Page 64 of Deadly Sacrifice

This shit better not take long.

Thankfully, it’s only a few minutes that we stand still, and I imagine that was as long as it took to get all the fresh meat outside from each of the houses. Then I’m being shoved forward again, yanked this way and that until I’m so disoriented that I couldn’t even attempt to point out where the A.Chi.O. house is anymore.

The sound of everyone else’s footsteps fades quickly, as if I’m being led in the complete opposite direction. I try to calm my racing heart, telling myself we’re all branching off because it’s scarier that way. Duh. That’s the point of tonight, right? To scare us. But all I can hear are my own footsteps and the ones that belong to whoever is leading me astray. And something about feeling totally isolated from the group is fucking terrifying.

We’re in the woods now, beyond Greek row. The scent of crisp pine and damp dirt assaults my nose, and twigs snap beneath our feet, sounding so loud in the quiet night. We must walk for at least twenty minutes, but my sense of time is all skewed. I’m trying to remember every turn we take that leads us deeper into the forest, so it’s hard to count the minutes that slip by.

The guy who dragged me out here slows us to a stop, grabs my wrists before I can react, pulls them behind my back and tightens a zip-tie around them so quickly that I don’t even have the chance to give him a proper struggle.

“What the hell?” I breathe out, forcing some steel into my voice so I don’t sound as scared as I am. Turns out Fright Night might just be my limit, and it’s barely begun. Pulling on my wrists only makes the zip-tie dig in uncomfortably, so I don’t bother for long. “Sorry, buddy, not my kink,” I say casually, taking a step back like he’ll cut the ties if I can just find him.

Except nobody is there when I backup. I didn’t even hear him move.

Cold fingers bite into my cheeks a second later, and I jerk my head back in outrage and shock, but he only grips me harder. His breath washes across my face as he leans in, whispering, “Find your way out of these woods before sunrise or you’ll be packing your fucking bags and going home, pet.“ He throws my head back on that last word.

I wasn’t at all expecting it, so it sends me stumbling back, almost falling to the floor. Barely catching myself, I straighten my spine and take a deep breath. “Asher? What the fuck kind of sick game is this?” I sputter, feeling frustratingly more calm knowing it’s him. Asher may be a fucking dick, but better the enemy you know, right?

He doesn’t answer me, and even though I didn’t hear a single thing, I know he’s gone already. I’m alone in the middle of the forest at one o’clock in the morning. I’m going to kill him when I get out of here.

A part of me wants to drop to the ground and scream like a toddler, but then an owl hoots overhead, reminding me that I’m not alone. Asher may have left me without a goddamn clue as to which direction to head, but there are plenty of other predators out here that would probably love to eat me up. And not in a fun way.

“Shit, okay,” I whisper to myself, taking another deep breath and a careful step forward. I don’t know if this is the right way, but I think I’m backtracking, so this should be the direction we came from. With my hands tied behind my back, I have nothing to stop me if I fall, so I walk slowly, tentatively stepping out and feeling for obstructions.

It’s going to be a long night.

Despite being as careful as humanly possible, after only a few minutes of mindless wandering, I trip over something big and heavy, and fall hard. My breath is nothing but a hiss of air, my shin throbbing from hitting it on the way down, and my knees are undoubtedly bleeding. “Fuck!” I shout, rolling to my back while I catch my breath and take stock of myself. I’m scraped up, but nothing is broken, and I didn’t split my head open, so there’s that. No reason to lie here and waste time, even if I want to give up already.

It’s awkward as hell trying to get myself back up to my feet with my arms bound behind my back, but I manage. Just barely. I take a very slow, painful step forward, but then pause. I have no idea if I got myself turned around throughout that entire ordeal. I can’t even hazard a guess as to which direction I should go.

What if I’m heading deeper into the forest? What if I was pointed in the wrong direction before and now I’m on the right track? What if I’m just going in circles and I never find my way out?

The wind is picking up and the chill of the late October night is eating right through my clothes. Even if I don’t know where I’m going, I have to keep moving, otherwise I might freeze to death out here. With a harsh exhale, I start walking and just pray that I’m not headed straight into my demise.

A twig snaps a short distance behind me, and although I can’t see a thing, I spin around so fast that I’m dizzy. “H-hello?” I call out, my voice breaking with the onslaught of emotions assaulting me. I wait for a minute, but nobody responds.

If no one is there, then it could be a fucking bear stalking me through the woods, for all I know.

Or worse…

I force my breathing to stay steady. My heart to quiet down. My limbs to stop trembling. And then I start walking again.

Either I make it out by sunrise or I don’t. Lost in here with the wild animals, or find my way out with the cruel boys. Neither option is comforting, but I’m not in a position to search for a plan C right now.

My silent tears soak the blindfold and chill my face while I stumble and trip and fall my way through the woods. I’m thankful for the bite of coming winter in the air. It numbs the pain from the cuts and gouges on my body from the many rocks and sharp branches that have tried to take their payment from me. Warm blood trickles down my thigh from a nasty fall a moment ago, and I’m starting to limp. But still, I push on, biting the inside of my cheek to keep myself together.

Something moves to my right, across the fallen leaves and dirt, snapping twigs as they go.

My steps falter. “Is somebody th-there?” I stutter, turning in a circle like I’d be able to find their location with my eyes covered. “Hello? Anybody?”

The forest is silent around me, nothing but the eerie rustle of leaves as the soft night breeze blows them around. With my heart in my throat and my stomach about to fall out of my ass, I take a shaky breath and keep moving. But then I hear more movement behind me, the soft swish of fabric, the heavy footsteps of a man.

I stop in my tracks, trying to hold my shoulders back even as I feel my tears cooling on my cheeks. “Who’s there?” I say firmly. “Quit fucking with me, you asshole.”

I can’t be sure, but it sounds like more than one pair of feet grows nearer. I ease back a step and then another, so frightened of whoever is coming at me that I forget to go slow, to take careful steps. I step back into a dip in the ground, twisting my ankle and losing my footing. I go down hard, landing on my back with an oomph as all the air is knocked out of my lungs.

My wrists are crushed beneath me, my shoulders are burning with the prolonged position, and my ankle is throbbing in pain. But all that pales in comparison to the fear that overwhelms my system when a large, hard body straddles me. I thrash beneath them, screaming, “Get the fuck off of me!”

All it does is earn me a tight collar of hands around my neck, squeezing just enough to limit my oxygen but not cut it off completely. Whoever it is on top of me hasn’t spoken a word, but my mind is running rampant, imagining Asher getting ready to choke the life out of me. He’s the one who dragged me all the way out here in the first place. What if this was his plan?

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