9. Tess
TESS
I tilted my chin up, hoping to mask the pounding doubt in my mind as that number reverberated through the room. The clowns were still masked, but I didn’t need to see their faces to see the shock settling over them.
Nash’s spine straightened as she scoffed, the sound landing somewhere between outrage and amusement. “The other girls never negotiated.”
My shoulders tightened, but I rolled the stiffness into a shrug. “I know what I’m worth.”
My stomach twisted at the mention of other girls. Not quite fear.
Am I… jealous? How childish.
I shoved the feeling aside. It was fucking absurd. I was locked up in a cage, about to be hunted by a bunch of murderers, and still worried that I wasn’t special enough.
Nash tilted her head, probably gearing up to push back. But Cyrus was quick to answer, fingers tightening around the iron bars of my cage. “$20k if you win.”
My heart skipped a beat as she agreed to my terms. “Deal.”
Blade stepped closer to the cell, eyeing me hungrily. “You should know, we’ve only had to pay up once. And that girl cheated the game. We gave her a good punishment for it before sending her on her way.”
The demented chuckle that punctuated her sentence sent a chill down my spine, but the fire in my chest was enough to stave it off.
If I remembered Feverpoint correctly, this place was fucking huge. I’d been here on a few trips with my group home as a kid, and every time, at least one kid got lost. It was hundreds and hundreds of acres chock full of hiding spots.
How hard could it really be?
“Whaddaya say, Trinket? Ready to see how we play?”
My nose wrinkled as she stuck a rusty old key into the cell door, giving me my first taste of freedom. I kept my arms crossed over my chest as I stepped out of the cage, letting the sharks circle me. “Why do you keep calling me that?”
Another sick laugh peeled past Blade as she reached out a hand, twisting a lock of my dip-dyed hair between her dirty fingers.
“Because when I catch you, that’s exactly what you’ll be: mine to play with, mine to break.
I want to tie you up and keep you on my trophy shelf — my prized little Trinket. ”
I shuddered as she gave my hair a tug. Maybe agreeing to this game had been a mistake.
But it was too late to back out now. Through the dusty jailhouse window, the sun was already setting, darkness settling over the park.
Nash looked out through the deep purple cast over the park, her shadowy eyes tracing over the early glow of the stars. “You’ve only got a five minute head start. The lights will tell you when it’s over.”
Cyrus punched a code into the keypad, the cool night air caressing my bare skin as the jailhouse door swung open like a hungry mouth. Outside, distorted carnival music blared eerily from the park’s old speakers.
What the fuck?
Blade circled behind me, mask hovering close over my shoulder as she chuckled, “Better start running, Trinket.”
My heart thundered in my chest as I stared out into the void beyond the door. My feet were cemented to the creaky wooden floors. But as Blade began clicking her tongue, counting down the seconds until I was hers to chase, a new rush of adrenaline freed me.
I sprinted off into the night, lungs burning as I stumbled down the cobblestone path and into the shadows, praying that what waited for me on the other end of this dark tunnel was freedom.