These Deadly Games(43)

Matty nodded. “Yeah, and we can make our own rules.”

“Cool,” said Akira. “It’ll be more fun hunting as a group.”

“Yeah, right,” said Randall. “You’re just afraid to be alone in the dark.” Akira shoved him.

He had a point, though. Zoey’s flashlights weren’t all that bright, and now that we were out here, the woods seemed dark and dangerous. But it was too late to get cold feet.

“So let’s take turns hiding,” I said. “And whoever keeps everyone searching the longest, wins.”

“I like that,” said Matty. “I’ll keep time.”

“Do we have to do this?” Brady rubbed his arms. “It’s so cold.”

“Yeah, let’s go back inside,” said Zoey, teeth chattering. “We can play something else—”

“Zoey, your parents won’t know we’re gone,” I reassured her.

“Yeah, stop being such a wuss,” Randall chortled.

Zoey jutted her jaw and muttered, “I’m not a wuss. I’m just cold.” Akira passed over her thick gloves, and Zoey put them on over her thin pink ones, disgruntled.

“So, should we set a boundary?” Matty asked, like playing was no longer up for debate.

I grinned. “Yep. Let’s stick to all the yards that touch this stretch of woods, up until the Nelsons’ property.” I motioned toward the west. The Nelsons were an elderly couple who lived in an eighteenth-century colonial nestled back in the woods. Their property was several acres wide, and the dense woods would be pitch-black. I was putting on a brave face, but imagining ambling through them made me shiver.

“No streets, right?” said Randall.

I nodded. “No streets, and no Nelsons’. That’s the cutoff.” Everyone’s heads bobbed in consent.

“So who’s hiding first?” asked Randall.

“I’ll go first.” My heart leaped in anticipation. “Close your eyes and count to a hundred.”

“And stay quiet,” said Zoey. “And no pointing your flashlights at the houses.” Paranoid as ever.

After Matty set his timer and everyone shut their eyes, I dashed alone into the woods, only the faint glow from my phone lighting my path.





CHAPTER 17


I sat numbly at the kitchen table, watching Mom through a foggy membrane as she served Whiskers dinner and made tea for me. It felt like I was encased in a vat of jelly. Nothing felt real.

Matty was dead. Dead.

The sound of him gasping for air played on a loop in my mind, and no matter how hard I squeezed my eyes shut, my eyelids were like IMAX screens showing his ever-reddening face, the bulging cords in his neck, the look of sheer terror in his eyes. So much for falling asleep in our house again—or anywhere, ever.

Akira and Randall’s plans to spend the night together had gone out the window at warp speed. Mom had wanted to bring Akira home with us so she wouldn’t have to be alone, but she’d refused, wanting to shower in her own bathroom after getting violently sick in the waiting room. And since Randall went catatonic after Mom broke the news, Dylan volunteered to take Akira home, vomit-covered coat and all. Before we parted in the parking lot, Dylan had hugged me, pressing his cheek against mine, and murmured into my ear, “It wasn’t your fault, Crystal. Everything’s going to be okay.” But he was wrong on both counts.

Everything was my fault. And nothing was going to be okay.

“So what do you think Caelyn’s doing right now?” Mom asked, setting a mug of caramel-and-vanilla tea with a splash of milk in front of me. It was her go-to comfort beverage for me and Caelyn—her equivalent of hot chocolate, sans sugar.

“What?” My heart jolted at Caelyn’s name.

“In Frost Valley.” She was obviously trying to distract me with a comforting thought, but my pulse picked up speed. I’d checked my phone at least seventeen thousand times since we’d gotten home. But An0nym0us1 was quiet. Every time I remembered how they’d said the next game would be later tonight, my heart jolted nervously.

“Oh, um…” I wrapped my fingers around the mug. “I dunno. It’s after ten, so … maybe she’s asleep.”

“You think she’d go to bed this early? Psh, nerd alert.” She stuck out her tongue, clearly trying to lighten the mood, but right now, the joke fell flat.

“Maybe not. I think she mentioned there’d be games and stuff…” I gingerly sipped my tea, forcing the bland, hot liquid down my throat, and stared at the table’s wood grain, slipping back into my hazed silence. I couldn’t speculate on a reality Caelyn wasn’t experiencing. I couldn’t even look Mom in the eye. Some maniac had kidnapped one daughter and was blackmailing the other, and I couldn’t tell her any of it.

She grabbed my hand. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry about Matty. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. Again.”

Her words soured the steam rising from our mugs. “Don’t do that, Mom.”

“No, it’s true. I’ve been taking so many shifts lately, I’m hardly ever here for you—” She screwed up her face and cupped her mouth, holding back tears.

“But you’re working so much for us. So we can keep living here. You literally can’t be in two places at once.”