A ray of sunlight peeked through the kitchen curtains and right into my eyes. "Ugh." I raised my palm across my face, shielding my eyes from the sunlight. I reached for my phone, which I placed on the cabinet.

It's nine in the morning, I was knocked out all through the night.

I positioned my hand on the cabinet as a support, my legs wobbled as a groan slipped out of my lips. I still had some cuts untreated since the accident, and it seemed to have festered.

Not good.

I ambled wearily towards the upper cabinet in the kitchen. The medical kit should be somewhere in here if I recall correctly. I pulled open the brown wooden cabinet and a red medium medical kit with a white cross on the top, and the side was situated behind some jars of peanut butter. I carefully took out the medical kit with one hand while holding the jars of peanut butter with my other.

I hopped onto the cabinet, and another groan eluded my lips. Why does it hurt so bad? Tears pricked my eyes, but I staunched it. I opened the lid of the kit and applied a hand sanitiser on my palms, cleaned the cuts on my legs and arms and placed a sterile gauze pad on the bigger cut on my thigh, securing it with adhesive tape and carefully lifted my weight off the cabinet. I slid two kitchen knives into the pouch of my black hoodie, placing the hood over my head, I headed for the door. I halted as my hand gripped the door knob. I sucked in a sharp breath before walking out.

It's time to end this.

Dusk had already fallen. The air was cold and still. Mist blinded my vision, but I waded it off with my hands. It was a fifteen-minute walk to the abandoned refinery factory. I prepared myself for whatever I might encounter. A hint of joy bubbled up in my chest at the thought of finally putting an end to this madness. My mind painted the scenery of my mum and I chatting and giggling happily, seated opposite each other in a local dining restaurant. The hooting of an owl brought me back to reality.

That's enough daydreaming. Let's make this a reality.

I increased my pace, my body shivered with excitement, or probably due to the chill atmosphere. A run-down rusty two storey building came into view, which I assumed to be the factory. Last I heard, this was once a steel refinery factory. I didn't know the full details as to why it got abandoned. As I took a step forward, the street lamp hovering above me flickered and instantly went off. The buzzing of my phone sent a bolt through my body, causing the phone in my palm to slip out and crash into the gravelled ground.

This is starting to freak me out.

I hunched over and picked up my phone and grazed the dirt off it. The impact pasted a few cracks on the screen. I ignored it as dread filled my lungs at the content of the message.

Unknown number:
Do you plan on sleeping out there? Or perhaps, you've forgotten whose life's at stake here.

I frantically skimmed the area in search of anyone or hidden cameras but found none. The hair on my skin rose as I took a step into the rusty old factory. Its eerie darkness drew me back a bit, but I pushed myself forward, keeping in mind whose life was at stake. A light bulb flickered on at the centre of the building and dimly lit the room, the second I took a step in. I scrutinised my surroundings and found it vacant until my gaze fell on a woman in her mid-thirties with her head slumped to the side and her legs and hands fastened by thick, dusty rope on a wooden chair.

I gasped.

Mother.

My legs moved on their own and clashed to the ground as I shook her shoulders but got no response from her. My pulse quickened.

No.

I pressed my fingers against the side of her neck and found a pulse. I heaved a sigh. Just that moment, her lashes fluttered, and her red eyes met mine. My vision blurred as I wrapped my arms around her but was pulled back when her body shivered frenziedly under me. She was muffled, tears trickling down her cheeks as she tried to communicate something to me, but due to the tape on her lips, she couldn't. I was about to peel the tape off her lips, but I halted with my hand hanging mid-air. A presence lingered behind me. Before I could turn around to catch a glimpse of the person, a concrete object smashed against my head, an immense pain shot up my head and I collided with the dusty gravelled ground with full impact causing a groan to escape my lips as I swirled on the ground. My vision was hazy, a silhouette figure squatted beside me-a figure I found oddly familiar.

The last words of Shane suddenly came to mind. Ruby is alive. A teardrop seeped from my eye and rolled down my cheeks as the darkness engulfed me.

How could I have missed that?

I jerked right back to reality, panting for air, droplets of sweat affixed on my forehead.

