Page 178 of Stay Scared

I let him talk.

“You kept showing them the picture afterward,” I say.

“Mercer needed motivation.”

The words come closer.

“You used him.”

“He was predictable.”

Another step.

The analog camera is catching this.

My attention stays on the dark passage.

Rook keeps going because I have finally given him the thing he wants more than secrecy: credit.

“Shaw had already built the archive. Langston had already built the house. I only had to stop them from pretending they were better than me.”

His voice is no longer coming from the ceiling.

He is inside the maze.

I turn toward the nearest dark passage. “So Evan got stabbed for pretending?”

“He moved when he should have stayed down.”

There it is.

Rook’s boots scrape across the floor.

I take one step backward. “He was bleeding.”

“He interfered.”

I leave the argument there.

Rook fills the silence himself.

“Mark was easier. He understood as soon as I put him in the chair.”

A faint metallic rattle comes through the maze.

My stomach turns.

Rook laughs quietly. “He still thinks working his hand free matters.”

I curl my fingers around Ash’s mask.

The camera above me keeps recording.

“You’re proud of that.”

“I planned tonight while all three of them were still congratulating themselves for keeping you safe.”

He takes another step.