Adalyn slowly opened her eyes.
Almost immediately, she wished she hadn't. The ignorance of unconsciousness had been a blissful existence. Now she was forced to face her terrifying reality.
Adalyn realized she was lying on a bed which made her recall the events that had led up to her passing out. Her breathing becoming quick again, Adalyn quickly checked her still damp jeans, hoodie, shirt, and underclothes. Everything was in its rightful place and secured the way it should be. Her ribs were a little sore, but other than that, she didn't have the feeling that she had been violated.
It was then she noticed that someone was standing a few feet away from the bed, cloaked in shadow.
She cried out in fear and pressed herself into the wall next to her. There was no way of knowing if the person was one of her pursuers or not.
The figure very slowly started to approach her.
Adalyn's eyes widened in horror when she saw that the figure was a very tall man dressed in long pants, what used to be a white undershirt, and a ratty green sweater. But the most intimidating part was that he wore a porcelain mask over his entire face that somewhat resembled the doll's she had seen down in the reading room right down to the jagged cracks.
She was pretty sure that none of her pursuers had looked anything like the man before her, but she hadn't exactly gotten a good look at two of them. For all she knew, one of them had borrowed clothes and a mask from somewhere in the house and was now using them to terrorize her.
How had this trip gone so wrong? All she had wanted was a little reward to herself for quitting her horrendous and thankless office job. Instead, she'd been chased, pursued, and nearly assaulted, and now, she was in some kind of sealed off room with a man who looked like a serial killer.
Worst of all, she didn't have the slightest clue where they were. Were they still in the walls? Were they still in the house? Or had he dragged her off to a completely different location?
She wished that she hadn't done a lot of things, but right now, she wished the most that she hadn't passed out.
Adalyn curled herself into a ball and softly whimpered. "Please don't hurt me."
The man stopped walking towards her and just stared at her with a piercing gaze made all the more terrifying by the fact that his eyes were the only things she could see. Then he turned and walked away.
Adalyn let out a shaky breath and tried to determine what she should do now. The best thing would be to leave while the most-likely-a-serial-killer was gone, but the only way out that she could see was the way he had just left and she didn't think it smart to follow after him, especially since she didn't know where she was. She reached into her back pocket and realized her phone was gone. Not that it would have done any good with no service all the way out here.
Barely a minute later before she had time to weigh any other escape plans or find a weapon she could use to defend herself, the man returned, and Adalyn nervously backed up to the far corner of the bed.
The man slowly walked up to her, his hands behind his back. She whimpered again, sure that he was holding a knife and preparing to kill her with it. Once he was standing right next to her, this allowed her to realize just how much he towered over her. Even if she was standing, he would still probably be almost a foot taller than her. Then he moved his right hand which caused Adalyn to flinch.
But to her shock, instead of pulling out a knife like she expected, the man held out a stuffed teddy bear.
Adalyn briefly looked up at his piercing eyes then back at the stuffed animal. "Is this…is this for me?" she asked softly.
The man nodded so slightly that if she hadn't been hyper aware of his movements, she would've missed it entirely.
She slowly reached out and took the teddy bear from his outstretched hand, half-expecting it to be covered in poison or contain a bomb inside or suddenly come to life and bite her face off.
But nothing happened. When she squeezed it, all she could feel was stuffing. It was just a regular teddy bear. And in the middle of her less-than-ideal circumstances, she found that the innocent child's toy brought her more comfort than she would ever admit and squeezed it tightly to her chest.
Either one of her pursuers was trying to lull her into some kind of weird false sense of security, or the man previously lived in this house already and was the one who had opened the door for her and dragged her through the hidden door in the closet. Was all of this supposed to be his way of protecting her from the three guys?
The man slowly held a hand out for her. Adalyn just looked at it and didn't move. Her eyes traveled to his other hand, but she saw that was empty too. After several moments of tense silence, the man still stood there with his hand out. It appeared that he wasn't going to move until she complied.
Clutching the teddy bear with one hand, she very slowly put her other hand into his grimy one. He very gently pulled her off the bed and then slowly led her through the passages. Adalyn tripped a couple times in the darkness, and whenever she did, she could feel the man's hand tighten on hers to keep her from falling. She wasn't sure how he was navigating so well in such little light, but maybe years of living in these passages had allowed him to memorize where to go without thinking about it.
