Page 35 of Rat Race

There I was, trapped in a pit with only a crab’s death awaitin’ me, stupid enough to trust a little mouse of a girl to hold up her end of the bargain.

She was meant for the Games more than I was. A fact my subconscious had figured out first when it was daydreaming of bringing her home to Ma and Pa.

If only my survival instincts rang the alarm bells first.

The platform began to lower, blood rushin’ onto its surface, threatenin’ to swallow me whole. Inch by inch, gettin' me closer to a very painful, very hot death.

Is this how it ends? My family watchin’ as the very last of their line is cooked alive because they trusted the wrong person?

Embarrassment and shame filled me faster than my fear of death.

Then, a manicured hand appeared over the edge, and I watched Aubrey lying flat on her stomach, reaching down for me.

Maybe my subconscious was actually right for the first time.

Hope ran through my body, and a smile spread across my face.

I let out a laugh then jumped up, catching her wrists and using my feet against the wall to help pull myself up. With a considerable amount of effort from both of us, and with only a little bit of melted rubber on the soles of my boots, we lay side by side on the solid stone floor of the next corridor, panting hard.

But we weren’t fully out of the woods yet. There was a wall separatin’ us from the rest of the maze.

Tears slid down Aubrey’s cheeks in fat droplets, smearing her makeup and making her nose red.

Poor girl. Maybe she isn’t as bloodthirsty as I first thought.

The Games did things to people, including turnin’ them into monsters. Maybe she too had a soft spot inside her.

“Hey now, darlin’, it’s okay. We made it.”

“No, you don’t get it. There was a girl back there?—”

“Shh, c’mon, we can’t save ‘em all. They know what they’re gettin' into signing up for a thing like this, right?”

“I don’t care that she’s dead, Cam, I care that I didn’t get to kill her! That stupid fucking cunt was the whole reason I signed up for this shitshow, and now I have NOTHING! No reason to be here! No reason to want to win! She won’t even get to see me holding the trophy!”

Christ on a cracker, this girl is nuttier than a buckeye.

And after that performance… I owed her my life.

Fucking hell.

Aubrey

Fuck, could I be any hornier?

They looked at me like I was crazy.

Well, to be exact, all expression dropped from their face, and I was met with a deadpan stare, but given their previous demeanor, I was guessing this was some type of mental break for them.

Fuck, they are hot.

I knew they were as soon as I saw the toned, tattooed arms, but holy fuck, their face card was lethal. Plump lips, chiseled jaw, straight nose. All the features just came together to create a perfect semi-masculine face that had me wanting to drop to my knees in front of them.

They could stomp on me with their booted foot, call me every dirty name under the sun, spit on me—fuck, the thought actually has my pussy clenching—and I would beg for more.

“You have literally no other goal?” they asked with a cocked brow.

I shook my head, tears still streaming down my face. I couldn’t stop them. After all the work I put into it, after everything I did to get to her, after everything she had done to me.

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