Chapter Twenty
Amelie
It’s been a few weeks since we picked up Mackenzie and Kathryn, but both have settled into life at Knox Academy surprisingly well. Much better than I did anyway.
My nerves are rattled as I sit at a desk in a warehouse that has been transformed for today’s initiation task.
The tasks set forth today are pretty awesome.
Baxter’s dark mind has worked wonders with coming up with this plan and setting it in motion.
It starts here. Everyone was given a clue beforehand, and they should all start to arrive soon.
Maggie is the first to arrive and sits in the empty seats in front of where I am. We stare at each other in silence as we wait. One by one the others arrive. Internally, I whoop. Take that, all the men in The Order who doubted me. Now I just have to pray they all pass.
As I stand, a waiter in an all-black lycra suit enters through a side door with a tray of small paper cups.
“Welcome. You have been invited here today to initiate into The Order of the Snaidhm. You are the first women to be offered this opportunity. Today’s tasks will test you physically and mentally, and will most likely make you question your sanity.
But just know that this organisation is bigger than us, it’s our chance to work together to create history amongst men, to show them that we are a force to be reckoned with.
Please take a cup, and drink it all. I will see you at the end of the day. ”
I watch as everyone takes a cup and drinks the liquid. It’s nothing too serious, just something that will make them sleepy and feel a little groggy when they wake up.
One by one they start to pass out, and a group of male members from this year’s recruits enter to take each initiate to their individual rooms for their tasks. Sawyer joins me as we make our way to the control room where I can watch each person as they enter their own worst nightmares.
“Are you okay?” he asks when we enter the room.
My palms are sweaty, and I’m feeling slightly nauseous, so no, I’m really not okay. But I nod at him.
The individual task and group challenge have been merged.
Once they make their way out of the individual task which is being timed, they’ll be led into a maze that has been set up as a massive escape room.
Each room is set so one person’s skill is the key to move on to the next.
They don’t know that they’re the key, they will need to figure it out.
Each room gets harder and more tasks set forth.
My attention is pulled to Maggie. She’s slowly waking up and looking around her room. Tears roll down my cheeks as images of Onyx’s lifeless body on a gurney fill the room through projectors.
I’m not ready for this.
“You don’t have to watch, it sucks that her worst fear is something happening to her children.”
“I know. But I need to watch them all.”
Voices fill the room, telling her that it’s her fault, that she didn’t fight hard enough for them. Her tears have started, and the self doubt is kicking in. Sawyer’s grip on my hand tightens. Each person has five minutes to defeat their demons, to stand up for themselves.
Adrianne is awake and her phone pings, I watch as she opens a video message and she starts to scream. “Let me out! I have to save my brother!”
She runs around the room and tries to find a door, but they’re all on timers.
If they don’t pass, a door to an empty room will open and they will be escorted to a meeting with a lawyer, where they will have to sign NDAs.
The fact that The Order has dirt on everyone also helps keep lips sealed about our initiations.
I watch Precious Rae sit up and realise she is covered in hair, her long blonde locks have been hacked and she frantically grabs at her hair – what is left of it – and starts to cry.
Guilt stabs at my gut. For a girl like her, her hair is part of her identity.
And now she’ll be forced to rock a pixie cut, and somehow she has to deal with it.
Walking over to a mirror that is attached to a vanity, she stares at herself as tears stream down her face.
Something must click in her mind, because her back straightens and she starts looking around the room.
She smiles when she finds what she is looking for: a pair of scissors.
No doubt placed there for this very reason.
She brushes away as much loose hair as she can and starts evening up her cut, whispering something to herself as she goes.
I switch my attention to Kathryn. Images of a man are covering the walls. She races around the room ripping them off but for each one that comes down another is underneath. A screen on the wall flashes on and home videos of the man with his family play across the screen.
“A wife without a provider.” A robotic monotone voice says. “Children left fatherless.”
“It was an accident!” she sobs.
“You’re a cold-blooded killer.”
“No!” she cries, shaking her head. “He...he….”
My heart thuds in my chest and I’m tempted to look away. Damn it, Amelie, you’ll have to witness more than this! I need to grow a backbone. Do what needs to be done.
Mackenzie is next. She looks void of emotion as she shifts through a pile of photos, the camera angle isn’t in the right spot for me to see what she is looking at, but a voice radiates through the room.
“Kenz, help me please.” Her head snaps up.
“Bunny?” she whispers. “I’m sorry, so sorry, I couldn’t find you. ”
My mouth starts to water and my stomach coils.
I start to retch as I run over to a trash can and lurch over and over but nothing comes out.
Taking a deep breath, I compose myself. My eyes water, but I do nothing to wipe away the tears.
The Order is a good place for Mackenzie.
If her sister is alive, we will help find her.
If she’s dead, I will help her hunt whoever is responsible to the ends of the earth.
Sawyer kneels beside me and holds back my hair, rubbing my back.
I don’t want to seem weak around him. But he doesn’t say anything.
Belle lets out a blood curdling scream and I make my way back to the monitors.
Her room’s set up like a hospital. She is rocking back and forth on her bed, one of her arms is still strapped to the side rail.
A mirror is smashed and shards of glass litter the floor, and there is a bathtub set up in the corner of the room, where the tap drips red into the already crimson water.
I run a hand down my face…these are brutal. Emmerson’s room is pitch black. A small overhead light starts to flicker and what I see chills me to my core. A lone coffin sits in the middle of the room.
Her panicked, muffled voice can be heard over the microphones set up in the room. I can’t watch this.
I need to check on Elsie, maybe somehow she will know that I’m with her. It’s the least I can do after involving her in all of this.
Elsie is still out, but I see the heat dial move up as she stirs.
She looks at her arms as she comes to and the words whore, slut, skank, ho, cover her in red lipstick.
Her file was messed up. She killed her entire family, and they deserved it after everything they put her through.
She set them all on fire, but only after years and years of abuse and torment.
When she was found she was covered in lipstick and nasty words.
I watch the screen as she rubs at the words relentlessly. The heat has started to make her take notice and smoke seeps in under the door as flashes of me fill the room from when I left her. I have to look away.
I check on Maggie as she screams, “I’m a good mother!
I love my sons and you can’t control my mind!
” The images immediately cut to black and her door swings open.
She races to it. The next room is empty besides a desk with eight envelopes with names written on them.
She finds hers and opens it, sagging with relief at her message of congratulations for passing her individual round.
I watch in disbelief as door after door opens and the room is filled with my picks.
Elsie is the last, yet to appear, and the room she’s in is thick with smoke. She’s coughing uncontrollably. She crawls towards the picture of me, one that was taken before I left and she pulls herself up.
“Amelie loves me, I’m not alone,” she whispers. Come on Elsie, it needs to be convincing.