18. 18 – Alyss
18 – Alyss
W e stumble out of the elevator as the doors open. Some of the others start shoving us from the back, until I’m tripping over my own feet. Chess grips my arm to keep me upright as I blink, trying to gather my bearings in the bright spotlights that shine directly into our faces.
I can’t see a damn thing. Chess pushes in front of me, his arm out as Hatter does the same on my other side, both of them attempting to shield me from whatever is heading our way.
I close my eyes against the glare, bracing in the midst of the cursing and the shouting around me.
“ Silence .”
And the noise, the ruckus, it simply – ceases.
The light finally cuts out, and I blink rapidly to clear the dancing spots from my vision to look around us.
We’re outside. A cool breeze brushes against my sweat-soaked forehead, rustling my skirt as I stare at the location Red has brought us to.
It’s a forest. Or… something like it. There are trees everywhere ahead of us, trees of all shapes and sizes and colors. Some have huge, crooked branches running from their trunks, others completely bare. And everywhere I look, there’s color. Leaves of pink, orange, purple, blue, brown – all of them painted or sprayed in some way.
They don’t fit. The seemingly never-ending space in front of us looks as if someone has ripped those trees up and planted them here, forcing them together in a twisted impression of forestry.
I catch glimpses of other things that don’t belong, too. There’s movement between those trees, things shifting in the darkness ahead of us that make me turn my head away.
Floodlights – less bright now – surround us in two straight lines on either side of the trees, and I look up to Chess. He’s staring at the walls they’ve built to keep us in, his jaw tight and eyes narrowed. The wire climbs up into the sky, the metal chain links too small to be able to climb and covered in trailing roses. Red, gold, black, some of them in full bloom and others in the last stages of decay.
“They’ve penned us in like fucking animals,” I mutter.
On my other side, Hatter loosens a sigh. “That’s exactly what they see us as, Alyss Lidell. These people… they don’t think of us as human. Remember that.”
Movement behind me, and I twist, my shoulders loosening. Buck’s dark eyes glitter in the low light. “Easier to cull us that way.”
He doesn’t look overly bothered. Pressing my lips together, I glance around at our fellow participants in this twisted little game. Varying degrees of panic and fear line their faces. One man, sweat dripping from his forehead, twists and vomits onto the ground beside him.
On the other side, one of the twins jerks away in disgust. Not Kayden – his brother. His eyes drift up to mine, and he offers me a solemn nod before Kayden pulls him away.
Good luck , perhaps. Or maybe just a have fun dying .
Either works.
Ahead of us, the lights focus onto a row of black and white squares.
“ Please move to the starting line and stand on a square .”
Each square is at least two feet apart. Chess twists to me. “Lyss.”
“I know.” My heart thumps inside my chest as I stay close, following Chess and Hatter as they split, taking a square each and leaving one open in the middle for me. Buck slips onto the other side of Hatter. We’re at the end, only the towering chain of metal keeping us hemmed in visible on Chess’s other side.
And we wait. We stand there, silent and braced, as seconds tick by.
When the voice finally comes, I wish she’d left us in fucking silence.
“My dears.” Red’s voice croons through invisible speakers.
Beside me, Hatter flinches.
“Welcome, all of you. Welcome, to our largest game yet. Welcome… to Wonderland .”
The stark lighting changes. A dozen different colors flood the world in front of us, lights sweeping over the trees. The sudden kaleidoscope of color is enough to make my head spin.
I listen, but I don’t hear any response to her words. No cheering, no applause. Only an eerie, tense silence surrounds us.
“Now,” Red continues. “You’re all here because you’ve been chosen – and what an honor it is, to be a participant in Wonderland. Our investors are here, watching and hoping for quite the show. You can’t see them, but they, of course, can see you . Every part of Wonderland is recorded for their viewing pleasure.”
My shoulders stiffen. I turn to Chess, but he shakes his head in a subtle plea to stay quiet. His fingers flex by his sides as she carries on.
“Three nights. You will all experience the delights of Wonderland for three nights - or possibly less, depending on how long you can survive. And if you make it to the end… you might even make it out alive.”
