“That may be true, but I’m no fool. I can see it in the way you look at me. You want me but you’re afraid of making the leap. When you kiss me, I can sense that you’re holding back.”
“Maybe I am. But, that doesn’t matter. When this party is over, who says there’s anything left for us?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t have to be that way. Stay with me,” I pleaded with her. Even though we barely knew one another, I just couldn’t let this girl go. If I did, I knew it would be the biggest mistake of my life.
“Let’s just go back to the game,” she said.
I sighed. “Fine.”
Without a word, we walked back into the mansion. I yearned to wrap my arms around her, to hold her close, but the iciness that radiated from her warned me to keep my distance.
Things had been going so well and somehow, I had ruined it all.
Upstairs, people had gathered around Kirk, waiting for the game to resume. Chris and Ebony were nowhere to be found.
“Where do you think they ran off to?” I asked her.
“Probably fucking around in some library.” Her voice held a harsh edge to it.
I frowned. Chris and Ebony were perfect for one another. They seemed to like the same things. They had the same type of personality. From the beginning, they hit it off, acting like a couple of high school sweethearts. It wasn’t fair. Chris always got his way and I always got screwed over.
With a glower on my face, I entered the newest room, this one orange in color.
“Adulthood,” Kirk announced, fixing the tie he now wore around his neck. “As you can see this is the humble abode of a working man.” He motioned to the study before he sat down at the desk, folding one leg over the other. “He works tirelessly into the night, coffee his only companion…” he wore on dramatically.
This game was starting to grow tiresome.
What was the point of it all? Why send us on a wild goose chase? What was Kirk really up to?
When he stopped talking, the crowd dispersed throughout the room. There were only a few dozen people still participating in the game. I wondered where everyone had gone. Had they got tired of the game, or was there something else at play?
Even Heidi was gone, but, from the looks of it, more people were wearing red masks. When had that happened?
“Are you just going to stand there or are we going to look for this thing?” Essie broke me out of my trance.
“Sorry, I was thinking.”
“About?”
I looked at her and smirked. “Oh, you know…” I trailed off. I could tease her with a sexy little comment and risk pissing her off or I could tell her the truth.
I was going to take my chances.
“Just thinking about how you would look bent over that desk. Ass in the air. Hips swaying back and forth. Your hair in my fists as I completely ravish you. You’d be screaming my name, your back arched, your tits bouncing.”
“You have a vivid imagination.” The corner of her lips twitched. “Because at the rate you’re going, you’ll never get me to bend over anything.” I could tell she was taunting me, especially when she hiked up the slit of her dress, exposing even more of her leg.
My mind instantly pictured them on my shoulders as I pounded into her.
No matter what happened, I wouldn’t let this night end without getting her in my bed, or over the table, or against the wall. It didn’t matter to me as long as she was mine.
I started to search the room with newfound vigor. “What was the clue again?”
“Adulthood,” Essie reminded me.
“Anything else?”
“No.”
“Well… that could be anything in this room…”
“I think that’s the point,” Essie said as she flipped through an old owner’s manual for my very first computer. “But Kirk did mention coffee quite a few times. Maybe it’s a mug or something.”
I looked around, spotting a coffee machine on the back counter.
Before Essie could follow me, I had already crossed the room, turning it over, looking for a red dot.
“Anything?” Essie asked eagerly.
“Nope…” I frowned.
“Maybe the cabinets.”
I was just about to open them when the lights suddenly turned off.
Everything plunged into a deep, penetrating darkness.
Essie fell into my arms as I held her in a protective embrace.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her body shaking against mine.
“I don’t know…” I held her closer, a sense of foreboding welling up inside of me. Something about this wasn’t right.
Crash!
Glass shattered against the ground, causing us both to jump.
At this point, I was holding Essie so tightly that I feared I would smother her.
Her hands gripped mine, her skin ice cold.
A scream ripped through the room.
I backed us up into the corner, trying to get away from the invisible threat.
And then, the lights came back. They were so bright that at first, I couldn’t see a thing. I shielded my eyes, waiting for them to adjust.
When I did, everything looked normal enough. In fact, nothing seemed out of place.
People crept forward, venturing away from the walls. Whispers started to float around the room as everyone tried to figure out what had happened.
Suddenly, someone gasped.
Everyone turned their heads to the left.
My eyes widened when I spotted the shattered vase on the ground. Right beside it was a splattering of red.
