River lifts her chin just enough to keep her airway clear, and her lips part slightly under his thumb, before he slips it inside of her mouth and coats her lips with her saliva. Watching that shouldn’t be doing anything to me, but fuck it does. I can feel beads of precum sliding down my engorged crown, and pressing against the fabric of my boxers. “She’s breathing fine,” I mutter, mainly to calm myself, and not them. “She’s stuck in the dream part. She’ll come out of it, stop acting like little bitches.”
“Not fast enough,” Damon shoots back, his voice tinged with desperation. “We can’t afford to wait. We need her awake, we need her terrified.Now.” His head turns side to side, his eyes too large, and showing too much white, and I watch with a mixture of curiosity and terror, as he punches the air next to him.Did this fucker take his meds today? What am I saying, of course he didn’t, he refuses to take those. Is he still high from all the shit he took last night?I thought River was going to start to hide antipsychotics in blunts, to get him under some semblance of control.
“We wait,” I demand, my voice falling flat even to my own ears, as I move to place myself closer to Olivia and River, in case Damon is losing it more than usual. I don’t really know if waiting will fix this, or make things worse.What if she dies?The thought pierces my mind.Then she dies, and we leave her out here for the animals to feast on.
Olivia whimpers again, this trembling, broken sound, like she’s begging someone in her dream to stop hurting her. Her dark brows pinch together, and her breathing hitches. For a second, she looks completely terrified, and so young and vulnerable that I desire to hold her in my arms, and reassure her that she’s fine, even though I know I’m about to be the villain in her waking nightmare.
River inhales sharply beside her, his fingers tracing soft patterns across her cheek. “Thank fuck! There, that’s it. She’s close to waking now.”
Damon leans in, eyes bright with hunger. “Wake up, unhinged princess. Come on. Come back to us.”
I swallow hard, staring at her face, so peaceful one second, so haunted the next. I don’t know what scares me more. The thought of her opening her eyes, and seeing exactly what we’ve brought her out here for… or the thought that she might stay asleep, and escape it entirely.
Either way, the game hasn’t even started yet, and the woods are holding their breath with us.
CHAPTER 30
OLLY
Isurface wrong, not fully awake, but also not asleep. Stuck somewhere in the sickening space between. My mind is dragging me backward, back to that room, that night, to Cheyanne and the terror on her face, and to Professor Rawdon, whose hands felt like clamps digging into my shoulders as he used me like I was nothing, just holes for him to take his pleasure in, and I was unable to fight him off. Except his face kepttearing open, splitting, reshaping into Cross's jawline… then Damon's unhinged grin… and finally River's green eyes stared down at me with something I don't understand, something hungry but also filled with sorrow.
I want to scream, but my breath won't work. My throat is thick, stuffed with frightening silence. I can feel hands again, too many hands, dragging me somewhere. Somewhere dark and menacing, a place I'm not sure I’ll ever leave. Trees seem to greet me instead of walls. Cold instead of heat, causing me to shiver, and my teeth to chatter.No… no, that part isn't a memory, that's happening now,my brain screams with urgency.Wake up!
My eyelids snap open, and my vision instantly drowns in darkness, leaving me disoriented. The world tilts violently, and I gasp, air ripping painfully into my lungs. I'm lying on my back on something cold, wet, and uneven. The scent of earth and damp leaves fills my nose.A forest. I'm in the woods.What the hell am I doing in the woods? My last memory is of being at the new house, and in my room. The disorientation is overwhelming, like a thick fog that refuses to lift, leaving me vulnerable and lost.
Water bottle. Drugged.
The words slip quickly through my mind, which feels like it's filled with quicksand. Then I'm metaphorically free-falling through light, through air, through my own hysteria. When I hit the ground, it's hard and damp. The taste of pine, cedar, rotting vegetation, and night air greets my tongue, but the dread is still present and very much alive, and my confused brain doesn't know whether this is real or not. The terror hasn't loosened its grip, instead, a new torment has taken its place, one that reassures me I won't be able to escape now.
I dart into a sitting position, my frigid body shaking vigorously, and my pulse wild. My breath comes in jagged gasps as I whisper to the dark, "Where the hell am I?" The darkness doesn't respond, and that's when I realize I'm no longer dreaming, and the real nightmare has begun.
