Page 71 of Hell’s Weapon

Wyatt

Inever do things by half measure so it shouldn’t surprise me that when I finally fell in love, it wouldn’t be a slow thing that developed over time. No, it’s much more my style to just jump in with both feet, and with two people as well. That part was a surprise to even me. I’ve done the whole group thing before, spent several hours where you have no idea which limbs belong to which person, but I never thought that my heart would up and divide itself, and give both halves away at the same time.

It's not been long, a few weeks, but there’s no other explanation for my complete one-eighty on fucking around and having a good time. I want them both. Exclusively. Permanently. I already belong to them. If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.

Only Tacita went and practically stomped on my declaration by admitting she’s fucking around with someone else. She didn’t have to say the words but it was obvious. I want to find out which of the fuckers it is and make him disappear.

Having stormed back to my room earlier, I haven’t slept a wink. Instead, I’ve taken a very cold shower to shake the tiredness and calm my body down from the tiny kiss I’d given Milo. Seriously, that shouldn’t have gotten me hard but it did and I just didn’t have the energy to rub one out by myself. Who even am I right now?

Anyway, the lack of sleep and the shitshow of a morning amounts to me needing a bucket of coffee. I don’t wait, heading to the canteen by myself. Seffy is already at a table so I grab an entire jug of the necessary caffeine and head over to her.

“Morning,” she chirps as I take a seat opposite her.

“Hey,” I reply, my voice as melancholy as my mood.

Glancing around the room, I note how fractured the contestants are. It seems everyone has indeed teamed up for this challenge and no one is mixing. I also notice the lack of officers this morning. Even with the clean-up required early this morning, I would expect there to be more than two posted in here. Normally, there’s at least five.

“There’s been another murder,” Seffy tells me, clearly reading my puzzled expression.

“Who?” I ask.

“Tally.”

“Number one?”

“Yep. Bottom floor of our building.”

I take a drink of coffee so I don’t have to reply. Tacita’s slip up is still in the front of my mind. She said ‘you’re’ not ‘we’re’, like she’s not including herself as a competitor. Could it be that she is here for another reason? The timing of this latest kill is a strange coincidence. She was late to our group session last night. Is that what she was doing? And with all the commotion it would be understandable that the body wasn’t found until this morning.

“Who was One sharing with?”

“Thirty-Eigtht, but they are in separate groups. Thirty-Eight claims to have been with their group in Jesse’s room.

“Jesse is Forty-Five, right? On the second floor.”

“Yes, and the whole group backed them up.”

I drink more coffee as my brain calculates the likelihood that we’re not the only team to have compiled our files and are keeping them in the room of one of the group members.

Of course, we’d had that little debate amongst our team, but as soon as I’d shown them the improved locking mechanism on my door that I’ve installed, they all backed down pretty quickly. Even Tacita had seemed impressed with my enhancements to the standard issue ones installed.

I’d done it on the first day, because like fuck was I risking someone breaking into my space. And good job too, seeing as someone seems hellbent on killing the competition as they sleep.

But maybe the other teams had done the same as us, only without the improved security.

Logging the room number in my brain, I stand and do a quick circuit of the room. There are seven teams left after one got themselves killed last night and all, bar one, are in here chowing down on breakfast. I walk straight past Jesse’s group, I already know about them.

Papers catch my eye as I realise not every team has kept their files locked away. Cameron is sitting at a table with a few others and their files are spread around one guy who is busy making notes as the team is having what looks like a heated discussion.

Grand.

Bouncing over, I slam myself down in the middle of them at an empty seat, ending all conversation around me. Toby and Laz are also in this group so it’s not that weird that I’m here to say hi. However, the greeting I get could freeze Hell.

“How are you doing? This game is totally bonkers, isn’t it? At least we can say it's not the gun after this morning, right?” I throw in that titbit as I didn’t see anyone from this team still hanging around this morning when that was revealed in the wreckage.

“What are you doing over here Wyatt?” Cameron questions.

“Just wanted to check in, I miss the gang. It’s so frustrating that they’re pitching us all against each other. We’re friends, aren’t we?”