28. 28 – Kayden
28 – Kayden
W e stand silently as the elevator rises. I’m standing next to Chess, Aiden close on my other side. Alyss is circled in Chess’s arms, his grip tight as if he can keep her safe, keep her alive, purely by force of will.
She looks up at me. Her eyes look more blue in this light. I watch as her teeth sink into a plump pink lower lip before she glances to Aiden with a small smile. “Good luck, I guess.”
I tilt my head, studying her. “I’ve found that I suddenly have a vested interest in staying alive.”
Her lips part, cheeks pinking. Next to me, Aiden laughs softly.
I get an elbow in the ribs from Chess, but I ignore his irritation. “Five is better than three.”
Five of us, watching her.
“That rather depends on the game,” Buck mutters. My neck prickles at his ominous tone.
I glance at the others. Hatter is silent, his hand linked with Alyss’s.
The two other participants left in this fucked up game stand with a gap separating us. I catch one, the bald one I threatened, with his eyes on Alyss.
Bruce . I remember now. He blanches when he notices my eyes on him, ducks his head.
I murmur to Aiden. “Watch that one.”
I don’t trust him. I’ve met plenty of men like fucking Bruce in my life. And watching his beady little gaze settle on Alyss stirs up more of that familiar anger.
I embrace it. Lean into it, into that fire. I let it warm me from the inside out as the elevator stops.
The lights stay on this time.
The door opens, and we step out, moving to the checkered boxes.
The game has changed.
We’re still outdoors, still in a forest – but ahead of us, thick lines of bushes weave away in endless paths.
A maze.
I count the entrances, mutter a curse under my breath.
Eight.
They’re separating us.
I glance down the line. Aiden nods at me as understanding dawns on the other’s faces. Chess murmurs something to Alyss, who squeezes her eyes shut with a brief shake of her head.
Buck throws his head back, a sarcastic laugh filling the air. “Of fucking course.”
Beside him, Hatter is silent. Red’s favorite toy studies the maze ahead of us, a small crease in his forehead the only sign of any hesitancy.
I don’t bother looking any further. Bruce has smartly picked the square as far away from me – and from Alyss - as possible.
The familiar static sound crackles overhead.
“My lovely participants.” Red’s voice is a purr, but she doesn’t sound quite as enthusiastic as she did yesterday. Perhaps this game hasn’t been the most successful with her precious fucking investors. “Welcome back to Wonderland. Your second night awaits you.”
Not enough maiming, maybe.
We wait for her to continue. “This evening’s activity is a simple one. You will all enter the maze when the alarm rings. Those who are still breathing when the alarm sounds again will make it through to our final night – and what a wonderful night it will be!”
A pause. When Red speaks again, her voice sounds almost… strained. “For this game, the rules prohibiting murder against your fellow participants has been lifted. I look forward to seeing who remains standing at the end.”
Fucking wonderful.
Next to me, Aiden grimaces. “This is intentional. They want to set us against each other.”
“It was bound to happen.” With a pair of twins and Alyss’s group, I’m not surprised the investors are itching to see some drama. Glancing past him, I catch Alyss leaning forward. She mouths something I don’t catch. “What?”
She opens her mouth again, but the blaring of the alarm rings out.
Bruce and the other participant fling themselves off their checkered squares, racing off into the last two entrances.
Aiden snorts. “Newsflash, fuckers. You don’t get brownie points for effort. See you on the other side?”
I study the maze. “I’ll find you. Watch your back.”
“You too.”
The others are almost to their entry points, all of them keeping pace with Alyss as she walks up to her own opening.
She doesn’t look back before disappearing inside.
Here we go.
***
The inside of the maze is dark. Even the silence feels loud , the only sound the quiet press of my footsteps against the dirt floor.
Find Aiden.
Find Alyss.
A soft whirring noise sounds. Twisting, I peer into the thick hedge on my right. A tiny red light blinks back at me. The camera whirrs again as I move to the side and back, following my movements.
I debate reaching out and crushing it, but I don’t want to piss them off enough that they decide to punish me for it. Or, knowing Red, to punish Aiden for it.
Another noise. Turning around, I stare back toward the entrance. As I watch, a section of greenery slides across, sealing me in. And a few steps up from me, the hedging begins to… rustle.
I take a step back as the leaves slide apart. Another.
Whatever it is, it’s not going to be something I want to stick around for.
It only takes a second.
Hundreds – thousands – of motherfucking rats flood out of the walls in a squeaking, hissing, scrabbling ambush.
The noise that erupts from my throat is not the most dignified. Swearing, I dance back like a fucking ballerina.
I despise rats.