A sharp inhale, and I glance at Hatter. He’s frowning as if in confusion.
Nobody makes it out of Wonderland alive.
But this… it sounds as though there’s a chance, undoubtedly slim though it is.
“So.” Red’s voice switches up, from a throaty purr to more of a buoyant excitement. “Let us not waste any further time. Participants. In front of you, you’ll find a box. Open it and turn to face the person on your right. If you’re on the end, turn to face the person closest to you.”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickle as we all stare down.
The box is easy to miss on the dirt-packed ground. I crouch to pick mine up, feeling the slide of something inside that hits the side with a low thud.
“Alyss,” Hatter whispers on my other side. I cock my head in response. “Remember – do exactly what they tell you. No matter what.”
I tip my head in the barest nod before I stand, moving back to my square. The box feels heavy in my hands, and Chess and I exchange glances before we pull off the lids.
I can hear the others down the line doing the same, but my pulse slows, my lips parting as I stare at the gun inside.
“Turn.” All pretense of civility has disappeared from Red’s voice. “Now.”
Chess is pale, his eyes on my face. In his hand is a gun identical to mine. “ Lyss —.”
“Lift your gun,” Red snaps. “Aim for the head. On my count of three, you will shoot. Anyone who disobeys will be eliminated from Wonderland immediately.”
Eliminated. We participate, or we die.
My breathing speeds up, and I glance over my shoulder at Hatter. He’s frozen, his face twisted in horror as he stares at me, the gun in his hand. Behind him, Buck’s face is grim.
Buck will shoot Hatter.
Hatter will shoot me.
I will shoot Chess.
And Chess – he starts shaking his head, the gun dropping to his side. “No.”
“Chess,” I snap it, snap his name as if it might change anything. “Lift your damn gun.”
“ No .” He roars it this time, roars it despite the people watching us. “Don’t even fucking ask me, Lyss.”
“I’m not asking,” I say. My lips feel numb. “I’m telling you. Raise your fucking gun, Chess. Now.”
“On my count.” Red’s voice bursts into that loaded space between us as we face each other with our guns in hand.
“They’ll kill her anyway.” Hatter’s voice sounds, low and urgent as he throws the words past me to Chess. “If you don’t and there’s a bullet in that chamber, they will kill her. If you do it—,”
“There’s a chance,” I breathe, staring at him. “Please, Chess.”
They’re not going to kill all of us. Only some. Some of these guns are empty.
But there are four of us – four bullets, four empty guns—
Our odds are slim at best.
Slowly, Chess lifts his gun. His hand is shaking, his head moving from side to side. “I can’t fire a bullet into your head, Lyss.”
“Then they will.” I center myself, force the gun up and train it on his skull. “This way, you’re giving me a chance.”
“ One .”
“That’s fucking terrible logic.” He doesn’t look away as he aims the gun. “ Terrible .”
“Well,” I swallow. “I haven’t always been known for having the best ideas.”
He laughs, but it sounds more like the sob I can feel inside my own chest as I watch him. The amber in his eyes gleams against the green and brown. “Don’t you fucking die on me, Lyss.”
“ Two .”
“Same.” I choke it. “Hatter – that goes for you too.”
He doesn’t say anything behind me, and I close my eyes. I don’t want to see, can’t bear to see —
But I have to.
Take a breath.
I open my eyes, and I aim.
You were taught by the best.
You don’t fucking miss.
“ Three .”
Gunfire sounds around us as I press the trigger.
I don’t move. I stare at Chess, at his face, not daring to breathe as silence falls around us.
Less than a millimeter.
The bullet missed him by a hair’s breadth.
Chess blinks. “Jesus, Lyss.”
And then he’s off his square, his hands on my face as he tilts my head to the side. I yank myself back, twisting around as I shove him away. “Wait.”
Hatter. Buck . “Are they—,”
But Hatter’s gun hangs in his hand as he watches me. His golden skin is waxy and pale… but he’s unharmed.
And behind him – Buck twists, whistling as he checks behind him. “Not bad, gang. Not bad at all.”
He turns back to me with a grin, but it slides off his face. He takes a step, his outstretched hand fisting before he stops. “You’re bleeding , Trouble.”
