Page 148 of Where the Snakes Sleep

The beam cuts across glass enclosures.

Movement flickers behind one—one of the snakes shifting in response to the disturbance. Normally the sight would steal half my attention. Tonight, I barely register it.

Camille grips the sides of my face.

The contact shocks me after days of him waiting for permission before touching me, but there is no intimacy in it now. Only desperate focus. “Listen carefully.”

My pulse pounds. “I’m listening.”

“When I leave this room, lock this door behind me.”

I shake my head.

“Ryan.”

“I heard you.”

“Then tell me you understand.”

My throat tightens. “I lock the door.”

He turns me slightly and points across the lab toward the far end, where another door sits partly obscured behind storage cabinets and equipment. “The exterior door.”

My eyes follow the beam of the flashlight. “What about it?”

“Check it as soon as I leave. Make certain it is locked.”

“Okay.”

“There is a manual deadbolt above the electronic mechanism. Use it.”

I stare at him. The entire conversation has started sounding horribly final.

“A-and then what?” My voice trembles.

“You stay here.”

“No.”

“Ryan.”

“No, you don’t get to lock me in a room full of snakes and go play action hero by yourself.”

His expression tightens. “I am not playing anything.”

That shuts me up.

Somewhere beyond the lab walls, there is another heavy sound.

“If you hear gunshots, you do not come looking for me.”

Everything inside me drops. “What?”

“If you hear anything that sounds like gunfire, you open the exterior door and run.”

“No, w-w—”

“You run away from the house, toward the tree line. Do not go toward your cottage.”