40 | Nate
Nate
Iam driving the familiar way to the maze, with Liam in the passenger seat and a redhead tied up in the back.
Mike and Jessica are already there, waiting for us.
They left the house early to get Jessica ready for the hunt, taking my credit card with them.
I wanted to take her shopping myself, but instead, I decided to give her something to wear and my card before sending her off with my boyfriend.
I need to be alone with Liam to make sure this isn’t as insane an idea as it sounds.
But Liam thinks the exact same thing. He doesn’t like the idea at all.
In fact, he didn’t want to participate. I had to drag his ass into the van and force him to help me kidnap the woman.
Because even though I don’t want this hunt to happen either, we are still a family.
We hunt together. We watch each other's backs. That’s how things work.
And this woman he brought into our lives might be a new addition, but she is family now, too.
“This is a really bad idea,” Liam states for the millionth time since we left the house.
I couldn't agree more. None of us expected Jessica to turn out this way. She is the female version of Mike—one that somehow can get all three of us hard at the same time and make us ready to grant her wishes like genies. That doesn’t mean we aren't aware of how fucked up this is. And that’s exactly what it is. Fucked up.
I glance at Liam, his brow furrowed in concern as he stares out the window at the passing trees.
The redhead in the back stirs, mumbling something through the gag in her mouth.
I grip the steering wheel tighter, feeling the weight of our situation pressing down on me.
If we don’t get caught for killing Mary and burying her in our backyard, we are certainly going down for killing this woman.
She is a fucking influencer, for fuck’s sake.
People will notice she is missing faster than a random woman who keeps to herself and works remotely.
Her whole damn life is in the spotlight.
She is going to be the reason we get caught—unless we leave town as fast as we can after tonight.
This will not end well for any of us. Jessica was not supposed to turn out this way.
She wasn’t supposed to be okay with what we are, let alone join the games.
After the night in the maze, I hoped she might be the one to break the cycle.
The thing we finally needed to end the game.
Mike has been unusually calm since Mary’s death.
He appears as if that finally satisfied his need for revenge.
He doesn’t need to kill anymore. I can tell.
I am sure he still loves the idea of hunting, but it doesn’t feel like a necessity anymore.
It doesn’t feel like the desire is driving him crazy.
I really hoped we could finally put an end to it now.
Maybe with Jessica by our side, we could move on.
That isn’t the case, though. Jessica chose tonight’s victim.
She is doing this willingly. She even proposed the hunt.
Mike told me as much when I questioned him after they announced to us that we were hunting tonight.
He is surprisingly fine with it, and I am not sure if there is something we don’t know about this woman that Jess shared with him.
Maybe he saw something familiar in Jess; maybe she has a need for it like he does, which makes no sense to me or Liam.
It is also a possibility he went completely crazy and is now bringing more people into this madness out of boredom.
I could be wrong entirely, and he isn’t calm at all.
He might be completely insane, and that’s just how complete insanity looks on him.
It’s not like he was far from it to begin with.
He was already pretty close to that mental state—closer than any normal human would be.
I drive straight to the entrance of the maze and park next to the two bikes already there.
Mine and Liam’s are in the back with the redhead.
I turn to look at him in the passenger seat, and he shakes his head as he gets out of the van.
He doesn’t approve. He isn’t willing to participate.
That breaks my heart. He liked the hunts because he knew they offered some sense of relief to his brother, but now I think he feels more guilty than usual.
We approach Mike and Jessica. I can see the excitement in her eyes. She is dressed in black. A leather jacket, similar to what the twins have always worn, completes her outfit. Mike has even stitched the details theirs have in magenta thread—a clear sign he accepts her into our family.
“Did some shopping, I see,” I point out, and Jessica twirls to show me her outfit.
Mike throws my card at me, and I catch it mid-air.
“You told me to get her ready for a hunt. She needed gear if she was going to ride a motorcycle, right?” He says in a casual tone.
“I guess she did. I like the jacket, nice touch,” I admit.
Liam’s glare could cut glass now, and I can feel his furious gaze on my back as he opens the rear door of the van and pulls out the redhead.
The woman willingly allows him to help her out, and he removes the hood from her head.
She looks at us, confused, and then at Jessica.
I can see the realization in her eyes. She knows things won’t end well for her.
Jessica approaches with a knife and cuts the redhead’s bindings. She strokes the girl's face with her fingertips and removes a curly red lock of hair from in front of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear.
