Page 49 of Wicked Games

Brooke’s eyes filled with sympathy. “April,” she said softly, reaching over to touch her hand. “You don’t need to feel ashamed about that. You could have told us.”

“But I understand why you didn’t,” Zach added.

I nodded to show my agreement with the others. “I’m really sorry you went through that. I hope you’re feeling better now.”

“Yeah.” Her lips tightened. “Mostly. Some days are difficult. Especially when I’m stressed.”

“Well, we’re all fucking stressed right now, because we’re twenty minutes away from being gassed to death,” Tate said, rolling his eyes upward. “Put the answer in, Rhys. She said Elmwood.”

Rhys nodded. “Done,” he said, pressing enter. “It’s true, so we have our sixth digit. And to be precise, we have eighteen minutes and twenty-six seconds left.”

Jasmine gasped. “It’s already been over eleven minutes since we started?”

“Yup. So let’s try to speed things up. Brooke, your turn. What did you do on November 3rdlast year?”

Brooke’s cheeks instantly flushed, and she lowered her gaze to the table. “I cheated on an exam,” she said, voice barely above a murmur.

Confusion flickered in Zach’s eyes. “What? You’re practically a genius! Why would you cheat?”

She lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “I was under a lot of stress, okay? I had a lot going on. Like, alot.Also, my parents are always on my back about staying at the very top of my best classes. I was starting to have trouble keeping up.”

I patted her arm. “I understand. It can be really hard.”

“Save the sympathy discussions for later, please,” Rhys said in a venomous tone, shooting me a filthy look. “Okay, the laptop accepted the words ‘cheated on exam’, so Courteney, you’re up. Who is your uncle?”

It was Courteney’s turn to look ashamed. She sighed and scrubbed a hand across her face before replying. “Robert Paulaner.”

Tate’s eyes widened. “The serial killer who did all that fucked-up shit to high school kids?”

“Yes,” Courteney muttered. “He’s on my mom’s side, and she changed her name when she married my dad, so no one has ever associated us with him.”

“So you’re related to a serial murderer who targets high school kids,”

Kiara said, pointedly tapping her chin. “Hmm. Sound familiar to anyone here?”

Courteney replied through gritted teeth. “I’m not the Game Master. And before you say it, I’m not one of his little helpers either.”

“If you say so.” Kiara sneered and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Good luck convincing everyone later.”

“Stop bitching, Kiara. It’s your turn,” Rhys said. A triumphant grin spread over his face. “Ah, this’ll be good. How many followers have you bought across all your social media accounts?”

Kiara’s brows shot up. “What the… I… I didn’t buy any,” she spluttered. She cleared her throat and straightened hershoulders, quickly regaining her composure. “I don’t need to buy followers!”

“Just answer the question,” Rhys said, affecting a bored expression.

“I did! The answer is zero!”

“Okay.” He shrugged and typed her answer in. A dialog box instantly popped up with the word ‘LIE’ in big red letters. “Shit. One minute just got shaved off our time.”

“I guess the Game Master forgot to mention that particular rule,” Zach said.

“Nah, he didn’t forget. I bet he wanted us to discover it on our own, just like this, to make everyone freak out,” Tate replied.

“Oh my god, who cares?” April said. “Kiara, answer the question! Truthfully this time!”

Kiara sighed and put her face in her hands, elbows resting in front of her. She mumbled something inaudible to my side of the table.

“What did she say?” Rhys asked, looking at Jasmine, who was sitting right next to Kiara.

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