“Is that… blood?” Essie asked the question everyone had been silently thinking in their heads.
“It can’t be.” I stepped forward, parting through the crowd with ease.
Kirk met me at the scene, squatting down to examine it. “This looks bleak, does it not?”
“What’s happening?”
He shrugged in a nonchalant manner. “How am I supposed to know?”
“Because you’re the one who came up with this stupid game in the first place. Now, I suggest you tell me what the hell is going on before I force it out of you,” I threatened, sick of this nonsense.
“Hey, hey, no need to get so hostile. This is all just fun and games. Could be cranberry juice, or ketchup.” Without hesitation, he saturated his fingers with the mysterious substance before he brought it up to his nose, breathing in deeply. It almost looked like he was going to suck in his finger through his nose.
Everyone waited for his consensus.
“Eww,” Essie frowned when Kirk stuck his fingers into his mouth. “That’s disgusting.”
He just smiled at her, sucking his fingers. Abruptly, he jumped to his feet, sharp teeth flashing. “It's blood.”
“How do you know?” Essie asked with a horrified look on her face.
“You know when you get a paper cut and you lick it clean and then you get this coppery taste in your mouth? Same exact thing is happening here. Try it out for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
She shook her head. “Are you crazy?”
“Well, what the hell happened? Whose blood is that?” I grabbed Kirk by the shirt.
Kirk shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that we can’t leave until one of you find the item.”
“Christ, you’re kidding, right?” I rushed to the doors and tugged on the handles. They rattled in their frame but they wouldn’t budge. “This has to be a joke!” I tugged on them harder but still, nothing happened. “What kind of game is this?”
Kirk just smiled knowingly. “I am not the creator, simply the orchestrator.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “What the hell is going on?”
Everyone in the room was stunned, frozen statues that didn’t dare to move.
“All I know is that you need to find the item.”
“Or else what?
”
Suddenly, the lights went off once more.
A scream.
A crash.
Another pool of blood.
This wasn’t a game anymore.
Chapter 15
ESSIE
“Allen, I don’t like it. I don’t want to play this game anymore…” I whispered, clinging to him.
“I know… we will get out of here. We just need to find that damned item.” He kept holding me as we circled the room for what felt like the millionth time. Still, no one had been able to find it. Already, ten people had disappeared, their blood scattered all over the carpet.
What if I was next? What about Allen?
My mind was so muddled with fear that I could barely concentrate on what was going on. What was I supposed to be looking for again? What was the clue?
God, I was going to be sick.
“Hey, Essie, do you think you can reach that? My hand is too big.” He pointed to a small crevice behind one of the large bookshelves. “I can try to move it a smidge to make it easier for you.”
“What…?” I asked, still in a daze. I had been staring at the initial blood stain, zoning out.
When I arrived at the Graves’ Estate Annual Halloween Ball, I expected a night of drunken dancing, not to be thrown into the middle of a horror movie. My stomach churned into a tight knot that swelled up to the size of a boulder. Claustrophobia was setting in. I needed to get out of here.
“There’s something behind this bookcase,” Allen repeated. “It might be our item.”
I nodded and got on my knees. Even as I stretched out my arm to its full length, I couldn’t quite reach it. My fingertips grazed the soft leather cover. I pushed myself closer, my cheek pressing against the cool surface of the bookcase.
“Ugh… I’m so close…”
“Can you reach it?” Allen asked as he pushed the bookcase forward, giving me a bit more room.
I extended my arm a little further.
Eureka!
My fingers tightened around the spine of the book, reeling it out of its hiding place.
Exhausted, I slumped onto the ground, leaning into the wall. I closed my eyes for a second before looking down at the book in my hand.
Beautiful gold letters spelled out ‘Planner’ in a rich, flowing script.
“Is that it?” Allen asked, breathless. I could tell he was just as desperate to leave as I was.
I flicked through the pages. Each one was filled with various to-do lists and tasks that a responsible adult would be required to do, such as clean the house, wash the dishes, finish the work project, etc.
Once I got to the back cover, there was a bright red dot right in the middle of it.
We had found it! We could finally escape this god-forsaken room!
Kirk walked up to us. “What do you have here?” he asked in a sing-song voice that irritated me to the core. How could he think that this was all just a game when so many people had already gotten hurt?
