Page 39 of Rat Race

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 itwas 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 couldhearsomething.

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.

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

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

---