39. We Are Friends
Chapter 39
We Are Friends
Raven
Present Day
I am dead.
Blinking my eyes a few times, I tried to bring anything into focus, but it was complete darkness. A void.
My breath came out in pants as I attempted to move, but I was stuck, unable to shift or even extend my arms. It was freezing cold and full body shivers wracked through me.
It took everything for me not to panic, to scream.
The last thing I remembered was Oleks watching me from a chair in my new room while I fell asleep. I had told him to leave, screamed at him, cursed him out, but the man was stubborn. And silent. He hadn’t spoken a word, simply settling down and acting as a sentinel I hadn’t asked for.
Even with how angry I was at him for taking me from my men, it was oddly soothing, comforting, to know the eclectic man was there. I knew he was deadly, that he was a murderer, but teammates couldn’t kill each other.
Not yet at least.
Perhaps there was a reason he had put me on their team.
Even still, I had fallen asleep with my hand wrapped around the knife I had found.
One minute I was shutting my eyes, and next, I was in a new round of misery.
“Welcome to the next game.” The words came from all around me, loud and static.
Where is the fucking Host? I would prefer his unhinged lyrical voice to this one.
Trapped in place, I wanted more than anything to cover my ears, but I could do nothing other than wait for this to play out.
Glaring light flashed above me and I realized it was not my mask blinding me, but the space I was in was just that dark.
There were three statements on the screen.
We are related.
We have known each other for years.
We are friends.
Now that I had adjusted to the onslaught of light, I attempted to glance around, only to discover my fears were realized. I was in a tomb. A glorified coffin. I was in shorts and a black t-shirt and my feet were bare. Extending my legs, I pushed against the bottom, but I was met with sturdy cool metal. I did everything I could to calm my breathing, to not hyperventilate, but it was hard. Squeezing my eyes shut, I multiplied by the number four over and over again until I had reached nearly five thousand. It was a necessary distraction from what was next to come.
“This game does not have any losers. So, congratulations, you will live through this! But there are winners. The rules for this are straightforward. You will play three rounds. If you win one round, you will be taken from your box to a special interview room where you will meet your Sponsor. If you do not win any rounds, you will stay in this box until all interviews are complete. Above you are three statements about your Sponsor. One of them is a lie. When you are ready to submit which is the lie simply speak it out loud. But be forewarned, for each incorrect answer you will be joined by special guests . You may also choose not to answer at which point you will simply wait until all interviews are completed before being retrieved and taken back to your designated area.”
I swallowed thickly, my throat raw and dry. While the rules on this did actually appear to be straightforward, what exactly did they mean by special guests?
What good will it do to be interviewed by my Sponsor? I can just wait it out.
But at this point, I was almost completely sure who my Sponsor was and there were so many questions I wanted to ask her. To scream into her face.
Why had she stabbed me? Why had she blown up our Facility?
Decision made, I scanned the statements.
“We are related” and “we have known each other for many years” seemed to practically be the same.
But we are friends ? How could a “friend” put me in here? My sister and I had not been “friends” since before she had stabbed me.
“We are friends. ”
A whirring sounded, and calm filled me. I thought it was the box opening to let me out.
But then something fell onto my bare feet. Several somethings.
When they began to crawl, I wanted to scream, to wriggle, to look and see what was on me.
But I was too scared, afraid that observing whatever they had dropped onto me would only make it worse.
“That is incorrect. Do you wish to see the next set of statements?”
My hands shook at my sides, but I clenched them, steadying myself into the here and now. “Yes.”
I was born outside a Facility.
I am a woman.
I am older than you.
This one I was sure of; my sister was born in our Facility. I had seen the evidence, the pictures.
“I was born outside a Facility.”
This time the whirring was followed by a nauseatingly slippery squelching noise. Whatever fell onto me was slippery and cold. It slithered as it deemed to explore the confined space.
My breath stuttered as anxiety and terror slinked across my bare skin in the form of my special guest . It left a trail of uncomfortable goosebumps in its wake. Squeezing my hands into tight fists I attempted to swallow down my terror.
Insects and a…snake? They won’t kill me. They might hurt but I will survive.
“That is incorrect. Do you wish to see the next set of statements?”
My sister isn’t my Sponsor.
The knowledge was soul crushing in a way I couldn’t explain, and it distracted me from my current situation. If they were my friend. If they were born outside of the Facility. There were only a few people left that they could be.
Jayce’s face flashed across my mind. But it couldn’t be him. Surely, he couldn’t be my teammate and my Sponsor. And even if that were possible, there was no way he would betray me like that. I trusted him…but even still, in this dark tomb with creatures trailing across me in fearful ways, paranoia festered. This was where your deepest fears came to light.
“Yes.” A stinging prick on my leg caused me to flinch, but I did my best to ignore it as the last set of statements flashed onto the screen above.
I am your first love.
I am your best friend.
I am the first one you told of your infamous nickname.
Realization struck me.
Even if it breaks my heart, it makes the most sense. It has to be him.
I spoke the statement out loud, and this time, the whirring sound was absent.
Instead, my entire box shifted, jostling me and agitating my special guests . But before I could feel any more of their assault on my bare skin, my box was ripped open, and I was tugged out of my coffin.