Page 31 of Truth Revealed

Shouts of frustration reached his ears.

Not even bothering to hide his grin, Hope crawled from the box and stood, only to find Misery and the others standing before him.

“That was way too fast!” Misery complained. “It was supposed to be a challenge!”

Betrayal glared daggers in his direction and Hope simply shrugged. “Sorry. It was more of an accident than anything.”

“Accident my ass,” Betrayal grumbled.

Even Death opened his mouth to say something, but another voice came over the speakers. “Uh… so, that was really fast. Congrats, blue team! Do you guys wanna play massacre? It’s just team vs. team. It lasts a whole hour and at the end, whoever has shot the other team and earned the most points wins.”

“Hell yes!” Betrayal shouted.

“Alright, listen for the beeps. That’s your signal. Good luck!”

Well, fuck me.

“Better hope luck is on your side,” Betrayal growled, pointing his finger in Hope’s direction. “I’m coming for you.”

Misery rolled his eyes and slapped Betrayal on the chest. “Come on, big guy. It’s just a game. Let’s go find a good vantage point.”

Once they were gone, Death simply arched a brow in his direction. Hope shrugged. “It was an accident!”

“Uh-huh. Let’s find somewhere to hide and hope we don’t get massacred.”

Hope followed Death’s lead as they entered a tunnel made of scaffolding. Plywood walls painted black helped hide them, but if Betrayal and Misery found them, they’d be sitting ducks.

Spying a ladder, he walked over and glanced up. “Hey, follow me,” he whisper-yelled to Death as he holstered the toy gun. The ladder clanked and creaked under his weight, but it held as he made his way to the next floor.

“Oh shit, this is awesome,” Hope hissed, as he surveyed the new area. The setup reminded him of a bus—the room was thin and rectangular, with squares cut into the wall to give them a peek down at the arena below. It was the perfect vantage point to prey on the other team.

“Jackpot.” Death laughed darkly as he took up a spot in front of one of the windows.

Hope glanced around and spied another exit, then moved to check it out. It led to a ramp that descended at an angle, leading to the roof of what was supposed to be a fake building. From there, he guessed the players could jump to the lower building on the other side.

With an emergency exit plotted, he took up a spot at the other end of the bus, peeking out every now and then to see if he could find Misery and Betrayal.

Death was putting his long, dark hair up, and Hope chuckled. It was game time.

But then a thought occurred to him. “Hey,” he hissed to Death. “What if they’re hiding just like we are? Neither one of us will win,” he complained.

Death made a cutting motion across his neck and nodded toward his window. Sure enough, when Hope glanced below, Misery and Betrayal were stealth walking, their guns held in front of them like military men.

They think they’re so tough, Hope thought to himself and choked back a laugh.

He didn’t bother to hide his grin as he aimed out the window and glanced to Death for confirmation. With a nod, they both pulled their triggers. Betrayal and Misery’s vests went off with a screech, lights flashing, and Hope ducked under the window before their vantage point could be spotted. A matching grin curled Death’s lips when their gazes met, and Hope had to cover his mouth to stifle his laughter as curses filtered up from the other team.

Taking a risk, Hope peeked over the edge of the window and surveyed the buildings below. His grin only widened when he easily spied Betrayal hunched down behind a wall, which would have been a smart move if Hope and Death didn’t have a view of the entire area.

As soon as his vest quit blinking, Hope fired off another shot, and choked back his laugh when Betrayal yelled out, “What the fuck, you fuckers! Where are you?”

He got Betrayal two more times and wiped tears of laughter away by the time he finally gave it a rest. Death was having just as much fun as him, so when his serious expression caught Hope’s eye, he frowned.

As gracefully as possible, which wasn’t much, he crawled over to his teammate. “What’s up?”

“I can’t find Misery,” he hissed.

Hope frowned and peeked over the ledge of the nearest window. “What do you mean?” he mumbled. “He was right there with Betrayal… oh shit. We need to move.”