“Knock it off.” Allen punched him in the arm. “This isn’t funny anymore. We just want to get out of here.” The remaining players huddled around us, eager to know if we had actually found the ticket to freedom.
“Hey, don’t hate the messenger.”
Allen growled. “Shut up and just tell us if this is what you’re looking for.” I could tell that he was getting antsy.
Kirk picked up the planner and looked through it at a leisurely pace, to the annoyance of everyone in the room. He stared at the red dot for a moment, building the suspense. Beside him, Allen already had his hands in fists, looking like he wanted to pummel his friend into a pulp.
“Lucky you.” Kirk smiled mischievously, pulling a red mask out of his pocket and tying it around my head. “You are now part of the elite. Congratulations.” As soon as he finished speaking, the doors opened with a loud, ominous creak. Quickly, everyone filed through it, thinking they were finally free, but we only entered yet another chamber.
This one white.
“Kirk.” Allen grabbed him by the collar, slamming him into the wall. “You better end this right this instant or I swear to God, you’re the next one to spill blood.” His teeth were barred, making him look like a wild animal about to rip out Kirk’s throat.
I placed my hand on his arm. “Allen.”
His expression softened as he looked over his shoulder at me. “What?”
“I think the only way we can get out of here is by winning the game…” I looked around the bedroom we were in. Most of the people still left wore red masks. It seemed that, somehow, the masks gave them immunity against the silent force that was whisking everyone away. “Let’s just do this quickly and get out of here…” I pleaded with him.
“You should probably listen to her,” Kirk added.
Allen tightened his grasp, his gaze smoldering as he glared at his friend. “I don’t want to hear another word out of you unless it’s the clue to this room.”
“Well, since you asked...” Kirk quickly pressed his fingers against Allen’s wrists, targeting his pressure points.
Allen immediately let go, shaking his hand to melt away the pain.
Smugly, Kirk marched to the bed situated in the middle of the room. He jumped on top of it. All eyes were on him, desperate for the clue. Everyone just wanted the game to end.
“As you can see, the room you now stand in is white.” He moved his arms in a sweeping motion.
My eyes followed his gesture, taking in how starkly white everything was. From the walls, to the furniture, to the floor. It was like I was standing in the middle of a hospital room. I half expected a doctor to walk in.
“It is the color of sterility. When we are sick, we try to wash away all the bad inside of us to start fresh. But, when you get to a certain age, that is no longer possible. Instead, you lay in your white bed, covered in white sheets, looking up at a white ceiling. This room is old age. But… oh, it seems I have forgotten the clue… Where am I again? Who are all of you? What’s my name?” He assumed the posture of an old man.
“He’s pretending to have dementia,” I whispered to Allen. “That must be the clue.”
He nodded, immediately searching the medicine cabinet, looking for medication used to treat the condition.
“I don’t think it would be that easy. Things have started to get harder.” I pointed out, tapping the sides of the cabinets, looking for any hidden compartments.
“We have to find it. If we play this game for much longer, I’m going to lose my mind.”
But, unfortunately, we did.
An hour passed by and no one had found the item.
Growing frustrated, Allen once again tried the doors, but they had locked the second everyone was in the room.
“Fuck!” he screamed, punching the door in pure frustration. He huffed as his nostril’s flaring.
“Allen… don’t hurt yourself…” I took his hand in mine. There was a nasty cut on his knuckle. A drop of his blood fell to the ground, staining the white floor. Instantly, I thought of my AP English class in high school. This almost seemed like a blatant example of symbolism.
Carefully, I placed a plaster on his hand and kissed it gently. “We are going to get out of here,” I said.
He nodded, his eyes locking with Kirk who was just lying in the bed like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Suddenly, Allen was crossing the room. Roughly, he yanked Kirk to his feet before swinging a punch at him.
Kirk, of course, didn’t expect it. The punch collided with his jaw, sending him flying back into the nightstand. A lamp toppled to the ground.
Allen pulled back his fist for another hit when Kirk dodged. He grabbed Allen by the belt and spun him around, throwing him into the nearby wall. Allen groaned but quickly regained his composure.
“So, you want to dance, do you?” Kirk asked, light and airy on his feet, like a professional boxer circling the octagon. “Because you won’t win this fi
ght.”
“Tell me why you’re doing this!”
“Hey, don’t get mad at me. You asked me to create one hell of a Halloween game and that’s exactly what I did.” He squatted low when Allen threw another punch in his direction.
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