“The old, abandoned dorm building,” Beckett says close to my ear.
I spin, taking several steps back when I see five bandana-masked figures, each holding a weapon, except Vance—I guess his fists are enough.
Beckett holds a knife. Devlin grips a chain mace, the ball and chain held tightly in his hand as he looks us over. Madden has a simple yet effective golf club. And Amiyah is strapped with throwing stars on a belt around her small waist.
“Jesus, fuck,” the guy says next to me, shaking his head.
Prim tilts her head, pointing at Devlin. “What is that?”
But it’s Vance who speaks up. “It’s a chain mace, but you don’t have to worry about that, Angel.”
She nods as if she believes him, but I step in front of her. Madden begins speaking, drawing all of our attention to him. “Welcome to the second trial. Tonight we will play a little game we all know and love. Hide-and-seek, but with a twist. It lasts all night. We are going to hunt you. Nothing is off-limits unless if you tap out. If you’re afraid of blood and pain, you better start walking back to your dorms now. Because this game has no rules. We can hunt you like animals and skin you for sport. But,” he pauses, “you can fight back. Hunt us. Skin us. Your goal is to survive the night.”
“LikeThe Purge?” I ask.
Madden points his gold club at me, and I take a step back. “Exactly, Brixley.”
My eyes connect with Amiyah’s. She’s cold and closed off, seeing through me. My hand reaches behind me, latching onto Prim’s.
“Are there any questions?” Madden asks.
The guy beside me asks, “Do we get weapons?”
“You get a head start,” Beckett supplies.
I roll my eyes, slowly moving Prim and I closer to the abandoned dorms. Beckett shifts, catching on to my game. Our eyes connect and I pause, my heart beating loudly against my rib cage. And then I run, dragging Prim behind me as we burst through the broken door of the old building. There are crumbled walls, rotted staircases. It looks as if someone took a sledgehammer to the interior, knocking holes through the drywall. Prim jerks her hand from mine, and I turn to her wide-eyed. “I’ll be fine, Brix. But you, you need to run. Now.”
The warning in my stomach thumps harshly against my insides as I study Primrose. Realizing I don’t really know her at all. Something sours, twisting and clenching inside me as fear mixes with sadness at the prospect that maybe she’s been in on this the whole time. Vance tears through the door, eyes wide, mouth hidden by the bandana. “Run, Brixley.”
My feet move of their own accord, and I jump over fallen ceiling tiles, climbing up steps that crack and fall beneath my feet.
Fuck, what have I gotten myself into? Maybe it’s been a trap all along. Maybe Prim was in on it the whole time. What if this is some weirdMost Dangerous Gameshit and I’ve fallen right into their trap. Maybe…My body goes crashing down on the last step, my ankle getting caught in a vise-like grip. I hear a man scream in the distance. The smalls hairs on the back of my neck rising as I attempt to jerk my ankle free to no avail. Looking below me, I’m met with a face in the shadows, only the tips of their bandana visible. Using my free leg, I send my foot into my attacker’s face. He grunts, hand momentarily slipping, and I use the advantage to crawl away before I’m back on my feet.
I hear footsteps behind me as I run through hallways, throwing my shoulder into doors along the way to see if they’ll open. All of them are locked so far. Sweat beads down my back, pooling between my breasts. My heart pounds at an alarming rate as I turn down a hallway that has a back staircase leading to another room. I don’t know how old this dorm is but I’m guessing this was for maintenance and workers.
I shut the door quietly behind me, leaning against it. I press my ear against the wood to listen. I wait to hear the footsteps, and I do, only they come from beneath me. Echoing in the staircase.
I’ve never wanted to scream so badly in my life as I throw the door open. I’m halfway out the door when my face is hit with something hard. The pain radiates in my head, making my brain feel as if it’s being jostled around in my skull. My hand comes to my nose, warm, sticky liquid slipping between my closed fist as I hit the dusty ground.
Hands land on my ankles, flipping me over, causing my head to snap back into the ground as I stare at the missing ceiling tiles above me. A bandana-masked face hovers over me, pulling a knife from their pants. “Finally, I’ve waited a long time for this,” the voice whispers.
The knife looks familiar as they lift it above their head, the moonlight catching the side of it, reflecting the metal. “Beckett?” I whisper.
The knife slashes down and I roll to my side, but not quick enough because it nicks my cheek. A scream is wrenched from me, fading with the sweeping winds outside. I use my legs, trying to kick them off me but they’re prepared for that as they maneuver my legs out of the way. They pin me with their lower half, one hand squeezing my cheeks in their fist, the other pulling the knife roughly from the floorboard.
I swing my free arm up to knock the knife from their grip. Instead, they slash it down, cutting open the skin of my lower arm. “Fuck,” I scream out, clutching my arm to my chest as I watch in slow motion as the knife descends again, coming right to my eye.
Have you ever watched a car crash? You see it about to happen, know it’s going to be futile, traumatizing, if you don’t look away—but you can’t. Like an invisible force has taken you hostage. Forcing you to watch until metal crashes against metal. Watch as the windshield explodes due to a body being lurched through it. Blood splatting against the window.
That force is here now, holding my eyes open as I watch the metal glint coming closer and closer to my eye. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. And then I see a black boot fly at my attacker’s head. My head is thrown back from the force of my attacker’s release, bouncing off the ground.
Vance’s tattoos shine in the moonlight as he leans over me. “Fuck. Beckett,” he calls over his shoulder.
Vance is pushed from my quickly fading sight as another figure appears. “Stay with me, Rabbit.”
“She’s bleeding everywhere,” Vance says darkly.
“Who the fuck did this? This isn’t a part of the game,” Beckett barks, voice rough with emotion.