The Shrink Program

Chapter 157

And Cassandra's room was hidden somewhere in the middle of it all.

No wonder Alex hasn't found me yet.

Going by his memory and Peri's account of my abduction, I wouldn't be surprised if the idiot is lost as well.

Pretty sure the only reason Jack made it look so easy was because he could fly and he...

"YOUR FIVE MINUTES ARE UP. "

.... knows this place like the back of his hand.

Wing. Whatever.

The sound of Cassandra' s voice over the speakers was enough to make me stumble, then run even faster as the implications of what she said took the chance to catch up with my brain.

Of course, I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid Jack in the long run.

The idea of Alex actually finding me first and Jack deciding to retire to Fiji where he would be crushed by a random falling coconut oil delivery truck, never so much as crossed my mind.

So prepared for the worst to inevitably happen, I rounded the corner with no other goal in mind but to buy Alex time.

And came face to face, with a staircase.

A giant staircase, where every individual stair was easily twice my height.

For a moment, I stood there staring silently at THE FREAKING MOUNTAIN FATE HAD DECIDED TO PUT IN MY PATH.

Calmly, I walked up to the foot of the stairs to analyse the problem from an even more daunting angle.

Upon closer inspection, I concluded that, yes, climbing these stairs was going to be Hell. And no, punching the stairs didn't do anything but give me a sore hand.

Clutching my throbbing fist, I finally let myself articulate my frustrated thoughts through verbal means.

I doubted that Alex would need Peri's help for much longer.

All he would have to do is follow the screams of vile language down the halls.

Amongst all this screaming, not once did it really occur to me that Jack also has ears.

No, it was only much later, after declaring the staircase to be my new arch-nemesis, that I really recalled the reason why I was here in the first place.

It took more will power than I like to admit, to actually stop yelling after that.

The urge to berate myself had me screwing my eyes shut and clamping down on screams of pure self-loathing.

Come on Maddison, you have the jump boots. You can either backtrack or start climbing. If you don't choose something now, you're going to die.

Worse, You will die, in the middle of an argument with Vain.

The urge to scream hit the wall and I straightened up grimly.

There was no way I was going to die on bad terms with Vain. He would haunt me in the afterlife.

I have to survive this. So that I can see him again, and watch him beg for my forgiveness.

"If there is one thing I know about being underground, it's that Up means out." I murmured, staring up at the daunting task before me.

Well, technically there is a chance that I am wrong here, so maybe I should...

"Staircase it is then." I squashed down the second thoughts and stepped forward.

Glaring at my foe the entire time, I went up to the first step and jumped.

Every journey begins with a single step. In my case, that step... And every step that follows after... just happens to be a twelve-foot wall of solid concrete.

Jump boots or not, I wasn't a freaking flea, so I didn't fly up in into the air and land on the step with ease.

I made it high enough to grab the edge of the step, pulling myself up and over with scrambling panic.

I didn't waste time celebrating... Or catching my breath... I moved onto the next step.

This time when I jumped and caught the edge, my hands couldn't get enough purchase to hold on.

Falling back on my ass, all I could do for a long moment was glare sourly at the step in front of me in, trying to force away the panic bubbling up in my chest. Hands clenched into fists, I ignored the growing burn of torn skin.

A lack of grip gloves was going to make this whole thing a nightmare...but I knew that before I started climbing.

Still, at this rate, my hands will...
I threw myself to my feet, not letting myself think about it.

"Okay step," I whispered, aware that I had to be quiet if I didn't want Jack to find and, you know, kill me.

"Time for round two."