“Rules are simple.” Jessica’s voice sounds cold and distant.
She is about to recite the rules, as I have done all those years until we met her.
Things are indeed changing. “There is a scarecrow in the middle of the maze. Get there and you are safe. If any of us catches you, though, you are fair game. If you manage to hide until dawn, you can try again tomorrow.”
She recites the rules like she has been doing it all her life, her voice never once cracking. It’s steady, cold, and dangerous. I see the boys moving to their bikes already. I take mine as well, and Jessica now pulls the redhead by her hair to the edge of the maze.
“Be a good girl and start running,” she taunts.
The redhead's eyes grow wide with fear, and she starts running. Her movements are slow, and we allow her a head start, even though she is doing a terrible job of running for her life.
Jessica takes her seat on her brand-new motorcycle. The sound of her engine fills the maze as she heads down the trail of the woman. We do the same, following Jessica as she hunts the poor girl through the maze.
The woman is terrified, and even the slightest sound makes her jump.
I pity her in a way. The game has become complicated since Jessica joined us.
I am pretty sure Liam agrees with me, as he deliberately lets the woman slip away when he gets close to her.
I give him a familiar look—that she won’t escape here alive either way—but I understand why he tries to give her a better chance of survival.
Besides, he has always avoided making the kill himself, and this game isn’t any different.
He will allow her to escape his grasp every time until someone else takes the kill.
The woman turns left and right, and we stalk close by as she reaches the scarecrow. We abandon our motorcycles all at the same time and walk toward the scarecrow, knowing she thinks she has won the game. Each of us takes a different path as we circle her.
She is one of the locals, close to Jessica’s age, and I am assuming from her reaction that they know each other.
Jessica told us she used to play in the maze as a teenager on Halloween.
It is safe to assume this woman played the same games, since she found the scarecrow fast even with terror filling her body.
Jessica appears from behind her, and I follow, the sound making the woman turn to face us. The twins approach her from the other side.
“I reached the scarecrow,” she announces, and Jessica laughs.
“I am safe; I reached the scarecrow,” she repeats.
They always believe the stupid rules. Every time, they think they have found some ally among us.
Mike laughs at her statement, and Liam grabs her by the throat, pulling her against his body.
He whispers something in her ear that I can’t hear from where I stand.
Mike takes his blade and slices her cheek; blood floods from the wound, and the woman gasps, her tears mixing with her blood. He licks the blood and winks at her.
“You were never safe, doll,” Liam tells her, slicing her throat the moment he finishes his sentence.
Everyone stays still—except for Jessica. She releases a happy scream, far too excited by the thrill of the hunt still coursing through her veins.
We know, though: this isn’t normal. Liam is never the one to take a life. This is going to eat him alive.
We all get on our motorcycles to return to where we left the van.
I place the dead woman on mine to carry her back, taking the burden off Liam.
He is staring ahead with that same lost look he had the night of the fire.
He just took a life for the first time—something he had avoided through a decade of hunting, breaking one more of his rules in this town.
When we reach the entrance of the maze where the van is parked, I place her body in the back, inside the plastic body bag we keep back there. Usually, that’s Liam’s job. However, this time, I am not going to let him carry this responsibility. He has already done enough.
Mike approaches me and takes the keys from my hand. He knows we need to protect Liam now. Liam has done it for us so many times; it’s our turn now to make sure we don’t get caught while he deals with the aftermath of his actions.
“Come on, darling, let’s go home to get you cleaned up,” I say, inspecting Jessica, who somehow got blood on herself—she must have been close when Liam sliced the woman’s throat.
She smiles and gets on her bike. Mike loads his into the van, and I watch Liam as he gets on his own. They drive ahead, while I stay behind for a moment longer.
I walk with my boyfriend to the driver's seat, and he gets inside.
“Be safe, okay?” I tell him. It’s not an order. It’s a plea, because I can’t bear to lose him to his reckless self. He needs to be careful.
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” he assures me.
“Do you, though? None of us has truly done this part before,” I point out.
“I have—if you count Mary, and you also burried the first one. Although you did a terrible job.” He tries to joke.
“You chose to bury her in our backyard, Mike.” I let my words hang in the air a moment too long before speaking again when he doesn’t say anything. “Be safe,” I say one last time and walk to my bike. I get on and pull the helmet resting on the handlebars over my head.
Mike starts the van, and I follow behind him until we reach the point where we usually separate. He takes the road that leads to the burial site, and I take the one that leads to the house.