Before He Wakes by Mark Allan Gunnells & Crystal Lake Publishing

Author:Mark Allan Gunnells & Crystal Lake Publishing [Gunnells, Mark Allan & Publishing, Crystal Lake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, QuarkXPress, epub
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Published: 2021-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

Venturing Out

Patrick awoke suddenly, his head snapping up. There was no moment of blissful disorientation when he thought he was in his bed in the dorm, his biggest worry being that he might be late for class. He knew instantly where he was and how dire his circumstances were.

Clare slept next to him, her head still on his shoulder. His entire body felt like one big cramp, though the worst of the stiffness and pain resided in his neck and lower back. He gently pushed the girl to the side so that she slumped against door, her chin touching her chest. He rose slowly, his muscles feeling atrophied, as if he’d been immobile in a coma for months or years, his joints creaking like rusty hinges. His left arm was partially numb, beginning to buzz with the pinprick sensation as blood returned to the limb. He turned his head far to one side then the other, trying to work out the soreness. His spine felt compacted, an accordion that had been squeezed in. He walked down two steps and stretched his arms straight overhead.

“How long were we asleep?” Clare asked from behind him.

Patrick turned to see her massaging her own neck. “I don’t know,” he said, which was true. They could have been asleep for fifteen minutes or fifteen hours; it was simply impossible to tell. However, he felt rested and his stomach so empty that he found himself regretting that all the dog food was now on the other side of the door, suggesting they’d been asleep for a while.

Long enough for the poison to have worked?

Bounding back up to the landing, he placed his ear to the door. Only quiet greeted him. He forced himself to wait at least five minutes. Still nothing but silence. He tried to temper the hope that bubbled up like carbonation in a shaken soda by reminding himself that before he and Clare had opened the basement door, alerting the dog to their presence, they’d not heard a peep from the animal. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Patrick balled a fist and held it up, preparing to knock on the door, but Clare grabbed him by the wrist, staying his hand. “What if he’s out there?” she hissed.

“That’s what we need to find out. If the poison didn’t work, we need to know. If I bang on the door, if the dog is still standing it will come running and barking. Then we’ll know we have to go back to the drawing board.”

“No, not the dog. Him. Big Daddy. What if he came back while we were sleeping?”

Patrick considered this for a moment, and then shook his head. “No way. Even if the dog isn’t dead, he’d have seen the bucket and the spilled dog food out in the hallway. He’d already know we were out of our cells.”

Clare maintained her grip on his wrist another moment before letting go. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“But we don’t know when he might be back, which is why we need to move as fast as we can.

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