“Isn’t fifteen the answer then? We have to take away one, right?” Elizabeth speculated.

  Mel was quick to shoot her down. “No. That’s far too simple.”

  I repeated the riddle as best as I could inside my head and found myself studying my hands. “Are we supposed to touch something? Maybe grab onto something? I don’t know what else could be in here we need to see.”

  “Within our grasp…I think you’re on the right track,” Max replied animatedly.

  “What if it’s senses then?” Mel suggested.

  Dion made a sound of agreement and nodded. “You’re both right.”

  “Then what is the answer?” Jessica prodded with audible irritation in her tone.

  “Use that beautiful brain of yours to help figure it out,” Cooper taunted in a flirtatious manner.

  She flicked him off and turned to face the opposite direction.

  “The missing sense would be touch,” I stated. “In the…riddle if that’s what we’re calling it, she named four. We see. Hear. Taste and smell. Wait, no. It can’t be senses. The mind part doesn’t fit.”

  “It might not be about the senses exactly, but they’re definitely part of it,” Max countered.

  “Okay, then we need to figure out how that’s going to help get these doors open.”

  “I’m going to check the car again.” Mel declared.

  “I’ll help,” Dion quickly volunteered, following on her heels with Hayven in tow.

  “Wanna check the wall?” Cooper looked to me and asked, his arrogance suddenly non-existent.

  “Yeah, let’s do that.” I didn’t like him at all, but I wouldn’t let my personal feelings get in the way of figuring this out.

  Grace walked with us to where the panel had lifted and stood to the side.

  Cooper went up to the worktable and slightly leaned forward to inspect the gap that had formed between the wall and tool bench.

  “Is there anything specific I should be looking for?”

  “Whatever doesn’t look right, I guess.”

  “Can you get my mask down?” Elizabeth asked as she approached with Max. “Maybe that will change something.”

  “Worth a try.” I reached up and snagged each one that had been left hanging, passing Elizabeth hers.

  To our mutual frustration, nothing happened. Nothing was happening and a glance at the clock showed we had less than eight minutes left to change that. My competitive nature refused to accept losing.

  “This is maddening,” Grace huffed. “I feel like the answer is right in front of our faces.”

  “It could be. That might be the point of the riddle. Can I see that?” Max held his hand out for his off-white mask.

  Unsure what he meant, I passed it to him. He slipped it on before stepping around us and joining Cooper in examining the rectangular hole that had been formed as a result of the wall opening up.

  “Sixteen in total,” he murmured to himself, running his palms around the frame. “Look, there’s a groove here.”

  Grace and I both moved to get a closer look at what he was referring to, watching Max trace over a barely noticeable u-shaped curve in the bottom portion of the wood.

  “I think there might be something down in there.” He reached through the opening, his shoulder pressing up against the wall as he worked his hand down into the gap.

  “You guys find anything?” Mel called from across the barn.

  “Not yet.” I looked over my shoulder to find they were quite literally tearing the car apart. The driver’s side door panel was hanging on by a single screw.

  “Woah!” Cooper shouted.

  My head swiveled around just as the portion of the wall that had lifted up, came crashing back down, right on top of where Max’s wrist ended. He released a short disbelieving laugh as the color drained from his face.

  Before anyone could ask if he was okay or make a move to help free him, his mouth opened with a guttural scream of pain. I flinched and stepped away from him, taking Grace with me.

  “What happened?” Jessica ran towards us with a worried cry.

  The clock blanked to zero, and the panel lifted again, revealing a butcher-like blade embedded in the wood. Had that been in there the entire time?

  Max went spiraling backward. I blinked at the sight of him cradling the stump that his hand should have been attached to.

  “Oh, fuck,” Cooper quavered, turning away with dry heaves wracking his body.

  I looked from Max to the opening in the wall where a part of his severed hand could still be seen. There was so much blood. It covered the tool bench and the floor, spilling out of him in a dangerously incessant flow.

  Elizabeth lost her shit. She ran screaming incoherently towards a set of doors shouting to let us out.

  “What the fuck?” Mel mouthed as she approached, her eyes locked on Max.

  Dion raced over and dropped to his knees beside his friend. “Why would you put your hand in there and you didn’t even know what it was?” He pulled off his T-shirt and began to make a tourniquet, staining the life-beater beneath with his friend’s blood.

  “Cheers to you! You’ve all passed the first test. Get ready now, the real fun is about to begin.”

  At the sound of her voice, panic began to grip the rest of the people inside the barn. I did my best to block out the negative energy they were emanating and focus on everything around me. Her voice definitely wasn’t coming from the tape recorder now. My eyes darted around in search of a speaker or camera.

  “Let us out, you crazy fucking bitch!” Jessica yelled.

  She giggled at the insult and sighed. “I’m so excited you’re ready to play. Show us you have what it takes to survive in the place where sinners play.”

  The sound of the metal bar finally sliding back echoed throughout the barn, but it wasn’t the doors I walked through that unlocked.

  The pair Elizabeth was banging on opened, causing her to pitch forward and fall right into the person waiting on the other side as they swung outward. Her gasp was drowned out by Jessica’s terrified scream as someone donning a bloodied fox mask knocked Elizabeth backward.

