Rat Race (Devil’s Playground #2)

6. Aubrey

Aubrey

Not the fucking time to be simping.

H e’s not very talkative.

And, as far as I could tell, he didn’t trust me very much, but that was neither here nor there.

At the very least, Hiram had believed my act enough that he was willing to underestimate me. Keeping me behind him as we walked, my eyes on his back and gray hair. But it wasn’t enough to ignore me completely. Every few steps he’d turn his head and look to check I was still there.

Or maybe it was to make sure I didn’t have a weapon pointed at his back.

None of my business, really. It was in his best interest not to trust me. It was in mine to make him forget that.

“I’m scared,” I muttered softly, sniffing a little in the underground chill of the maze.

Dark, damp, and dirty. This place was a far cry from the modern metallic Tron-inspired arena of a few years ago.

It was always a bummer when they decided to go rustic. I was really hoping for more of a high-tech feel. It would be less… icky.

I fucking hated dirt. But more than dirt, I hated being bored.

And the long walk through dusty, half-moldy, rocky hallways was more than a little boring. So boring that I was tempted to mess with Hiram a little just to fill the time.

Maybe set off a trap? That’d kill some time.

But the more time I killed, the further I was from realizing my dream of slicing open Natalie’s throat like a fucking juice pouch.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” I asked, adding a heavy dose of doe-eyed innocence. “We haven’t run into anyone in a long ti?—”

“I know what I’m doing,” Hiram said with a huff, looking back at me in his glowing yellow mask with an irritated shake of his head. “I was an Architect, you know. I have this place memorized.”

A man can’t help but brag. At least I didn’t have to hide the sly smile that appeared behind the mask. A little fluffing of his ego, and surely I’d be on my way to earning a bit of trust in no time.

“Wow, really ?” I asked, skipping up to his side with an excited little jump. “That’s so cool!”

Hiram jerked to the side, his entire body flinching as if he expected me to chop him down right then and there. I could just make out a bit of his face behind the mask from my angle, but it gave me no indication of how he was feeling. Based on his body language, I assumed he was frowning under there.

He upped our pace, and I fell beside him easily.

If that’s how you want it.

If the man felt better with me at his back, I wouldn’t crush his ego so soon. But as an Architect, he should know the most dangerous place for me to be was at his back, not at his side.

He gave me a side-long look before letting out a huff.

“It was ,” he muttered under his breath. “I had everything. I was the best. They’re fucking stupid for making me?—”

His voice turned to background noise as soon as I saw her. Or at least her hair.

She was hiding around the corner, probably not expecting us to cover so much ground in such a short time.

Is she waiting for us? Maybe even attempting to follow us once we gain enough ground?

It was just like her. Using other people’s talents and hard work and swooping in to take the credit for herself.

But not this time. This time, I caught her first.

A sick, excited feeling sprouted in my chest and sent butterflies scattering throughout my stomach.

Not so impressive now, huh? How will it feel for everyone to find out what a fucking fraud you are before your death?

I had my suspicions since it was almost impossible for her to have always been ahead of me. Seeing her in the maze just proved me right. Maybe instead of being one step ahead of me, she was actually just around the corner, spying and biding her time so she could jump ahead.

“This way!” I whispered excitedly to Hiram.

I didn’t bother to look back and see if he was following me as I took off after her. His footsteps behind me were evidence enough that I had caught his attention.

Him following me didn’t matter much, but what did was that I would have a way out after I finished her.

As soon as I rounded the corner, I regretted it.

“Wait!”

But Hiram’s voice was drowned out by the sound of her scream and the rushing sound of something metallic clanking against the stone beneath our feet.

My eyes widened as I took in the dark hallway. I could make out her shape as she ran toward us along in her glowing yellow mask. What I thought were shadows behind her, were actually moving. Getting closer and closer as she ran.

That's when I saw the glowing red eyes.

She zoomed past me only to turn around and pause when she saw Hiram coming up to my side.

Bulls. There were ten—no, more —mechanical bulls heading right toward us. All of them charging at full speed with no indication that they would be stopping anytime soon.

But that didn’t matter to her. Not when by my side was the world’s most valuable Architect.

“You’re the one with the bounty,” she said, her voice sounding slightly crazed. She took a step toward him, her hands lashing out wildly to grab onto his shirt. “A million dollars.”

This is my chance.

Hiram jerked out of her reach and right into me as I reached for her. I didn't care about the bulls behind us, their iron hooves echoing throughout the small space, sounding more like thunder than hooves. They rattled my brain, drowning out the shrill of the scream I knew I should have heard.

I didn’t care that he was pushing me.

I didn’t care that if I had lingered like I wanted to, I would have been dead.

All I cared about was her .

I could see the ending in my mind. Her on the ground, her head bashed open. I would watch as she took her last few breaths of air, and she would be watching me as I towered over her.

It would be quick but effective. A sight I would never get out of my head for as long as I lived.

I wondered what her last thoughts would be. If she would be sorry about the way she treated me or if, up until the very end, she would still think she was better than me.

I hope she cursed my name as she felt her pitiful life slip from those ugly, fucked-up nails of hers.

I mean, how many times can someone get that shade of vomit green?

An exhilarating thrill ran through me. This is the end. Not only was I going to see it, but I was going to be the one to usher her to it.

But there was one thing I didn’t plan for.

I had researched other mazes. Watched hundreds of hours of replays. Fuck, I had even started paying more attention to the cunt just so I had a better idea of how she might act in the maze.

But I hadn’t prepped for a certain, annoying Architect who was so hell-bent on saving his miniscule life that he would ruin mine.

