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My hip throbs with pain, but I do my best to ignore it. I’m too angry to worry about the parts I will have to ice tonight.
“He’s upstairs.” His eyes drift up for a split second, almost paranoid.
This is far from the cocky man who was shit-talking to us a few minutes ago. How did he go from being overconfident to this? I shake my head a bit. I don’t care about what has him distressed.
“Who is upstairs?”
“The guy from the basement. The scare actor,” he adds in a hushed tone. “I don’t know how he got out. There was only one exit, right?”
“I’m sure they have secret passageways, dumbass,” Jen provides, irritated. “And he probably knows where we are now.”
It’s almost as if destiny has it out for us because her mouth hasn’t finished pronouncing the words when he appears at the top of the stairs. The knife in his hand looks different. Same structure, but dripping… blood?Fake blood,I correct myself. His shirt has more splashes of red, too. An effect to stun people after eliminating many in the same way the killer of a slasher movie would. Again, kudos to the staff team for being so efficient with their special effects.
“Fuck!” Steve grits out, stands from the ground, and breaks into a sprint, leaving Jen and me behind.
Amazing.I didn’t trust him before, but after running away twice, he’s becoming a problem. Especially when Silver Mask is closer than ever.
Shit, he might win this stupid thing.
Taking a small step back, I grab Jen’s arm to catch her attention.
My mind is racing, thoughts flood my brain with the strength of a tsunami. Survival, even in a fake scenario, rules my body. How can I find a way out of this situation? If this were real, what could I do? There are no places to hide this time, no visible rooms with locks, no exits.
All that’s left are us girls and him.
“We have to split up.” I wait a second to think things through, in case there’s another option, but this is the smartest choice. If I choose to trust my intuition, Iknowthis is the only alternative. This is the dumb moment of the movie where the main character thinks they can sacrifice themselves for the greater good and it fails horribly. “Look, there are two of us. If we split ways, we maximize our chances.”
Her brown eyes stare deep into mine, trying to check if I’m serious about this.
“You sure?”
I nod and order, “Run.”
Slowly, Jen backs away from me and after I dip my head again, she runs in the opposite direction from Steve.
Instead of taking a chance and running from him too, I stand still, observing him. He remains unmoving, staring and analyzing me.
I was hoping he would immediately rush to me, but he didn’t.
Silver Mask simply stares. Tilting his head in amusement, almost like he’s waiting for me to make the first movement, he points at the foyer behind me with the blade of his knife. Another silent message sent my way, one I can read clearly.
He’s expecting me to flee, too. I dare say he’s giving me the chance to do it. No, he’s not waiting for me to escape. I get what he demands.
He wants me to run, so he can chase and hunt me like prey.
After all, this is what the entire night has been leading up to. To the instance when we were alone in the room with no one else to cause a distraction.
It’s just us.
He and I.
“Are you coming after me?” I dare him, loud enough for my voice to carry through the space. “Or after them?”
Even though I know the answer. When presented with the choice, he’s going to chooseme.It might be self-centered of me to take a risk like this, but I’m the only person in front of him. Hell, I’m practically throwing myself at him, so he better make the right call.
I’m counting on it.
Silver Mask doesn’t use his voice to respond. Instead, he points at the other stairs with the knife.