"I almost thought you were dead there for a second. I'm pretty sure I didn't hit your head that hard, did I? At least not enough to kill you." Ruby said with a smirk dancing at the corner of her lips as she circled me. My mind was a whirl of confusion and half-formed questions. My lips parted, trying to utter a word amidst the chaos going on in my head.

"H-how-" A groan eased out of my lips, my eyes tightened at the thumping in my head.

"How am I not dead? Oh honey, I wasn't dead to begin with. The Ruby that got her head chopped off wasn't me. She was my doppelganger-an orphan that was my look-alike." She said whilst swirling a sledge hammer in her hand.

"You murdered an innocent girl?!" Rage pulsed through my veins.

"Correction, I bought her life. So, in other words, I owned her."

I scoffed. "How cruel." Blood spurted out of my mouth as I wheezed.

"Oops, it seems like I hit too hard. Well, of course, it's a titanium hammer." She shrugged, a sly smile lingered on her lips as she took short strides towards Alora.

"D-don't you dare touch a single strand on her head." I said, frantically brushing my gaze by my sides, as I tried to get myself out of the rope tightened against my body.

"Looking for this?" She brought out the knives I had on me before coming here and threw them to the ground, away from my reach. My jaws clamped tight as I thought of an alternative way to free myself.

"You know, I never had in mind to go this far. Not that I had any regrets except for the fact that S-shane died in your stead. My only regret was not ending you sooner, but now that we are all here, why not get this all over with." She tightened her grip on the titanium hammer and took another stride to Alora. My heartbeat synced with each step she took as I scrambled my thoughts on how we could get out of this situation... alive.

"D-don't I deserve to know your aim for all this before I die?" I managed to say with a shaky breath, still trying to wiggle my way out of the rope.

"That's futile. You'll only keep on hurting yourself. I tightened the rope firmly, knowing how troublesome you could be."

"Why'd you care if I hurt myself?" A look of disgust passed across my face.

She walked over to me, raising my head to meet her gaze with the edge of the hammer. "Because I am the inflictor of pain here, not you. I am the one meant to hurt you, not you. Get that into that thick skull of yours, okay?" Her gaze instantly sent shivers down my spine. The realisation of who was standing in front of me finally got to me. A serial killer. My body shivered, not due to the cold air gently brushing my skin but because of the fear that bellowed into the misty air like smoke, paralysing my being.

"I am Scarlett Bates, ring a bell? Definitely, no, you were a child. The girl that died in my stead was Ruby, but not the Ruby that has been living with you. Yes, thank you, my superb acting skills deserve an award." She paused, expecting a comment from me. My lips parted, trying to make sense of what she said but couldn't. The thought that I had been living under the same roof with a serial killer made the shivers a whole lot worse. My pupils dilated as the missing pieces of the puzzle in my mind were found.

"M-michelle, s-she knew? T-then why'd you kill her?" I said, trying my best to keep my composure. Tears spilt from my eyes as I thought of the last time I saw her.

"I paid her. In other words. I owned her life. A slave is only needed when the master needs to get a job done but has his hands full, so he hires slaves to get some part of the job done and when the master no longer requires the slaves, he fires the slaves. The same is the case here. She played her part perfectly-maybe too perfectly, and now I no longer see a need to have her around anymore."

"That doesn't justify you having her killed! Life is precious. It's a gift given to everyone, even to some people who don't deserve it. And so, it shouldn't be treated so blatantly!" Hearing her place no value on a person's life irked my resolve as the fear melted into rage, flaring up with each second that went by.

"Oh please, save the lecture for if you make it out of here alive, and there's a 1% chance of that happening. So stop your blabbering, or this might just end a lot faster than you expected." A sinister grin played on her lips as she ambled towards Alora.

"N-no! Please d-don't hurt her. Take my life instead and let her go, please." Uncontrollable tears streamed down my pale cheeks as I kept on pleading for my mothers' life. Atlast, I never always got what I wanted, even now. I witnessed my dreams crumble right before my eyes, and I couldn't do anything to prevent it from happening.

What's the essence of living when your only hope is gone?

~~~

We are almost there, my lovely readers!!♡♡♡

A few more chapters or maybe less and it will all be concluded and I can finally focus on my next book.

Thank you all for being on this journey with me and encouraging me all the way.

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