Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“Don’t plan on dying with this on,” Lana murmured, forcing a brittle smile as she locked the collar around Brody’s neck.
Brody gave her a sad, resigned smile, his eyes heavy with the weight of the situation. “That’s why I have you guys.”
The others were less cooperative. One man thrashed wildly, panic overtaking him. Ciaran punched him square in the face. The sickening crack echoed, blood spurting from his nose. The man slumped enough for Charon to move over and clamp the collar around his neck. There was a moment of silence, a brief, suffocating pause before the screen flickered to life. A new timer appeared—ten minutes.
A single, ominous question was scrawled across the screen:
"Who is the...?"
The words seemed to echo in my head, bouncing off the walls of my skull as the chains connected to the collars straightened, lifting the four off the ground just enough that their toes barely scraped the floor.
“We need sixteen letters,” Dion said, his voice urgent, his mind already working to solve the riddle.
He looked like he was barely holding it together, eyes darting between the screen and those hanging by chains.
“We have four chances to get it right,” Ky added, his voice a steadying force.
I could feel the tremor in him, the strain he tried so hard to hide, and held him tighter. No one wanted to speak, the fear of being the one to make a fatal mistake pressing down on us all like a vise.
“A,” Ciaran finally said, his voice cold and detached, cutting through the silence.
The letter spun onto the screen, and we all exhaled—a small victory.
“B,” Lana called out, her voice cracking as the letter appeared, the first in the final word. The chains tightened, pulling the four higher, their bodies straining to keep from dangling.
“G,” the man with a bushy beard next to Jessica shouted, his voice shaking with terror.
A red X appeared and immediately, his chain retracted faster than the others, the fan overhead descending with a menacing hum, the blades slicing through the air.
“Shit, try vowels first!” Dion suggested, his frustration boiling over.
“E,” I called out, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst. Two E’s appeared on the screen, but it did little to soothe the growing dread.
“F,” someone said, their voice barely audible, and another red X blazed on the screen. All four chains retracted further, lifting them off the ground as the fan descended even lower. The breeze from the spinning blades sent a chill through the room, lifting my hair and tightening the grip of fear around my heart.
“What dumb fuck said that?” Dion yelled, running a shaky hand through his hair. “I said vowels!”
“I,” Charon called, his voice flat.
A single I appeared on the screen, but the reprieve was fleeting.
“Wait!” Dion called, “I think--.”
“G,” someone called out, interrupting him.
The air left my lungs as another red X appeared, and the chains retracted so violently that the man beside Jessica was yanked upward, his head colliding with the fan blades in a sickening thud. It was severed from his body, hitting the wall with a grotesque splat before bouncing onto the floor.
“Goddamnit!” Lana exclaimed, barely dodging out of the head's path where it landed.
The sight, the sound—my stomach twisted violently, and bile surged up my throat. I covered my mouth with the back of my hand, and Ky’s grip tightened. “Breathe through it, Sunshine.”
“Who is the betrayer?” Dion shouted, the desperation in his voice echoing in the silence that followed. The fan, as if answering his call, abruptly stopped, leaving only the sickening sight of blood splattered across the room.
Confetti suddenly exploded across the screen, an absurd celebration. The chains slackened, and the tension in the room shifted, though the horror still lingered like a dark cloud.
“I almost pissed myself,” Brody muttered, his attempt at humor breaking the ice, if only for a moment. Hayven and Lana circled around and helped get the collar off of him.
Ky chuckled softly, but it quickly turned into a cough. I felt the subtle shift as he leaned slightly more on me, trying to keep his weight off. Panic flared in my chest, my eyes flying to Charon’s.
He was already moving with a speed that belied the fear in his eyes—the first time I’d ever seen him look so shaken. Maverick was right behind him.
“You’re alright,” he murmured to his brother as if his words would make it true.
Maverick moved up beside him, making sure he didn’t invade the space between the two of us. Lana came to my other side, concern etched into every line of her face. She reached out and looped her arm through mine, squeezing it tightly as if she could somehow anchor me.
The screen flickered again, the confetti vanishing as it cut to a new scene—a video. At first, the clips were disjointed, like a broken film reel struggling to play. It was us, all of us, the night of Troy Saint's party. My blood ran cold as I realized someone had recorded us, using a cellphone. We weren’t supposed to have been there—I remembered that much.