"Yes, we're adding an extra thousand dollars to everyone's paycheck for the rest of the season, so long as Ruth's cause of death stays hidden."
The look on Uncle Carlos's face told me that they hadn't agreed to that. Mattias shot Fabian a look.
"I can't do this." Blane stood abruptly. He looked worse than everyone else here. His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, his shoulders slumped and his body trembled. "I quit. I don't care about the money, my parents are gone and I'm an only child. No one would look for me if I ended up like Ruth. I refuse to die in this place. This is all fucked up." He stormed out of the circle and into the woods, taking the path back to the camp.
Andrew stood. "Bro, hold on!" He started to follow him but froze when a blood-curdling scream came from the forest. It was loud and then cut off a second later. Everyone froze, taking it in. That had been Blane. Chairs fell over as everyone scrambled up. All the men except Mitchell ran into the woods after Blane. There was silence but then they must have found him because there was another scream.
Everyone took off toward the woods, needing to see what had happened to him. He hadn't been that far in, maybe fifty feet. We found the group of men and collided with them. They opened up the circle and everyone stared down in horror at Blane's fresh corpse. His face was contorted in utter horror at whatever he'd seen right before he died.
Blood was bursting from his neck, and something pointy protruded from it. I had to look away. I found Koi and wrapped myself against him, closing my eyes and sobbing.
"What the hell happened?" Uncle Carlos asked. People were screaming and scurrying around the crime scene in a panic.
"There's a note in his hand!" Chitra exclaimed.
"Hold on, no one touch him!" Mattias screamed.
Blane had a piece of notebook paper shoved into his hand. Mattias crouched and took it from him.
"There are four Risky children. Sacrifice yourselves, or someone else will die every four days," he read. His hands shook the paper so hard it tore.
"Four days? What does that mean?" Mitchell asked.
"It means that someone is watching us and wants you all dead." Grace stepped forward.
“You mean, someone who’s jealous of the Risky family?” Mattias darkened his gaze as he bore into Grace. “Someone who maybe lost one of their own children here?”
All eyes concentrated on Grace and she pointed to herself. "What, you think my mom wrote that? My mom may have lost Dennis but I'm still alive and well. She wouldn’t do this."
“Mothers deep in grief can do a lot of crazy things,” Mattias pushed back.
"Blane was killed on the fourth day," Beth said, interrupting the argument. Her words hung in the air as we stared down at the body. "What are we supposed to do?"
Marisol stepped forward. She'd been relatively silent, despite the tears streaming from her eyes. She sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
"He said it himself. No one will come looking for him. Let's bury the body and we can figure out the rest later." She stalked off, not saying another word. Everyone stared around the groupin utter silence. What did we do now? Someone was actively hunting us. It was Mattias, who spoke, finally.
"Alright, let's go grab shovels. Unless you want to do the coaster."
Rule 36 - Domino
It’s okay to want to stay.
Ifell to the ground, clutching my head in my hands. I couldn't catch my breath and my brain was going wild, not fully taking everything in, while also very much aware of what was going on.
Blane was dead. He'd been stabbed through the neck. Had he been right in the middle of his stride, or had he been stopped? Did the killer get his attention and when he turned...
A warm, large arm dropped on my shoulder and moved to my back. The figure crouched down.
"Hey, it's okay. We're going to figure this out. No one's going to get you." Koi rubbed my back and tried to soothe me.
"Yeah, but what about Blane? What about Ruth?" I squeaked. "Just because they didn't get their target didn't mean he didn't kill someone!"
"What makes you think it was a he?"
I looked up. Everyone was staring at Grace. She shrugged and widened her eyes. "What? I'm just saying, let's not gender-stereotype. A stab is a stab."
"Have some class," Swayze snarled. "Blane's dead."