  She hit the ground and stared up at the person cocking their head to the side as they looked down at her.

  “Please don’t. I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again.”

  Her plea had me wondering if she knew this person. It didn’t seem to matter if that were the case. Without uttering a word, the man stepped forward and raised the ax.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The blade lodged in the center of her face. A crack that reminded me of an egg being broken preceded pure chaos. The music started to play again, cloaking the screams and shouting that erupted.

  The three of us helped Dion get Max on his feet as everyone else ran for the exit. We veered left while they went right, keeping as much space as possible between us and the man crushing Elizabeth’s chest with a solid black boot as he removed his ax from her face. Her body folded to the ground, a gaping split revealing bone tissue and muscle. She was still twitching when I took my final look at her.

  The back of the barn was surrounded by more stalks that lined a dirt path. Simple geography was enough to know it would be leading us away from the maze that brought us all here, but there was no time to stop and debate what to do. Another masked figure came around the corner, forcing us to either keep moving or face off with them and the ax-wielding psychopath.

  Dion held onto Max and propelled him forward. I cursed and kicked my heels off, running alongside Grace and Mel. The path curved off to the right. We followed the bend until we came upon a small clearing that split into a T. Despite reaching this point before us, the others were here still, waiting like mindless sheep.

  A scarecrow had been placed here for this occasion. Arrows hung from each of its arms, one pointing left and the other right, painted red with life or death.

  It was plain to see whichever route you chose would be leading you right into the woods that lacked any traces of light.

  “Which way?” Max rasped.

  His breathing was labored, the run causing more harm to his already weakened state. Things were looking grim for him, and I had a feeling we weren’t done running yet. The shirt Dion used as a tourniquet was saturated already. If we didn’t get him help soon, he would bleed out.

  “How do we find the way out of here?” Jessica asked, worriedly glancing over her shoulder.

  “We already know the way out. The gate is in the opposite direction,” Mel reminded her.

  The sound of laughter and taunting catcalls carried from somewhere within the cornfield. The stalks were so high it was impossible to pinpoint where they were coming from.

  Dion readjusted his hold on Max and moved him a few inches away from the husks. “We’re sitting ducks right here. We gotta keep going.”

  “What’s the move? Death?” Grace asked me as if I held the answers for our salvation.

  With a nod, I swallowed and glanced between the two arrows. “Life is logical and easy. We need death.”

  Jessica made a sound of disagreement and stepped in the opposite direction. “How do you know that’s not what they want us to believe?”

  “I obviously fucking don’t.”

  A body crashing through the stalks with enough momentum to cause a wave-like effect interrupted our ill-timed debate. We came together in a huddle, all eyes trained on different sections of the cornfield.

  More than one person was lurking in the stalks. They made it impossible to tell where.

  A few mere feet away, the clown I’d crossed paths with earlier burst into the clearing with something clutched in his frilly gloved hands. Jessica whimpered loudly at the sight of him, a violent shudder causing her to sway on her feet.

  The clown grinned as he slowly let a chain unravel into a lasso of sorts. Tiny pieces of spiked metal were woven between the links. He began to twirl it in the air, sending the loop towards our huddle after it had gained enough speed to make a whizzing noise.

  Jessica screeched so loud I reflexively shoved her away from my ear. My push had her bumping into Cooper, saving him from having his head roped like livestock. The clown laughed at his miss and lunged forward. Mel was forced away from us to keep herself out of his reach, getting swept away by everyone else’s terror.

  Jessica practically climbed on her back as she ran away. Cooper was the only one that charged in the opposite direction, knocking me down in the process. His shoulder slammed into mine and sent me to the ground with a hard thud.

  Grace grabbed hold of my wrist and all but dragged me away before I could attempt to get back on my feet. Once I finally managed to get my legs beneath me, we entered the woods.

  “Mel went the other way,” I breathed, grimacing as twigs and leaves bit into the soles of my feet.

  “Yeah, she had to.” Hearing the evident worry in her voice, I gently freed myself from her hold and focused on trying to see where I was going. There were no more lanterns. Our only light came from the masks we had yet to remove, a faint glow of pink and white.

  “We need to go back,” Cooper stressed.

  “You can do whatever you want,” I replied evenly.

  I knew the guy was an asshole from the second he opened his mouth but knocking me down and then running away without attempting to help me get back up was the ultimate dick move. I was all for self-preservation and I still wouldn’t have done the same to him if the situation was reversed. I even would’ve helped Jessica if it was necessary.

  Now I had zero regard for his well-being. All I needed to do was find Mel and get us the hell out of here. I mentally mapped the layout of Sainte’s house and the woods behind it. I wasn’t going exploring in the dark when people were trying to hunt us down. We needed to make our way back to the barn somehow and then through the corn maze without being caught by whoever was after us.

  “What if we--?”

  Grace abruptly turned and placed her hand over the mouthpart of my mask “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

  I shook my head and listened for whatever had caught her attention.

  “There’s nothing there.”

  “Shut up,” she hissed at Cooper.

