Page 80 of Wicked Games

“What?” Courteney shrieked. “We have to go straight into another game?”

“This is fucking bullshit!” Hudson added, glaring up at the nearest surveillance camera. “We need a break!”

Courteney started sucking down deep breaths, which rapidly turned into full-on hyperventilation. “I… I can’t,” she choked out between ragged breaths. “I can’t do this. No more. No… more. I can’t.”

Zach raced over to comfort her as she sank to her knees, sobbing her heart out. April watched the interaction with her lips pressed into a thin line. “Can’t blame her for having a total meltdown,” she muttered. “I’m not sure how much longer I can do this shit either. I don’t think I’ve slept more than two hours in the last three days.”

“Me neither.” Brooke sighed and rubbed her forehead. “How the fuck are we supposed to concentrate on playing these bullshit games when we can barely function from lack of sleep?”

“That beer we just drank didn’t help either,” April said, slowly shaking her head. “But what are we supposed to do? Petition the Game Master for a player’s union that gives us some sort of rights?”

I snorted at her sarcastic jibe. “I wish.”

Once Zach and Maverick had managed to coax Courteney and Jasmine into slightly calmer states, we reluctantly traipsed out of the room and headed farther down the passage to the next gaming room. The door was unlocked, but it slammed shut behind us and automatically locked as soon as we were all present.

As I peered around the cold, dimly lit room, shivers cascaded down my spine. The space was cloaked with shadows, and the air was heavy with the scent of musty old books and a faint odor of decay. In the center lay a giant chessboard, its checkered pattern stretching across most of the floor.

All the playing pieces were present, looming like sentinels from seemingly random squares all over the board. They were carved from weathered stone and looked to weigh several hundred pounds, if not more. I hoped we didn’t have to move them as part of the game, because there was no way in hell most of us could manage that.

“I’m guessing there are landmines under some of the squares,” Hudson speculated, stroking the stubble on his chin. “If we step on the wrong ones, we get—”

“Shut the fuck up, Hudson,” Brooke hissed, cutting him off. “Courteney is already scared enough, and Jasmine is barely functioning after what happened to Kiara. So just save it, okay?”

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to reply, but at that exact moment, a nearby speaker made a loud clicking sound, and the Game Master’s robotic voice echoed through the room.

“Welcome to Chess Club, everyone!” the voice said. “Don’t worry if you’ve never played chess before. This game is only loosely based on the real thing. You’ll find your player details and instructions on the wall to your right. There’s no time limit on this game, so make sure you think carefully about every move. Good luck!”

Maverick stepped over to the wall and peered at a weathered-looking piece of paper that had been taped to the exposed brick. “We’ve all been given certain chess pieces to play as,” he said, looking back at the rest of us over his shoulder. “Courteney and Hudson are rooks, April, Zach, and I are knights, Brooke and Jasmine are bishops, and Carey is a queen.”

“No pawns or a king?” Brooke asked, tipping her head.

“Nope. I’m guessing there would’ve been more pieces available if we had more players,” Maverick replied in a low voice. “But they’re dead.”

“So how does the game work?” April asked, rubbing her forehead. Her eyes were ringed with dark circles, and she looked as if she were going to fall asleep at any second.

“We’ve all been assigned an empty square to start on,” Maverick said, eyes back on the paper. “April is B1, Courteney is A3, Zach is E3, Carey is C3, Jasmine is D2, Brooke is F3, Hudson is H1, and I’m G3. Everyone got theirs?”

There was a collective murmur of assent, and Maverick continued.

“The goal is for all of us to make it to the other side of the board. Once you’re on the last row, you can step off the board entirely, and you cannot return after that. We all get one turn each, and they must be taken one at a time. We can’t make any moves that cause us to collide with another player orany of the stone pieces that are already on the board. We also have to follow the rules of our particular playing piece. So for the rooks, that means you can move horizontally or vertically. Knights move in L shapes—two squares in one direction, either horizontally or vertically, and then one square perpendicular to that. Bishops move diagonally, and the queen can move vertically, diagonally, or horizontally.”

“So Carey can just move wherever the fuck she wants?” Hudson spat, eyes narrowing. “How the fuck is that fair?”

“It’s not. But these games are never fair,” Jasmine said in a ragged voice, wiping her red-rimmed eyes. “I mean, Brooke was given a free pass to skip the last game while the rest of us had to risk drinking poison.”

Maverick raised his voice and continued. “I’m not done, guys. There’s another rule. If anyone accidentally steps on a square that’s outside the range of their movement, they lose.”

“You mean theydie,” Courteney muttered.

“Yeah, presumably,” he replied in a grim tone. “So we all have to be very careful. For example, the bishops among us need to be sure to only move diagonally. If you accidentally move straight, you’re gone.”

“Can you repeat the rules for each piece?” April asked. “I haven’t played chess in years and I’m tired as hell, so my brain isn’t exactly going at full steam.”

Maverick rattled off the rules again. “Everyone memorized theirs?” he asked, glancing around the group. There was a collective nod, and he went on. “I think we can all survive this one easily enough, as long as we’re slow, careful, and help each other out. Once we’re all on the board in our assigned spots, we need to take a lot of time to strategize our exact moves. Some of us will probably have to wait for others to take their turns so that certain players will be out of the way. But we won’t know exactly what things will look like until we’re all there. So let’s go.”

We trudged over to the board in silence. The tension in the room was palpable. Despite the supposed simplicity of the game, we were all exhausted, meaning it was easier than usual for any of us to make a mistake. One silly slipup or miscalculated move was all it would take for another life to be lost.

Once we were all standing on our assigned spots, Maverick snapped his fingers. “Okay, the game is supposed to start once we’re all in place, so I guess that’s right now. I think Carey should go first, because she can move any way she wants, and she’s currently in the way of a few other players. So if we get her off the board, that makes things easier for the rest of us.”

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