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Chapter 21

Author: Layo
last update Last Updated: 2024-11-30 05:11:01

RILEY

Fuck. My head was pounding like a jackhammer, each pulse crashing against my skull. I groaned, trying to sit up, but every muscle in my body screamed in protest. What the hell happened?

I forced my eyes open, blinking against the dim light. The smell hit me first—cigarettes, gasoline, and something else. Something human, but unfamiliar. I wasn’t home. I was in the back seat of a car—a moving car. Then it slammed into me.

**Five hours ago.**

A knock echoed through the quiet house. I froze mid-step, a chill running down my spine. Something felt off.

“Silas, I know you’re in there. You can’t keep running from me.”

The voice wasn’t Silas’s. It was deeper, older, and laced with a Southern drawl. Chicago? Maybe. But whoever it was, they didn’t belong here.

My fingers hovered over the key. Every instinct I had screamed at me not to open that door.

Scout barked, his sharp yelp cutting through the silence. Another heavy knock rattled the door.

“I hear the dog. Open up, so
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