Loopholes

You're Next

Grant awakened to the sound of water drops hitting hard surface. His neck was crooked, his hands numb from the tightly tied rope around his wrists. His head was spinning and he wasn't sure whether it was a déjà-vu or indeed happening over and over again. 

He kept awakening to strangely shaped shadows moving around him, lights flickering on dark blue walls, the corners of the box-shaped room he was held in closing down on him. 

Weird noises surrounded him, too high and scratchy on his ears, he didn't understand a word. It didn't take long until he subconsciously realized that he was hallucinating, though he was more confused than anything. 

A loud click of a closing door took him by surprise and he tried his best to keep his eyes open and focused on the person in white clothing walking toward him. He recognised the blonde hair shaping the soft features of his ex-girlfriend that was missing for two whole years. 

"Darcy?" he asked, feeling as if he was about to puke from the nausea. Was she an illusion, too? Darcy's face just wouldn't focus in front of him, though she was so close, her arms on his knees and her face looking up at him. 

"Grant, I'm so sorry," Grant heard her say. Her voice was too loud, probably an effect of whatever had been making him feel this way. 

"It's okay, it's not your fault she caught me," he said as a whisper. He wanted to look around more, find a way to save them both, though he was on the verge of blacking out again. 

"No, it's my fault," Darcy's voice ringed in his ear, "I didn't have a choice. She was threatening to hurt my family."

"What do you mean?" Grant asked, confused. 

"I had to choose," she said, her grip on his knees getting tighter, "between you and my family."

"What?"

"I," Darcy interrupted herself as the door behind her was opened again and continued with a whisper, "I chose you to be the next. I'm so sorry."