Chapter 37: The Forbidden Fortress
Janet didn't know how much time had passed, but when Dmitri finally stopped walking, the surroundings had changed completely.
She was no longer in the same mansion.
He had brought her to a place darker, eerier. It looked more like an abandoned castle than a home. The iron gates screeched open, and the black car Dmitri had thrown her into earlier pulled through the overgrown path.
Now, as Dmitri carried her into the looming estate, her eyes darted in every direction. Thick ivy coated the walls. There were no lights outside, no staff, no guards—just pure, haunting silence. The air smelled of dust and something metallic.
He kicked open a massive door and entered.
The interior chilled her to the bone. Candlelight flickered over deep red carpets and marble statues of winged beasts. She was thrown—not gently—onto a mattress in a windowless stone room. The door slammed shut and locked with a click.
"Welcome to my sanctuary," Dmitri said from the other side. "Only the dead and the damned have ever entered."
Janet's breath came out in rasps. The ropes on her wrists had cut into her skin. Her lips trembled—not from fear now, but from rage.
He thinks I'm helpless. He thinks I'll break.
She closed her eyes.
But I'm not that girl anymore.
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