I was led down the hall at a rapid pace. My heart beat faster with every single step that I took. I tried not to walk too quickly. I didn't want to give away that I knew where I was going. We were headed straight for Alexander's office.

  We were almost there. I could see the purple office door up ahead. I pushed forward, slipping past the guard. He reached out to grab me and pull me back.

  "Please! I can't waste any time!" I cried, pulling away from him. I charged forward, towards the door. Without hesitation, I flung it open. I stopped in my tracks. A smell filled my nose, a kind of clean, damp scent. I’m not really sure how to describe it. The one thing I knew for sure was that I had smelled the scent somewhere before.

  But no memory came to my mind. The only thing I could think of was the color purple. I have no clue why the smell made me think of that color, but it did. Alexander sat in his room on the floor. He wasn’t doing anything. He was simply sitting there in the empty room, staring at the wall. He looked up as I entered and frowned at me.

  For a moment he just blinked and squinted at me. Was he having trouble focusing? It seemed to take a few minutes before he was able to process that I was standing in front of him. Was he stunned? If so, that made things even easier.

  I couldn't waste another second standing here and thinking. I flung the door closed, just as the guard was reaching it. Thank goodness there was a lock. The guard began yelling and pounding on the door. Only then did Alexander seem to understand that something was happening.

  He blinked. Then his face changed and he got to his feet. But he was instantly knocked back to the ground by me. I pulled out the knife and leaped at him. I got one slash in. Just on the cheek. I couldn’t kill him, not yet, just a little longer. Now, I lifted the dripping knife to my own neck and turned to face the still dazed face of Alexander.

  “If I die, Tiffany won’t do anything for you ever again. If you don’t give me the key to Tiffany’s room, I’ll do it! I will. Key! Now!” I pressed the knife into my skin, till I felt it sting. “I swear I will!” Oh, I hoped Tiffany had found the map and looked over it carefully. I heard footsteps dashing down the hallway. The guard had gone, probably looking for backup. I had to hurry.

  “You aren’t going to do that.” his voice sounded different. Maybe it was just that he was talking faster, but it sounded as if he was struggling to get the words out. Like it was actually painful. I smiled. I hoped it hurt as much as it seemed to be.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “I will! I’m going to start counting now!”

  “No you won’t do that to your sister not after what she’s been through you won’t leave her all alone what will she have without you?” A chill ran down my spine. What? What did he mean by that? My heart was racing now. How much did he know?

  “Three! Two! One…” I could see Tiffany’s face all around me suddenly. She had already lost so much. Who was going to take care of her once I was gone? Mama and Papa would do their very best. But they didn’t know what I knew, they couldn’t help her or understand her in the way that I could. Was this really the right thing to do? I remembered her words that night as she sat staring at Connie’s tiny coffin. “What am I now?” she had said, “What am I without her?” I was snapped out of my thoughts by a strike to the face.

  I stumbled to the ground. I had lost my focus when it mattered the most. I rolled to the side before he could hit me again, as pain burst across my face. He was blocking my path to the door now. Alright, I was going to have to take the keys by force then. Well, that was if he had the keys on him right now.

  This was for Tiffany. I gripped the shard in my hand tighter. He was taller than me and older than me. But he really didn’t look like he was feeling his best today. In fact, he didn’t seem like he was there altogether.

  He stumbled towards me again. I tried to make a dash for the door. But before I could react, he leaped forward with more speed than I had been ready for and grabbed my arm. He yanked me back and started twisting my arm. Now I could hear footsteps approaching down the hall again. Lots and lots of footsteps. I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming from pain and anger. After all this planning, all this waiting, I had failed.

  It had all been for nothing. What was going to happen to us now? What if he separated me and Tiffany? No, I couldn’t handle that. I couldn’t leave her with this filthy monster. I began to stab blindly, trying to twist free. I heard him let out a yelp of pain. His blood was all over the floor now. I grinned as his grip loosened. I broke free and turned on him. Now he stumbled away from me. I loved the tiny sparks of fear in his eyes.

  This was for everything he had ever done to Tiffany! Shouts filled the room as the door burst open. The blood seemed to be tinting the very air around me. Everything had a hint of that same red. I was being grabbed and pulled back now. I had failed. All the thinking and planning had been for nothing.

  All the waiting, watching, waiting for the perfect time. It had all been for nothing. But I was too angry to worry about what was going to become of us. Thinking of my failure only brought me more anger towards myself. However, the focus of that anger was shifted very suddenly towards the person who was pinning me down.

  I lashed out blindly. Faces, the room, everything around me was all becoming part of the red blur. I felt the familiar prick and numbness washing over me. But it was becoming a part of the blazing blur that seemed to swallow everything as it grew deeper and darker and harder to fight. Everything was fading into the red.

  I started to run. I had broken away; I was free. I felt unstoppable. All that I needed to do now was find Tiffany. Where was she? All I could see was red. How would I know her when I saw her? I just screamed her name and ran till the redness turned to shadows and I was lost in the dark.