Page 53 of The Game

“And why aren’t you together still?” I say as he works on my eyebrows now. His lips dip into a frown.

“She was ready to settle down but we always knew I couldn’t. We parted ways as friends. I still talk to her from time to time. She’s married and has a kid.”

For some reason, this makes my heart ache, this notion that the rest of the world can move on but he cannot, that Teddy is a springboard for these women to get back on their feet and get out, or that he’s just a stepping stone in relationships.

“Stop pitying me,” he chuckles, breath fanning my face.

“I’m not,” I grumble.

“I’m fine, Alice. I know what I want and what I can have at the moment do not coincide. Which leads me to my biggest present to you.”

My stomach drops as he pulls away, eyes locked.

“Tomorrow, we’re plotting some shit to end this all. So that’s why tonight,” he says, reaching to the counter behind me before wielding a mirror. I gasp as my face comes into view, half alive, half zombie. It’s macabre and dark and I fucking love it. “Tonight we havefun.”

* * *

Cash picks us up around six, and I’m dressed in a tornAlice in Wonderlandcostume—the very same I wore last year, only it’s not pristine, and my hair isn’t perfect, and I’m half dead with my zombie look.

But I’ve never felt more alive.

Teddy is some villainous version of the Mad Hatter, and knowing he’s all about the irony, I have to wonder if he did this on purpose. Seated in the back of Cash’s old Mustang while his girlfriend Bethany and him argue up front, Teddy reaches out across the leather and intertwines our fingers.

My eyes jump to his as I smile; his face would be more shocking, but his eyes always have that dark band around them, and it’s something I’ve become very attracted to.

“Two things. Why theAlice in Wonderlandtheme, and how the fuck do you know how to use a curling iron?”

He’s quick to snort and hide it as Bethany lets out a string of curses and Cash cranks up the radio to drown her out. I think she’s mad because he didn’t wear the Ken costume to match her Barbie one. If only I had her problems.

“One, because this is the new you, is it not?”

Rolling my eyes, I go to argue but realize he’s right; last year, I felt like a princess. I was sheltered and spoiled and privileged. Now, I’ve been reborn into a new level of darkness, and I understand the world so much differently.

“Okay, I’ll give you that.”

“Two, I used to curl my mom’s hair when her limbs became too uncontrollable. She never left the house without doing her hair.”

My face turns to his, eyes wide. He stares straight ahead at the bickering pair, nothing but trees flashing by the windows in my peripherals. Trees and nighttime and something wicked. His jaw works, but he refuses to look at me, instead squeezing my hand tighter. He doesn’t want to talk about it, and I won’t be the one to push him.

We ride in silence for a while until we come to the end of the highway and turn onto a skinny road with no light whatsoever. Fog hugs the trunks of mossy trees, ferns shimmering with dew and wilting in the crisp weather, the headlights from the car casting everything in a stark washed-out glow. I half expect some girl dressed in a white gown with long black hair to be standing in the middle of the road around every bend, and before long Teddy’s soft chuckle has alerted me that I’m practically sitting in his lap.

“Scared, bunny?”

“Where are we going?” I huff, squeezing the life out of his hand now, my eyes glued to the road ahead. I’m one of those weirdos that justhasto look. I have to see what evil creature is haunting me in the dark, just to terrify myself even more.

His free hand sneaks between my thighs, but it isn’t sexual; it’s more of a subtle reassurance of his own control, his own power. Teddy is darkness personified, a man who has murdered someone, and a man who fears pretty much nothing, especially this concept of evil. So when I feel him lean in, his thumb brushing against my ripped, striped panty hose, I lean into him and relax.

“You’re safe with me, Alice. And out here, the only thing that can hurt you is yourself.”

Peeking up at him, I don’t quite understand his meaning, but soon the headlights paint an old wrought iron gate in their pale glow, and beyond the gate is the facade of nothing more or less than a fucking abandoned mental hospital.Saint Ignatiusis etched into the stone above the archway to this foreboding place.

“Oh,” I squeak softly, gripping him back and digging my nails in this time as my heart thunders in my ribs. He shakes with soft laughter and pats my thigh.

“Mouthy Alice, afraid of a building. There’s nothing to be scared of,” he mocks. Eyes widening, I turn my shocked gaze to his, absolutely petrified.

“Yes, there is!” I breathe. Stupid Barbie Bethany up front snickers at me before she fiddles in her purse and pulls out a little baggy filled with white powder, which subsequently sets Cash off, who then storms away while she follows him and nags. Utterly alone, I glare pointedly at Teddy now.

“Nothing will hurt you,” he repeats adamantly, before he frowns. “Unless you’re not up to date on your tetanus shots?”

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