Finally, the man opened a door and walked through it into beautiful natural light. Adalyn found herself exiting right underneath the large staircase and out onto the bottom floor. So she really had still been inside the mansion all this time.
The rain outside had stopped, but it was still depressingly gloomy.
Fitting.
The man led her over to the entrance hallway, and Adalyn gasped in horror when she saw the bodies of the cab driver and one of his creepy friends lying on the ground in large pools of blood. Instinctively clutching the teddy bear tighter, she stepped a little closer to their bodies. The cab driver had been stabbed in the chest with what looked like a fire poker and his neck had been snapped to a disturbing angle. The other body had a massive bruise on his face and something was sticking out of his throat. She couldn't say that she felt any sympathy for either of them after what they'd tried to do to her, but she had never seen a dead body before much less two of them in such gruesome states. She pressed her hand to her mouth as she turned away, feeling like she might throw up.
"There…there were three," she said softly. "Where's the other one?"
The man pointed to the door.
"He…he left?"
The man nodded, and she thought she could see him tense up, like he was mad the last one had gotten away. A small part of Adalyn admitted that she was too.
Her clothing still damp and her hair still wet and now dealing with the horrendous sight before her in addition to that, Adalyn started to tremble and shiver again.
The man suddenly snatched her wrist and began quickly pulling her up the stairs.
"Wait, what are you doing?" she pleaded. "Stop!"
She tried to yank her wrist out of his grasp, but he was far stronger than her. Barely able to keep up with his long strides, he dragged her through the halls until she found herself in a fancy bathroom. The man released her wrist and pointed to the tub.
"What?" Adalyn asked shakily.
The man turned on the water for the shower.
"You…want me to take a shower?"
He nodded.
Adalyn's eyes watered, thinking of a million reasons why the most-likely-a-serial-killer would want her to bathe, none of them pretty. "Why?"
The man lightly rubbed his own forearms like he was trying to warm himself up.
"Because…because I'm cold?"
He nodded again.
Adalyn didn't know if he was capable of having such an innocent reason for her to bathe, and while a hot shower did sound amazing, she wasn't sure it was such a good idea to do that in this house with only him here. "I don't…I don't have anything to change into."
He took her hand, much gentler than before, and led her out of the bathroom and into the main bedroom she had tried to hide in earlier. Then he went inside the closet where he'd first grabbed her and took a long-sleeved black dress off one of the hangars and held it out for her.
Adalyn knew it probably wasn't a good idea to say 'no' to him, but there was no way she was wearing something so…easily accessible with him around. "What about pants…and a shirt…instead?"
His eyes looked disappointed, but all the same, he dropped the dress onto the floor and gave her a pair of jeans and a gray t-shirt instead.
Adalyn slowly took the clothes from him, thankful that he'd heeded her request. "I guess I'll…go take a quick shower then."
She left the bedroom and slipped back inside the bathroom that already had steam filling it from the running shower and closed the door behind her. Finally alone, Adalyn released a deep breath, then set down the teddy bear and peeled off her damp clothing and muddy Converse shoes. She stepped inside the shower and allowed the scalding hot water to run over her chilled body.
The events of the last few hours caught up to her, and Adalyn sank to her knees and softly cried. She had absolutely no idea what was going to happen now. The masked man seemed to only want to help her, but how far was that help going to go? Would the most-likely-a-serial-killer let her leave now that she had dry clothes on? Would he let her call someone? Who even was he? Why did he wear a mask? Why did he live inside the walls of the house when he was in this giant mansion all by himself?
She had so many questions, and she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to any of them.
Adalyn felt sick again when she recalled seeing the two brutally murdered bodies in the foyer. She wanted to believe that they'd been killed in self-defense, but something told her that wasn't true. Had the man been so brutal with them because he'd been angered about what they were going to do to her, or was he simply a loose cannon who flew off the handle and murdered anyone who set foot in the house? And if that was the case, what was to stop him from murdering her too?
Adalyn wasn't sure how long she stayed in the shower. Part of her never wanted to get out, feeling somewhat safe in here where she was alone, but the other part felt exposed and wanted to get some clothes on as fast as possible. She wasn't sure if the man would get impatient and come inside to hurry things along, and she'd rather not have that happen.
A little reluctantly, she turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. A towel sat in one of the cabinets, so she pulled it out and dried herself off before dressing into the jeans and shirt, trying not to focus too much on how they fit her almost perfectly.
