Chapter 43
NOAH
Strangely, I had to admit that dying by electrocution was actually not as bad as dying by drowning. Sure, it still hurt, but if someone ever needed to pick between the two, I’d definitely recommend electrocution.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Xavier asked from way too fucking close, and I peeled open my eyelids to find him leaning over me with his face just inches from mine. Like he’d been considering mouth to mouth.
“Huh?” I replied, my brain fried. Literally.
“I thought you were dead, and you’re over here mumbling about the pros and cons of drowning versus electrocution. Jesus fuck, Little Dude, you scared me.” He sat back, giving me space, and I was kind of sad about it.
Sue me—-my subconscious brain still thought he was a total babe despite his personality flaws. Then he sneezed, and I smirked.
“Just lie there a minute. You don’t know if—-” Xavier started bossing, so obviously I did the opposite and groaned as I pushed myself to sit up. My hand hurt—-like a lot. “Or you could sit up. What the fuck would I know?”
“Where’s Beth?” I asked, blinking around in the darkness. My phone was on the floor a short distance away, flashlight shining up, and Xavier’s was still in his hand. It didn’t give us much, but it was something. “Did she get shocked, too?”
Xavier shook his head. “No, but she’s still trapped in that room. I’m wondering if we continue on, whether we’ll find a way to get her out…assuming you’re not actually dying.”
“I’m fine,” I croaked, rubbing my face with the hand that didn’t currently feel like it was about to fall off.
Had I been burned with the shock? Seemed likely.
I crawled across the floor to retrieve my phone and shined some light on my left hand to check.
“Yeah, that checks out,” I muttered, eyeing the blistered red welt across my palm.
“Holy shit, Little Dude,” Xavier grunted, peering at my burn. “That looks like it hurts.”
“What a crazy observation, ’Zilla. Here’s me thinking how much it tickles.” I was pissy and sarcastic because, now that I could see it, the agony seemed to have tripled. Fucking hell. “I’m reconsidering my stance on electrocution being superior to drowning.”
Xavier offered me his hand up, then ruffled my hair in an almost affectionate way. “You do seem to make a habit of nearly dying. You’re fucking lucky Tor was there to do CPR when you jumped into the pool. What happened the first time you drowned? Why are you such a liability around water now?”
Now that I was standing, my balance dipped and swirled, clueing me in to the fact I was probably not fine at all. I had no idea what sort of side effects came from electrocution, but it was better than being in a coma.
“Um, I was in a taxi that crashed off a bridge,” I told him quietly, keeping the facts as brief as I could.
“I had been drinking at a party and left for some reason. I don’t remember why.
But my driver was texting and not paying attention to the road, and we went straight over the side of the bridge.
I was wearing…”—-a heavy ballgown—-“bulky clothes and must have hit my head on impact. I woke up right as the car was sinking below the surface. It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my whole life. ”
Xavier was quiet for a long moment, and the darkness meant I really couldn’t get a good look at his face, which was incredibly frustrating. For some reason, I wanted to see his reaction to my story.
“How did you get out?” he asked eventually.
I shrugged, then regretted the movement as my balance swirled again.
I caught myself against the wall with my burned hand and swallowed back a groan of pain.
“I didn’t,” I admitted, answering him honestly.
“Someone saw the crash happen and dove in to save me. They pulled me to the bank and performed CPR and called for help, then disappeared when the ambulance arrived.”
Xavier gave a surprised grunt, like he didn’t believe me. “And you have no idea who it was?”
“Nope,” I replied with a grimace. “I spent a while in a coma, due to the oxygen deprivation for how long I was underwater. Whoever saved me never gave his name to the paramedics and took off before cops arrived on the scene.”
“Huh,” Xavier muttered. Silence fell between us for a few moments, then he sneezed several times in quick succession, and I stifled a laugh.
Movement in the shadows ahead of us made me stiffen up and step closer to Xavier without even meaning to do so. “What the fuck was that?” I whispered, my heart beating faster in my chest. “Did you see?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Probably one of the scare actors or some shit. Come on. Let’s keep moving. There has to be a puzzle or something to get Beth out of that room.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. Suddenly I wasn’t so confident that the corpse Beth was trapped with was a fake. That shock I’d gotten from the door was all too real, and I had a nasty feeling that this game challenge wasn’t as staged as we assumed.
