Rat Race (Devil’s Playground #2)

9. Cam

Cam

We don’t PK, remember?

I t was something not unlike relief to see Ella again. It wasn't that I felt any kind of way about the girl—despite being pretty, she wasn't really my type. Nah, that was all Aubrey.

Blonde, golden tan, big, beautiful blue eyes that went on forever. That was more my speed. Even if she seemed a bit off her rocker.

And there was just a sort of… connection between us.

I didn’t need to pull her along with me. Or help her in the blood room. Or really do anything other than try to win.

But I wanted to.

Not only did I want to, but it came second nature to me.

Even as we were walking through the maze, my attention kept turning to the blonde.

But Ella was something like a friend, even if she had ditched me to go the other direction earlier. It was easy to get caught up in the maze, to make calls or split-second decisions that didn't quite meet the expectations we had for ourselves. Besides, I sort of felt responsible for her since we accidentally became a duo after I saved her life from that first-floor trap.

My watch buzzed, but I ignored it, reaching back to catch Aubrey's hand and forcing her clenched fist apart to hold her little palm in mind.

But even through the connection, I was… uncertain about her. She was smart, there was no doubt. But she was also a loose cannon, someone who would be difficult to control. And situations I couldn't control? Those were dangerous. They needed immediate and brutal resolution.

It was the only way. And Aubrey didn’t seem like the person who would appreciate a brutal resolution.

My gaze shot to her, rememberin’ the wicked smile she gave me as she held my life in her lithe hands back in the blood room.

Or maybe that’s exactly the type of thing she likes. And just maybe, I wanted to find out more of what made the beautiful bombshell tick.

"C’mon," I said, taking a few steps until her unmoving body made her arm go taut. "Let's go this way, there is still a lot of ground to cover."

It was concerning that we hadn't run into many other players yet. Made me worry that we were going the wrong way, or worse, that we were already so far behind that someone was already closin’ in on the finish line.

Anxiety flicked in my chest, my fingers tightenin’ around Aubrey’s.

If I lost this, I was a fucking goner. Especially if I lost this because I'd tied myself to a couple of spoiled brats that didn't even want to win.

Fuck .

C’mon, Cam, head in the game.

Aubrey's narrowed eyes slid from Ella back to me, forcing a tight smile as she stepped closer, her free hand fluffing her Aurora-like hair. Seriously, who looked like that ? She giving Disney princess vibes even after getting positively drenched in blood was… a feat to say the least. For a moment, I almost forgot Ella was there.

"No, I think we should go east."

"East?" I echoed. "I'm pretty sure that we are veering too far from the middle as is… If we try to continue east, we might end up hittin’ the border wall and getting stuck. Or worse, have to waste time backtrackin’."

"But—"

"God," Aubrey snapped, tugging my hand as she moved to go west. "If you have a problem with it, just go off on your own then. We don't need you anyway."

Her harshness caused my heart to skip a beat.

Fuck, I shouldn’t like that as much as I do.

"Aubrey," I chastised, even as I followed her. "We should stick together if we can."

Privately, as much as I hated it, I knew that larger groups got more views, which meant more hints and an easier path to the goal. Like they were trying to prove my point, my watch buzzed again, drawing my attention.

Vic_Official: WEST!

Vic. The name stuck out to me. Only after. Moment did I realize that Vic meant Victoria and I had suddenly been graced with a message from one of Hide N’ Seek’s most watched contestant. Her and that blonde person had taken the stream by storm. Admittedly I also tuned in to watch a bit of their game but quickly had to turn it off when the blonde’s moans filtered through the speakers.

I held up my watch so that Ella could see the message. Aubrey saw it, her face lighting up.

“That’s my girl,” she said with a wicked grin. "Sorry, rat, overruled. Now, c’mon, we need to make up some time."

Aubrey kicked off into an impatient jog, and I followed, passing by turns with little thought. I wasn't sure how much of it was a power move, an educated guess, or just pure instinct that was moving her. Ella struggled, irritated, to follow us.

We took turns, finding dead ends several times before the thin hallway we'd been following opened into a large antechamber with a fountain and plants.

The room was large, probably about the size of a department store, with lush, deeply overgrown flower beds filled with blooms in many colors and giant fern bushes and trees. An explosion of color that made it hard to look at them too long.

I blinked hard at the sudden saturation in the room, overwhelmed as much by the smell, so different from the dampish, earthen musk of the maze, as by the sudden all-consuming bath of apparent sunlight overhead. It couldn’t be. We were miles under the ground and ocean, but I couldn't look up long enough to get a good look anyway. There were screens all around, each of them scrolling through all the runners in the maze and their current rankings.

