CHAPTER 20

We run toward the front gate just to find out that it’s locked. Dante had used his gun to open it, three hours ago. And now there’s a massive chain rolled several times keeping it shut again. The bright metal – stainless steel, maybe – shines in the dark.

“Alright, move away”, Tasha states, pushing Alice behind her shoulders and aiming the gun. Bang, clink clink and then silence. Just the creepy sound of the mansion burning down behind our back. Tasha blinks her eyelids and loads the gun one more time. She aims at the chain.

Bang, clink clink and then silence.

“Shit”, she hisses and inhales a sharp, frustrated breath.

Cassandra wraps her arms around her chest, tightly, and looks at the gate. It must be at least six feet high, and the same goes for the whole railings. This is not good.

“Let’s climb over it”, Shane proposes throwing a glance at me.

Alice shakes her head firmly.

“No, wait a second. We didn’t pass by this gate when they took us here. We drove by another entrance, didn’t we?”, and she points at the vast and full garden on the left. I watch the trees rocking in the wind with their whispering, rustling sounds.

“Yeah we did”, Tasha nods, narrowing her eyes, “There must be another exit beyond that garden”.

“Are you sure?”, Dante asks them. His voice sounds alarmingly fatigued and his breath is now constantly uneven.

“Yeah”, Tasha nods again, firmly.

He scratches his forehead pensively.

“Alright. Let’s go then”.

“No”, I say abruptly, almost unconsciously, with my eyes still fixed on that uncultivated garden that looks like a wood. The kind of wood where you can find wolves in sheep’s clothing. It looks dangerous to me.

Shane brushes my back slightly. I can feel the delicate pressure of her fingers on my shirt.

“Carm, it’s the only way out. We better not try to climb over that gate, Al is right. Cass is pregnant and Tasha’s wrist is broken, and Dante is injured”.

“No, no”, I reply immediately, shaking my head, “You don’t understand, Shane. We mustn’t go there”.

And Samuel is before my eyes, in my mind, like a tangible memory.