“This door is open,” I said, shining my light on a partly open doorway. “Do we go in?”
Xavier cast me a long look, which seemed almost demonic in the darkness, then reached his arm inside to search for a light switch.
The halogens flickered to life, illuminating a plain room with two single beds bolted to the floor.
No corpses or electric--shock equipment, just empty beds with dirty mattresses.
“Should we look around?” Xavier asked, sounding hesitant as he glanced down at me. “Maybe that golden token will be in here or something.”
I blew out a heavy sigh, nodding. “Let’s both go in, so if we get locked in, then—-actually, on second thought, I’ll go alone.” Because fuck getting trapped in a cell with Godzilla for the rest of the night.
“Ha ha,” he muttered sarcastically, grabbing my waist when I tried to enter the room ahead of him. “We do it together.”
Before I could argue the point, he pushed me forward, stepping into the room with me so if the door decided to spontaneously close, we’d be trapped together.
Thankfully, the game hosts weren’t interested in any forced--proximity trope—-at least not between the two of us—-because the door didn’t move as we poked around the sparse room looking for this mysterious golden token.
“Nothing,” I finally announced with a huff. “You?”
Xavier shook his head. “Nope. Let’s keep going. There has to be a point to this, aside from the fear factor.”
I scoffed. “I think fear is a huge industry, and Clik Games is buying into it with their whole wallet. Just look at what they did to Beth. Poor girl is probably going to be catatonic with terror by morning if we can’t get her out.”
“Would you?” he asked, wrapping his arm around my waist as we exited the room together. He seemed to be careful not to grab my burned hand, and for that I was quietly grateful, because fuck me did it hurt.
I looked up at him through the gloom. “Would I what?”
“Be catatonic by morning,” he clarified, “if you were in Beth’s shoes right now, I mean.
I get the feeling you’re harder to scare, Noah.
I have a feeling that if it were you locked in a room with a rotting corpse, the footage would be entirely different from what Beth is likely streaming right now. ”
I shrugged. “You’re not wrong. But you can’t be that shocked.
It’s literally my ClikByte username: NoFear.
It’s more than just an abbreviation of my name, Zilla.
” Which wasn’t technically true. I still got scared just as much as anyone with an ounce of survival instinct.
I just processed the fear a little differently. Maybe. I was no psychologist.
“Is this the end of the hallway?” he murmured as we approached a heavy, closed door. “Surely there’s more than this; the building is huge.”
“There probably is, through this door.” I gestured to the big wheel handle. “Your turn, Godzilla. I’ve been bitten once already, thanks.”
Xavier glanced at my injured hand and nodded.
“Yeah, valid. Fuck it, let’s see what new fun awaits.
” He inhaled deeply, sneezed twice, glared daggers my way, then grasped the wheel with both hands and gave it a strong spin.
The mechanical clunks seemed like a positive sign, and we exchanged a long look.
Then Xavier pushed the door with the toe of his boot and it swung open with a spine--tingling screech.
“Oh good. More darkness,” I muttered with an edge of nervousness. The constant dark was starting to play tricks on my mind, and I kept imagining things moving around us. “After you, Zilla.”
He scoffed. “Just say you’re scared, Noah, it’s very baby--girl of you.”
I snorted. “As if. You’re never living that one down, and you know it.” And just to prove my metaphorical dick was bigger than his, I brushed past him to step into the new corridor. Then I turned my phone light to the walls, to see if I could find a light switch.
“Bingo,” I whispered, reaching for the switch but hesitating with my finger just an inch away. I’d already been electrocuted once. Could I survive it again? “Zilla, flip this, would you?”
Xavier stepped closer, his chest brushing my back and his breath warming my ear as he leaned over. “Why? So if it’s a trap, then it’s me who dies?”
“Obviously,” I drawled with an eye roll he couldn’t see. “Just do it, baby girl.”
The irritated growl that rolled out of his chest when he reached out to smack the light switch made me snicker. He was so damn easy to wind up and almost always took the rage bait.
Dim halogens flickered dramatically to life along the corridor, and we stood there a moment to let our eyes adjust. It was just a corridor. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, though. Skeletons and bloodstains, maybe?
“Keep going?” Xavier asked, his hand resting briefly on the small of my back as I turned off my phone flashlight and stuffed it in my pocket. “Or turn back?”