Oh. My. God. I can’t see.
“Looks like it’s your turn to get fucked with,” Noah whispers. “We’re here, Eves. Don’t worry. We got your back.”
My pulse is racing. I can feel it in my temples as Noah and Goldie each touch my shoulder.
The lights are out, leaving us bathed in darkness. They went out so fast that my eyes blink rapidly, white stars behind them. We’re frozen in our places, waiting for our respective visions to acclimate.
Only the sound of our combined breath. But my hands grip my weapons.
“Can you see anyone?” Goldie barely whispers, but neither of us answers.
Because honestly, I’m not just waiting for my vision to acclimate, I’m waiting on my newfound courage to do the same. But that’s the thing about the dark. It brings out all the hidden monsters and makes you see things that aren’t there ... like terrified faces behind windows that aren’t real.
Except, I can still see them. Those memories are burned into me. Etched into my bones, and it’s making this camp look way too much like two years ago, when I was scared and running for my life.
Sawdust looks like the dirt on the ground, and the prefab walls look like real wood ones. So much so, my damn hand twitches, because I swear I can still feel the way the wood splintered into my skin when my palm smacked against it.
I let out a shaky breath. “This is unhinged ...”
“I don’t know what scares me more ... knowing what to expect, or not knowing when it’s coming,” Goldie whispers back.
I nod in agreement. She’s right. I don’t know which is scarier either. But the one thing I do know is someone’s dying tonight, and the three of us are hoping it’s Remus.
“Campers,” that fucking voice says enthusiastically, making my shoulders jump. “You have fifteen minutes to find what you came for ... and then we come find you.”
Jesus Christ.
My stomach caves as my chest starts to rise faster. That clock I felt ticking earlier comes crashing down.
There’s only fifteen minutes to find him.
The heavy weight of how fucked up this is hits me hard, square in the chest.
We need to cover as much ground as possible. Noah’s and Goldie’s hands are off my shoulders as I spin around, thinking, trying to come up with a plan.
“Fuck,” Noah breathes out as I immediately shift my face to his.
“Agreed.”
“What do we do?” Goldie whispers.
I feel like I’m having a heart attack. My chest is heaving, my pulse hammering. I can already feel the sweat trickling down the back of my neck. But I’m not hot.
There’s scared, and then there’s this, but the only answer is to find Chase.
That’s it.
“We split up,” I blurt out, hating the idea but knowing it’s all we’ve got.
“We are not splitting up, Evie,” Goldie snaps back.
“Agreed,” Noah throws in as quickly as she’s done. “That’s what he wants ... for us to be apart.”
I ignore them and keep talking.
“The only buildings that are real, are the cafeteria.” I point to it. “Remus’s office.” I point to that too. “Our cabin.” Goldie shivers. “And the boathouse.”
They look over their shoulders in that direction.
