Chapter 20 #2
“I don’t know!” Bowie said. “She just went crazy!”
Ryker dragged the struggling woman further away, but then took an elbow beneath the chin and another in the solar plexus. His hold loosened just enough for Ishleen to slip free.
She shot forward, her arm snapping up.
Rue processed that she’d somehow gotten a hold of Ryker’s blaster just as she pulled the trigger. With horror, he watched as a bullet shot through Lenore’s chest, going clean through before embedding into the wall behind her.
The whole room seemed to freeze, time stilling as she swayed on her feet. Her head turned slowly, finding Rue, and then her eyes rolled back and she tumbled like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Lenore!” He ran toward her, but she was already on the ground.
Bowie stood there completely shocked, pale and staring.
Meanwhile, Ryker managed to wrestle the gun out of Ishleen’s hand, tossing it onto the bar out of reach as he subdued her.
Rue had only just made it to Lenore’s side, was in the process of reaching down for her, when the door burst open, the hinges shattering, wood flinging in every which direction.
He dropped over her, protecting her and his face, but that also brought him close enough to see that her eyes were open once more, staring sightlessly forward.
Dead.
She was dead.
A sob escaped him, but before he could truly mourn, Bowie wrenched him off the ground.
Everything else happened just as quickly, almost too fast for Rue to follow.
The creature, which must have been drawn by the gunshot, lifted its grotesque visage and roared at the ceiling.
Ishleen got free from Ryker’s hold again in his obvious shock seeing the creature clearly for the first time, only making it a few steps before Bowie approached, dragging Rue behind him by the wrist.
Bowie shoved Ishleen forward, straight at the monster, and didn’t stand around long enough to watch and see if the thing took the bait. He used the distraction to slip around, pulling Rue out the doorway and into the hall.
They were halfway down it when Ryker’s voice cut through Rue’s stupor.
He came to a halt, fighting off Bowie’s hold when his friend tried to keep them moving. “Let go! Let go!”
“Forget them!” Bowie said, tugging hard enough pain shot up Rue’s arm.
“Ryker is back there!” Seeing no other way around it, Rue punched him.
His best friend let go, more surprised than anything, but Rue didn’t waste more time explaining. He turned on his heels and sprinted back to the corner room.
Ryker burst through the door just as he made it and the two slammed into one another. Without a word, the Black Hart took his hand and turned, heading in the opposite direction to the one he’d gone with Bowie.
Rue caught a glimpse into the billiards room, just one brief look, and saw the creature chomping into Ishleen’s body.
The Black Hart raced all the way to the stairs, taking them two at a time, moving so fast, Rue almost tripped more than once.
On the third floor, he went straight for his room, slipping the key out of his front pocket.
As soon as the door opened, he shoved Rue inside then turned, slamming the door shut.
The dresser was heavy, yet Ryker managed to drag it over, setting it in front of the door. It wasn’t until he was done that he finally seemed to take a breath, retreating and dropping down onto the edge of the bed when the backs of his knees made contact with the mattress.
Rue realized something was wrong once things had settled. Could tell that the monster crashing in wasn’t the reason for how white Ryker had gone, or how confused he looked.
Taking out the manual from his back pocket, Rue took a single step closer and held it out, waiting for the Black Hart to notice.
Ryker’s brow furrowed even deeper when he spotted it, and he took it tentatively, as if afraid.
The pages were a bit stuck together, blood having seeped into the edges, but it was still legible.
His name on the inside didn’t seem to surprise him, and he flipped through it almost reverently, the silence settling between them heavy.
“This was in Cosima’s office?” he finally asked, glancing up at Rue. Before he could respond, he added in the same hollow tone, “You think I did this?”
Rue didn’t know how to respond, so he opted to remain quiet, even knowing that was the wrong thing to do. He should be reassuring him, telling Ryker he knew he’d never hurt him, but he had suspected him, hadn’t he? If he lied about it, the Black Hart would know.
He was the only person on the planet who could always tell when Rue was lying.
“Do you remember what time of the year it was when my brother entered Belladona?” Ryker asked then, and even though he wasn’t sure where he was going with that, Rue nodded.
“Our birthday was the month after. This,” he held up the manual, “was meant to be my gift to him. I was working with a small development company on it. It’d been in the works for over a year.
After Ryder…When he decided to stay in virtual reality, I forgot all about the birthday gift.
As far as I know, the only copy in existence is still in its original packaging and shoved into the back of my closet at the estate. ”
It was the sort of extravagant gift Ryker would get for his twin.
Of the two of them, Ryder had always been more invested in gaming.
He liked trying his hands at just about any kind, all genres, all types of game play, but horror survival games were definitely at the top of his list of favorites.
Rue recalled thinking that it was weird he’d chosen Belladonna, a fantasy RPG game to get lost in instead of a trashy slasher one.
“That monster,” Ryker continued, “I designed it. I recognized it. But that’s…”
“Not possible?” Rue supplied for him.
“Yeah.” He stared at the cover of the manual. “It’s a computer game. That’s what I created. It’s not even as fancy as Belladonna, not immersive. It’s just a regular game meant to be viewed on a screen and played with a controller. So how did that thing end up here?”
Rue thought about his last conversation with Lenore and tried not to cry. Now wasn’t the time to grieve. “Money.”
Ryker pursed his lips. “What attacked us was clearly part bear. But the rest of it…If it really is my creation, then the organic material was merged with machine parts. That’s what makes them so strong, and why they’re so aggressive.
It would take a scientist and a wildlife veterinarian with a dash of insanity to make something like this a reality. ”
“And money,” Rue reiterated. “Lots and lots of money.”
“You think it was my father.”
At least they could rule out the possibility of it being something supernatural Zar had accidentally brought through another dimension.
Somehow, he felt saying as much wouldn’t be as comforting to Ryker, so he opted against telling him about Lenore’s theory. Or about how apparently there were rumors going around campus about the things Zar had been up to last year.
“You said it yourself,” Rue lowered himself down onto the empty spot next to him, “the actual game is back at the estate. You also kept this a secret, even from me.” The two of them had been closer than ever before that incident, if he hadn’t told Rue, he sure as hell hadn’t talked about it with his dad.
“Only someone who has access to your things would be able to find out about it.”
“I don’t invite anyone over to the estate,” Ryker acknowledged. “I spend most of my time at Castle Black. When I am home, it’s just to sleep and because my father makes me come to play pretend happy family.”
“No one else would have been able to discover it, let alone have the funds and the influence to actually make it a reality. Putting something like this together? That takes serious connections. The kind even the other Black Harts’ parents don’t have. The only thing I can’t figure out is why.”
“Maybe he wanted to take out the board and things got away from him,” Ryker suggested, though it was obvious from his tone that he didn’t really know the answer either. “Or perhaps this is a punishment. He’s been angry that I couldn’t do anything to stop Ryder since it happened.”