Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Eric and I went in with our backs to each other and guns aimed outward. There was a dark hallway that curved, cutting off our line of sight. We crept toward it. My heart raced. All I wanted to do was bolt ahead, crash through every shut door until I found Tristan. I wanted to take him into my arms and tell him it would be okay, that I had him. That’s all I wanted to do, but I fought that urge, my muscles straining with every small step Eric and I took, creeping deeper into the darkness.
Still no sounds. Was Tristan knocked out? Were we walking toward a trap?
No time to figure it out. Just had to act. Had to keep inching forward. It was getting harder to see the deeper we got into the hall. Eric tapped me on my shoulder and pointed in two directions. There was a closed door to my right and left. He motioned with his chin toward the one on the right. I signaled to the left.
We started to branch off. The silence only seemed to get louder, growing to a static roar inside my head. Maybe Tristan wasn’t knocked out; maybe the Midnight Chemist had already pumped him with toxins.
It felt like my heart was seconds from bursting through my chest. I put a hand on the cold doorknob and used that arm to steady the one holding the gun. I looked over my shoulder, seeing Eric’s outline in the darkness. He nodded.
We both threw our doors open. I aimed my gun and scanned the empty room from corner to corner. There was a slanted window that let in some light, highlighting a cloud of dust motes floating through the air. A dirty and uncovered mattress was pushed up against the wall. That’s when I noticed the chain that hung down and snaked onto the mattress, heavy bolts securing it to the wall.
But no Tristan.
“Anything?” I shouted to Eric.
“There’s a rug here—hold on, yeah, I found something.”
I cleared my room and went to Eric, standing next to him as we looked down at a trapdoor, open to reveal a flimsy set of wooden stairs. A lightbulb hung on an exposed wire. There was a blue and purple glow that came from somewhere in the basement, past the dim yellow light of the flickering bulb.
“Tristan?” I called out, already knowing our presence would have been heard. “Tristan?”
No one responded. Only the unending silence.
“I’m going down,” I said. “Stay up here and make sure no one sneaks up behind me.”
“Shout if you need help.”
I started down the stairs. The first one bent under my step, the next one doing the same. They protested with loud creaks. The lightbulb swung gently above my head from the cool draft.
I stepped off the last step, shocked by what I saw.
Wall to wall, sitting on plastic picnic tables, were huge tanks holding what appeared to be clown fish, swimming under the neon blue and purple tank lights. In the tanks were also anemones, which appeared to be glowing an almost nuclear green because of the lights. There was one table that looked much sturdier, set in the center of the room, sinister-looking arm and leg straps hanging off the edges. One appeared to have been torn off, sitting on the dirt-covered floor. The sound of the water filtration systems bubbled and gurgled, but no sounds of a hostage.
And no sight of Tristan, either.
Next to the table, there was a standing tray that held a variety of different syringes and surgical tools. I ran a hand over my mouth, the shock of this moment filtering in.
We’d found the Midnight Chemist’s lab, but we didn’t find Tristan. That meant he was still out there, at the hands of this twisted fuck, and I had no more leads. This lead should have been a case closer.
Instead, it felt like I’d run face-first into another dead end. My heart plummeted. Dropped from the height of a skyscraper, smashing onto the pavement.
“You should come down,” I said to Eric as I leaned against a wooden post.
The loud creaks of the stairs sounded before Eric said, “Holy fucking shit.”
He looked around, the same shock I felt flashing across his face. He let his gun drop to his side as he walked up to the tanks. There had to have been at least fifteen of them, creating a wall of bubbling blue. The sound was oddly serene compared to the morbid row of full syringes.
“This had to be where the killings took place,” Eric said. “But where the hell is Tristan?”
I rubbed my forehead. Took a breath. Tried to steady my rabid heartbeat. “I don’t know. He should have been here, unless the Midnight Chemist somehow figured out we were on our way and ran before we got here.”