Page 143 of Wicked Little Secret
Where the hell am I?
My head pounds as I search my mind for the last traces of memory.
I was following Heather. She was headed to see Professor Adler and then…
A choked gasp pours out of me. I stare wide-eyed at the limestone walls, recalling how Professor Adler had grabbed me from behind and whispered into my ear.
“I know everything there is to know about you,” he told me, gripping my waist. “I told Miss Eurwen about Driscoll meeting me. I knew she’d tell you. And I knew you couldn’t resist.”
My legs gave out at the sharp prick of something lodged into my neck. A needle of some kind?
Almost immediately, things started to fade.
“Believe me when I say, Miss Oliver… we’re about to get to know each other exceptionally well.”
I cover my face with both hands and let the gravity of my situation sink in.
Professor Adler has taken me captive.
This must be one of the secret rooms he had once mentioned existed on campus.
“Castlebury was built centuries ago,” he said with a wondrous glance at the chain-link chandelier that hung from the ceiling. “Back when it was fashionable to have bookcases that led to other rooms and hidden dwellings underground. Many still exist today…”
I leap off the bed, arrowing straight toward the single, solitary door that’s next to the row of bookcases. I step right into a glass divider that is invisible up until I collide with it. Staggering back a couple steps, I blink at the structure that’s blocked my path.
A glass wall that divides the half of the room I’m trapped in with the other half of the room where the bookcases and door are.
Standing up close, I can see how the light reflects off the see-through wall. But from my bed, it was undetectable. Glass so fine and thin it’s basically invisible unless you’re close enough to touch it.
My hand extends toward it, fingertips tracing over its delicate surface.
There appears to be no opening. No way in or out.
How did Professor Adler put me inside here?
“Help!” I start to scream. I pound a fist against the glass. “Anyone there? Can anyone hear me? HELP!”
Frustration boils up inside me fast. I go from a pound at the glass to slamming my fists against it one after another. Pain radiates through my knuckles and up the rest of my arm. Yet I beat the other fist against the glass in hopes it’ll finally be the hit that cracks the surface.
For as thin and fragile as it appears, it’s nothing of the sort once I’m smashing into it. I’m making no headway whatsoever.
Not even the slightest crack.
Breath sputters out of me as fatigue sets in and I take an exhausted step back. My eyes scan the length of the glass that stretches floor-to-ceiling, then I let out a frustrated cry.
Why would he ever put me in here? Is he planning on returning? Will he kill me like he’s done so many others?
I bang my head into the glass, resting my forehead against its smooth surface.
I’ve worked for years at my plan. Strategized and studied every minute detail. Devised backup plans to the backup plans and alternatives in case things ever went sideways.
And yet never once did I ever plan forthis.
For Theron Adler to trap me in some secret room behind a glass wall.
Is this how Mom met her end?
Had Professor Adler trapped her in here before he murdered her?