Chess is swearing under his breath as he pushes back my hair. I raise my hand, probing the burning pain against my ear as my eyes flick to Hatter.
He doesn’t move, doesn’t even look as though he’s breathing. “Alyss—,”
“I’m fine,” I say quickly. “It’s just a scratch.”
Chess makes a noise deep in his chest that sounds a lot like disagreement. Hissing, I slap his hand away. “Leave it.”
“But—,”
“Leave it.” Turning from him, I take a step to the side, staring down the line.
Two bodies lay on the floor. The one that vomited on the ground is one of them, his sightless gaze fixed on the starlit sky above our heads. The other, I don’t know.
Nor do I know why the sight of them makes me feel so… relieved.
Frowning, I slide my eyes over the remaining participants, stiffening when I meet Kayden’s gaze.
He’s staring at me again – I think. But he turns away so quickly that I wonder if I imagined it as I turn back to the men watching me closely. Or my ear, more precisely. “Stop it. It’s not even bleeding anymore.”
“The dripping says otherwise,” Buck says drily. “But you don’t look on the verge of imminent death, so I’d call that a success. Well played, Hat.”
“Shut up.”
Chess glowers at them both, but we’re interrupted.
“An excellent start,” Red’s voice rings out. “Do I sense some frontrunners starting to emerge? And some… interesting dynamics at play too.”
Her voice twists a little on the words before her tone evens. “Now the real fun can begin.”
She laughs as we all stiffen. “Come now. That was just a little warm up. Setting the tone, so to speak.”
She continues to ramble on, but I’m watching Hatter.
His throat bobs as he stares at the floor, his face still pale. He jerks as I step closer, sliding my hands over his cheeks, feeling his icy-cold skin. “Hey. You doing okay?”
His eyes flit to my ear. And he looks… devastated, those brown eyes deep pools of timeless whiskey darker than I’ve seen before. “No. Nothing about this is okay.”
Even his skin feels clammy beneath my touch. I run my thumb over his cheek, repeating the movement until his eyes close, his hand reaching up to cover mine. “You’re right. None of this is okay. But also, none of this is your fault.”
His lips thin. “Except that it is . If I hadn’t left that damn ticket—,”
“I would have found my way here sooner or later.” I interrupt him with a shake of my head. “I would never have given up on finding Wonder, Hatter. You leaving that ticket behind, us meeting… it only means that I am not here, in this place, alone.”
And for a moment, I realize how glad I am to not be on my own, however selfish the thought is. How glad I am that I don’t have to choose, that they’re here with me and I have no say in any of it.
What a selfish, cruel, human thought to have.
My thoughts shift to Adam again. If he was here, he was here alone. He didn’t have Chess watching his back. Didn’t have Buck, with his dark humor and thinly-veiled concern hidden behind sarcastic comments.
And he didn’t have Hatter.
He had nobody to watch over him, to lean on, and the thought hurts my heart far more than any bullet ever could.
Hatter’s fingers trace my ear, bringing me back. The sadness in his smile tells me he knows I was somewhere else. “I’ve already hurt you once, Alyss Lidell. I don’t think I can do it again.”
Both of us, full of doubts.
“Well, I don’t think I could do this by myself,” I admit. A shameful truth, on a broken whisper. “So… I’m glad that we met, Hatter. And I’m glad that if I’m here, then I am not alone.”
He searches my face. “Yes. You have me, Alyss Lidell. For as long as I can stay. A penance, and a blessing.”
There’s no judgment in his gaze. No lie. Only a raw, open honesty that makes my breath catch in my chest. “Okay, then.”
But my brows draw down as I consider his words. A penance?
Hatter only smiles at me, one side of his mouth twisting up in a way that’s surprisingly boyish. “Okay then.”
His lips press against mine, soft and swift, before hands tug me away.
“Stop pissing her off,” Chess hisses in my ear. His hands grip my hips, pulling me into him.
I wince, wondering if it’s Red I’m pissing off or Chess , but the iciness of the words that ring out around me tell me he’s not lying.
“If some of our participants are quite finished,” Red says coldly, “Our time is ticking away, so on we go.”
Great.