Deviant

Chapter 37

Rowen

We all walk behind Henry into the conference room.

Elias uses me for support, while David uses his crutches to make his way there.

Every one of us bears the scars of being in this house.

All save for one.

Mackenzie remains untouched as she practically skips to the room, eager to attend today’s games.

Once we are shown our seats, I immediately sense that today’s games will differ from all the rest just by the way Henry doesn’t ask us to sit next to our chosen partners.

Trepidation and apprehension swirl in the air as we wait for Henry to commence.

“As you all can see, only four of the chosen remain, a setback created by Lady Jackson when she decided to kill Master Thomas yesterday. Though I am grateful to her and Lady Hawthorn for having saved Five from experiencing such savagery under Master Thomas’s hand, the fact remains that six were needed to participate in today’s game. As that is no longer a possibility, today’s game will be postponed indefinitely.”

“What?” Mackenzie shouts, disgruntled, while Elias’s hand goes to my thigh and gives it a light, relieved squeeze.

He is stronger today than he was yesterday, but there was no way he would be able to survive a game in his condition.

A quick glance at David reveals that he’s also relieved by the way he leans back in his seat, looking completely relaxed.

The only one amongst us who takes this news as a bad thing is the only one who has yet to suffer The Scourge’s ire.

“I thought there could only be one winner?” Mackenzie grumbles with a pout. “How can there be only one winner if we don’t play?”

“Lady Davenport, if you would be patient enough to let me continue to speak, then I will enlighten you.”

“This better be good,” she rebukes, crossing her arms over her chest.

“As I was saying,” Henry begins, his voice a low murmur that barely rises above the eerie stillness of the room. “Though today’s game is canceled, there will be a victor of the games. In one week’s time, on the night of the Hunting Moon, you will play your last game—a game that will determine who among you walks away alive and who remains as a whisper in the shadows.”

His eyes glint with an unnatural light, and for a moment, I feel the weight of his words settle like a heavy fog around me. The air grows thick with tension, and the flickering florescent light dances across his face, casting twisted shadows that seem to reach out like gnarled fingers.

“You see,” he continues with a frown, “the Hunting Moon is not just a celestial event. It is a harbinger of decisions yet to be made, a night when fate becomes a hunter, and each of you will be both the prey and the predator. As the moon rises high in the sky at midnight, each player will unleash their deepest instincts. Only the cunning will survive, while the rest… well, they’ll become part of the legend, echoing through the night like a terrible lullaby. Consider this your warning and our hosts’ final orders. Prepare yourselves, for The Scourge will have its victor. One way or the other.”

With a final, lingering gaze, he leans back on his heel, allowing the weight of his words to hit like a cold wave crashing onto jagged rocks, blending dread with something far more sinister.

“Now that’s more like it,” Mackenzie coos, her eyes sparkling with glee and a chilling smile creeping across her lips.

“Enough!” I bark out at her, having had just about enough of her giddiness when the rest of us are dreading the upcoming event that is sure to ensure three of us will lose our lives.”

But Mackenzie doesn’t flinch and instead leans further into the table, her crazed eyes fixed on mine.

“I can’t wait to see what your insides look like.”

She says it with such certainty that I actually feel her pull them out of my stomach with her bare hands.

“You’re insane.”

“Am I?” She cocks her head to the side. “Or am I the sanest person here? Besides, I never liked the words insane or psychotic. I always preferred eccentric.”

“I tried to warn you that she was bat shit crazy. But did any of you listen?” David blurts out, real fear starting to shine in his gaze as he stares at Mackenzie’s nefarious grin.

“Oh, David.” She tisks, shaking her head. “I had such high hopes for you. What a disappointment you turned out to be.”

I gawk at her, wondering if she was always this psychotic or if The Scourge brought it out of her.

“But don’t worry. I’ll get to you too. But my real prize will be to hunt sweet little Rowen here and gut her like a pig. Oink. Oink,” she provokes with her finger pressed hard on the tip of her nose to make her point.

Nostril’s flaring, Elias pulls my arm so that I lean back into my seat and snarls at Mackenzie.

“Touch her, and it will be the last thing you do.”

“So you say,” she sings. “And there was a time I would have believed you. But love has made you weak. Vulnerable. Your threats feel hollow to me now. But I’ll tell you what?” she says, leaning even further into the table until she’s mere inches away from Elias’s face. “I’ll let you watch as I carve into her pretty face.”

Elias grabs the edge of the table, intending to strangle Mackenzie right here, right now, but I hold onto his wrist, preventing him from murdering her when the cameras in the room are all pointed at us.

“Don’t do it. It would be your third offense, and I don’t think our hosts would take that lightly.”

“Lady Hawthorne is not wrong. Should any one of you bring any bodily harm to the other chosen candidates, then death is the only outcome my employers will accept for such defiance.”