I had accidentally put myself right in the middle of Hiram’s safety. I doubted he had any thought to save me—that would be out of character for him. He was probably hoping a trap would get me at some point. But he pushed us both out of the way in an attempt to get to the other side of the hallway.

And as she was moving toward him, her eyes still wide, he was the one to grab her first and use her body as the propellent he needed to get to safety.

I couldn’t fully understand it as it happened. I took in every detail. Every sight. Every sound.

Yet I couldn’t wrap my head around how on earth one minute she was there in front of me and the next, her body was being crushed under the bulls’ hooves as they turned around the curb and down the hallway we had originally come from.

That’s not right.

It was supposed to be me. Me. ME.

My mind was screaming at me to move. To do something . To fix this utterly disgusting wrong.

But I couldn’t.

“Move, damn it!” he growled and pushed us further down the hallway. “The bulls are programmed on a certain route. If you don’t move your ass, I’ll lose a fucking foot!”

It was supposed to be me. Me. Me. Me.

He didn’t even blink at what he did. He pushed her in front of the bulls. All because she wanted the bounty he had on his head.

Like she was nothing.

Which she was, but how long had I been waiting for my opportunity? How long had I been dreaming about the day when I would finally be able to make the bitch pay for what she’d done?

And now she’s dead. I was supposed to kill her. ME.

No fanfare. No begging. Nothing to show the cameras. Nothing to watch back.

I wasn’t even the one to push her, for fuck’s sake.

I stood still, unable to move, until the bulls left and I finally saw what was left of her body.

It was an insult. A FUCKING INSULT. She was hardly even recognizable. The pretty image I had of her in my version of her death was far better than the real-life version. The real-life version was just… bland.

Especially when it was this bastard who dealt the final blow.

“You killed her,” I muttered, my voice empty.

“She was trying to kill me! Us!” he corrected, his voice rising. “If I hadn’t moved us out of the way?—”

“You killed her,” I muttered again. I spotted the spike he had been holding onto on the ground. My mind had never been clearer. My goal never this concrete.

The screaming in my head quieted for a moment and was replaced with a whisper.

You know what you need to do.

Quicker than he could stop me, I leaned down and picked it up only to point it right at him.

“Sorry, was that your friend or something? You didn’t say anything?—”

“A friend?” I asked with a crazed laugh. “You think she was my friend? ” My voice kept rising with each word. “We were not fucking friends !”

I inched closer and closer, backing him into a wall before he held his hands up, real fear crossing his face.

“Okay, okay, I did?—”

“She was mine ,” I said in a low growl, placing the spike right over his heart. “She was mine, you dipshit, and you took everything I wanted from me.”

He swallowed thickly. “Look, I didn’t know. I can still get us out of here?—”

I threw my head back, my laugh echoing through the halls.

“You think I fucking care about getting out of here?” I asked. “You think I followed you because I wanted to get out of here? I wanted her end of story. And you took that from me. How would you ever be able to repay me?”

This time he didn’t even try to open his mouth and talk his way out of this one.

“A life for a life,” I whispered and pushed the sharp metal into his chest. It would take some work to push the spike into the wall of his chest cavity, but I was nothing if not an optimist.

Fury blinded me, but it wasn’t enough for me to ignore the sudden noise of hundreds of tiny feet hitting the stone.

What the ? —

We both turned down the hallway to see hundreds of rats coming toward us. There was something rumbling in the background.

Another trap?

I expected another set of bulls to come running down the hallway, but instead, I saw the Weston prodigy, their large tattooed arms and cowboy hat calling attention to them right away. Their red mask was like a beacon as they ran full speed in our direction. They were the type to enter the Games and fucking dominate. Clear a path and force themselves out as first without even breaking a sweat.

Their arms alone told a story of just how hard they worked to get their body into shape for this game. They were corded, muscular, littered with tattoos, mouthwater?—

NOT the fucking time to be simping over some psycho Ranch rando, Aubrey.

I brought up a hand to slap myself on the face, forcing myself to get my head in the game.

If they're running, I should run too, right?

But the need to kill the Architect fucker was too strong. I turned back to him, ready to push the spike further into his chest, but then a warm, calloused hand grabbed my hand and yanked me down the hallway.

The fucking cowboy. They were even more massive as they moved in front of me. Even through my anger, my eyes narrowed in on their muscular back. I imagined how good it would feel to run my hands down it.

And my fans would go crazy for it. Watching someone as big as them dominate me?

I never had a co-star on the channel before, but they were making me reconsider things.

“Are you an idiot? He has a fucking bounty on him!” I yelled at them and attempted to jerk my hand away, but they were too strong.

Fuck. I love dominant partners.

They didn’t look back at me as they yelled, “So what? He’s a shit person, there’s nothing satisfying in going after him. You’ll get more money when you cross the finish line!”

I looked back at where we had left Hiram, ready to yell every curse in the book at him and promise to come back and cut off his head, but paused when I saw what we were actually running from. Water.

It had started as a trail behind the rats, but then it quickly turned into a strong current.

I was jerked into the same hallway the mechanical bulls had come from as they pulled us far away from the water. I clearly wasn’t running fast enough because the cowboy got annoyed with my pace and pulled me into their arms. But it was too late. The stream just got stronger, the water crashing against the walls and following us.

I looked back to see Hiram attempting to follow us.

“What your fucking han?—”

I was cut off by a monstrous wave coming straight for us. Hiram’s face was the last thing I saw before it rushed in and knocked us Weston and I off our feet.