that would sound out anything from a mile away. So far our experience has been almost too easy, only once do we become extra cautious passing a room because there were people talking on the other side of the closed door. Now, we are practically to our destination according to Lynn after we found the staircase that leads to the basement floor at the back of the building.

Down here is much colder and creepier, especially because the lights are almost non existent. I assume they were not cared for because only certain people go down here. From what Lynn has said, this area is off limits for half of the building staff. It makes me wonder what types of secrets are kept down in these shadows.

"Go left," Lynn instructs. "The kitchen is the room at the end of that hall."

Without a doubt I stop them from going any further, "Don't move."

I hear a step on tile floor, then something metal being placed down, a handle being turned and water running down and hitting the metal. Someone is in the kitchen washing dishes. I ignore them for some time, making sure they're the only person in this wing of the basement. With nothing more than that one person I add, "There is somebody in the kitchen, but that's the only one in this hallway."

"What are we going to do now?" Estelle appears to be completely terrified by the way she stands, almost hiding behind Lynn.

I'm fearful as well, even more when Lynn announces, "Why don't we just go in there anyway..."

Suddenly without anything more the man's footsteps get louder and I hear him step out of the doorway. A voice booms from only feet away, "What are you doing here?"

Time seems to go by faster than a blink of an eye and before I know it the man is gripping my arm hard and attempting to drag me down the hallway back to where the three of us came from. He laughs at us, "Looks like I found our little run away red head, it's time for you to be brought back to your room."

He ignores Estelle and Lynn while I try to pull free from his grip. My energy is at an all time low and so he can practically drag me with him. Lynn catches up to us and I catch a glimpse of her reaching for the man's pocket. She gives me a dull smile as Estelle from behind her whispers, "No..."

It's the perfect plan but I never thought it would come to this. I watch Lynn run off, waving the keys at the Hunter, "I have your keys..." He begins realizing what that means and slowly lets me pull from his grasp. "Give me those!"

Lynn is gone within a millisecond, running as fast as a race horse, already gone around the corner and is booming up the staircase we came from. The hunter doesn't waste a single moment before forgetting about me and going after her. His voice echoes throughout the hallway, "Tenants have escaped! The redhead is found! The kitchen! The kitchen!"

Forgetting about him is now what I have to do, and focus on getting Estelle and I out of here even if that means Lynn will be left behind. So with adrenaline coursing throughout my body I'm already in the doorway of the kitchen, checking Estelle behind me who is breathing heavily and looking over her shoulder.

I take the keys from her hands as she fumbles through the room. Leaving Lynn behind is the last thing I wanted to do but I still end up finding the door we planned to escape through and start fiddling with the keys. They're labelled by floor and room number, so I turn back around finding the room number on he door and searching for it on a key. I find the one and before I make my great escape I decide to shut the kitchen door and lock it from the inside, giving us more time before any Hunters figure out what is happening.