Page 67 of Rat Race

“Alright, yeah, let’s pretend I believe you. If you didn't sign up, how is it that you managed to get through the door? You had to sign the contracts. Go through the physical. The prep tent.”

Her eyes narrowed at me.

“I’m a felon,” she spat. “My options were to either rot in prison or try and change my circumstances."

Prison?For some reason, Ella didn’t seem like much of a criminal to me. Sure, she might have been trying to plot my murder the entire time, but that was inside the game. Outside the walls of Devil’s Playground?

I couldn’t quite make heads or tails of it.

"That doesn't make any fucking sense, Ella," I admitted.

"I got caught, okay? B and E, not supposed to be a big deal, skateboarding with my friends, but the school they were building wasn't done on the second level and we didn't know that security guard was there and?—"

"What did they charge you with?"

I didn’t want to waste precious time. Each moment I stood there with Ella was another moment keeping me away from the finish line.

And another minute separated from Aubrey.

"Manslaughter."

Okay, maybe that made more sense.

"Fitting," I said bitterly. "Given you're a PKer too."

“Not yet,” she said breathlessly, her eyes darting from mine to the knife pressed against her throat. "But I’ll do whatever I fucking have to to get out of here.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I muttered.

“And you're no better,” she spat out, her voice raising with a twinge of desperation added to it. “What's the difference between dying here at your hands or in a fucking cell? At least down here I had a chance to try and earn my freedom."

"Stop lying!" I shouted, pullin’ the knife back a little so I could slam her into the wall, knocking the air clear out of her lungs.

I am better!Even if the darkness wanted me to end it all, I wouldn’t be like them.

Ella spluttered and coughed, nearly doubling over if it wasn't for the threat of the blade keeping her upright. "I'm not lying!" she said yet again. "This shit is fucked up. I don't want to hurt anyone. I didn't even want to hurt you!"

Pain like a migraine was starting to make the vision in my left eye spotty, Pa's voice in my head getting louder—more insistent.

Kill her, go on. Make a show of it, Camilla,he sneered, that pulsing pressure making it hard to focus.

It would be so easy. So fuckin' easy.

As quick as snapping her neck. I wouldn't even need to use the knife. She says she was in prison for manslaughter, but her body didn’t show any of the hardness someone in prison should have. It would take mere seconds, and her life would be slippin’ from her cold, dead fingers.

But that wouldn't be making a show of it. Naw, she needed to suffer.

Ella'd betrayed me after all. She was going to hurt me. Probably would hurt Aubrey as well. Even after all the time it took me to help her through the maze… none of it mattered.

Not to her.

Not to me.

Betrayal meantpunishment.It meant getting even. It meant showing the world that I wasn’t one to play with. But a tiny, oddly muffled voice whispered,What if she's tellin' the truth?

I reckoned that if Ella hadn't signed up to play the Devil's Playground willingly… that changed everything. It was one thing if we were all on the same playing field, so to speak, chosen for ourselves to be here knowing the risk that we'd never walk back out.

If Ella was telling the truth and she'd been forced to sign up… Only the good Lord was able to judge her for what she did in order to survive. Now, that didn't exempt her fromconsequences. She'd still tried to make a fool out of me. Threatened Aubrey.

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