Chapter 19 Player 2511
“I was going to close my circle,
I was going to complete my game,
and I was going to destroy my opponent utterly.”
I got out a cigarette and tucked it between my lips.
Rage wound through me, making me shake.
The need for revenge had long ago dragged me down into this chasm of hatred and loathing, and I wanted to escape.
“Don’t you think that move with the webcam exposed us a little too much?” His voice echoed around my living room, and the sound of his anxious pacing was getting annoying, but I refused to lose focus.
Smoke framed my face before floating up toward the ceiling in thick spirals as I leaned forward, digging my nails into the leather armrest of my chair.
“No,” I said confidently.
“No? What if he figures out our identities?”
“He hasn’t figured out shit about our identities. More importantly, he has no idea what my next move is going to be.” I offered a sneering grin to go with my sharp words.
“What are you thinking? What’s fucking next?” he asked, an expression of concern passing over his face while my face showed nothing but weightless, untroubled ease.
“We’re going to lay a trap for him. The little fish will come in for a nibble, and then we can finally hit him.
” I leaned forward and scooped up some of the darts I so enjoyed playing with.
I stood up and faced the photos affixed to the wall.
“We already took a shot at Logan.” I hurled the first dart at baby bro’s face, an odd shiver of excitement running down my spine.
“Then we went after that little slut he’s been screwing.
” I threw the second dart at little sis.
“Finally, it was Chloe’s turn.” I shut one eye, took careful aim, and fired the last dart right into Selene’s angelic little face.
“So? Who’s up next? His mother?” He huffed impatiently, and I shot him a smile as I turned the last dart over in my hands. I caressed it slowly for a moment before hurling it at the image of my next target.
Him.
“Fuck no. There’s no point hurting the mother; they have a bad relationship. We went after the people he cared about the most to hurt him through them, but we’ve toyed with him for long enough. Now…” I paused with my tongue between my teeth and a feeling of self-satisfaction.
“Now what?” he prompted me and folded his arms over his chest, all curiosity.
“Now I’m going to create my final puzzle…” I said, my eyes on the dart lodged in the center of Neil’s image. It was still vibrating slightly, stuck fast in his chest, right about where his heart would be.
“Remember, I have a score to settle with him too. I want to be in the room when we kill him,” he blurted out wrathfully, though he knew perfectly well that I didn’t tolerate demands.
I shot him an icy look and lifted my jacket with deliberate slowness, just far enough to reveal the glock holstered there. My message was clear.
“And I’ll get one of those too, right?” His eyes lit up at the prospect. I fixed my jacket so it covered my weapon and gave him a mysterious smile.
“Not if you keep holding it sideways, you won’t. This isn’t an action movie. I don’t need ridiculous stunts and stupid tricks. I need people with training.” I waved a dismissive hand and turned my back on him.
“I’ve been learning how to shoot and—”
“Go away,” I ordered flatly, walking over to my office. As soon as I went inside, it was quiet as the grave all around me once more. I walked around the imposing desk and seated myself comfortably in the chair behind it.
I opened my schematic and regarded the labyrinth I had created with satisfaction.
The crow signaled the first round of the game and demonstrated my purpose up front: revenge. I traced my finger along the old diagram I’d drawn, my fingertips catching against the rough paper and making a pleasant rasping sound.
I got to the second round: the music box that was connected to the legend of the little girl whose father punished her for her disobedience. I smiled mockingly as I continued to drag my fingers along the others.
Number three… Fuck, that one was my favorite.
The pictures of his whole family except for Neil and the acrostic that spelled out Logan’s name, revealing my intention to attack him right from the start.
The fourth round was the personification of death, a skeleton on his white horse in Gustave Doré’s famous painting.
Round five, I’d used a Rubik’s cube to hint at where I’d hidden Chloe in a car alongside a bomb. If her little brother hadn’t found her in time, the blond girl would have been blown sky-high.
“Fuck…you won almost every round,” I grumbled, sliding my finger down to the sixth round, which was connected to Hard Candy and malware I’d used to spy on his little slut and make a video to blackmail her.
I still had that video in my possession, but I had a different goal: I wanted to see my last target bleed.
“Only the seventh one left to go…” I chewed thoughtfully on the inside of my cheek and pulled a pencil out of the glass holder, tapping it against the paper.
It wasn’t easy, thinking up a puzzle, but it was exciting. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
I had spent so many years wondering what my purpose was and now I knew it: I was meant to do evil, to keep myself afloat in this shitsack world.
I allowed my madness to take form on the paper.
I moved my hand, drawing lines, words, and scribbles, generating my final masterpiece, my last riddle, the seventh level.
It was no accident that this game had seven rounds. I had always had a special love for the number seven.
In Pythagorean philosophy the number seven was associated with a perfect union of the material and the spiritual.
In sacred geometry, the number is linked to the circle, and that was precisely why I’d chosen it.
I was going to close my circle. I was going to complete my game, and I was going to destroy my opponent utterly.
I was interrupted then by the squeak of the door opening.
She moved slowly into the room, and I watched her shapely legs as she did. I set down my pencil, and for a moment, just appreciated her feminine shape.
“Are you working without me?” she asked, giving me a sly smile. I stared deep into her eyes as I leaned back in my chair, arrogantly folding my hands over my abdomen.
“You’ve already done your part,” I answered bluntly. She moved closer and put her hands on the desk. She stroked the surface of it with her long fingers as though it were my body. Then she leaned forward to give me a better look down her shirt at her firm tits.
“I still want to help,” she said in a naughty whisper.
“How? By acting like a slut?” I sneered, and she recoiled.
I could smell her fear, and it excited me.
“You’re children, all of you. I’m the one who makes the rules around here,” I said pointedly.
“Now get out of here and wait for me in the bedroom,” I ordered, gesturing to the door with a jerk of my head.
I would absolutely fuck her later; at the moment I had more important things to deal with.
I turned back to my puzzle.
My prey was going to take the bait, and then I’d have him in my clutches, and I would butcher him.
I wanted to hear his cries of pain, taste his blood on my tongue… Fuck, my hands were trembling just thinking about it.
He would never make it out of my labyrinth alive, and I would be right there, listening to the very last beat of his heart. Watching him crawling to me, pleading for mercy like the disgusting worm that he was.
“I’m going to watch your face as you take your last breath.” I turned the pencil over in my fingers, thinking about that moment when our eyes would meet. Then, I opened the desk drawer and slipped out the mask that I would wear.
One last time.