I hear the rhythmic pounding of shoes on the stairs.
I tug Nico away from the door, and we step around the corner and into the closest dark room. It reeks of mildew and old pipes.
I pull the door closed and we press our backs against it. His fingers tighten around mine so hard that my bones shift. I can feel his heart pounding through his shirt where his arm presses against me, and he’s trembling with how hard he’s working to keep himself standing.
The footsteps get closer.
Please walk past us. Please please please just keep walking.
The footsteps stop outside the door.
I can hear the Game Master breathing. Can picture him standing there, head tilted, deciding whether to check inside or move on. My lungs burn, but I don’t dare breathe.
Does he have the axe? I’d been so focused on evading him in the playing area, so relieved when the plan worked, that bringing the axe with us didn’t occur to me. I had my key.
The footsteps move away. Another door opens down the hallway, and the footsteps fade.
I try to focus on listening, but I have no idea how to control this, or even what I’m hearing. I can hear the scratching sound. Does that mean he’s still close, or am I just feeling that hewashere?
We wait in silence for sixty seconds before we open the door.
He’s waiting for us.
And grinning.
Before I can even scream, he shoves us both backward.
My head smashes on the floor. Pain explodes through my skull in a burst that makes my vision go sparkly. I blink up to see the Game Master standing above me, his face swimming in and out of focus.
He throws on the lights.
I take in our surroundings quickly: black and white checkerboard floor, exposed pipes, a row of broken sinks on onewall that are stained brown with age. It’s the creepiest bathroom I’ve ever seen, but maybe that has more to do with the company.
The Game Master stands over us, his eyes gleaming with full-blown psychotic rage.
Nico launches himself at the Game Master with a roar, wrapping his arms around the man’s middle and forcing him out of the door and onto the ground.
“RUN!” Nico screams. “EDEN, GET OUT OF HERE!”
I scramble up, my head spinning so badly I almost go right back down. I stagger toward the door, climbing over where they’re grappling on the floor. The Game Master’s elbow catches me in the ankle as I pass and I gasp, but I make it out into the hallway.
Nico’s fists connect with the Game Master’s face. His knuckles split against stolen teeth.
I catch sight of a loose pipe on the floor and lunge for it, spinning around in time to see the Game Master’s fist crack against Nico’s temple. Nico’s head snaps sideways, his body following the momentum as he crumples like someone just cut his strings.
Time stops.
The Game Master’s head picks up, and then he’s charging at me. I only make it two steps before his hand tangles in my hair, dragging me backward so hard my scalp feels in danger of peeling off. I scream, and he pulls me back into the bathroom and slams me against an old vertical pipe running from the floor to the ceiling. The impact drives all the air from my lungs. Before I can gasp it back in, he’s pulling a coil of rope from over his shoulder.
He winds the rope around my torso, pulling it so tight that my ribs protest, and breathing becomes an active effort instead of something that happens. He’s trussing me up like a Christmas turkey, layering rope over rope until I’m pinned so tight againstthe pipe that I can’t expand my chest all the way. The cramped room starts spinning, and I thrash as hard as I can.
The Game Master steps back to admire his handiwork. Enough rage courses through me to power a small city.
I work up every drop of saliva I can manage and spit right in the Game Master’s face. The glob lands right between his eyes and drips down his nose.
He flings it off, then leans in close enough that I can smell his breath, ripe and stinking of coffee and barbecue chips. I’m surprised he could find it within him to buy a toothbrush for us, but not remember to use one himself.
“He’s going to have so much fun with you,” he sneers. “Bringing down thewildcat.”
