“Keela... Help me.”
I opened my eyes and sat upright from my laid down position. I wasn't in my bedroom, or even in my apartment. I was somewhere I had been before, but I couldn't identify where. It was a collection of hallways with a number of closed doors.
Fear gripped me, and I began to breathe hard as I stood up.
“Keela?”
The voice was in my ear urging me for help, begging me with each faint breath. It caused my heart to speed up. I spun around in a circle to see who needed me, but found no source of the voice.
“Where are you?” I shouted.
I heard a male cry out, and it frightened me. I knew that cry, but I couldn't think of who it belonged to. My mind was a cloud of confusion.
I started to run through the darkened hallways. I turned left then right then left again as I zoomed down the hallways in search of the person calling out for me. Each hallway wall was identical to the next, and I wasn't sure if I took a wrong turn and was somehow back to where I was when I opened my eyes. Everything was horrifyingly similar to me. I knew I walked these hallways before, but I couldn't remember when or why.
I screeched when the cream coloured hallway walls surrounding me began to change colour. I tilted my head to the side and watched as blood trails appeared on the walls in the form of human handprints. It looked like someone had placed their bloody hand on the wall and leisurely walked down the hallway smearing the deep red liquid along the way.
I screamed with fright and began to run again.
“Keela?” the voice from before shouted out.
It came from every direction like there was surround sound in the hallway.
“Who are you?” I screamed in dismay. “Where are you?”
Suddenly everything went deathly silent.
The only sound I could pick up on was that of my own hasty breathing.
I stopped moving and listened.
After a few moments of absolute silence, I heard a lock click. The sound sent vibrations through the floor under my feet, and for a moment I thought I would fall over with the force of it. The vibrations stopped as quickly as they started, and I managed to regain my balance. The creak and whine of a door being opened filled my ears seconds later and I whirled around to see who or what was behind it. I squinted my eyes when a door down the end of the hallway opened wide, but all I could see inside was darkness.
“Wh-who's there?” I called out, my voice aquiver.
I heard a male whine, then a metallic click sound—it was one that I was familiar with. It was the sound of the hammer of a gun being pulled back.
I swallowed down the bile that threatened to spew up my throat at that moment.
“Keela?” a familiar female voice whispered from behind me. “You have to help Alec.”
Alec?
I spun around, but like before, there was no one there.
“Alec?” I called out.
“Keela!” his voice screamed.
I felt myself fall into a panic when I recognised it was Alec's voice I'd heard earlier. His voice was the voice filled with pain and fear that was calling out to me for help minutes before.
“Where are you?” I screamed.
“In there, you have to help him,” the female voice whispered in my ear as I turned to the door that lead into darkness. Without a single thought I began to run towards the dark room, but no matter how fast I ran, the room never got any closer to me.
I screamed and jumped back with fright when a shadowy figure appeared in front of me. I fell onto my behind and screeched in terror when the figure shot forward and got in my face.
I could only see glowing silver eyes, no face or features.
“Alec will die unless you stop her,” the figure before me whispered.
“Stop who?” I screamed.
The figure faded away to nothing and I once again had a view of the darkened room, only it wasn't dark anymore. It was lit up, and Alec was in the middle of the room on his knees reaching out for me, but his head was bowed. I blinked and when I focused my eyes the shadow figure re-appeared, but it was now standing behind Alec.
“Stop her, Keela!” the female voice screamed at me from every direction. “Fight to save him!”
I gasped when the figure lifted its arm and pointed the object in its hand at Alec's bowed head. I squinted my eyes to see what it was and when the silver barrel of a gun caught my eye I jumped to my feet. I screamed for Alec to watch out as I ran towards him. This time when I ran towards the room it got closer, but even at my fastest sprint I still wasn't quick enough.
“Alec!” I screamed when a loud noise ripped through the hallway and rang in my ears.
The gun went off and Alec's body fell limp to the floor at the same time the door of the room slammed shut. I reached the door a second later and crashed into it. I felt no physical pain as I bounced off the door and fell back onto the floor. I could feel nothing over the gripping pain in my chest, and the tears streaming down my face.
I got back to my feet and tried to open the door, but the doorknob wouldn't turn. I slapped on the door with both of my hands and kicked it with my feet, but to no avail. It was locked tight.
“Keela?” another familiar voice spoke to me from behind.
I turned around and gasped.
Nico, Ryder, Damien, and Kane were stood before me.
“You have to help—”
“Why didn't you save our brother, Keela?” Damien cut me off.
I blinked. “I tried—”
“You let Alec die. You let our brother die,” Nico cut me off as he glared at me.
I began to pant as I took a small step backwards, however I bumped into the door I'd ruthlessly tried to open only seconds before.
“I ran. I tried to—”
“You let him die because you don't want him, you don't want his life,” Ryder cut me off.
His voice was a growl.
“No!” I began to whimper. “I love Alec, I want him. Please, help me help him.”
Kane clicked his tongue at me. “He loved you, Keela. He wanted to marry you, and you let him die. Why?”
I closed my eyes.
“Why didn't you want our brother?”
“Why didn't you save him?”
“Why didn't you love him?”
“Why, Keela?”
I placed my hands over my ears and screamed to block out the voices of the Slater brothers, but I heard each of them clearly in my head.