Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Shadow isn’t exactly comfortable with company, especially company she doesn’t fully trust, but I was hoping to catch her before she left, maybe try to get to know her a little better. After all, she’s been dropping by for dinner for the past few nights without fail, and maybe that’s enough for her to realize that I’m the kind of woman who sticks to her word.
After making my way back into the resort, I stride to my door, making my presence obvious as I walk up onto the front deck and enter the access code. I dangle my bag a little and fake a cough just to give her the extra warning in case she’s not ready and wants to slip out the back, then I turn the handle and step into my little suite.
The suite is quiet as I walk in, no familiar sound of a fork scraping the bottom of a bowl or a chair shuffling across the floor. My brows furrow, and I walk deeper into the suite, desperate to figure out where she is or if she’s even still here at all.
I creep toward the kitchen with my hands out, trying to show her that I mean her no harm, and just as I turn the corner to peer into the kitchen, a hand shoots out of nowhere pressing a drenched cloth over my nose and mouth.
Panic blasts through me. I only have mere seconds to save myself before the chloroform knocks me unconscious, and I become a puppet for the master to manipulate. I try to fight this person off, having no idea who stands at my back, but as the chloroform begins to take effect, I quickly grow weaker.
My heart races as I claw at the hands blocking my airway, and when my lungs begin to scream for sweet oxygen, I’m left with no choice but to take a deep, gasping breath, sucking in nothing but pure chloroform.
Darkness dances behind my eyes, and just as my body begins to give in to the rich, lethal chemical, a flash of bright red hair cuts across my vision. My mind tries to make sense of it, tries to figure out exactly what I’m seeing, but the dizziness rushes over me, and not a second later, everything goes dark.
Alaugh breaks through my unconsciousness, and I force my eyes open despite the fogginess clouding my mind. My head pounds, and there’s no telling just how long I’ve been out cold. A flash of red cuts through my grogginess, and I try to focus on the room around me, but the splashing sounds make it hard to concentrate.
What the fuck is going on?
I come in and out of consciousness, my body determined to give in to the dizziness, but I’m not having it. Whatever the fuck is going on here, I’m not about to succumb to it. I’m not dying today, nor am I about to die barely halfway through the games. I’m no runner-up, and I’m sure as fuck not the type to get participation awards. I win. I’ve always won, and today isn’t going to be any different.
Focusing on the red blob until it finally begins to take form, I see a woman with blazing red hair, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out this is Gasoline—the woman Eagle warned me about. This is exactly what she did to her, and while Eagle was lucky enough to escape with her life, she was left with deep scars. Despite everything I did to Eagle, it was Gasoline who terrified her, and that speaks volumes.
I watch the older woman for a moment, trying to make sense of everything around me. I’m still in my little suite at the holiday resort, sitting in one of the chairs by the dining table, and as she goes around the small suite, the smell of gasoline assaults my senses.
My brows furrow, and I blink through the fogginess, realizing that she’s dousing the suite and preparing for one hell of a blaze.
Panic soars through my chest, and the reality of my situation sobers me. She’s going to burn me alive, just as she tried to do to Eagle. Only this time, she’s already had a failed attempt, so I can guarantee she learned from her mistakes. She doesn’t intend to fail twice.
I’m fucked.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
I have to get out of here.
As the woman circles the suite, murmuring to herself, I pull against my heavy limbs, quickly realizing just how dire my situation is. I’m not only chained to a chair, but the chair has also been chained to the heavy table, leaving me no hope of escape.
I pull at my bound wrists and ankles, my heart booming loudly in my ears. The headache is intense, and the fogginess threatens to knock me out again, but I do everything in my power to keep myself from failing. My wrists quickly turn bloody from the way I pull at my binds, and after trying for much longer than I should, I realize just how hopeless this is.