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Candice’s smile widened. “You won’t survive the ascent. Mr. Gould kills you both in a jealous rage and then commits suicide. Terrible thing.”

“I won’t,” Travis said. “I’m not touching anymore food or drink. You can’t hypnotize me into doing anything I don’t want to do.”

“Fortunately, you don’t have to. All any of you really have to do is die.” She raised the gun.

Mason slipped his hand in mine and squeezed.

“You can’t shoot us!” I yelled. “It won’t look like what you said. It’ll look like murder.”

Candice’s eyes narrowed. “I know that. Let’s see… These two get into a fight over you near the edge of the railing.” She gestured with the gun toward the rail. “Move it or die where you stand.”

We all edged toward the railing she indicated. Heights weren’t one of my fears, but any way I looked at it, this was bad. The machines were the equivalent of three stories high from there and descended at least that far down past the railing. The whirr and thump of the machinery was so loud, Candice had to yell over it this close.

“You attempt to intervene, Samantha. I know how you hate to see them fight. But the hothead there, Travis, in the heat of the moment, he knocks you over the edge. Mason lunges, trying for revenge, but Travis stabs him. Take out that knife in your pants please, Mr. Gould.”

Travis’s hand trembled as he hovered over his belt. But when Candice directed the gun at me, he did as he was told.

“Then, unable to deal with the guilt, you—oh I don’t care, take your pick, slit your wrists, throw yourself after your love, whatever.”

“And you think we’re just going to cooperate?” I asked, incredulous.

“You die either way.” Candice shrugged. “But if you’d prefer, while I wait I can shoot Mason in the foot, then the leg, then the arms, then—”

“No!” I screamed.

Travis grabbed me around the waist as I lunged past him, fingers out, ready to tighten around her throat.

“Then be a good girl and jump.”

“If she jumps, we kill you,” Travis said.

“I have the gun.” A shot rang out, and I screamed as Mason collapsed to the metal grating.

Blood bubbled from a hole in the right leg of his jeans. I dropped to his side, trying to staunch the flow with my bare hands.

“Wherever did you get that gun, young Travis? Enough stalling,” Candice said. “I have things to attend to. People to disconnect from stasis incorrectly.”

“You’re going to kill them?” I asked. I thought nothing else could horrify me more at that point.

“Only the ones I dislike.” Candice let out another girlish giggle. “Which is most, to tell the truth.”

There had to be something we could do. It couldn’t end this way. It couldn’t. I peered over the edge of the rail. What would it feel like to die? I’d never really thought about it before. The pain I had contemplated, especially seeing my mother go through treatment after treatment. The vomiting, the dizziness, the weakness. But never had I considered what really happened when it was over. I couldn’t let myself believe it would happen, because as small as it was, there had always been hope.

My eyes traveled down the machine closest to me, coming to rest on the small, neon sign that read Danger, Liquid Nitrogen. That was my only hope left, and I clung to it.

“Apparently Miss Meadows doesn’t care if I shoot your leg, but perhaps when she hears you beg to die…” Candice said.

Without further hesitation, I let go of Mason, climbed up the fence-like metal rods, and swung first one leg then the other over the edge so I balanced on the wrong side of sanity. Travis’s hands circled my waist and tugged.

“Get away. She’s doing just fine on her own.”

Travis’s entire body tensed like a tiger ready to charge at prey.

I interjected before he could do something foolish. “Wait! Wait. Let me just say goodbye, okay? It’ll help you if we do it your way, and I will if you let me say goodbye to Travis.” I watched Candice and waited.

“Fine.”

I let Travis pull me back over and clung to him. I buried my face in his neck, but tilted my head and raised it so my mouth was over his ear. I didn’t have the luxury of a long explanation or she’d get suspicious, so I went with two words.