She then opened the bathroom door, expecting to see the man waiting for her, but he wasn't in the hallway or in the bedroom. After picking up her damp clothes, her muddy shoes, and the teddy bear, she slowly stepped back into the hallway.
"Hello?" she called quietly.
She could hear movement downstairs and slowly walked down the huge staircase. Halfway down the landing, she looked at the large portrait hanging on the wall of a man, woman, and a young boy. They all looked so serious. She wondered who they were. Previous owners of the mansion? Had they known a man was living inside the walls while they lived here, or had they lived here before then?
Adalyn walked down the rest of the stairs and to her surprise, she noticed that the bodies that had previously been lying on the floor of the entranceway were gone. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what happened to them.
She avoided the massive pools of blood left behind and walked into the tiny kitchen where the man stood against the counter. "Um…"
He quickly turned around at the sound of her voice.
"Do you have a dryer I can put these in?"
He tilted his head.
"Never mind, I'll…just let them air-dry."
Adalyn laid the clothes out on the two chairs at the end of the small table and set the shoes onto the ground. She'd have to buy new ones at some point. They were pretty much damaged beyond repair after her run in the forest.
The man glanced at the teddy bear she still clutched in her hand.
Right now, it was the only thing that helped her feel like maybe he didn't intend to harm her.
He turned back to the counter, picked up a tray, and set it down at the head of the table. On it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into two triangles and a glass of milk. She was more of a ham and cheese person, but that seemed like something she shouldn't say out loud.
Somewhat confused at the gesture, Adalyn looked up at him.
"Eat."
Adalyn's eyes widened at the only word she'd heard him speak this entire time. But more surprising was that he spoke with the voice of a child. She didn't know if that was somehow his regular voice or if for some bizarre reason, he was just imitating the voice of a child, but she slowly sat down onto the chair in front of the tray.
She looked down at the food before her and wondered if he had poisoned or drugged it. But…if he'd wanted to have his way with her, he could've done so while she was unconscious in his bed.
Still, she picked up one of the sandwich halves and discreetly sniffed it. Not smelling anything abnormal, she slowly took a bite. It was then she realized how hungry she truly was, not having eaten anything but a protein bar that morning for a quick breakfast.
The man slowly walked around the table and took a seat in the chair to her right.
Adalyn didn't mean for tears to come to her eyes (she'd thought she'd cried herself out in the shower), but they did all the same and she couldn't stop them. She was in a truly bizarre and terrifying situation and the multiple unknowns surrounding it were just too much for her to bear.
The man reached a hand out, and she instinctively flinched. He stopped when she moved but then reached out again and lightly brushed away one of her tears. He looked at his hand, as if he didn't understand why she was crying.
Her wet hair and the chilly house making her feel cold, Adalyn started to shiver once again and rubbed her bare arms. She hoped that this wouldn't make the man force her to go take a shower again.
Instead of grabbing her wrist, the man got up from the table and left the kitchen. After a few tense minutes, he returned and held out a salt-and-pepper colored sweater for her.
"For me?" she asked.
He nodded.
Adalyn had no idea when that thing had been washed last which meant if she wore it, the shower would be rendered pretty much useless. But she didn't want to decline his offer, so she took the sweater from him and put it on. It was huge on her, going well past her hands and reaching her thighs, and it didn't smell great, but at least it was warm.
The man sat down at the table again and took a crumped piece of paper out of his sweater pocket. Then he unfolded it and lay it flat next to her.
Adalyn looked at what was written on the paper. It was a set of rules.
Rule #1: No Guests.
Rule #2: Never Leave Brahms Alone.
Rule #3: Save Meals in Freezer.
"Brahms?" Adalyn noticed. "Is that your name?"
The man nodded.
What kind of parents named their poor child Brahms in the 21st century?
"I'm…Adalyn. Spelled A-D-A-L-Y-N. Kind of a weird name, I know. I guess we have that in common. Un-Unless you like your name, in which case, forget I said anything."
He pulled out another piece of paper and set it next to the first. This one appeared to be a strict schedule.
7am-8am – Wake and Dress Brahms.
8am-9am – Breakfast.
9am-10am – Physical Exercise.
"Oh, I…I can't stay," she told him.
The man's eyes quickly hardened.