Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

MARNIE

O tis stood in front of me in the closet that was meant to be my hideaway.

“Oh come on,” I said.

Of all the vicious monsters to trap myself with, it had to be the one who’d already killed me.

“I’m not a threat,” Otis said. “I thought you would remember that.”

His gray eyes seemed to absorb the light the same way Levi’s did. It wasn’t charming or alluring on Otis. It made him look like an owl, waiting to descend upon his unsuspecting prey.

I might be his prey, but I definitely anticipated his inevitable strike.

“What I remember is you killing me,” I said.

It was truly a gift that I’d been spared the memory of actually dying that time. But I would never forget watching it happen on video.

Keeping him in my line of sight, I searched the closet for something to use as a weapon. There were a number of cleaning solutions, but I had no idea if any of them would be of any use to me.

There were no good options here, so I grabbed a mop.

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Otis said, sounding like he meant it.

“Well, you did.” I didn’t care if he regretted it. He’d murdered me. We were enemies, and nothing would change that. “Dying hurts.”

“I’m confused,” he said. “You insisted.”

His words were a punch in the gut.

“ Insisted? That you kill me?” The nerve of this guy to offer up such a stupid lie.

He ran his hands through his hair and started pacing. “You don’t remember?”

“I can’t remember what didn’t happen.”

Something slammed into the door, rattling the frame. I startled at the sudden sound. Someone was trying to bust their way in.

“It happened,” Otis said.

He wasn’t going to let this drop. The easiest thing would be to say sure buddy, and hope he let it go, but he clearly wouldn’t. “What reason could I possibly have to insist that you kill me?”

“Because you thought that it would release the other you…” He stepped between me and the door, forcing me to look at him. “You’re not Nie.”

“Marnie,” I said.

The sounds outside the door grew more distant.

“You’re the one she was trying to protect.”

His story was intriguing, but I wasn’t buying it. I couldn’t. “How would Nie dying protect me?”

“Because you were safely outside the bounds of Nevermore. They weren’t supposed to know about you. But now you’re here.”

Noodles made sure of it, supposedly to try and help. She wasn’t the only one who’d tracked Mar down either.

“Your friend showed up looking for me,” I said, poking a giant hole in his ridiculous fantasy.

“You know Levi?” His already glowing eyes lit up.

“Unfortunately.” I hated the mix of feelings I felt even thinking of his name. Anything good was crushed beneath his betrayal.

“He found me in Pennsylvania, exactly like you’re suggesting no one was supposed to be able to do. He’s here now, same as me.”

Otis ran his hands through his hair again, this time pulling hard on the roots. “You’re both idiots.”

“I don’t give much weight to the opinions of murderers.”

He let out a long breath.

Someone smashed into the door again. This time, the metal door physically bent. The lock held, but it wouldn’t for long.

“Truce?” Otis held out his hand to me.

Obviously I couldn’t trust him. Maybe I could pretend. I needed all the help I could get.

It was a weird thing to think at a time like this, but I remembered Otis’s shoes on the gorilla guy’s feet.

I looked down at Otis’s feet. He had on a pair of Crocs.

“What happened to your shoes?” I asked.

A loud bang filled our tiny closet as someone once again tried to bash their way in.

“My shoes?” Otis looked confused, but he answered. “Someone stole them from my hotel room while I was in the shower.”

I didn’t want to, but I believed him.

“Incredible performances have whittled down our competitors,” the intercom voice announced. “Now, only five remain! The pressure is mounting. Who will be ruthless enough to survive?”

“Did you join this competition voluntarily?” I asked.

“No.”

Dang it, but I had to believe that, too.

I begrudgingly accepted his outstretched hand, and we shook.

Bang.

“Get on my shoulders,” he said.

“So what, you can throw me at whatever monster breaks through that door first? No. I’ll stay on my own two feet, thanks.”

“There’s a vent up there,” he said through gritted teeth. “Just do it.”

Bang.

A huge hole opened up at the top of the door where the metal warped. A massive hairy arm shot through it, swinging around, reaching for me.

Time was up.

I climbed Otis, popped off the vent cover, and pulled myself up.

The door burst open.

Otis reached a hand for me to help pull him up, too. Before I could reach him, a hulking shape slammed him into the wall.

I had two choices. I could crawl away and leave him. Or I could honor the agreement I’d just made.

He wasn’t going to keep his end. No way.

I could not trust him.

I shouldn’t concern myself with him at all. I had every right to run for it and save my own skin. What did I care if Otis was the person Levi cared about most in all the world?

If I stayed, if I tried, all I’d do was die alongside him.

I grunted my frustration.

Except…I didn’t have to choose myself or Otis. I could choose both.

I created another me, leaving the copy to see where the vents led. Then, because I was an idiot with a death wish who couldn’t leave well enough alone, I dropped back down onto the back of the bull-like monster who was ramming Otis. I wrapped my legs around his middle and an arm around his neck, then I scratched at his eyes.

I shouldn’t care if Otis died. It served him right after he’d killed Nie.

But no matter how much I didn’t want to, I did care.

The bull howled in pain and backed up at a surprising pace. I held on and kept scratching.

Then my back smashed against the bent metal door.

Pain radiated all over my body. All of the air whooshed out of my lungs.

I knew I needed to hold on, but my grip slipped.