A large circular fountain sat in the middle of the room, gazebos dotted around with places to sit and vending machines. Above us, facing the opposite wall, were four metal gates.

A large, red button stood on a pedestal in front of them.

Randomization? They'd never done that before—chosen which path you would take to the finale.

It didn't sit right.

I paused to look at mine, but Aubrey let out an excited noise that had my attention moving to her. She was running to a large metal box that had a bunch of light-up buttons on it.

“It’s a vending machine!” she said excitedly. “There’s even a machete in here!”

“We’re at the center,” I stated, looking around at the room. The fountain was large. So large I couldn’t see behind it. But I could hear something.

Voices.

My hackles raised. Slowly, leaving Aubrey behind, I sneaked around the fountain.

The screens lit up the room, but without giving enough light for me to make out a figure. I hadn’t noticed that we weren’t alone. Or the color of the water. But as soon as I rounded the corner, I saw it right away.

There was a body nailed to the other side of the fountain by its hands and arms. Nailed might be the wrong word. Four large metal stakes were driven into the body and one large machete went right through the chest, pinning it to the fountain.

The most eye-catching thing, though, was the head—or lack thereof.

It had been sliced right off. It was so fresh, blood still fell down from the wound on the neck and into the water, dying it red.

On the lip of the fountain sat the head, the expression on the player’s face censored by a bright green mask, but their eyes were wide and terrified.

There was a group of five standing to the side and talking excitedly. They quieted a bit when they saw me.

My blood ran cold when I saw what was painted on the ground in the player’s blood.

Make a show of it.

The darkness in my mind had pushed itself to the forefront, reminding me of my duty. It was like the offering had been placed right in front of me as a warnin’.

You can never leave us. God is watching.

Not only was God watching, but his followers were reminding me of just how far I had fallen from his grace.

I should have been the one to make this offering. I should have been the one to introduce Pa’s practice to the world.

It was the perfect forum. But he got there first.

My eyes fell to the group. Elijah. Not only had he beat me to the maze, but he had made an offering as well.

When I saw him in the lineup, I knew he would get far… but before me?

The darkness told me to turn him into an offering. To prove to both Pa and God that I was the true chosen that would bring honor to our practice.

We don’t PK. The words swirled around in my head. They reminded me that I didn’t want to be like them. That I had come in here just to win and have that be enough.

But He was testing me.

Elijah’s mask was off and placed on the side of his head, revealing his freckled nose and slightly crooked teeth. He gave me a sinister smile.

What I hadn't expected was Hiram to be hiding behind Elijah. He was keeping him around for a payout at the end. No doubt Hiram would end up as an offering.

Fuckin’ genius. Wish I’d thought of it.

The darkness slunk to the back when Aubrey came up to me. She had been saying something but stopped when she reached me.

Aubrey stiffened at the sight of the offering.

In that moment, I missed my mask. It would've been nice to have even a little anonymity when it came to meeting other players. The hazard of having a famous family was that there were more than enough people who were pissed at us for either accidentally or on purpose killing their loved ones. Or sometimes they just wanted to knock us down a peg. Somethin’ about being famous forever for killin’ one of us. That's what happened with Billy, Lord keep him.

Snuffed out for some dipshit’s ego. The headlines made me fuckin’ sick.

Though my tattoos and overall build would have given me away to most people who knew of me. The mask was a privilege other people had.

“What the actual fresh hell is that? Someone decided to decorate this fugly-ass place?”

Praying for Aubrey to keep her mouth shut would have been a waste, so instead I prayed that the angel sent to test me would find mercy on me. Which, all things considered, was probably a bit of a waste of time too.

“Well, well, well,” Elijah called, a dark eyebrow climbing toward his hairline. “I wondered if we'd get to run into you, Cam.”

“Elijah,” I said, acknowledged him as I offered my most award-winnin’ smile, pulling Aubrey into my side, my arm going possessively around her shoulders. I hoped she'd get the memo that we needed to tread lightly.

Elijah isn’t one to fuck with. No one from the farm was. Though I hope he saw her as an opportunity instead of the dangerous temptation she really was.

But that was hope that died instantly the minute the blonde opened her sinful mouth again.

“Way to sound like a two-bit backwoods super villain wannabe. Any other exciting anecdotes you'd like to provide?”

Damn it.

Her tongue was sharp. In any other situation, I would have loved to hear it, but this wasn’t the place. Not when we were face-to-face with a group that outnumbered us and a fresh offering to our left.

“You really should train your bitch not to talk back, Cam,” quipped another player, tossing her short hair back.

Bad move. I realized that when Aubrey shook my arm away and went right up to the player who insulted her. I could feel the anger rolling off her in waves. One more wrong move, and I might get a glimpse of just how bloodthirsty she could be.

