Page 183 of Deviant

I gently ease my hand out of his grip before he breaks it in his mad state. I then place my palms on his chest, knowing my touch usually brings him back to me when he’s this riled up.

“Elias,” I say as softly as I can. “Look at me.”

It takes him a second for his black eyes to lower to mine, such hatred embedded in them that I can almost taste his loathing on the tip of my tongue.

“None of this matters. None of it. Only we matter. Only us.”

He closes his eyelids, grabbing hold of my wrists to his chest and takes in a deep breath.

“Only us,” he whispers, as if those two words hold all the power he needs to simmer down his rage.

When Elias opens his eyes again, they’re no longer that bottomless abyss of black, but a shimmering midnight blue.

“I always knew this was a game to them,” he begins to explain, “But I never figured they were getting rich from it.” He then points to the large rectangular sign with its ever-changing numbers over the TV screens. “That’s how much money some sick fuckers have spent so far betting on our survival ofThe Scourge.That’s how they have so much money to shell out to Blackwater Falls every year after the Harvest Festival. It’s just a drop in the bucket for them compared to the billions they make.”

I push down the bile that threatens to rise up again and look at our screens in a whole different light.

“Which means those are the betting statistics of each one of us making it out of this alive,” I add, my voice cracking in the end when my percentages are less than stellar. But then my gaze darts over to Elias’s screen, and suddenly something clicks into place.

Elias Larsen – Volunteer – LEGACY

291 228 195

Paired: 24%

Group: 98%

Solo: 99%

“That’s the reason why they never wanted to select you for the Harvest Dozen. You were a sure win. It would be bad for business to have such a participant in the games.”

“Not anymore,” he scoffs, eyeing the paired percentage in disdain.

“Oh my god. It’s because of me,” I stammer as all the pieces of the puzzle start making sense. “When Henry said that this year everyone was going to be set in pairs, it was so they could pair you off with me and lower the chances of you winning. I’m the reason why you’re here. I’m the reason why you’ll probably die here too.”

This time around, it’s Elias who tries to comfort me out of my panicked state.

“That’s not going to happen, Roe. It’s not.”

“How can you say that when the probabilities of it happening are right there on the screen!” I point out, but just as I do, I see a change to my own screen. Images taken fifteen years ago start flashing before us, coaxing my panic to subside and give way to confusion.

“Mom?”

In a confused daze, I walk right up to my screen and watch as my mother, dressed in white, takes off her eagle mask in front of the whole town. I watch as she goes to her knees to hug a five-year-old version of me, her eyes red with unshed tears. She then straightens up and hugs my father with all her might, the dam breaking with his kiss, tears streaming down both their faces.

My entire body freezes in place as I take in the highlightsThe Scourgehas deemed fit to show to their followers. My heart beats rapidly as the next image that appears is her and her group arriving at the mansion and a younger version of Henry welcoming them in.

And then the games start.

I can’t pull away as I see my mother facing each challenge alone and how her upbeat demeanor begins to fade, giving way to something else… something without a soul. Tears sting my eyes as I watch her cry and holler as two women pin her down in a group challenge to burn her entire body with cigarettes. Iwatch her break as she’s ordered to saw off a kid’s foot—a young boy who must be barely older than Abigail.

Elias quickly wraps his arms around me as my knees threaten to buckle at the sight of the horrors she had to endure. My lungs start to burn from holding in my breath as I watch my mother enter a small white room with the three other men who have survived the games so far. And it’s only when all three receive their orders to rape her—like Chris was ordered to do to me—that Elias turns me away from the screen, shielding me from having to witness such a horrific scene.

But when he turns me around again, giving me the all clear, it takes me a second to gather whatever remaining bravery I still have to look back at the screen. And as I do, I verify that my mom is no longer trapped in the house with monsters but is running through the woods outside the iron gates. I can’t see her face, only her feet running, running, as far away as she can.

Or at least that’s what I first assumed.

In reality, she wasn’t running away from something… but running toward someone.

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