Page 150 of The Wrong Play

I walked through the house, grabbing a bag of cookies as a to-go snack as I silently cursed the Sphinx and their obsession with making my life as inconvenient as possible.

When I stepped outside, the cold night air hit me like a slap as I glanced around for some masked weirdo.

And then I saw it.

A black sedan idling in front of the house, its headlights off, its trunk…open.

I paused and tilted my head, questioning the eternities. Then I slowly turned my gaze toward the masked driver sitting behind the wheel.

“Seriously?” I called, shoving my hands into my pockets.

No response.

Just silence and the gaping, open trunk.

I let out a deep, soul-weary sigh.

“All right, let’s break this down, buddy. You text me from a random number in the middle of the fucking night, drag my ass out here in the cold, and now you expect me to willingly climb into the trunk?”

Still nothing.

Just the faintest twitch of the driver’s head.

I groaned, rolling my shoulders.

“Do you know how inconvenient this is for me?Doyou? Because I just got her to sleep. I was having a perfectly nice moment in there. And now, instead of getting laid or sleeping like a normal human being, I’m out here contemplating whether or not I want to end upmurderedor not.”

Silence.

I exhaled through my nose, tilting my head up toward the sky.

“Fine,” I muttered, already knowing I was going to do it. “Fuck, I hate this club.”

I trudged toward the car, dragging my feet just to be petty. When I got to the trunk, I glanced inside.

Dark. Empty. Literally the perfect murder setup.

“Just so we’re clear,” I said, looking back toward the driver. “If this is some kind of murder plot, I hope you know I’ll haunt the hell out of you. I’ll be terrifying, knocking over glasses, and whispering creepy shit in your ear forever.”

Still fucking nothing.

“I love this for me,” I muttered as I climbed in.

A moment later, the trunk slammed shut.

And just like that, I was off to my latest terrible decision. But at least there wasn’t a blindfold involved this time.

I woke up groggy as hell. Which, given the circumstances, was probably not a good thing.

My head was foggy, my limbs felt like lead, and there was a distinct lack of oxygen in my life.

For a second, I had no fucking clue where I was. Then reality came back in bits and pieces.

The Sphinx. The masked driver. The fucking trunk.

And then—oh, yeah. I inhaled a decent amount of gas fumes before I passed out.

Fantastic. There goes my big brain.

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