“Yeah, like I give a fuck what a cunt with a fuck ass bob has to say, but thanks. If you'll excuse us, we have a game to win.”

The group bristled. Ella, who had been slowly moving around the fountain, shifted closer to my side at the obvious change of demeanor.

Two of the players on either side brandishing large metal baseball bats started moving toward us.

Elijah was there, watchin’ it all go down. There was a superior feel to his aura. Like I was nothing but a cockroach under his shoe instead of the daughter of the family who took him in and trained him for that very moment. He should’ve been thankful I showed up.

If anything, he owes me!

“Now, now,” Elijah, the de facto group leader, said, standing up with a languid stretch of his arms over his head. “No need for all of that, right? We're the first group to pass through the center zone. Look above you.”

Kill him. Prove that you’re better than him. That he can’t talk to you that way. Then take the Architect for yourself.

Killing Hiram as an offering could fix every single one of my problems. Winning would pale in comparison.

No PK. No PK. No PK. Focus on somethin’ else. Anythin’.

I had to chant it in my head to stop myself from acting on the impulse to kill him. My eyes didn't move for the weapons that were serving now as more than a warning; they were an obvious threat.

"Oh my God," Ella whispered beside me excitedly. "I'm in eighth."

I did the mental math. That meant I was either in sixth or seventh, depending on how things had shaken out between Aubrey and me for who got more points.

Fuck .

Still podium-worthy, but now I was relatively unarmed and faced with five hostiles with only two untrained civilians as support.

I’m a fuckin’ embarrassment.

It felt like I was being punished. Hiram could fix that.

“Shut up,” I whispered to myself. No one looked twice at me, thankfully not hearing me.

I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. I will make it work. It wasn’t the worst odds I could've had, but fuck me, they weren't brilliant either.

"As if," Aubrey huffed. "Step aside so we can pass, losers."

"The only loser I see here is you," Fuck Ass Bob said, sneering. "So pathetic walking around like a fucking billboard. What, was Times Square already booked?"

Aubrey, to my surprise, laughed, rolling her sapphire eyes. "Ooooooooh, I'm soooo bad. I see another woman getting a bag and I can't help but be jealous. God, you're so pathetic. Bet you wouldn't have half the balls to pipe up to me if you weren't kicking it with half the cast of the Power Rangers."

She was up faster than I'd pegged her for, crossing the short distance on the gravel to get up in Aubrey's face, her own round cheeks flamin’. "Say that again, Polly Pocket."

Elijah shifted, his eyes on the two at my side. I wanted to watch Aubrey. Maybe even help. But he was more dangerous than anyone else in the room.

"Feeling awful safe, aren't you?" Aubrey said, her lip curling in disgust at the closeness. "Can you please back up? You seriously need a mint."

Was love for continual insults a thing?

Like a fucked-up love at first sight but instead born out of watchin’ someone repetitively dress somebody down. I shouldn’t have been so turned on by it, but her darkness was speaking to mine.

It reached out slowly, showin’ itself in the littlest of ways.

In her speech.

In the way she whined about not killin’ her long-time nemesis.

In the way she had looked like she was going to kill Hiram when she had the chance.

There was so much more to her.

Fuck me, Aubrey is… somethin’ else.

"You want to talk about being brave?" the girl said, spitting at Aubrey's feet. "Attaching yourself to a Legacy with more tattoos than they have brain cells—oh, sorry, Cam, brain cells are the gooey pink stuff that makes it so that you can have enough awareness to Hulk-smash your fist into things in the hopes that?—"

Smack.

Well, actually, it was more like crunch as Aubrey's fist connected with the girl's face, positively shattering her nose in an explosion of blood that splattered all three of us as well as the ground.

My mouth popped open in surprise, but I barely had time to think about reactin’ before the two with large bats were moving toward us.

I grabbed ahold of the lasso hanging off my pants and ran at them. It worked. They startled, not expectin’ me to jump into action as fast as I did.

I threw the rope at their feet as they stumbled back and pulled, tyin’ them together like I was ropin’ calves. It was enough to force both of them off their feet and to the ground. One of them dropped their bat, but the other was quick to push himself up.

He tried to come at me, but with the other player still attached to him at the ankle, his bat missed my body by a whole foot. I used my chance to grab it and clock him right in the head with it, knockin’ him out.

“Hey, Cam,” the other said fearfully, raising his hand. “I didn’t mean anything?—”

I slammed my body into his, throwing us to the ground.

Elijah was still staring at the scene, unmoving. I met his gaze hard and ready to fight, but a sound called me back to Aubrey.