  He ignored her warning and kept going. “But there will be if we don’t find our way out of the woods. We should have gone with the others.”

  I turned my head, focusing on a patch of darkness up ahead as the sound of footsteps finally reached me. I tugged on Grace’s wrist and took a step back, turning towards where it was coming from. As it grew louder, closer, it became clear that whoever was on their way to where we were didn’t care if we heard them or not. To know almost exactly where we’d wound up was telling.

  “We can’t stay on this path,” I murmured.

  I turned and peered down the hill on our immediate left. It was spotted with trees and overgrown weeds, but it looked to level out after a few feet.

  “You want to go into the woods?” Cooper shrilled loudly.

  Grace growled in annoyance and tossed her head to look at him. “Have you looked around to see where we’re at?”

  I ignored his presence and focused on my best friend. “If we keep going in the direction these paths take us, they’ll know exactly where we are at every turn.”

  “We’re lambs heading towards slaughter,” Grace agreed solemnly.

  An anguished scream tore through the air, sending a shiver of apprehension down my spine.

  “Come on.” I grabbed Grace’s hand and we stepped off the poorly maintained path. I did my best to watch where I stepped.

  Max’s hand had been severed by him triggering something. I didn’t want to do the same and cost me or Gracelyn a limb. Cooper cursed loudly and began to follow us down the uneven slope. Our descent was slow, our masks not bright enough to light more than what was barely right in front of our faces. My feet smushed into greenery and dirt. I grimaced when something tiny with legs scuffled over my toes.

  We were close to what I hoped would be the bottom when Cooper’s dumbass tripped. I heard his body pitch forward and come tumbling down. Grace was torn away from me within the blink of an eye. I tried to hold onto her and remain upright, reaching for the trunk of a tree, but failing spectacularly.

  “Fuck,” I hissed as one of my nails broke off entirely and another cracked, causing me to lose my grip. I slid the rest of the way down the slope, knocking the air from my lungs.

  When I landed at the bottom in a mess of leaves, twigs, and scratched limbs, I laid completely still for a second trying to get my bearings back. The sound of a struggle a few feet away had me rolling onto my stomach and pushing myself into a standing position.

  I couldn’t immediately make out what was happening. I could see that Grace was beneath Cooper. For a split second, I thought he may have landed that way, but then I saw the glint of a blade.

  “Get off me!” Grace growled, managing to deck him with a well-placed hit.

  The sound of her fist hitting his flesh, and a painful grunt spurred me into action. I ate the distance between us and throwing my weight into it, I shoved him with both hands. It was enough to dislodge him entirely.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I grabbed for Grace and helped her stand.

  Cooper came at us brandishing the knife, I shoved her out of the way and turned to protect my face and throat as he swung, pulling my lower lip between my teeth to smother a cry of pain as my upper arm was sliced open. I felt blood well and start leaking from the cut. I fought the reflexive urge to touch it, cognizant of how filthy my hands were.

  “Have you lost your goddamn mind?” Grace ran forward and grabbed the wrist he was using to wield the knife before he could take another jab at me.

  “You weren’t supposed to figure it out,” he yelled back at her, using his body mass to try and throw her off. Like a dog with a bone, she refused to let go.

  I went wide and jumped him from behind. I kicked the back of his leg with the heel of my foot and served his head another hit with my fist.

  He folded onto one leg followed by the other when Grace slammed her knee into his face. There was a satisfying crunch and bellow of pain. The knife fell from his hand, and I hopped over him to snag it off the ground, nearly falling onto my face when he grabbed my ankle.

  He dug his nails into my skin, wrenching a cry of pain from my throat. Unable to get him off, I twisted at the waist and drove the knife down into the crux of his shoulder. With an agonized bellow he jerked away from me. I stumbled forward and was caught by Grace. Her arm around my waist kept me upright. I had just enough time to take a full breath before Cooper was on his feet.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I don’t have a choice,” he seethed, holding the handle of the knife still protruding from his shoulder. He made no attempt to pull it out.

  It was difficult to see his expression clearly, but the sound of erratic breathing alluded to rage and pain. He’d clearly lost his mind within the last ten minutes. I didn’t want to fight this asshole barefoot in the middle of the woods while some masked lunatic crept up on us.

  I looked around trying to figure out how we could get around him without having to go back up the embankment. Movement coming from my left had me whirling in that direction. I swallowed at the sight of yet another masked figure.

  This was some real-life horror-fest bullshit, and I was fucking over it. They didn’t move, remaining a few feet away. It was hard to make them out entirely, but their build was large, and they looked to be much taller than us.

  I didn’t know how long they’d been watching or why they were, but I wasn’t going to stand here and find out.

  When Cooper noticed them, his rage became a tangible fear. The masked figure came down the embankment with measured steps. I moved backward, bumping into Grace.

  He paid us no attention, his focus solely on Cooper. As he approached him, Cooper began to blubber an apology, much like Elizabeth had. I couldn’t claim to fully understand why either of them had done this, but my gut was telling me they may have known what would happen tonight.

  “I did everything he said,” Cooper pled.

 

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