Page 39 of Death Match

“Please, Jade,” Ricky whispered. He swallowed hard. What he’d just seen appeared to have really affected him. “Consider it. The Knights.”

Meeting his gaze, she put her apron back on and then strode past us and up the stairs, not saying another word.

Ricky hurried after her.

The moment I placed my foot on the first step to follow, a swirling silver cloud filled the cellar stairway, swallowing up Ricky’s form before rushing at me.

I covered my face and braced for impact. Icy air smacked into me, freezing every inch and tensing every muscle. My mouth opened to scream, to release the pain, but even that was locked in my throat.

I didn’t move for a few breaths. Not until the cold drained out my toes and the sound of birds singing tickled my eardrums. Cautiously, I lowered my arms and opened my eyes.

The songs, sights, and scents of the jungle greeted me, as well as the smooth rock walls of the maze.

The memory was gone. I was back in the center of the labyrinth.

“Wait, no! Take me back!” I shouted to the sky angrily. I needed to know how I had gotten those bruises. And Tina… I hadn’t seen her, yet, either. “I need to go back. Send me back.”

It had just started. I didn’t even see who the dirtbag was who had hurt me. And Ricky… What happened with him and the gang, the Knights? Did his family lose the store? Was he still alive?

I needed to know.

“What happened?” Eli’s voice echoed all around me.

“I-I—” My voice cracked. I had gotten a glimpse of my life only to be cut off too short.

“What is it, Jade?” Michael asked.

Their questions only aggravated me more.

“I lived in a city. I had a job in a corner bodega. Mr. Ricardo and Ricky…and Tina.” I paused, my heart pounding against my ribs. “I think I have a sister, too.”

“She’s starting to get her memories,” Michael whispered mostly to Eli, but I heard it, too.

My memories. So, I had been right. I had been watching my life play out before my eyes.

“Isn’t that supposed to be once everything is completed?” Eli replied to him.

“It seems things aren’t going as expected.”

The images of the bodega, Ricky, and the smelly, dark cellar hovered in my mind as clear as the maze all around me. When I reached into that empty place where my memories were locked away, those pieces were there, still easy to recall if I wanted to. Thinking of them again made relief and a sense of peace spread through me. But the moment I tried to branch out and explore the missing parts, to get a little more out of the memory, a stabbing pain halted me.

I rubbed my forehead to try and ease it some.

I’d gotten a taste into my life, but only enough for me to crave more. It reminded me of what I was fighting for now—what finishing these Trials would lead to in the end. Knowing who my family and my sister were.

“Will there be more?” I asked the two unseen men, wherever they were. “More of the memory?”

“Your memories were supposed to be restored to you at the end of the Trials,” Michael replied, his voice reverberating off the walls all around me, “but it appears you’ll be getting them in pieces. If I were to guess, too, I’d say that after every Trial you complete, you’d get to see a little more of your life. Most likely the moments leading to your death.”

That made me pause. My normal day at the mini mart had been one of my final moments alive? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. But then I remembered those bruises. Maybe whoever had done that to me had managed to finish the job.

Michael went on. “Then, after all your Trials are complete, all your memories will be restored. Even from your past lives.”

Since Eli had explained that part to me already, I nodded my head. I couldn’t wait until there was no more mystery to me. I wanted to be whole again; I wanted to be an open book.

“Jade…” Eli called with concern. “How are you feeling about all of this?”

Taking a deep breath, I realized the only way to see Ricky and Mr. Ricardo again was to enter the maze, find the next archway, and finish my second Trial.

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