Page 14 of Rat Race

A darkness that latched itself onto me, waitin’ to see how I’d react.

Maybe it’s… A test,I rationalized.It’s time to show my faith.

But how was I meant to do that while I was questioning every fiber of what made it true?

I rounded the corner, just barely catching the end of a long, dark ponytail disappearing around another bend up ahead.

Keeping my pace, it wasn’t long until I rounded the corner myself, nearly bowlin’ her clean over when I didn’t spot her immediately in the low light. A terrified gasp escaped her as her eyes found mine behind her cornflower blue mask.

Ahead, the three others were carefully picking their way through the hall, avoiding certain parts of the floor. From a distance, I couldn’t see what the problem was exactly, but there was only one answer that made sense.

Some kind of trap.

What the trap did didn’t matter so much. Its existence was enough to delay progress.

At this point of the game, when the next heat of Runners would be enterin’ the arena at any moment, every second counted.

I continued to approach the girl, and she let out a terrified squeak, her eyes widening at the insignia on my bandana. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind she’d clocked me as a Weston, her wide frightened eyes darting around my frame like by will alone she could change the cold, hard truth that I was the Ranch’s top contestant this season.

But not the only one.The thought was bitter as bile on the back of my tongue.

My siblings had a bit of a different way of going about the Games, really taking the wholemake a show of itthing count.

In Peter’s Games, he’d waited until the end of the maze, his foot on a pressure plate that would collapse the rest of the corridor into a pit of lava. Burned the entirety of his alliance to ash in about twenty-five seconds.

He coulda disarmed it, coulda let the people that’d helped him get to that coveted finish line and cross it with him. But he’d decided to be cruel.

Bragged about it in his winner’s interview.

Pa’d been beside himself with pride. Colored Peter with praise thicker than marmalade. I’d beenhorrified.

That was when I promised I wouldn’t be like them.

When I realized thatfor glorydidn’t have to mean giving up your humanity.

I’d come to win, of course. But how I planned to do that was totally different from my kin before me. Where they were indiscriminate murderers with a penchant for high-profile, horrifyin’ violence, I wanted to utilize my skills.

Wasn’t enough to make it to the end because I’d taken the easy way out and mowed down anyone in my path. Naw, I wanted to cross that finish line—and cross itfirstbecause I’d trained. Because I was the best damn Runner to ever live. The product of decades of excellence.

A true Legacy.

“Don’t come any closer!” Cornflower Blue shouted, taking a nervous step backwards into the hall.

“Aw, darlin’,” I called, approaching slowly, my hands held out placatingly in front of me. A few more steps like that, and who knew what could happen. “I’m not going to hurt you, sugar, don’t you worry now.”

“God, you are so fucking full of it. You think you can just call me some pet names and I’ll forget what you are? Fucking PK Westonscum!”

“I’m not my siblings,” I reassured her, affronted. Maybe it was the bubble I lived in, but I’d never heard my family’s methods questioned before. It was kind of… Excitin’. “I'm just here to play the game like you.”

She backed up again as I neared, stumbling over her own feet and sprawling across the floor, her hand sinking slightly on a tile that’d depressed under her weight.

An alarm shrieked to life through the hallway as the lights changed, bathing us in red that all but blotted her features, that dark ponytail of her swaying with the shake of her head.

A low rumble turned into a roar as the tiles around her began to fall away, crumbling into darkness, her scream of terror swallowed by the onslaught of noise.

I jumped the gap formed by the initial few, grabbing the girl like a football while she tried to crab-crawl feebly away from the rapidly disappearing floor, hoisting her under one arm and running the length of the corridor full tilt.

The watch on my wrist buzzed, its face flashing red as I sprinted to safety. As if it wasn’t already perfectly fuckin’ clear that I was in the middle of a trap.

---