Chapter 4
Fawn's POV
The next morning, a shrill alarm tears me out of a restless sleep.
The Head Nurse's raspy voice crackles through the speakers:
[All surviving patients get to the first floor cafeteria. Now. Anyone late dies.]
I force down the nausea churning in my stomach, step over Sloane's corpse on the floor, and stumble out of the room.
When I reach the cafeteria, I realize our group of six has shrunk to three. Just me, Nathan, and the middle-aged guy who made it through the night.
The cafeteria is even more disgusting than the main hall. There's no food on the tables. Instead, they're covered in plates of raw meat and organs, crawling with fat white maggots.
But what really catches our attention is the massive round table in the center of the room.
A spinning wheel sits on top of it. Three cups line the edge. Two are filled with clear water. The middle one bubbles with crimson liquid that just looks wrong.
The boss sits at the head of the table.
Today he's wearing a dark red shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He leans back in his chair, relaxed, spinning a silver revolver around one finger.
When he sees us walk in, his mouth curves into a smile. Cruel.
"Good morning, everyone." His voice echoes through the empty cafeteria. "Welcome to this morning's game. Death roulette."
He taps the three cups on the table.
"Three drinks. Two are water. One is poison that'll rot your guts from the inside out. Wheel stops in front of you? You drink whatever's there. You refuse, or you try to run..."
He raises the revolver and fires a shot straight into the ceiling.
Dust rains down. Nathan and the middle-aged man flinch hard.
"Game starts now. Who wants to spin first?" The boss's gaze sweeps across the three of us, then locks onto my face.
The middle-aged man's eyes dart around. Then he jabs a finger at me and shouts, "Her! Make her go first! She's mute, so even if the poison kills her, she can't scream. Won't ruin it for the rest of us!"
Nathan looks uncomfortable, but he wants to live. He stays silent. Takes a step back.
[This guy's disgusting! Total coward!]
[Human nature, man. This is when you see people for what they really are.]
[She's screwed. 33% chance she dies. No way she's that lucky.]
I clench my jaw and give the man a cold look. I don't fight back. I know there's no point. Not against this kind of power.
I walk to the table. Reach out with a shaking hand toward the wheel.
Just as my fingertips are about to touch it, a large hand suddenly presses down on the back of mine.
I look up, shocked.
The boss is standing now. He leans over the table, his hand covering mine.
"The wheel's heavy. You might hurt yourself." He looks at me, his voice so gentle it makes my skin crawl.
Everyone stares in shock as the boss flicks the wheel with one finger. It spins wildly.
A few seconds later, it slows to a stop.
The crimson cup with its bubbling poison stops right in front of me.
The middle-aged man and Nathan both exhale hard. Relief washes over their faces. Something smug flickers in their eyes.
[No way! This is rigged! The boss spun it himself, how's it land on her?!]
[He's gonna kill her himself! Last night was just him screwing with her before the execution!]
[Nooo my mute wife is done for!]
I stare at the crimson liquid giving off that sharp chemical smell. My heart drops. Goes cold.
Of course. Last night's absurdity was just a predator toying with prey. He's still the boss of this horror game. He still kills people.
The boss picks up the crimson cup and holds it out to me.
His eyes are dark. Bottomless. My pale face reflects in them.
"Drink it." His voice is quiet. Final.
I look at the cup in his hand. Look at the cold indifference in his expression. Despair crashes over me.
There's no way out.
If I don't drink, he'll blow my head off with that gun. If I do drink, the poison will destroy me from the inside.
I take a deep breath. My eyes burn.
I'm dead either way. I close my eyes and reach for the cup.
