Page 134 of Sinner

My God, it sounded as if Xander was right behind me. I stopped short, spinning around in a complete circle. I swung the light at the same time, unable to detect anything. No evil men in masks, no creatures ready to snarl and feast.

There was no one lurking in the shadows.

“You’ll need to do better than that.”

My statement was met with a dark chuckle coming from the other direction. So he had brought in others. Groovy. I bolted again, keeping an eye on the blip.

I was making decent headway when I finally heard a sharp growl. The sound was as eerie as the ones I’d heard in the game.

Chuckling, I issued a howl of my own and took off running again.

Suddenly, the blip on the console unit disappeared.

What the hell?

I shifted against a tree, shaking the mechanical device. Nothing happened. Oh, hell, no. Now I didn’t know where I was going. At least I had my bearings.

As soon as I pushed off from the tree, I noticed a strange glow and suddenly felt more than one presence. When a massive beastlike creature jumped out in front of me, I squealed involuntarily in response.

I jagged to the left and straight into the arms of a masked man. He appeared exactly like Xander had, only the mask was slightly different, neon red the color of choice.

There was something odd about him, something that bothered me. “Nice try.” He didn’t try to stop me in any way, nor did I see a weapon, but I had to admit the person was threatening in nature.

Or maybe it was simply the nature of the game.

I bolted again and creatures and masked men started to appear from all sides. Every time one of them appeared, I was forced to change direction again.

Not long after, I realized I was hopelessly lost. Even worse, the bastards were herding me. Why?

My pulse was increasing and the adrenaline coursing through my veins was no longer a pleasant feeling. Something was off about this. When another monster jumped from the shadows, I let out a shrill scream.

The laugh was directly behind me, deep and laced with evil.

“Did you really think you could get away from me? Did you honestly believe I’d let you get away with what you did?”

The words were directed toward me, the tone changing once again. More than a trickle of fear skated down my spine. A moment of sheer panic was settling in.

I turned around and as soon as I swung the beam, the light captured that the man doing the talking had a knife in his hand. Okay, so had Xander, but this was entirely different. I felt it in my bones.

“Who are you?” My voice was even quaking.

When the unknown man took a step closer, I took two back. The creatures had surrounded me and the slight fear was close to becoming terror. Who the hell was this person?

My instincts were screaming.

Run.Run!

“I’m whoever you want me to be, Desdemona.”

I don’t have any idea what possessed me, but I lunged forward, managing to rip off the gamer’s mask.

When I did, I moaned, stumbling backwards from the shock. “Oh. My. God!”

His reaction was swift, the backhand knocking me to the ground. When he did, the sharp end of the knife slashed across my neck. Whimpering, I scrambled, clawing at the dirt as I pushed myself up. Shock tore through me, but I couldn’t allow the horrible surprise to keep me from running.

I bolted forward, moving from one side to the other to avoid the people he’d hired. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but the blade was real. While the gash wasn’t deep, I grabbed my neck, panic ready to settle in. This was no game.

He was intent on harming me.

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