Chapter 1
I slowly open my eyes. I’ll be honest—I can’t, for the life of me, remember what happened. I think I was going to school? Yeah, it had to be. I blink and look around, tugging at my wrists as I do.
What is this?
I snap my head to my left wrist—it’s chained. I look to my right. That one, too.
I start to hyperventilate. All I can think about are the horror stories you hear when someone gets kidnapped.
Thoughts of being murdered race through my head.
I pause when the door opens. A man walks in, and suddenly I feel frozen.
He’s large, and he’s wearing a bunny mask. It covers his eyes and has long ears, but his lower face is fully visible.
"W-who are you?" I ask, feeling ridiculous.
"Slasher," he says in a raspy voice. "Want to play a game, kiddo?"
The way he says *kiddo* is like a hiss. It’s not friendly. I’d much rather leave this place than play games. But instead of waiting for me to respond, he continues.
"A key to the chains," he smirks, "and it’s all yours—for one single kiss."
I furrow my eyebrows. I shake my head and push myself back against the wall.
"Or you can break your wrists to get them off," he informs me.
I pause, staring up at him. My lips tremble as he leans forward. I push myself up and quickly kiss his cheek before falling backward.
"Na-ah-ah," he says slowly—so slowly that chills rise on my arms.
"I want a real kiss. Right here."
He points to his lips.
I stare at him. "You’re going to let me go?" I ask.
"We’re going to play a game, Kaylen. You and a few other people who agreed to play."
There are others here? For some reason, that makes me feel a little safer—knowing I’m not alone.
"Okay," I whisper.
He leans in again, and I slowly kiss him on the lips.
"Mmmm," he hums against my mouth. I squeeze my eyes shut.
"You’re such a good boy, Kaylen."
"Ha—" I recoil when I feel his tongue slither into my mouth. Then he starts laughing—like a psychopath.
I stare up at him until he stops. He tilts his head to the side.
"Kaylen, I want you to count to 100. Very slowly."
He pulls out a key and hands it to me.
"O-okay," I nod. "One..."
My voice comes out shaky—and gets even worse as he trails his fingers down my cheek. I glance at his hand.
His fingers are stained with dried blood. I squeeze my eyes shut.
"Two..."
"T-three..."
I keep counting with my eyes closed. I feel like a child—like I’m waiting for my parents to walk in and tell me the monster is gone.
But that’s not going to happen.
As soon as I finish, I open my eyes and look around.
Nobody’s here.
I quickly unchain myself, stand, and run to the door.
It’s locked!
I look down at the key in my hand. Slowly, I bring it to the knob.
It has to work. The doorknob was placed backward for a reason, right?
I slide the key into the hole and breathe a sigh of relief when it turns.
I slowly step outside and glance around.
It feels like a trap.
Like that guy’s going to pop out and say he was kidding about letting me go.
But I don’t see him.
Suddenly, I scream—someone grabs me by the shoulders and spins me around.
"Shhh!" a guy says, pressing his finger to his lips.
His bald head gleams under the flickering fluorescent lights, which cast a greenish-blue glow across the hall, making everything look eerie.
"My name’s Caleb. Did you just escape?" he asks, eyes wide and frantic.
"No—the man let me go," I reply numbly.
Caleb stares at me in shock.
"You saw him? You talked to him? Did he say what he wanted?"
That confuses me.
If he didn’t see the man, how did he escape?
As if reading my mind, he says a key was left near him. It took him a while to trust it, but eventually, he got up.
"What did the man say to you?" Caleb asks.
I tell him everything. He lets out a sigh.
"We need to find the others. Work together. Make sure we survive this."
We start walking down the long hall. I pause a few times, unsure if I should trust him.
He looks back at me, panic in his voice.
"Come on! We don’t have time for this! That psychopath could be anywhere, and you’re wasting time!"
I decide to trust him. Slowly, I follow him.
We reach an open floor plan.
Gurneys and wheelchairs are scattered around.
"We must be in a hospital," Caleb says. "An abandoned one."
A loud, high-pitched scream makes us spin around.
A woman charges forward, swinging an IV pole—
It slams into my forehead.
I fall, clutching my face.
"Heh—" I start to cry. I wasn’t expecting it, and it hurts.
"ARE YOU INSANE, WOMAN?!" Caleb shouts.
Someone drops beside me and grabs my wrists.
"Oh—Jesus. I’m so sorry, kid. I thought you two were the people who held me captive. But the way you're crying like that tells me you’re not."
I stare at her. Her long brown hair falls over her shoulders, and dirt streaks her cheeks.
"Hey? Who the fuck are you?" a voice calls out in the distance.
I brace myself, praying I don’t get hit again.
"My name is Caleb. And these two are..." Caleb pauses.
"I’m Rehoboth," the woman says.
I don’t answer. I don’t care. My head is pounding.
Caleb leans down. "What’s your name?" he asks.
I shake my head, still holding it.
"Come on, kid. Work with me."
"Kaylen," I whisper.
Caleb helps me up and dusts off my back.
"This is Kaylen," he tells the others. "He’s the only one who’s seen the guy—unless either of you have."
A new guy walks over and grabs my shirt, yanking me forward.
"You saw him? Where the hell—?"
