Chapter 99. Open Darkness

Chapter 99: Chapter 99. Open Darkness

Chapter 99. Open Darkness

There was no preamble.

"Wait, you are hurting my wrist!" she cried out, but Don wasn’t listening. He dragged her down the long corridor until he finally reached her room. He shoved her inside, keeping the door slightly open. Rosa stumbled, trying to gather her footing. She frowned, her chest heaving. Why the hell is he being so harsh right now? It’s not like I stepped out of line.

She turned around to face him. He stood by the doorframe, staring at the floor, clearly trying to avoid her gaze. A sharp crease cut across his forehead. Closing his eyes, he exhaled a heavy breath. "You are going to remain locked in your room for the rest of the night," he said, his voice flat and unyielding.

She frowned in disbelief. "What?" she exclaimed, stepping closer toward the door. "Wait, what if I need something downstairs?"

He glared at her, the sheer intensity making her flinch. "You wouldn’t possibly need anything downstairs. Everything you want is clearly provided for you here," he said sternly.

Rosa bit her bottom lip, frustration bubbling in her chest.

"I mean it," Don added, his tone sharpening. "I’m going to lock this door. Don’t even attempt to try anything funny."

He began to pull the door shut.

"Wait," she blurted out.

He paused, turning his cold gaze back to her.

"Why?" she asked, her voice tight. "Why does it have to be this way? What’s wrong?"

He glaring down at her. "I’ve already told you—I have wild beasts that go feral every night. Moving along the hallways is extremely dangerous and deadly. You have to remain locked up in here."

Rosa scowled. "Does that make my room any safer? If they break free, do you really think they can’t break in here? What is my room made of—titanium?"

Don stared at her. He faced her fully, tilting his head slightly with a deep frown, blinking once, then twice.

God damn it, he thought to himself, a muscle in his jaw twitching. Just like before—so defiant, so stubborn, never willing to listen. He gritted his teeth. I can’t let her repeat those same mistakes again. I have to learn to control her.

He looked at her for a few long, quiet moments, letting out a sharp exhale. "I’m sorry it has to be this way," he said softly.

He pressed his hand against her shoulder and gave her a shove. She expected a normal push—something that would make her casually stumble backward—but the moment his hand made contact, a force like a powerful shockwave erupted from his fingers, knocking her completely off balance.

She staggered backward into the dim room, but just before he slammed the heavy door shut, her eyes caught something on his outstretched right arm.

She froze, feeling her back slam against the wall on the far side of the room. A second later, the metallic click of the lock disengaged and snapped firmly into place.

She blinked into the quiet room, her mind darting and racing through different possibilities. So many questions. Frustrated, she raked her fingers through her hair. What the fuck? she thought. Her mind raced back to the fleeting image she had caught on his skin. It was a tattoo—a completely different one from the mark on his left hand. The one on his left hand looked like a phoenix, but this one looked like a wolf.

She frowned, raising an eyebrow in confusion. What the hell was that? Why the hell haven’t I noticed that tattoo before?

She raked her fingers through her hair again in clear frustration, clenching her palms tightly together as she looked around the room, wild thoughts spinning through her head. Will I even be able to sleep tonight? She felt tight, constricted, trapped in a cage with no control over anything.

She found herself crashing back against the bed, clutching her hands together. Her mind was racing, completely unable to settle. Her focus stayed fixed entirely on that dark door at the far end of the corridor. If only this room could be teleported to another dimension right now, she thought, clutching the duvet tightly in her fists.

She swallowed hard, her eyes darting frantically across the space to check the clock at the far end of the room. Her heart wouldn’t stop racing, and her nerves felt pulled taut. The walls of the room felt like they were slowly closing in on her. She clenched her palms together, praying for time to move faster.

Time passed in a agonizing blur. She found herself stepping out of bed, pacing back and forth across the floor, sitting by the reading table, pacing again, peering out the dark window, and then finally crashing back down onto the bed. No matter what she did, she couldn’t figure out a single thing to pass the time, and she couldn’t bring herself to sleep.

