Page 39 of Deadly Secrets

The floor creaked a few feet behind me. Maybe Zayn decided to join me after all. Perhaps he wanted to apologize for the kiss…although I had kissed him as well. However, as I turned around, I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was the same stranger I saw at the house of mirrors, and terror took over my body. I started running, unable to find the exit, jumping from one set to the next, hitting tables, pushing chairs, and opening doors.

Help.

“SOMEONE HELP ME!” I screamed, nearly tearing my throat out. But there was no one; I was alone, hunted by a creep.

My legs ached. The sound of heavy boots approaching from behind caused me to hyperventilate. After what felt like an eternity, I finally saw the green letters “EXIT” above a door. I sprinted toward it with everything I had, my legs nearly giving out. Just before I was able to push the bar, everything went dark. Strong arms held me in place while someone else placed masking tape over my mouth and adjusted a sack over my head. Immediately after, my hands and ankles were bound with rope. My panic intensified. I fought back, but they overpowered me. I wiggled and kicked my legs so hard that I feared I would snap my ankles.

“Please, please stop,” I begged. But no one seemed to hear my pleas behind the tape.

I heard someone start a car—the roar of an engine drawing nearer. My body hit a hard surface, and the sound of a door closing above me reached my ears. Moving my hands, I tried to recognize where I was when I hit metal—the trunk. Someone had put me in the trunk of a car. Oh God. Are they going to kill me? Are they going to ask for a ransom? I couldn’t stop crying, and the tears kept rolling over my wet cheeks, my throat raw from all the screaming.

The car was moving, driving me somewhere. It couldn’t be too far from the Devil’s Night Festival because it only took a few minutes for the vehicle to come to a halt. I heard footsteps and the driver’s door closing.

Please, please God. Don’t let me die today.

Someone opened the trunk and grabbed my hands and legs. Two people. Two people were carrying me somewhere. I screamed for help, hoping anyone in the area could hear me. I was on my knees on the floor when I noticed I wasn’t the only person screaming and crying; there was also one to my right and another to my left.

“Take the sacks off their heads,” someone shouted.

As my eyes adapted to the sudden light, a room full of people came into view. Some of them were faces I recognized: Ander, Zayn, and Noah.

“Welcome to Stanford. Let the initiation begin!” a man with a shaved head exclaimed. Everyone roared in unison as if it were a Fourth of July celebration.

What the hell?

Noah approached me, and with a butterfly knife, he swiftly cut the ropes from my feet and my hands. I immediately removed the tape from my mouth.

“You are fucking dead! I’m gonna fucking kill the three of you!” I yelled.

Ander started laughing, and I lost it. I threw a punch to his face, but he easily dodged it.

“I thought I was being kidnapped, you sonofabitch.”

“That was the whole point. I assumed you’d heard about Stanford initiations. It was hilarious seeing you thrust and kick your legs like you had a chance,” Ander said, laughing like a fucking psycho.

“I tried telling them it was a bad idea, but they didn’t listen. I’m so sorry, princess.” Noah said as he tenderly kissed each wrist. Meanwhile, Ander remained in the background, smiling as if genuinely enjoying my suffering.

“Fuck you, Ander. The creep with the knife already scared me enough. When someone put the bag on my head, I thought it was them trying to skin me alive!”

Noah gave me a confused look.

“Don’t be a drama queen. The guy with the knife in the house of mirrors was probably an actor,” Ander explained.

“The same psycho from the house of mirrors was in the haunted house!”

“What do you mean? The Delta Kappa president paid the actors so you and Stacey over there would be alone. There was no one else in the haunted house,” Zayn interjected.

“Why do they think I came running and screaming toward the exit if we were alone? Did they think I feared the ambience and decorations? They were fucking chasing me!” I stood to face them, and they exchanged worried looks.

I knew what I saw.

“Look. You’re fine. Why don’t we all go inside and talk to Nate? He’s the president of Delta Kappa. The knife act might be a new thing planned to spice things up from the traditional stunt they did last year,” Ander suggested.

I was going to have a word with Nate because I almost died from a stroke. It didn’t feel like a prank.

My worries didn’t settle after having a chat with dearest Nate. He confirmed that The Purge act was not something that the Delta Kappa committee had planned. He dismissed it as someone attempting to frighten me or perhaps an actor overly immersed in their role. But why would an actor move from one attraction to the next one to scare me? Did I know the psycho? A shiver ran down my spine at the thought that it could be the same person who had sent me the dahlias with the notes.

“What are you gonna do?” Zayn asked.

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