Page 69 of Wicked Games

“He’s a guy,” she said. “Men arewaymore likely to commit violent crimes. I think they’re more likely to be psychopaths too. So it tracks that the Game Master is male.”

“Okay, fair point, but I don’t think we should blame Maverick and let the girls off the hook based on that alone,” I said. “Women can still be psychopaths.”

“True,” April said, nodding slowly. “My money’s actually on Kiara.”

“Why?”

“Well, we’ve all been assuming that the Game Master brought us here as part of a revenge scheme, right? But none of us can figure out what we supposedly did to deserve it.”

I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“We could be totally wrong about revenge being the motive. I mean, remember what Tate said the other day?” she said. “About Kiara’s influencer stuff. I know she bought a ton of followers at the start to kick off her career, but she’s super famous now. Fame can be addictive. People like that always want more likes, more followers… more attention.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” I said. “She could’ve set this whole thing up so that she ends up as one of the only survivors. Or even the only survivor. Then she’d get a ton of attention and build her career even more, because she’d be the most famous influencer in the world after surviving something like this.”

“Also, remember her birthday party last year?” Zach chimed in.

April’s eyes widened. “Yes! Oh my god, I totally forgot about that.”

“What happened at the party?” I asked.

“She invited the entire grade to a gigantic escape room,” Brooke explained. “It was really fun. But now it’s kind of suspicious.”

“No shit. She’s obviously into that sort of stuff, and this place is basically a giant escape room,” April said. “So yeah… she’s my number one pick right now.”

“Me too,” Zach said. “Jasmine is a total bitch, but I don’t think that’s enough of a motive to make her the Game Master.”

“So we’re pretty much agreed, then?” Brooke said. “We need to keep a really close eye on Hudson and Kiara. Hudson because he’s sabotaging everyone, and Kiara because she’s the most likely suspect for the Game Master.”

“Hold on.” April frowned. “I just thought of something else. Even if Kiara didn’t bring us here for revenge, and it’s just an attention-grabbing scheme… whyus?”

“Good point,” I murmured. “She’d know from the start that we’re all going to die here if she intends on being the only survivor. So why pickusover anyone else from school? What did we do to deserve it?”

“Maybe she just went through a class list and picked eleven people at random,” Brooke suggested. “A psychopath wouldn’t care who got picked, because they don’t feel remorse, so there wouldn’t need to be any real reason behind it.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s possible.”

“No, it’s not random enough,” April declared, shaking her head. “Like, what are the odds that the four of us are here together? When there’s over two hundred students in our grade alone.”

“I might have an idea that explains it,” Zach said. “What if the people Kiara brought here were just the only people in school that she could find bad or embarrassing information on? For the Truth or Die game.”

“Huh?” Brooke’s forehead wrinkled. “Why would that matter?”

“Well, that game was clearly designed to make everyone dislike and distrust each other for however long we’re trapped here, presumably to add an extra layer of drama to the rest of the games over the next few days. It also makes for a juicy story when Kiara’s telling the media all the sordid details afterwards. So it makes sense that she’d want people with the worst possible secrets, right?”

“Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense,” April replied, slowly nodding. “Also, it means that she’d have no problem letting us know that she bought followers in the Truth or Die game, because I bet none of us are supposed to survive at all, like Careysaid a minute ago. That means we won’t be able to reveal her secret to the outside world when it’s all over. Her version of the story will be the only narrative.”

“Uhh… hold on. I just realized we’ve blown right past a major point,” I said, heart thudding in my chest. “If Kiaraisthe Game Master, and she doesn’t intend for any of us to survive this thing, then that means some of the games have to be rigged against us. I mean, we were told at the start that we can survive to the very end if we play the games properly. But that’s just not possible if she wants to be the only survivor, is it?”

“So it doesn’t even matter how well we play the games,” April said. Her shoulders had begun to quiver. “We’re all going to die here.”

Maverick

I trudged upstairs, occasionally glancing behind me to check out the others. Hudson was walking alone, face set in a stony expression, and Jasmine and Kiara were lingering a little farther back, whispering to each other as they walked. Courteney was several feet behind them, hands stuck in her pockets and face etched with a gloomy expression.

As for Carey and her friends, the four of them had hung back in the passage downstairs to huddle together for a discussion. I wanted to stay back and join them, but I knew I wasn’t welcome. Not while Carey and I were pretending there was nothing going on between us.

I cast another look over my shoulder, eyes narrowing as they fell on Jasmine and Kiara again. What the hell were they whispering about, and why had they frozen me out all of a sudden? Did they simply want some girl time together, or did they suspect something about me and Carey?

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