All Chapters of Boys Like Him: Chapter 91 - Chapter 93

"Forty seconds!" Lloyd shrieked, his thumb practically vibrating against the detonator trigger. His pale face was slick with sweat under the crimson emergency bulbs. "Walk away, Malik! Walk away or I click it and we all end our stories together!"I stared at Malik, my vision blurring completely as tears spilled over my eyelashes. "Malik, please," I begged, my voice breaking into a ragged whisper. "If you love me... if you want me to live... you have to walk back through those doors. Now."Malik stood perfectly rooted. Looking at him, I knew he wasn't just a big guy who knew how to handle a kitchen knife, this was a man who had stood on the world's stage with millions watching, calculating milliseconds, edge-work, and explosive gravity to win Olympic gold. I could see the frantic math happening in his eyes, he knew exactly how fast his body could launch from a standstill. He knew to the millimeter how much distance he could close in a single heartbeat.His eyes flicked down to Lloyd's

The third morning began without light. The only indication that the sun had risen somewhere beyond the dirt ceiling was the muffled shift in the floorboards above as Lloyd woke up.My body was a map of dull, radiating aches. The dress was ruined, the delicate hem shredded and stiff with dried mud and cellar grime. I lay on the rusted cot, my arms wrapped tightly around my torso, trying to preserve the microscopic amount of body heat left in my skin. The freezing temperature was a psychological weight, slowing my thoughts, making every survival instinct feel heavy and exhausting.Thud. Thud. Thud.The footsteps moved across the ceiling, stopping directly above the trapdoor. The heavy iron padlock rattled, a sound that made my chest tighten with a sudden, violent spike of adrenaline.The door swung upward, flooding the cellar with the weak, gray light of the main cabin. Lloyd stood at the top of the stairs, silhouetted against the gloom. He had changed into a clean flannel shirt, his ha