Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

MARNIE

M y entire body felt like it was attached to the ground, like a gravity ride that suctioned its riders to the walls. My limbs were too heavy to move.

I’d woken up just like this—on a surface harder than the Mournmore’s rocky mattresses, caught in a cloud of confusion.

I was pretty sure my eyes were open, but I couldn’t see anything. Upon further visual investigation, specifically attempting to blink and then reaching for my face, I poked myself in my closed eye. So, they were still closed.

With concentrated effort, I forced my lids to lift ever so slightly. Light poured through and seared my irises.

A very masculine groan came from way too close by. Suddenly I was much more awake. Was it fear that had paralyzed me? Exhaustion?

I quickly scrambled to a sitting position and took in my surroundings.

Every surface was gray, with a rough uniform texture, like it was made of concrete. A sickening glow of yellow fluorescence was the only source of light.

I was underground.

Bodies littered the floor around me, between fifteen and twenty of them. As I watched, each began to move.

Events replayed through my head—I’d been with Imogen, having just finished talking to the cat-fox.

Then the needle pierced my neck.

I’d been drugged and brought here, wherever here was.

A bead of sweat trickled down my back, my skin clammy and cold. I could feel every beat of my heart in my throat, a painful reminder that I was still alive.

If I had to guess, based on how little movement was occurring around the room, the same thing had happened to all of us.

I did a quick search for Imogen, but found no one dressed in colorful garb. She wasn’t here.

I was glad she hadn’t been drugged, but I could really use a superpowered friend right about now.

The woman sitting right in front of me was holding her forehead. She had blue hair and an eyebrow ring. I recognized her.

The man next to her had porcupine spines sticking out of his cheeks. I recognized him, too.

I recognized all of them—the people from the photographs in the hidden room. Most importantly, I recognized the man beside me.

His eyes were gray, hazy from the sedatives. His nose was sharp. Golden hair covered his head and his jaw. My jaw tightened at the sight of him, muscles clenching so hard I thought my teeth might crack.

Otis, the man who murdered me, was sitting a foot away, cradling his head.

He scanned the room until his gaze reached me. He took a sharp breath.

“You’re alive,” he said, in a tone that almost sounded like relief.

He had no right.

I glared and reached for my bag to retrieve my pocket knife. It might not be the best way to take a man down, but it was enough to do some damage.

Except my bag wasn’t hanging from my shoulder.

It wasn’t on the ground here either.

It was gone, and with it, my only means to defend myself.

“Congratulations,” a deep voice bellowed from speakers on the ceiling. “After joining this competition, some of you more willingly than others, you’ve survived until the final round.”

Some of these people willingly joined the murder competition? Risking their lives for what, some sort of twisted sport?

“Tonight, we crown a winner,” the intercom voice said.

Every remaining contestant had been gathered into an enclosed space to force us to kill each other sooner rather than later, which meant I needed to find an escape route, stat.

As the porcupine-faced man stretched and rose to his feet, hulking muscles rippled across what had been a fairly normal build. As he tripled his mass, new spines sprouted up and down his neck and through the fabric of his t-shirt.

“That’s not terrifying at all,” I said under my breath.

Another person stood. Except, as I got a better look, I realized it wasn’t a person at all, but three goblins stacked on top of each other and wearing a trench coat.

One guy’s skin turned gray. His face ballooned. His mouth stretched into a chasm of daggers. The only time I’d seen anything remotely similar was in the great white tank at the aquarium. A giant fin burst from his back. Yep, he was most definitely a shark man.

I took in every detail of the horror before me, but my body refused to respond. I was trapped in a room brimming with monsters, all whose goal was to kill me. My fear-fueled thoughts swirled in a helpless vortex. I felt my chance of survival slipping through my fingers like sand.

A loud sound filled the air, metal gears grinding together.

Huge panels opened along two of the walls—racks filled with medieval weaponry.

“Let the chaos begin!” the intercom voice proclaimed with glee.

Those who remained seated rose, but those who were already standing reached the racks first. The shark guy and the porcupine swung an ax and battle hammer at each other.

Metal clanged. Bones crunched.

Terror's grip was ironclad, squeezing my chest. I tried to take a breath, but it felt like the air had turned to fiberglass, thick and sharp bits stabbing into my lungs.

Otis was on his feet. He offered his hand. “Team up with me.”

I shot up on my own, adrenaline finally kicking in and pulsing through my veins.

“Over my dead body.”

It sounded funnier in my head than it did out loud, especially as howls of pain and the metallic scent of blood filled the air.

“Look around this room,” he said. “Do you think you have a chance at standing your own one-on-one against any of these monsters?”

No.

“I’m not just one,” I said.

There was no way I could trust Otis. The only person I could trust was me.

I backed away from the fighting, away from the man who’d murdered me once already.

I reached into my mind, into the special space I had discovered as Greta during what had previously been my greatest hour of need.

And I found the bubbles.

I grabbed two.

Two Marnies appeared at my sides.

We didn’t need to discuss forming a plan, as we all knew there was only one thing we could do. We had to fight.

The new Marnies ran toward the weapon rack where no one else was standing. By the time they got there, each had created another two Marnies.

“Nie—” Otis said, like he had a right to use her name. He’d followed me instead of going for a weapon of his own.

I cut him off before he could utter another infuriating word. “We have nothing to say to each other.”

I took two steps toward the other Marnies. But before I could take a third step, I watched one fall.

Then a second.

And a third.

Chaos erupted all around me in a tornado of motion and color. My eyes blurred as my body refused to blink. The clash of steel and the roar of battle cries filled the space so thoroughly, it felt as if the walls were closing in.

A glint of slashing silver caught in the corner of my eye.

Instinctively I ducked, evading the wild swing of a sword by an inch.

More Marnies—that was my only chance to survive.

Otis appeared again beside me and kicked my attacker in the stomach.

A ringing filled my ears.

I made two more copies of myself and searched for a safe path to the weapons racks. There weren’t any. I really wished I had my bag.

I had to keep moving to survive. I hurried along the edge of the wall, as far from the fighting as I could.

There, in the far corner, I spotted a hallway I hadn’t seen before.

I raced down the hall, the horrific sounds of slaughter following me, echoing off the walls.

Closed doors lined the hall.

I tried each one I passed, finding them all locked.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we're down to the elite eight!” the intercom voice announced. “These contenders have battled fiercely, and only the most ruthless remain. Who will rise to the top?”

Peachy, everyone but the most horrible beasts was dead. And then there was me.

Upon reaching the fifth door, I finally found one unlocked.

Hands clammy with sweat, I twisted the knob, slipped inside, then slammed the door shut behind me. I clicked the lock in place and took a long, slow breath.

Eyes half-shut, lungs burning, head raw, I turned around and leaned my back against the door. This reprieve would only be temporary. I needed to assess my new surroundings, find some way to defend myself or better yet, find a hiding spot where I could?—

I was standing in a tiny closet.

I was not alone.