My knee burns as I turn and haul ass. They follow after me, flooding the fucking space with their creepy squeaky little chirps.
Reaching a crossroads, I veer to the right, hoping to run into Aiden. The little fuckers fall back behind me until I can slow again.
A scream sounds in the distance. A male scream.
Tensing, I pause to listen.
It sounds again, closer this time.
It sounds like—
Aiden.
But it’s my name he’s screaming. I break into a run, shouting back. He’s screaming it over and over again as I shout back to him.
I’m coming. I force myself to run faster, my knee screaming.
The walls of the maze stretch out in never-ending fucking twists and turns as I race through them, not seeing anyone else. And those screams follow me, growing louder.
Except—
I spin around a corner, nearly stumbling.
Empty.
I force myself to breathe over the panic hammering at my chest.
The screaming is impossibly loud now, repeating over and over and over again, scraping at my fucking eardrums.
I stop. Listen.
The same scream.
A recording, from last night.
Not real. It’s not real.
I take off again. I need to find him. And all the while, the sound of my twin screaming my name follows me, pounding at my head, burrowing inside my skull.
Slamming my hands over my ears, I keep running.
When I peel them away, the screaming is still going. But there’s something else, something that doesn’t match the terror. A shout from ahead of me.
“ Aiden !”
“Kayd?”
He turns the corner as I nearly run into him. Face pale, he gestures around us. “Bet whoever came up with this is fun at parties. You alright?”
The screaming begins to quiet.
I nod, wiping at the sweat on my forehead. “Did they put anything in with you?”
He grimaces as we both turn, walking up in a new direction. “Spiders. You?”
“Rats,” I mutter darkly.
The asshole actually snorts. “They can’t be as bad as the ones we found in the kitchen that time—,”
“I don’t want to talk about that, thanks.”
He whistles. “Those red eyes. And that fucking massive one really liked you.”
“Shut up.” I shove him. “Have you seen anyone else?”
Aiden shakes his head. “I thought I heard Buck shouting, but I couldn’t find him. Must’ve been on another path.”
Sighing, I roll my shoulders back. “Let’s keep looking.”
“What if they decide to take out some of the competition?”
I’ve already considered it. “I doubt Alyss would be happy if they did.”
Not when she risked herself to save my life less than twenty-four hours ago. “Still. We’ll be cautious.”
I’m not too concerned about them trying to kill us. We’re more than capable of holding our own if they tried.
I wouldn’t mind running into Bruce though.
A couple of rats run past us as we make our way down another identical passage. I stop, ignoring Aiden’s amused snort. “There’s something up there.”
Ahead of us, something on the ground glints in a low light. Aiden tilts his head. “Water?”
He moves to step forward, but I grab his arm. “You seen any rain?”
It covers the whole passage; a dark, shimmering pool. Gingerly, we move closer.
Another rat runs past us. “Look.”
We watch as the rat scurries away, up toward that pool. It stops, before turning and darting into the hedge.
As we come closer, I grimace. “I don’t think that’s a normal fucking puddle.”
Aiden points, and I strain my eyes, barely making out the electrical wires at the side that lean into it. “Think you’re right.”
Sighing, I step back. “We’ll have to go around.”
Behind us, a noise sounds. We both turn to look, staring down the passage.
“Fuck,” Aiden hisses. “Is that wall moving ?”
I fucking hate mazes. The wall of green moves toward us, eating up the space and cutting off our exit route. “It’s going to push us into the damn water!”
Death by electrocution is not one I would choose. Aiden moves to the side, shoving his hand into the hedging and tugging. “We climb. Get past that way.”
The wall is moving faster. “Go!”
Seconds, maybe. We throw ourselves against the hedging, sharp branches digging into my hands as we jump up, pulling ourselves up a few inches above the ground and digging our feet into the greenery below us. “Make sure your hold is tight before you move.”
This fucking hedge isn’t designed to hold a human weight. The first area I reach for breaks off in my hand as I tip. “Shit—,”
I twist my head. We’re almost out of time.
Beside me, Aiden is already moving. His hands are bleeding as he grips the branches and hauls himself along, directly over the water. I follow with my heart in my mouth, bracing as we crawl along the hedging.
A snap. Aiden almost drops before he swings his hand up to grab another branch, his foot dangling barely an inch above the water. “Fucking… hate this stupid game.”
It feels like an age before we make our way to the other side and drop down. I shake off the stinging in my hands, wiping off the blood against my trousers.
“Honestly,” Aiden mutters. He stares at the cuts on his hands. “You think the others are okay?”
My thoughts dart to Alyss. “Come on.”
We take off.