I swallow hard, bile burning at the back of my throat. The cruelty is suffocating, thick as the warm air in the room. It presses down on all of us.
And suddenly, the physician’s words flash through my mind:
Most likely, they’ll kill you. Very few survive this place. Everyone dies here eventually.
I had tried to pretend he was wrong. That I was different. That I had enough fight in me to outsmart an entire manor built on terror.
But watching Sarah crumble, watching Jared vomit, watching Emma break, reality hits me like ice water.
I probably won’t survive this.
I’m pregnant, injured, exhausted, surrounded by killers who treat human life like a game. And if I do die, it won’t be clean or quick. It will be twisted. A spectacle they’ll enjoy. A sick, brutal ending—just like Beth’s.
I am not naïve enough to deny it anymore. But if I go out, I will take as many of these sadistic bastards with me as I can. Every last one I can reach. Every throat I can tear open. Every bone I can break.
They have no idea who they're fucking with.
I lift my head slowly, jaw clenched, breathshaky.
Elliot opens his mouth to speak.
Then the television blares to life with a sudden BREAKING NEWS ALERT.
Everything stops. Every sound dies in place. Even the killers go still, attention dragged toward the screen.
The anchor leans closer to the desk, eyes flicking down and back up again, voice raised with urgency.
“We’re just receiving information out of Colorado. This is developing right now,” she says. “Seth Kincaid, the suspected spree killer connected to the Everspring Hotel massacre, has escaped federal custody.”
My heart slams against my ribs, and my breath stutters like my body can’t decide whether to collapse or run.
A grainy hospital security image appears on the screen. The footage shows Seth moving down a hospital corridor under harsh fluorescent lights. His shirt clings to his body, darkened with blood.
He is walking on his own. He looks pale and badly wounded, but there is no mistaking him.
Seth is alive.
A sound tries to claw its way out of my throat, half sob, half laugh, and I swallow it down hard. My knees go weak.
The anchor’s voice rushes to keep up.
“Kincaid was being held at a Colorado medical center under twenty-four-hour armed guard. Moments ago, hospital surveillance footage confirmed his escape. Authorities now believe he was assisted by an accomplice, believed to be extremely dangerous.”
Another clip replaces it.
A tall man moves through the frame in hospital scrubs, pale blue fabric streaked dark along one sleeve. His broad shoulders crowd the narrow space as he advances with controlled urgency. A gun sits steady in his hand, a long barrel fitted with a silencer. He moves with purpose, body angled to shield Seth as they advance down the corridor together.
“Law enforcement confirms multiple officers were killed during the escape,” the anchor adds, almost stumbling over the words as they come in.
The camera angle changes as alarms begin to wail faintly in the background of the footage.
“At least five fatalities have been reported at this time. Authorities are urging the public to remain indoors as this situation continues to unfold.”
The room goes silent again.
Sophie straightens slowly, her wineglass forgotten, knuckles whitening around the stem. Her eyes stay locked on the screen.
Knox stops moving entirely, shoulders squared, attention sharpened into focus.
