Page 90 of Primal

Screen 1: Two girls in shredded lingerie sprinting past the fake graveyard. Giggling. A shirtless hunter chasing them, mask crooked. Clueless. Still playing.

Screen 2: The Phantom and a woman pressed against a tree, her legs around his waist. They think this is fun.

Screen 3: The woman with cauliflower ears and that NOT YOUR GOOD GIRL choker is on all fours. Bane behind her, rutting.

“Let’s see how your boyfriend’s doing.”

Screen 9 crackles on. The Sanctum trailer.

Is that …?

Derek zooms in.

Kade.

Lying in the dirt, one arm twisted beneath him. Motionless.

Derek sighs. “Tsk. And here I thought he’d be the one to save you.”

“What’d you do to him? Is he …?”

“Dead? Nah.” He chuckles. “Not yet anyway.”

This is our fault.

No. More like my fault.

If I hadn’t gone full Final Girl on Kade … maybe he wouldn’t be lying there now.

He’d be here—kicking this fucking psycho’s ass.

Derek twirls the box cutter. Flicks it open, shut, open. “That’s it? No begging?” Steps toward us. “Tell you what, I’ll give you one chance to save him.”

I lift the spray. “How?”

Derek shrugs. “Go to him. Wake him up.”

Wake him up. Right. As if Kade’s Mr. Sleeping Beauty.

Kristy shoots me a look. Is he serious?

I don’t take my eyes off Derek. “Then what? You’ll let us out?”

He chuckles. “Maybe. But only one of you gets to play hero.”

Kristy stiffens beside me. “What?”

He points the box cutter at me. “You go. She stays. Gotta keep things interesting.”

Kristy grabs my arm. “Hell no.”

“Yeah. I suck at directions. Kristy’s gotta come with me.”

Derek grins like a cat with its paw on a mouse. “You think I don’t know how easily you get lost? Don’t worry. Just follow the red lanterns.”

I glance at Kristy.

She shakes her head.