Kennedy shakes her head. “I’ve neverbetrayedanyone in this room.” It’s the strangest thing, but just after she says it, there’s a gust of wind outside and one of the candles flickers out. It’s coincidence, but it doesn’t feel like coincidence. Nothing feels like coincidence anymore. Partly because I don’t want it to. I don’t want anything to mean nothing. I don’t want there to be a meaningless void out there that Emily got sucked into, and that we’ll get sucked into someday too, and just vanish. Not become part of or anything, just evaporate. I don’t want that. I’d rather believe in vengeful spirits than emptiness that stretches on for eternity.
Kennedy kicks my sneaker. “Your turn.”
I kick her back. “You ask.”
“Right.” She shuffles through the cards. “Truth or dare.”
“Truth.”
“Who did you last say you loved?”
I think for a moment. “My mom. Before I left.”
She nods. “The exciting life you do lead.”
It stings. She knows how isolated I’ve been. I turn to Ryan. “Truth or—”
“Dare.”
I sneak a look at Chase. He looks as surprised as I am. Ryan isn’t exactly a daredevil. With only one candle now, the room has gone even dimmer, and all of us have taken on the washed-out yellow cast of the inadequate lights, our faces flickering flames in a darkening room. “Hold your breath for two minutes without laughing.”
Chase raises an eyebrow. “They really got creative with these.”
Ryan draws a deep breath. Chase begins counting and Mila hesitantly joins in.
I look to Kennedy a little uncertainly. “Isn’t two minutes kind of a long time?”
She shrugs but peers over to look at the card. “They probably intentionally designed it so you’d fail and be forced to answer the truth question.” But when we flip the card over, there’s just another dare.
Dare: Hold your breath for three minutes.
Kennedy takes the next card.
Dare: Hold your breath for four minutes.
On the reverse side.
Dare: Hold your breath for six minutes.
My heart begins to pound. We flip through the rest of the cards in my stack one by one, but the dares are the same, escalating only the amount of time without oxygen. Then, I reach for Kennedy’s cards and read the one on top.
Truth: How does it feel to kiss a killer?