I let out a deep exhale when Elias stands down, even if reluctantly.

“I suggest you use the next seven days wisely,” Henry adds somberly. “For three must fall for one to rise.”

You might think that seven days would feel like an eternity when a death sentence looms over you, but you’d be mistaken. Unlike the earlier weeks spent in this house, which dragged on endlessly, this last week zipped by in a blurry haze. Perhaps it was because we knew precisely who the enemy was and no longer needed to coexist with one another. Long gone are the forced meals in the dining room or the faked forced smiles we had to put on whenever passing each other in the hallways. Even Five’s taste test at meals became obsolete. The Scourge wouldn’t dare kill us now when their grand event was so close on the horizon. One less candidate would cut into their profit margins, and they wouldn’t want that.

With a towel wrapped around my body, I chew on my bottom lip, gazing at the dress Five picked out for me to wear tonight, laid out on the bed. It’s a pretty white dress, like one I would have worn to a Harvest Festival, but not for a hunt. This dress screams out prey, easy picking for some psycho like Mackenzie.

It’s funny how, on my actual Harvest Festival, I wore something similar, even if less glamorous, so that I could catch the eye of a hunter, but now the very idea of me wearing this dress churns my stomach.

“What’s wrong? Don’t like the dress?” Elias asks, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind and placing his chin on my shoulder.

“No. I don’t. I despise it and everything it represents.”

“That’s a lot of hate for one silly dress.”

“That’s because it’s a lie. I’m no longer the type of girl who would wear something like this. It’s too virginal… too innocent.”

“Virginal, huh?” He chuckles, amused. “If I remember correctly, you were wearing a dress a lot like that one when I fucked you from behind in that alley. The little moans you made while I fucked you good and hard didn’t sound very virginal to me.”

I spin in his arms and slap his shoulder.

“I knew it was you that night!”

He lifts my chin up so I can meet his eyes and smiles.

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“You sure had me second-guessing myself there for a minute.”

“I’m sorry about that. I was still set on my revenge back then,” he replies, genuine regret in his midnight gaze.

“It wasn’t that long ago. Four weeks by my count.”

“Hmm. It feels like a lifetime ago to me.”

“Are you saying that a day with me feels like an eternity?” I goad while fiddling with his hair at his nape.

“If only I were so lucky. Spending eternity with you sounds like heaven to me now.”

I melt into his embrace and place my head on his chest.

“Don’t talk like that. It frightens me.”

“It frightens me too,” he confesses, pressing a kiss to the top of my head as his arms tighten around me.

We stand like this, wrapped in each other for a moment, until Elias gently pulls away and tips my chin up, allowing him to gaze into my eyes.

“Get dressed, Roe. I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise? For me?”

He nods.

“We still have five more hours before midnight, and I intend to savor every second of it with you.”

He then leans down and presses a sweet kiss to my lips, but when I try to deepen it, he pulls away yet again.

“None of that, Roe. We’ll have plenty of time for that after we survive the hunt,” he says before kissing the tip of my nose and walking to the bathroom to take his shower.

My brows furrow slightly since the probabilities of that happening aren’t exactly in our favor. Still, I do as he says, knowing that it’s Elias’s way of encouraging me not to give up hope.

He wants me to fight for my survival, and for him, I will.

Though I can’t choose the dress I will wear, I can choose my shoes. I pick up the heels Five placed by the bed and chuck them away. If one thing good came out of watching my mother’s highlights reel, is that I know I’ll be doing a lot of running tonight. And I wouldn’t get far on those killer high heels.

By the time Elias steps out of the bathroom, I’m all dressed up and ready to go.

With a towel wrapped around his waist, Elias leans against the door rail and takes every inch of me in.

My heart begins to flutter in my chest when he wipes his lower lip with his thumb with an intense look in his eyes.

“I’m starting to regret the promise I made myself,” he grunts.

“And what promise was that?”

“That I wouldn’t touch you until we got out of this alive.”

I tilt my head to the side, my own hungry gaze lingering on his hard abs and chiseled frame.

“Have you ever broken a promise?”

“Never.”

“Is there any way I could persuade you to start now?” I bite my lip.

“Hmm,” he growls. “I think you definitely could.”

But when I begin to approach him, he holds out his hand, urging me to stop.

“Though tempting, we’ll have to put a pin on that for later,” he says, intent on delaying his and my gratification,

To say I’m a little frustrated is an understatement.

I sit at the edge of the bed, watching him as he puts on a black shirt, pants, and a dinner jacket. Not once has Elias used any of the new clothes The Scourge bought for us in his closet, but tonight he’s making an exception, and suddenly I’m very curious as to what surprise he’s lined up for us tonight.

