Shit. Is this hell?Maybe. But if it is, this would still be a better life than the one I had before.
Peace and quiet. I float in the darkness, my mind blinking in and out. I’m weightless. There’s no pain.
Something rattles near me.What is that?
Whatever it is, I can’t see it, but I know it’s there. Engulfed in the darkness, I lift my arms, feeling the space around me until I find something hard. Something warm and alive.
But how? How can I have arms to feel? How does something feel alive? I’m dead,aren’t I?
My head spins, a headache beginning at the front of my skull. The pain gets stronger with every beat of my heart. A drumline of thuds.Kah-thunk. Kah-thunk.
My heart? My heartbeat? Oh, God, I’m alive? Like, really alive?
The light I’d seen flashes ahead of me, blinking in and out of existence until it flashes so brightly, I curl into myself. It finally gives way, and my eyes open.
Well, shit. I’m alive.
I recoil in pain. Suddenly, as my mind discovers I’m still among the living, so does my entire body. Aches reach every cell I’m made of. I’m afraid to move, but I have to. I can’t lie here forever.
One by one, I will my muscles to move. I start with my little toe, then I wiggle my feet. It hurts so bad, but I keep going, moving my legs and my knees, then my hip. It’s as if my entire body is rebooting.
“Fuck,” I groan.
Everything hurts. Absolutely everything. Even my hair follicles.
Peeling my eyelids open, I blink and squint against the light.
It takes a few seconds for my vision to finally clear. Okay, this is not hell, but where the hell am I?
I’ve never seen this room before. It’s small. The walls are bare and stark white. No photos. No posters. Nothing.Oh, fuck.
I crane my neck, ignoring the way it cracks in the process, and notice a small desk near a wooden door. With a shift of my shoulder, I inch myself up. The softness cradling me is a bed. A mattress that has to be the closest thing to Heaven I’d ever felt. My fingers splay across the soft black sheets.
A soft snore comes from behind me.
I’m not alone.
My body reacts before I even realize what I’m doing. Shooting from the bed, I stumble on unsteady legs, wobbling until my knees hit the carpet. I don’t dare look back. My fight or flight response has taken over. With no fight left in me, I can only run. Run and pray that what I find on the other side of that door isn’t the Screwballs, or any of their associates. On all fours, I crawl toward it. My blood thrums inside my throbbing head with each move I make. Reaching up, I take the doorknob in my hand, surprised to find it unlocked when I turn it.
“Boo?” A voice calls out from behind me. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” Two arms curl around my waist, pulling me into a warm embrace. A hard chest presses flat against my back as I freeze in terror. “Boo, baby, it’s me. Look at me, honey. You’re safe.”
Priest’s voice is soft and warm, but I shake my head, not willing to be fooled. “This isn’t real. It’s a dream, or a vision. You’re dead. I’m dead.”
“Shh,” he whispers in my ear, rocking my body gently as his nose presses to the crook of my neck. “You’re not dead, sweetheart, and neither am I. You saved us, honey. You called Judge, and you fucking saved us.”
I shift, my muscles screaming, but I need to see him. I need to know this is real.
Priest’s soft eyes stare down at me. His wounds are fresh, but bandages and stitches replace the blood he’d been covered in since the day I first saw him. But it’s him. A cleaned-up version of the man in the cells. My friend.
“I promise, honey, this is all real.”
I stare at him for far too long before asking, “Where are we?”
“My room at our clubhouse.”
“Your clubhouse,” I say, repeating his words back to him.
They came. I didn’t imagine it. The Black Hoods really came to save us.