“That’s not the same.”
“Let me finish,” I mutter. “You have the same two people. They get into the same elevator, and it breaks down. They’re stuck together for hours – maybe a whole day. One of them is panicking. The other tries to calm them down. They talk about their lives, their hopes, their fears. They share their stories, their dreams, and they realize that the person opposite them is someone they want to spend time with. And when the lift doors are finally opened, they keep in touch.”
“Cute,” he mutters. “But I still don’t get it.”
“And then,” I say drily, slanting him a look. “You have those who get trapped in a psychopath’s fantasy land. Playing her games, pitted against each other in a challenge of life and death. These moments… you cannot hide who you truly are in an environment like this one. Alyss is showing us who she is, and yet you’re judging us for seeing the same qualities in her that you have seen over months and years of friendship. Everything is amplified. More so, when we may not survive. Can you blame them for moving quickly when the countdown will end so soon?”
Everything becomes more important, more vibrant, more intense, when your time is limited.
He doesn’t say anything. We lapse into silence as I raise a hand to my forehead with my trembling fingers.
I’m sweating. Badly. “Got any water?”
He rolls over and glares, but then his brows crease. “You look like shit. And you can’t drink my water.”
“Oh. Right.” My voice croaks. He pauses, but then rolls out of bed. I glance up when a bottle appears in front of me. “I can’t—.”
“It’s yours. Drink it.”
It disappears too quickly, and my stomach begins to feel queasy as I get to my feet. “On second thoughts, perhaps I’ll try to get some sleep after all.”
He steadies me with a hand under my elbow as I list to the side. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head, but a pounding ache settles behind my eyes. “Nothing. This happens, sometimes. Nothing to worry about.”
When I haven’t had a drink for a while.
This… this is the longest I’ve gone.
Chess helps me to the bed. “You need anything?”
I shake my head. “I’ll be fine after some sleep.”
But the shaking only deepens after he leaves. My pulse thunders in my ears like a hummingbird, too fast to count the beats.
It grows, more and more, until I realize that maybe I won’t be fine at all.
Until the world around me changes.
24 – Alyss
My eyes fly open.
Hatter’s arms are banded around me, his chest rising and falling against my back.
But something feelsoff.
The noise – it sounds like a moan. Guttural, stuttering.
I shove myself off the bed, twisting to look.
Buck—
His whole body is convulsing. I drop down to my knees beside him, my hands shaking as I hover them over his body. His mouth is making the noises, his eyes closed as he jerks in uncontrollable movements.
“Help.” My voice raises in panic. “Help me!”
Hands on my shoulders, moving me out of the way. Hatter leans over him. “I’ve seen him have these before.”
