“How are you so sure?”
“Look at the wall behind you,” Hayes says, grinning.
I whirl around, and there, carved into the wooden wall, is a massive image of a mermaid. Her neck has a small square indent. Climbing onto the bench, I place my finger in the indentation, and a long, ornate key emerges from inside the carving.
“Okay, okay. That wasn’t too bad," I say, feeling a little hopeful. "Read me your clue."
Hayes hesitates. “I’m kind of embarrassed because I think you’re going to get this right away, and I’ve been here trying to figure it out for a while."
“I promise I won’t hold it against you,” I say, breathing a little easier.
"Okay, here it is: At night I come without being fetched, by day I’m lost without being snatched. In the stars, my brothers shine, guiding sailors through the brine."
“Okay, so what comes at night is gone in the day and guides sailors?”
“I thought it was the stars, but there are no stars in this cell.”
“No, its brothers shine with the stars, it’s got to be the moon.”
Hayes spins slowly, searching the cell. "Damn, it’s been right in front of me the whole time!" He crouches near a barrel, and with a triumphant smile, pulls out a key that matches mine. “Hey, Tori,” he says breathlessly, “we make a good team.”
“Yeah, we do,” I say, feeling butterflies stir in my stomach.
He nods to the front of the cells. “Let’s get out of here.”
I rush to the iron door of my cell, fitting the key into the ancient lock. As I turn it, the mechanism clicks and the door creaks open. My heart sinks as I see that the open door doesn’t lead to Hayes’s cell but branches off in a different direction.
“I still can’t get to you,” he says, his expression faltering. “What’s around that corner on your side?”
I walk cautiously, peeking into the next room. “It looks like a room full of mummies,” I call back.
“Mine looks like a rustic cabin. Fuck, I hear a chainsaw.”
I don’t hear a chainsaw. I hear Tessa.
And she’s screaming.
Chapter
Seventeen
Ipull the mini bottle of whiskey from my pocket and take another sip. Just a gulp left. I don’t know how I’ll make it through the rest of this game without it. My throat is parched and my nerves frayed to the breaking point.
I follow the sounds of Tessa’s sobbing. She’s bent over, heaving with gut-wrenching sobs. Jonathan stands over a heap of something on the ground. I know it’s him, because unfortunately, I’d recognize his backside anywhere.
I hurry over. “Do you guys know the way ou?—”
The words die on my tongue as the heel of my boot slips in something slick with a sickening wet squish. There’s something dark and red puddled on the floor. My mind comes up with a thousand different things it could be before it settles on one.
Blood.
I hear myself gasp, the sound barely registering over the roaring pulse in my ears. My muscles lock up, and a wave of cold sweat washes over me, slicking my skin and plastering my hair to my neck.
Marissa lies crumpled on the floor, rising out of a dark, viscous puddle of blood. Her eyes stare straight ahead, glassy and unseeing. Her lips, a ghastly shade of grayish-blue, arepulled back and curved into a grotesque smile, frozen in mid-laugh. Her skin is drained of color, pallid and lifeless. Her neck swollen, bruised blue. Something metallic and sharp juts from the side of her throat, slick with blood.A thin stream trickles over her chest and shoulders, pooling beneath her in a perfect circle.
She’s been stripped down to her bra and underwear, the sight both intimate and violating. Her jeans and sweater are neatly folded beside her, arranged with disturbing precision—jeans with the cuffs rolled just so, a sweater meticulously folded with sleeves tucked in. Her earrings, delicate silver hoops, and her necklace, a simple gold chain, rest atop the folded clothes. Her diamond ring, cruelly sparkling, crowns the bundle.
A strangled sob escapes me. I want to look away, to turn my eyes from the gruesome sight, but I’m frozen. I can’t tear my gaze from Marissa’s body—the lifeless eyes, the twisted smile, the neat folds of her clothes. It’s fucking horrifying.