A few hours later, she busied herself by watching a serial movie on her phone. It wasn’t effective at calming her down, but it did help distract her mind a little bit. She had intentionally set her alarm for a few minutes before midnight so she would be alerted when the trouble and the struggle were about to start.

Just as she was getting into the peak of the movie, the alarm on her phone instantly rang out. She froze, staring at the screen like it was a ticking time bomb. She glanced at the clock to ensure the time was correct, then sat up quickly, tossing her phone to the side.

It’s going to be exactly five minutes to the ferality of the beasts, she thought.

She threw the covers off her legs and sat at the edge of the bed, tapping her fingers frantically against her thighs. Closing her eyes, she breathed in and breathed out.

"You are going to be fine, Rosa," she whispered to herself. "You are going to be fine."

She looked toward the door. I wonder what Mr. Don is doing right now. How the hell is he surviving stepping into that room alone to battle those beasts? She clenched her teeth together, blinking rapidly as she stared at the floor in a daze.

When her second alarm rang, signaling it was midnight, the sound jolted her right off the bed. Her heart raced relentlessly, thudding against her ribs like a sledgehammer. She glanced at the door and stood up quickly, as if waiting for something to burst through the wood at any second.

An absolute silence instantly hit the entire mansion.

It felt so still, like a heavy, suffocating veil had descended and wrapped around the estate, severing it from the world outside and locking it into another dimension where everything felt unnatural. She swallowed hard. The silence was eerie, terrifying in its raw intensity. Her heart wouldn’t stop pounding. She waited, tuning her hearing for the roar that would soon erupt, but none came—except for that skin-crawling silence.

All of a sudden, she caught the flash of lightning outside the window. The clouds outside instantly began to darken. Her eyelids fluttered, her lips shaking. She frowned. Does that mean the rain last night was clearly not normal? Okay, what the fuck is going on right now? Does it mean this phenomenon also attracts the storm?

Her mind was still reeling, trying to put two and two together, when the first loud roar instantly echoed through the building.

It rattled the windows and vibrated the walls with raw power. She jerked where she stood, stumbling backward until her back came into hard contact with the wall. She stared in horror at the door to her room, which was rattling visibly, trembling violently as her heart pounded in her chest.

It has started, she thought.

She stumbled over toward the door and stood before it. The roar continued—loud, insistent, a heavy, deep, brutal growl that felt powerful enough to create sonic waves to shatter the entire building. The fact that it was coming from just down the hall made it even more terrifying. She was terrifyingly close. If those beasts broke free from that room, she was directly in the danger zone.

Her entire body began to vibrate. She felt a sudden, powerful wave erupt and flow through the atmosphere of the house. The walls began to shake, and everything in her room rattled. She saw the lamp on the nightstand vibrate uncontrollably. The bed shivered, and the chandelier hanging above in the large room began to swing left and right like they were caught in an earthquake.

Oh my God, she thought. It’s exactly like last night.

She felt dizzy and confused. Staggering back toward the bed, she collapsed against it, feeling as though she was swaying left and right. She tried to still herself, tried to convince herself that it was only her imagination. After all, when she had stepped outside the building last night, the ground outside clearly wasn’t shaking like this. Does it mean it’s only this building? Does it mean the roar of the beasts is vibrating the entire house from the inside?

Calm down, Rosa, she tried to tell herself. Fucking calm down!

But it was impossible.

The door rattled insistently in front of her. It shook so violently she thought the wood might snap and break down at any minute. She could hear the heavy metallic lock rattling like it was slowly losing its hold, the hinges vibrating uncontrollably. What kind of sheer force could make such a powerful, protective, heavy-duty door shake this much?

Before she could finish her thought, she heard the lock click, snap, and instantly disengage.

The door swung wide open, slamming hard against the outer wall as it stood fully ajar in front of her. Her breath hitched, a soft gasp escaping her lips as she stared into the open darkness.