Chapter 14: The Exit

I looked at the mirror again.

The black door was gone. Just a dark hall and a candle.

"What was that?" I whispered.

"A trick of the light." He held out the sneakers. "Please. I want to show you something."

"It's eleven-fifteen."

"I know what time it is. You'll be in a bed by midnight. I swear it."

I stepped over the boy on his mattress.

Mouse didn't wake. Her ear stayed pressed to the blanket where my ankle had been.

I put on my sneakers in the hall. He held my cardigan open for me.

The pockets were heavy.

He took my hand and we walked.

The house was quiet after eleven. Every guest in a bed, every door shut.

"Where are we going?"

"The master's wing."

"I've seen the master's wing. I've seen your bed. Twice."

"Not this part."

His hand was cold. It was never cold anymore.

We passed the parlor. We passed his bedroom door.

The hall went on farther than I'd ever followed it.

It got narrower. The red carpet ran out and the floor was bare dark boards.

At the very end, there was a tall mirror in a gold frame.

There was nothing behind it but wall.

He stopped in front of it and turned me so I faced the glass.

I could see us both. Me in my sleep shorts and cardigan and sneakers, bun falling down.

Him behind me in his long coat, head on his shoulders, hands on my arms.

He looked like a man at a funeral.

"Close your eyes," he said.

"Why?"

"Trust me for one minute."

I closed my eyes.

He steered me forward one step.

The air got colder against my face.

I put my hands in my cardigan pockets to warm them.

My right hand closed on a cloth bundle. I felt shortbread through the napkin.

My left hand closed on something hard and round. A flashlight. Penny's flashlight from the kitchen.

I stopped walking.

"Keep going," he said softly. "Just a few more steps."

I opened my eyes.

The mirror wasn't a mirror anymore.

It was a doorway, and the black door was right there inside it, standing open.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Accidentally Pregnant with the Horror Boss from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.