She’s going to fuckin’ kill her.

"Aubrey, get off her!" I shouted, on top of the larger of the two and forcing his face into the gravel, readyin’ the bat. "We aren't PKers, remember?"

"YOU aren't a PKer," Aubrey corrected, satisfaction washing over her face as the girl grew increasingly purple the longer her hands were wrapped around her throat.

Aubrey was scratched up everywhere—arms and hands, neck and face—anywhere the girl could reach in her increasingly feebler attempts to get her off her. She bucked her hips but didn’t do much more than make my girl adjust.

Ella screamed as Elijah took his chance and chased her around the fountain. He paused when he saw Aubrey, shifting his focus.

Hiram is out in the open. It was a chance that wouldn’t come around again. Priorities. Focus on your people.

A loud crack and a splash.

Fuck. Okay. Priorities shiftin’.

Using the bat, I struck the struggling body underneath me in the temple until he stopped moving, jumping at the body that was trying to pull Aubrey off the girl, the bat clatterin’ down near her knee.

She was screaming so loud it was hard to think, her frustrated noises drawing my attention to how she might sound wrapped around my fingers.

No time, Cam. Focus.

I was so scatterbrained that I hadn’t realized the first player I knocked out was already at my back, wrappin’ his arm around my neck and attemptin’ to put a knife to my throat.

I rolled in the gravel, trying to get the upper hand on my new opponent. Luckily for me, they were drastically outmatched in size, but unluckily for me, I was being too cocky when a knife slashed into my cheek, close enough to my eye to make it water.

Splashes and the sound of struggle followed me as my ears began to ring, grabbin’ the player's arm and forcin’ it under my knee. Giving it as little thought as I could, I braced their hand and elbow, snapping it like a glow stick. He screamed, and I jumped to my feet, adequately convinced he was incapacitated enough for me to try to check on Ella.

Shaking my head to dislodge a bit of the blood that was slicking down my face, I looked at Aubrey, and she was holding her own, so I jogged around the side of the fountain to find Elijah sitting on top of Ella.

My watch buzzed, the lights in the room flickering down into near darkness for a few terrifying seconds as I jumped into the basin of the fountain, the screens flashing red Xs warning that a PK had just happened.

Fuck. Fuck!

I jumped on Elijah’s back, rippin’ him off the body that was no longer struggling under the water.

I pushed away the worry that my family would disown me for my actions. No PK. Help them.

"Ella!" I shouted, turning and struggling to lift her head out of the water as I was being dragged backwards by Elijah, his furious grip trying to stop me from getting to her.

Her dark hair appeared over the water, splutterin’ and coughin’.

Relief . I couldn't have a teammate die on my watch.

Then who…?

"Aubrey!" I shouted, fully engagin’ with Elijah now, grapplin’ with him as he tried to force my head underwater.

I had gone up against many from the farm, but never under the duress that my own personal angel was about to die.

Another flash of the lights and another shower of red Xs above us, the leaderboard changing rapidly, numbers fallin’ away as fallen players were accounted for. Names moving by so quickly that I couldn't figure out who was gone.

"AUbrEY!"

"Oh my God, keep your fucking cowboy hat on, Cam," she snapped, the screaming from the player whose arm I’d broken suddenly cut off, accompanied by another red flash.

Oh my God. She wasn’t dying.

She’s killin’ them.

"Aubrey! Stop!" I ordered as Elijah released me, clearly coming to the same conclusion.

Ella had hauled herself out of the fountain, pounding on her chest to try and dislodge the bloodied water from her lungs as she coughed it up.

I hopped over the stone lip, grateful again for my size as I overtook it easily, grabbin’ Aubrey around the middle and hauling her bodily off the tied-up player whose head she was about to bash in with the metal bat. I ran full tilt with her under my arm like she weighed less than a football, stopping only to pull Ella onto my back before crossing the room to the button, my hand jammin’ down onto it desperately.

Three. She'd PKed three people in a no-PK zone.

And we'd left two of their friends alive. One of them fuckin’ trained for the Games.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

This is not how I wanted my game to go. Tests come to those who are worthy. But I didn’t feel worthy. Especially not when Aubrey was threatenin’ to fuck it all up.

The middle-left door opened, and I was quick to get through it, turnin’ my head to adjust a slipping Ella and catching sight of the two remaining players. But it shut too quickly. I froze, waitin’ to see if pressing the button would open the door again… but nothing. Seconds ticked by—ten, twenty, thirty—before I let loose a relaxed breath.

"Are you going to put me down now?" Aubrey snapped.

I saw red. This mouthy little brat needed to be taught a lesson about listenin’. And I was gonna be the one to do it.