I fell to the ground.

Move or die. I had to move.

I rolled onto hands and knees and crawled toward the hall. My vision narrowed. I could hear my own ragged breathing, fear clawing at my thoughts. Just a little farther and I’d have a chance.

Thick fingers wrapped around my ankle, hard and fast. No. Please, no. The bull ripped me back into the closet.

Panicked, I reached for anything to grab onto. I caught the door frame in a jolt to every aching muscle.

Then I was released.

I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what was happening. I turned in time to see Otis beating the bull with the mop.

Out of nowhere, the blue-haired woman raced past me and bashed the bull in the back with a mace. The bull howled. The mace stuck in the hairy muscle just below his shoulder. The blue-haired woman pulled on the mace’s handle as the bull twisted and bashed her in the head with his fist.

Otis scrambled past them. He grabbed my wrist.

And we ran.

We ran away from the room where we’d woken, away from the closet where we’d hidden, through a maze of halls.

The sounds of battle faded completely, leaving only the sounds of our footsteps. The quiet should have been comforting, but it wasn’t. It only meant I could no longer hear the threats that were definitely still coming.

None of the doors off the hallways were locked, though each room appeared to be empty. Well, they were all empty until we found a barrel full of swords in one room, which looked like it belonged on the deck of a pirate ship.

I took one. So did Otis.

We walked quietly, cautiously, through dark hallways for what felt like hours without incident.

Were there cameras down here, like there were in the rest of Nevermore? Was The Competition the same as Bernadette’s “stories” that she’d been intent on watching? Was all of Nevermore watching us right now?

I couldn’t quiet my brain. Furthermore, the longer we walked side-by-side, the less often I thought to look at Otis to make sure he wasn’t going to suddenly change his mind and strike me down.

Otis had helped me, twice. He, like Nie, had been forced into this murder mayhem, and not by choice. Maybe he wasn’t lying about what happened between him and Nie.

This place, these circumstances, had me questioning everything.

“Three contestants remain, but only one can emerge victorious,” the voice proclaimed.

Three? Me, Otis, and one other.

The announcement sounded distant, like there weren’t speakers in this area, yet close, like maybe there was one in the room beyond the door to my right.

Curious, I looked at Otis to see if he had the same thought.

His sights were already set on the door. He crossed the hall and opened it.

Beyond the door was a small room, with screens all over the walls. Some showed the streets around Nevermore. One appeared to show the hallway just beyond this door. Multiple focused on the room where we’d woken. The carnage…I had to look away.

At the base of the wall of screens was a desk, with a microphone perched on its edge, and a chair in front of it.

The chair turned.

On it sat a creature no larger than a tabby cat.

But its fur was as yellow as a canary.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the fox said in a deep voice, the same voice that had counted down the deaths of our cohort.

This fox wasn’t wearing a tiara.

And it definitely was not Noodles.

Without my mind’s agreement, my body turned and began walking back the way we’d come. Otis did the same. Our feet marched in unison. I had zero control over what I was doing.

I was nothing but a puppet.

“Are you choosing to walk this way?” I asked Otis.

“No. You?”

I shook my head. At least I had that.

This had to be like what had happened to Rose during her first encounter with Noodles. I was pretty sure Imogen had said something along those lines, that kitsune could control people.

I tried to focus on fighting that control, focused on stopping my feet from moving forward.

I stepped into the hall.

Otis stepped up next to me.

I could swear I heard my name, but the voice in the distance—it couldn’t be real.

Our bodies turned to face each other, swords held in our right hands, standing where the cameras could record. Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

No. I had to fight this, I had to do something.

I could feel my pulse thrumming in my ears. My brain screamed.

I reached into my mind, sought out the bubbles. I’d been able to control the creation of clones. I’d always created them instinctively when I needed them most.

I’d never needed them more than I did right now, yet I couldn’t see the bubbles.

No new Marnies were coming to save us.

My arm lifted on its own, raising my blade to Otis’s chest.

He did the same. In his panicked, sad expression, I found the trust I couldn’t have found under different circumstances.

He’d told me he was sorry, back when I was Nie. I wanted to tell him the same thing now. I was sorry I hadn’t believed him sooner, sorry I’d made him kill me as Nie, sorry there wasn’t anything I could do to stop this now.

“Marshmallow.”

Levi appeared, somehow, in the hall with us.

He couldn’t be here. This couldn’t be real.

I had to be imagining him.

“Don’t do this,” he said.

“We’re not in control of our bodies,” Otis responded, turning his gaze to Levi.

Which meant Otis could see him, too. He was real. How was he here?

My vision blurred. My mind raced.

I really wished Imogen was here, too. Maybe she could stop this. I was helpless to stop my body from killing Levi’s best friend. And if he didn’t move, I’d end up killing Levi, too.

“Get out of the way,” I told Levi.

“No,” he said. “Fight this.”

Both Otis’s and my blades lifted to Levi’s chest.

“I won’t let you go, Marshmallow,” he said, completely focused on me.

This was his chance to grab his best friend in the entire world, the one person he cared about most, and save him. But Levi was focused on me.

I tried to lower my blade. I fought for control with everything that I had.

A tear rolled down my cheek.

My arm moved, completely beyond my control.

The blade stabbed between Levi’s ribs.