"Hey! You will not bully him!" Caleb snaps. "It’s not his fault we’re here. He woke up just like the rest of us—but he had the misfortune of *seeing* the man doing this to us."
The guy lets me go.
"And who are you, anyway?" Caleb asks.
"I’m Eli," he replies, still staring at me. His light brown hair falls in front of his eyes.
"Eli. Nice to meet you. Now, if we can all keep a level head, we might make it out of here alive."
Caleb turns to the group.
"Kaylen said the man mentioned four people. That means we’re still missing one. We need to keep moving. And *do not* separate from the group."
I slowly nod.
Eli and Rehoboth nod too.
Caleb exhales.
"Let’s go."
We walk until we see a girl standing at a door. She’s desperately trying to get out. Caleb is the first to speak.
"Ma’am?"
She turns around swiftly, looking frightened.
"My name is Caleb. This is Kaylen, Eli, and Rehoboth. We are people just like you—hostages to whoever has taken us."
The woman stares at us for a moment, then I see relief flash across her face. She begins to cry—maybe she’s happy she’s not alone. I watch her until she calms down enough to tell us her name: Leah.
"Leah. It’s nice to meet you. Listen, we’re going to find our way out of here. I don’t know how, but we will. We just need to stick together," Caleb continues.
"You sure have a lot of faith in us escaping, old man, yet you haven’t said one useful thing since we all met up," Eli snaps at Caleb, his frustration apparent.
"That’s funny, Eli, because I haven’t heard you say anything other than your name and nearly jacking up a kid since I met you." Caleb crosses his arms.
Eli takes a step forward—and so does Caleb. They’re about to get physical when a voice calls out.
"Welcome."
Caleb and Eli stop and look up. The voice sounds like it’s coming from an intercom. I lean my back against the wall and stare down at my shoes.
"You will be playing a game. There is only one way out. Where that way out is, you’ll have to find. It could be anything—a door, a window, a tunnel—but it’s your job to find it."
"Once you’ve found the tunnel, you must choose two people to stay while the rest of you go. The prize? You’ll keep this whole experience like a dirty little secret until you breathe your last. I found you once; I can find you again."
Everyone looks around. The idea of making people stay behind isn’t welcome.
"If you can’t find the door within the next four days, you will all lose and stay here with me," the voice continues.
I look up at the ceiling. I don’t want to stay here. I want to go home.
"Let the games begin!" The voice disappears, and everyone is quiet—until they’re not. Everyone starts talking at once.
"We need to get the fuck out of here!" I hear Eli say.
"Who are you guys going to choose to be left behind? I don’t want to die!" Rehoboth freaks out.
"Guys, please—" Caleb tries to reason with them.
"I—wanna—go—h-home." Leah cries.
I sit on the floor with my knees pulled up to my chest, resting my head on them as my thoughts flood my mind.
"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Caleb screams, causing me to jump. Everyone else falls silent.
"Now, panicking isn’t going to get us anywhere! We need to start looking for an exit."
"Even if we did, someone has to stay behind. I’m not staying behind!" Leah sniffles.
"Oh, the queen has spoken. She says she doesn’t want to be left behind like the rest of us is going to volunteer!" Eli rolls his eyes.
"I agree with Caleb. If we don’t start using our heads, we’re all going to be left behind. I suggest we worry about the ‘left behind’ part when we get to it," Rehoboth speaks up.
"We should give the kid to him, since he’s the only one who’s seen the guy. In fact, how do we know this kid isn’t a part of it?" Eli walks over to me.
I stare up at him. "I’m—I’m not," I stutter. "I don’t know why I saw him, but I swear, I just want to go home."
Eli stares at me before letting out a breath. Caleb tells us it’s time to get going. He explains we should stay on the ground floor since it wouldn’t make sense to go upstairs—the exit would be near ground level.
"That’s probably why the exit is on the upper floor. That guy probably knew we’d assume the exit was on the ground. There are plenty of fire exits everywhere," Leah tells Caleb.
"Well, right now, we’re going to play it smart. We only have four days. That’s a long time, which means the exit isn’t easy to find. I’m assuming the man was being generous with time," Caleb replies.
"Oh yeah, let’s praise the monster for being ‘fair,’" Eli shakes his head.
"You know, I’ve had about enough of you!" Caleb storms over to Eli, his chest poking out and eyes boring into the man. I can tell Caleb is about to lose all his manners.
It’s Rehoboth who jumps between the two men, stretching out her arms to defuse the situation. She tells them there’s no point in arguing and to take deep breaths. At first, neither man seems to care, but then Caleb takes a deep breath and steps away from Eli.
He walks over to me and sits down. "So, did the man say anything else to you? Anything that might be useful?"
I think about it. "No," I reply. Caleb nods and lets out a breath, looking stressed as he runs his fingers along his temples.
"Okay!" he says, standing up. "We’ll go south and work our way around."
I slowly stand and follow behind everyone.
We walk until we reach a lobby. There’s a sliding glass door. Eli picks up a wheelchair and tries to break the glass, but it doesn’t shatter. He tries several times—still no luck.
The voice comes from the intercom again.
"I really like your clever idea, Eli. But it’s not going to be that easy. I’ve added several layers of polycarbonate to the glass so it won’t break. You have to play the game right, or I can eliminate you now."
"YOU LET US GO, YOU STUPID FUCK!" Eli screams up at the intercom.