The realization hits me like a sledgehammer, shattering any remaining fragments of normalcy. Thoughts float rapidly through my mind before I can fully grasp them, then they're instantly gone. My skin pricks with a new terror when I realize I'mnaked.Naked, cold, soaked through with dew, or sweat, or the leftover fog of whatever they gave me.They.Damon, Cross, and River have done this to me.
No. No, no, this can't be happening, not again.I wrap my arms tightly around myself, attempting to save some of mydiminishing body heat. My breath stutters and my heart slams against my ribs, too fast, and loud, like it's trying to break its way out of me. It’s a fluttering bird, trapped, and desperately attempting to escape its vicious cage. My vision pulsates in and out, the trees bending and stretching, like they want to swallow me alive. Fear clings to me like a second skin, coating every inch of me. Whatever drug those assholes gave me is still clawing at my thoughts, making everything so much worse and slower. Every dark shadow is a threat, every sound a footstep heading in my direction. I'm consumed by a primal fear that twists my insides, and makes every moment a battle for survival. The panic is so intense, it's like a physical force, squeezing the air out of my lungs, and paralyzing my every move. Can'tstay here, have to get somewhere safe. Move! MOVE NOW!
I push myself up on trembling arms, and my muscles feel like they're wrapped in thick sandbags, heavy and unresponsive. My head sways, a dull ache pounding behind my eyes, that causes nausea to rise. I force myself to blink hard, trying to make sense of my surroundings. Wetness coats my stomach and legs, and when I propel my clumsy fingers to swipe through it and bring them to my nose, the stench of urine invades my senses.Did I pee myself? What. The. Fuck.Then I think I hear voices, low, male, and way too close for my liking.
Cross. Damon. River.My mind supplies in a panic.
My stomach drops so fast I almost vomit, as I endeavor to scramble to my feet, only to sway and land back down on my knees with force, and I feel my skin instantly break open on something sharp and jagged on the ground. The sharp pain helps push away some of the remaining fog consuming my senses. I reach up with trembling fingers to tear at my tangled hair, which is in my face. I force myself to crawl toward a large oak tree, using its rough, thick bark to help me get to my unsteady feet. My heart is pounding like a heavy drum inside mychest, forcing me to struggle to breathe.Oh my god, I'm going to die. They're going to kill me.
"Welcome back, violent little psycho. It's time to play dark dare," Cross's voice breaks through the darkness, calling to me like it has sinister tentacles, that want to wrap around me, and choke the life out of me.
"We know you're awake, unhinged princess. Are you ready to play?"Damon,my mind supplies, and the image of our last encounter in the library springs forward like a movie reel.
Play?What the hell does he mean by ‘play’?
"I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart, unhinged princess. Are you ready to be our meal? We're fucking starving," the same voice yells from a crop of dark trees, and I get a glimpse of strange glowing lights, blue, pink, and green.Masks.They're wearing those stupid LED masks like they did that first night.
“Don’t disappoint us, Hellstorm, run fast and quick,” River’s voice yells.
"We'll give you a head start, Olivia, you'd better make use of it, 'cause when we catch you, andwe will,we won't be merciful," my stepbrother's voice rings out with authority. “I dark dare you to run, bitch!”
They're hunting me.
The words echo in my mind, each syllable a blow to my sanity. Everything inside me fractures and reassembles incorrectly. This isn't a nightmare anymore, but my brain is still struggling with how to separate the two. I still see Professor Rawdon's shape lurking between the trees, then it blurs back into Damon's silhouette, then into Cross's tall, menacing frame, moving like a predator through shadows.This isn't real, it can't be. I'm going to wake up now. WAKE UP, PLEASE!I beg my subconscious.
I clutch my arms tightly around myself, trying to hide my bare, chilled skin even though there's nothing to hide behindexcept the tree trunk scraping my back. My teeth chatter, not only from the cold, but from the kind of fear that sinks deep into your bones and twists. The type that every woman experiences at least once in her life, knowing that some man out there is going to hurt her, for no other reason than they can. For me, it’s not just one, it’s three, and it makes me feel exposed, vulnerable, and utterly alone.
