Chapter Twenty-Four #4
“I mean, yeah, I do, but I swear I’m—I’m not trying to—” I fall silent, because isn’t that exactly what I’m trying to do? I hang my head in shame. Maybe Pisces is right. But I’m not shallow, I want to tell him. It’s not like that. But it still isn’t right, is it?
Pisces nods in frustration, like he’s caught me admitting it. “I was right about you.”
I scramble to my feet, coming to stand in front of him. “What does that mean?”
“You’re all about status and appearances. You’re interested in getting closer to Wrath because he’s successful and you think he’s probably hot under the mask, right?”
“That’s not at all—” I try to say, but he interrupts, shaking his head.
“Save it, Bliss.” He seems like he’s about to launch into a tirade, but his phone buzzes.
He takes it out of his pocket and concern sketches across his face.
“Fuck, Simon’s called me about ten times.
” He answers the phone. “Hello—? Simon? Hold on, slow down, mate. I’m fine.
The service is bloody awful down here.” His gaze flicks to mine. “Yeah, she’s with me. She’s fine.”
He yanks the phone away from his ear, and I can hear my sister’s voice yelling through the phone. He holds it out to me and I take it. “Amelia?”
“Bliss, thank the stars. Where are you? No one has been able to find Pisces and it’s been a while and Jordan and his friends crashed the game. We realized you were the only one we couldn’t find and… oh stars. I thought—I thought…” She trails off and I hear the phone being passed around.
“She thought Jordan might have gotten to you,” Reese finishes for her. “Amelia’s really worried. We all were, obviously. Plus, after the masquerade party…” She doesn’t have to finish the sentence.
“Is Amelia okay?” It sounded like she was having a panic attack.
“Yeah, she’ll be alright. Where are you two?”
I look out the window of the basement as I respond, wondering if I’ll be able to see any of them. “We’re in the basement of the building the party was in. We’re not really hidden, so I’m not sure why no one has found us yet.”
“Okay, well why don’t you come out now? The game is over.”
“Alright, we’ll be up in a minute.”
I disconnect the call and hand Pisces’ phone back to him. “Game’s over. I guess I win. Lucky me,” I mutter.
I roll my eyes and rip the wristband off, effectively erasing the magic keeping us in here. I hear another rip as Pisces follows suit.
He’s on my heels as we head out of the basement towards the stairs.
“Bliss,” he calls, as I’m about to start up the stairs.
I whirl around at him. “Save it. I don’t get what your deal is. Yeah, I want to meet Wrath. He’s an amazingly talented musician. Who wouldn’t want to meet him? But maybe I also wanted to get to know you too.” With that, I turn and stomp up the steps, thankful that he keeps silent as he follows me.
I reach the door and try to turn the handle. I pause.
It’s locked.
“Um, that’s not good.”
I try it a couple more times, more forcefully just to make sure.
Pisces shuffles in beside me and tries to open the door, putting his weight into it, but it doesn’t give.
“Fuck,” he swears, pulling out his phone. I’m standing close enough to hear Simon pick up on the second ring. Pisces is standing so close to me, my nose is almost brushing against his torso. The little stairwell isn’t really meant for two people to stand side by side.
Pisces puts his arm out on the wall next to my head, looking down and meeting my gaze in the dim light. “Yeah, the door’s locked.”
“Can you unlock it?”
“Unlock it? Why didn’t I think of that?” Pisces rolls his eyes. “It locks from the other side.”
Pisces breathes in and out deeply, maybe trying to keep a bit of calm.
After a couple minutes we hear pounding on the other side of the door. “Pisces?” another voice calls. It sounds like Evan.
“Ev? Can you get us out of here?”
“Yeah, just stay back, and don’t touch the handle.”
It takes a few seconds, but suddenly the door handle turns bright red. Pisces urges me back down a few steps, putting himself in between me and the door.
I hear Evan kick the door handle and it crashes to the ground, still glowing red. “Come on,” Pisces says, helping me step over the molten handle as Evan swings the door open.
“Well, that was fun.” Evan grins. He turns around and leads us over to where Simon, Reese, Taser, and a few others are waiting.
Reese comes over and brushes some wisps out of my face. “Are you okay?”
I look at her, confused. “Yeah, I’m fine. We didn’t even realize we were locked in. Guess that explains why no one ever found us.”
“The door must have gotten locked after you went down there,” Simon says. “Huh, weird. Well, I guess you win.”
“What’s my prize?” I ask, putting a little sultriness in my voice just to spite Pisces. Fuck what he thinks.
Simon laughs nervously.
“Well, you did get to hang out with Pisces one on one for a little,” Evan says cheerily. “Isn’t that a pretty great prize?”
I arch my brows at Evan but turn my attention back to Simon. “I think I’d rather have been trapped in there with you, actually.”
I can hear Pisces let out a breath, and out of the corner of my eye I see him walk off without a word.
Simon, however, is beaming at me with a pleased but also bewildered expression that’s actually extremely endearing. “I mean, if you want, we could hang out some time—?” Evan swings his arm around Simon and pulls him away from me, and Simon turns bright red.
I can’t help but laugh. “So where’s Amelia?” I ask Reese.
“Blake took her back to the house. She needed some space to calm down. I’ve never seen her that terrified.”
My face falls and I nod. “Okay, let’s get back, then. I wanna check on her.”