Once he’s ready, he offers me his arm, to which I immediately hook mine around.

“If I haven’t said it before, you look beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, feeling my cheeks heat up under his stare.

He lets out a groan before opening the door and ushering me out.

Nervous jitters start dancing on my skin as he leads me down the staircase and through a hallway leading to the west wing of the house. My heart drums in my chest when I see Five waiting for us down the hall.

“Is everything done?” Elias asks Five once we reach her.

She nods and smiles.

“Thank you, Five, and please thank Henry for being so accommodating.”

Her smile widens further before she spins at her heel and leaves us.

Ever since that horrid day that Big Mike assaulted her, she’s been more attentive to me and Elias, always bringing us snacks and other little treats she thinks we might like.

I’m happy that no real harm came to her.

It just kills me that Abbie wasn’t as lucky.

After Abbie killed that monster and then turned the knife on herself, I wondered for the longest time if that was the secret she was going to confide in me and Elias that day. It was only after discussing my suspicions with Elias, that he confirmed them. He told be that on the day he got tortured in the group white room, that Abbie had told him that Big Mike was the rapist in our mists. She told Elias that she knew from first-hand experience, and that he should never leave me alone with such an animal.

I just wish she had confided in me earlier.

Maybe I could have protected her more.

Or maybe our fates are sealed no matter what we do.

“Are you ready for your surprise?” Elias asks, bringing me back to the hear and now.

I nod.

Elias pushes open the double doors and leads me by the arm into a lavish room that feels like I’ve just stepped straight into a Jane Austen novel. The ballroom sprawls before me, with its high ceilings and walls adorned in soft pastels, perfectly capturing a sense of timeless elegance. At the center, a small table waits, set for a candlelight dinner, flickering flames casting gentle shadows around us. My heart races as I take in the romantic ambiance, wondering when Elias found the time to orchestrate this enchanting evening.

“Elias,” I stammer. “It’s beautiful.”

“I can’t take all the credit. Henry and Five helped me set everything up. I just wanted to give you one good night before…”

Before it possibly becomes the worst night of our lives.

I push the ugly thought out of my mind and instead focus on the good.

“Thank you,” I say gratefully, planting my hands on his chest before pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. “It’s perfect.”

A shy smile crests his lips, and if I had ever doubted that I was head over heels in love with this man, then seeing him blush would have clarified it for me.

“Shall we sit down and eat?” he asks, placing an errand strand of my hair behind my ear.

“Actually, I want to do something else first.”

“Oh?” He hikes a brow.

I extend my hand for him to take and ask, “May I have this dance?”

“Shouldn’t that be my line?” He chuckles.

“I couldn’t wait,” I reply, wiggling my fingers to remind him I’m still waiting for his answer.

Elias takes my hand and pulls me into his chest, his arms wrapping tightly around my waist, leaving me with little room to breathe, let alone dance. Yet somehow, we find a way, gently swaying from side to side to the soothing melody of “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”

But as the song continues to play, a certain melancholy begins to take over.

We wasted so much time… so much precious time. We wasted it on people who didn’t deserve our affection. We wasted it on feeling sorry for ourselves and our actions. We wasted it on revenge and suicide plots. If only we had taken that time to see what was right there in front of us. Maybe we would still be back at Blackwater Falls, living for tomorrow instead of dreading the coming hours.

“I wish—”

“I know, Roe. I know.”

A sad smile curves on my lips, recalling what Harper had once said about couples who finish each other’s sentences.

“She was right, you know?”

“Who was?” he asks softly, his gaze never wavering from mine as we continue to slow dance.

“About you being the one. The one for me, at least. You always saw me for who I was and not who I pretended to be. You never treated me with kid gloves, nor have you ever made me feel like I couldn’t face my fears on my own. You always challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and made sure always to empower me, even when protecting me. I’m so grateful for you, Elias. So grateful to have been fortunate enough to have this time with you, no matter how fleeting.”

“Say the words, Roe. I want you to say the words.”

“I love you. I think I always have.”

His eyelids close as if savoring my words and committing them to memory.

And when they open up, I see the future that could have been ours if only we weren’t hours away from death itself.

“Harper loved her trashy magazine factoids, but there was one thing she said that always stuck with me,” he starts, his voice low and gentle. “She said that when we die, we have seven to ten minutes to relive all our best memories. If I should fall tonight… if I should fail us, then I want you to know that those last brief minutes will be filled with images of your face. I love you, Roe. I will continue to love you long after my heart stops beating.”

Tears start to silently fall as I stare into the eyes of the only man who has ever loved me for who I truly am, and whom I love with every fiber of my being

And when he leans in to kiss me, I grab on tight, and I kiss him with all of my soul.

If tonight is the night we die, then at least I can take some small comfort in the fact that we’ll die together.