Page 109 of Deviant

“Okay, but just so you know… it isn’t pretty,” Andy swallows dryly. “I heard that the Harvest Dozen are taken to this weird as fuck cabin in the woods. There, they are chained and gagged and left to starve for days on end, until a bunch of rich assholes from big cities like New York and Los Angeles, come to release them from their chains and tell them to run naked through the woods, just so they can hunt the Dozen down with their shotguns,” Andy says softly, the gruesome image sending shivers down most of the girls’ spines.

“Thanks a lot, Andy,” Harper pouts. “I won’t be able to grab a wink of sleep tonight with the nightmare you just gave me.”

“I can come and sleep in your tent if that will make you feel safer?” The kid is quick with his comeback.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She winks at him.

“While you two lovebirds think this is all fun and games, you’re all losing track of the big picture. Look around,” David spews while standing up to his feet. “Only one of us will make it out alive, which means eleven of us are as good as dead. I’m not sure if you all got the same memo I did, buttheElias Larsen has somehow made the cut into the Harvest Dozen this year. So I’llgive you one fucking guess who will walk out of this alive and whose butchered bodies will end up floating down Silverstone Lake in a month’s time.”

When all eyes fall on me, my jaw ticks as a knee-jerk reaction.

“That’s not fair,” Rowen utters in my defense, getting up to her own feet to stare David down. “You have no idea who will win. You have no right to steal any hope we all might have of making it out of this alive. And doing so is just cruel.”

“Unless, of course, it’s a tactic,” I add, flicking leaves onto the campfire.

“What do you mean?” Mackenzie asks, intrigued.

“People who lose hope usually lose heart too. If they are already mentally defeated, then it makes them a whole lot easier to beat,” I reply, and when I see David’s lip curl up into another scowl, I know that was his intention all along.

“You motherfucker,” Lucas blurts out in outrage, pulling Lucy up with him. “What the hell are you trying to pull?”

“It’s like Ruby said. None of us know what to expect. I’m just evening out the playing field by separating the wheat from the chaff.”

“That’s low, dude, even for you,” Big Mike says, disgruntled, while his friend Chris nods in agreement.

Almost everyone around the campfire looks at David like he is the devil incarnate, except for Mackenzie. I don’t miss how, in Mackenzie’s eyes, David Hall just became a whole lot more interesting to her.

“You really are a jackass,” Harper says. “Come on, Andy, and tuck me into bed. I’ve had enough of this douche canoe for one night.”

“See ya.” Andy winks at me like he just hit the jackpot.

“Harper is right. It’s been a long-ass day. We’re going to call it a night,” Lucas says as he pulls his girl toward their tent.

“We should get some shuteye too,” Rowen says sweetly to her new friend. “Goodnight, Abbie.”

“Goodnight, Rowen.”

I wait for both girls to walk away from the campfire and watch Rowen look for her bag, only to find her tent is already set up. When she looks my way, I return my sights to the fire in front of me.

“We should take shifts to be on guard for the night,” Big Mike says, still eyeing his friend like he’s a piece of trash.

“Me and asshole over there can take the first shift,” I suggest, eyeing David from top to bottom.

“Fine by me,” he retorts, sitting back down.

“See you both in a few hours then,” Chris says, yawning.

When everyone is safely tucked away in their tents, I grab my pack of smokes and light up. I made it a point not to smoke today, knowing I needed all my lung capacity for the hike up. But now that the day has come to an end, it’s time I treat myself.

“Can I bum one?” David asks.

“Nope.” I pop the ‘p’ at the end and purposely start making rings out of every puff of smoke.

His nostrils flare, but he doesn’t ask for another cigarette again.

Even if I had more than this pack I wouldn’t give it to the pompous fucker.

“They are all delusional, you know?” he says, still eyeing me like I’m the bane of his existence.

---