I ignored her, grabbing the heavy brass handle of Principal Vance's office door and shoving it open with all my weight. The door slammed against the interior wall with a violent crack.
The office was empty.
The pristine mahogany desk was cleared. The leather chair was pushed back. The scent of peppermint still hung heavily in the air, thick and nauseating, but there was no sign of Arthur Vance.
And there was no sign of Lily.
"Where is he?" I screamed, spinning around to face the terrified secretary.
"Mr. Evans, I am calling security right now!" she stammered, picking up the phone.
I rushed the desk, slamming my hand down on the receiver, cutting off the call. "Where is Arthur Vance? He told me he was keeping my daughter inside for recess! Where did he take her?"
Mrs. Higgins trembled, stepping back from my wild-eyed expression. "He... he said the library was too noisy. He said he was taking Lily to the old annex building to show her the archive room. Mr. Evans, please—"
I didn't wait for her to finish. I knew the old annex. It was a separate, decrepit brick building on the far edge of the school property, separated by a line of thick, overgrown pine trees. It hadn't been used for classes in a decade, strictly functioning as a storage unit for old desks, broken athletic equipment, and decades of forgotten files.
I bolted out of the front office, running down the main hallway. Children were outside on the playground, their distant laughter echoing through the glass windows, a sickening contrast to the absolute nightmare tearing through my veins.
I burst through the side exit doors and hit the wet grass running. The rain had started to fall, cold and stinging against my face. I tore through the line of pine trees, branches whipping and scratching my arms, until the looming brick structure of the annex appeared through the gray mist.
The heavy metal door to the building was slightly ajar.
I slipped inside, the sudden darkness blinding me for a moment. The air in the annex was freezing, smelling heavily of mildew, rotting cardboard, and wet concrete.
"Lily!" I roared, my voice echoing violently off the high, water-stained ceilings.
Silence. Only the faint dripping of water from a leaky pipe somewhere in the distance.
I began moving down the hallway, frantically pushing open doors to old classrooms filled with stacked chairs and dusty chalkboards. Nothing.
As I approached the end of the hall, near the stairwell leading down to the basement, I heard a sudden, heavy scrape of a boot against concrete.
Before I could react, a massive shadow stepped out from the stairwell. A massive, calloused hand clamped over my mouth, and an arm as thick as a steel cable wrapped around my chest, dragging me backward into the dark shadows.
I fought with everything I had. I drove my elbow backward, feeling it connect with a solid ribcage. I thrashed wildly, desperate to break free, but the man was too strong.
"Stop fighting!" a low, gravelly whisper hissed directly into my ear.
It was Silas. The biker.
I ripped his hand away from my mouth and spun around, my fists raised, my chest heaving. "Where is she? If you hurt her—"
"I don't have her, you idiot!" Silas growled, his breathing heavy, his dark eyes burning with an intense, desperate fire. His right hand was wrapped in a bloody bandana. He was the one who broke my window. He was the one who left the file.