Prologue; The Forbidden
Neil swallowed, tears streaming down his cheeks hard and fast. He swallowed, taking in the faces of the other nine.
They were just as horrified as he was, and he swallowed. A secret. Just one secret he has never told anyone.
He closed his eyes, his lips quivering a little. He could think of just one, but there was no way he was saying it when Olivia was sitting right next to him. Not when their parents had just celebrated their ten year anniversary.
It wasn't fair. To him. To her. It had been a secret they shared with each other, and there was no way he was snatching it from her. What if, like him, she had nothing else to say?
"Neil."
He turned and met her eyes, and he slowly shook his head.
"Fuck it, Neil. You want this room to squeeze us in?" Mia yelled, her eyes wide.
"I..." He started, his head slowly shaking. "I can't say it."
"Neil, please."
The frantic pleas came as the familiar movement came. The movement that will, with every minute of delay slowly tighten the room, killing everyone inside.
Olivia hated to be the one who had suggested it, hated to have been the one to bring them here. But how was she supposed to know some psycho could make a game that would kill them for not saying the truth?
She swallowed and turned to the giant display of numbers. They still had twenty left to go. That means each one had two more secrets to say, and at this point she didn't think she could take anymore.
She didn't think she could sit here and learn of the darkest side of the very people she had called friends all her life.
"I..."
She blinked and turned to Neil whose eyes were meeting hers, his pleading. She only turned away, fully aware of what he would say.
Neil was a pure person and didn't have a lot of secrets. He rarely went against the rules, rarely indulged in the wrong things. In the forbidden. The forbidden like...
"Jackson wasn't Olivia's first kiss."
The gasps came, and Jackson stood, his eyes wide.
"Wait. I kissed her on her eighteenth birthday, what do you mean?"
Neil swallowed. "I...I kissed her before that."
"You both are step siblings!"
"We weren't step siblings, then!" Neil said, his voice shaky. "But...we were best friends before that and..."
"Fuck, Neil! You were the most happy for our relationship and now this?"
Neil closed his eyes, then shook his head, his chest lightly heaving. "Please. Please, stop so we can get the code. Please just..."
"No, you need to fucking explain! How can you even do this? You kissed her but the both of you lied to me..."
"I am in love with my step sister, what the fuck do you want me to do? I have always looked at Olivia. I looked at her way too long for her to stay just...for her to stay just my friend. There, you have it. I kissed her the morning of her eighteenth birthday, the portrait I had drawn for her hanging between us. And...I...I loved every second of it."
Olivia swallowed hard, then brought her knees to herself, wrapping her hands around it. Her mind reeled back to that one secret moment on her eighteenth birthday.
She had kept it forever like a little secret. And all her life, she had wanted Neil to see her. Now that he was, now that he said it...she hated that it had to be this way.
The familiar beep came, and everyone turned to the password. One more number has been added. Nineteen more to go.
"Olivia. It is your turn."
