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Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?

It must be because it’s unbecoming of the harshness of the room and the situation.

I turn back to ask if this is really where I’m supposed to stay, but the door slams shut in my face. Then the key turns in the lock with a swift click.

It all happens so fast it takes me a few seconds to register that he’s just locked me in here.

Prison. He’s going to keep me prisoner in here.

“Hey!” I call out. I don’t bother to hide the panic in my voice.

It’s one thing to ask me to wait in here, but to lock me in?

Fuck, this isn’t happening.

“Let me out!”

No answer. Just the sound of muffled footsteps walking away. I even hear when the footsteps track back to the stairs and the asshole makes his descent.

“Shit.” I slam a fist into the door, then defeat takes me and I slump against it.

Tears threaten to fall, each one stinging the backs of my eyes. But I hold back.

I can’t cry now.

If I do, I won’t stop.

Damn it.

Think. I have to think.

I don’t know where to start, but I have to think and, most importantly, not fall apart.

“Jesus, Papa. What the fuck did you do this time?”

Whatever fate awaits me with Lev Karsavin relies heavily on the answer to that.

I suppose I have to deal with him next, and all I can do right now is wait.

I lift my head and look around, taking in the walls and the chair and the barrenness. Who keeps a room like this in their house?

It makes me think this could be where they interrogate people before they decide their end.

They. I don’t know if this is a family home or just Lev’s house.

Again, trivial information that neither helps nor matters to me.

Wait. Maybe it does matter.

It’s a location. Something my family may not yet know. If I could miraculously find a way out of here, I could get to a phone booth and call home.

But how would I even get out of here?

A rough sigh huffs out of me. The how isn’t my only problem. This house is going to be heavily guarded inside and out.

Slumping against the wall, I think long and hard while the minutes roll by. I go over the layout of the house from what I’ve seen so far. The woods keep popping up in my mind. The grounds of the estate looked massive, and the two minutes I spent moving from the car to the house didn’t give me a full picture, but perhaps the cover of night could be on my side.

Maybe it could work. Maybe.