Page 98 of Wicked Games

I sprinted back upstairs and knocked on Brooke, Jasmine, and Zach’s doors. “Come to the drawing room,” I told each of them in turn. “I’ve got an idea for something to pass the time.”

I couldn’t announce my discovery out loud. Not with all the mics listening in on every conversation. I’d briefly considered using my bathroom, but I had no way of knowing for sure that it was a safe place to talk. Knowing the level of surveillance in this place, I was willing to bet there were cameras and mics in every single nook and cranny. Even the fucking toilets.

I’d also considered writing everything down for the others to silently read, but then I realized that was out of the question too. I had no idea of the zooming capabilities of the surveillance cameras, and I couldn’t risk April seeing what I’d written.

I couldn’t even whisper to the others, because then April—and whoever was helping her—would see it happening, and then she might start wondering if we were onto her. I couldn’t let that happen. Instead, I had to pretend I knew nothing. Keep Aprilthinking her identity as the Game Master was still shrouded in secrecy. That way she’d never see us coming when we finally figured out how to take her down.

Five minutes later, Brooke, Zach, and Jasmine were staring at me expectantly across the drawing room table. “So, uhh… this idea,” Zach finally said. “What is it?”

“I want to play a game.”

“Okay, Jigsaw.” Jasmine’s nose wrinkled. “Youarejoking, right?”

“Nope. Think about it. We need something to take our minds off everything, and all we’ve done for the last few days is play games that can kill us. So I think it might help if we play a game that we know for sure is totally safe. A game of our own.”

Brooke and Zach exchanged pointed glances. Jasmine kept staring at me like I was totally off my rocker. “I’m done with games at this point,” she said. “Aren’t we all?”

“No,” I insisted. “Come on. It’ll cheer us up, I swear. A game of Telephone, like we used to do when we were kids.”

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Fine. If it’ll make you feel better.”

Brooke and Zach nodded reluctantly, and we all moved onto the carpet and sat in a row. I leaned close to Brooke and whispered in her ear. “Don’t react. Don’t look surprised,” I said. “I’m 99% sure that April faked her death, but we can’t let her know that we know just yet. I also think she’s keeping Carey alive to be the fall guy for this shit.”

Brooke nodded slowly as my words sank in. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were flashing like crazy. She stayed silent for a moment, and then she swallowed audibly and leaned over to Zach. He listened carefully before whispering to Jasmine.

At first, I was worried that Jasmine would mess things up, given the look of pure shock on her face, but then she affected an innocent expression and slowly shook her head. “Um… a giantraccoon went to a pride parade with my cousin and wore an orange jumpsuit. Is that right?”

I let out a brittle laugh. “Not even close. Let’s try again.”

“Okay.” She lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “This is actually kind of fun.”

I whispered to Brooke again. “We can’t openly talk about it because of the mics everywhere. We can’t even write it down because April could be looking on the cameras.”

She passed it down the line. When it reached Jasmine, she invented some bullshit line about cows in a field. Then she cocked her head. “My turn now.”

Her words eventually got back to me through Brooke. “If you’re right, what are we going to do about it?” she wanted to know.

I passed another message down the line. “I don’t know yet. All I know is that we need to figure out a way to explore April’s room without making her suspicious. I’m pretty sure Carey was in there before she disappeared.”

Brooke’s hand shot up. “Can I have a turn?” she asked.

“Of course.”

The four of us went on like that for the next twenty minutes, awkwardly and tediously discussing the new development through the guise of multiple Telephone games.

Finally, Jasmine sat up straight and stretched her arms. “Okay, I’m getting bored with this game now,” she declared. “I have another idea for a group activity to keep us occupied.”

I stared at her, hoping to God that she actually had some sort of plan. “What is it?” I asked in a clipped tone.

“You guys will probably think this is totally lame, but…” She trailed off, biting her bottom lip. “Well, as much as I couldn’t stand most of the people in this place, I guess everything that happened here brought us closer together. Do you know what I mean?”

“Um… yeah, I guess so,” Zach muttered.

“So I was thinking, seeing as we’re down to the final four, maybe it would be nice to create some sort of memorial thing on the table,” Jasmine went on. “We could grab something from everyone’s bedrooms. Something that reminds us of them. Then we could put it all on the table and say a few words about each person.”

My brows rose as she spoke. It was actually a decent plan to get into April’s room and hunt around without her thinking we were up to anything shady. “That’s a nice idea,” I said, nodding slowly.

Jasmine swiped a finger under her right eye, like she was mopping up a tear. “Thanks. I honestly thought you guys would think it was stupid.”

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