Get Out If You Can

Diego | Wall Hangings

I almost trip on the last marble stair, but I'm lucky I've learnt to catch myself just in time.

I'm no good at fighting. I mean, okay, I am, sort of. I practiced. But I'm sure as hell I won't be able to tackle whatever's got Alison down there. I'll bet everything I have that it was her voice.

She hasn't got it fair. Alison hasn't got it fair. I will never forgive this person for what they're doing to her if I realize that they know why Alison did what she did. Who can blame her?

I shake my head. I look at Emilie, beside me, an idea unraveling itself from the messy ball of my thoughts.

"Hey, Badeaux." Emilie brushes hair off her face and looks at me.

"What?"

"You sure you're a brown belt in karate?"

"Yeah," she says. "Maman made me take classes. Are you saying we'll have to..."

"Yeah," I say. "We damn sure have to."

"What's happening?" Matt asks, looking around the hall. Hunter's a few steps behind him. "Where is she?"

"Christ, she's not here!" I run forward, towards the table on which the envelopes were kept. Shit – the envelopes. I'd forgotten all about them.

"Guys," I say, desperation mingling with my sweat. "Do you remember what those riddles about us said?"

"Don't you?" Emilie asks. I shake my head.

"Yours was something about blood and water," Matt says. Okay, I understand that. "Alison's was about some sort of thing she did."

"Probably the fact that she refused to help," Hunter says, walking ahead of me. "Mine was something like – something like not helping when I could."

"We haven't figured that one out, right?" Emilie asks, glancing at her watch. I don't even bother asking her how much time we have left, I know we're running out of it. So much for my calculations.

"No," I say. "Hunter, for the last time, do you have anything we need to know?"

He shakes his head. "I was at the party, that's all. She did get her car over for servicing, but I don't think it was at the time."

"You don't think?" Matt says, incredulously. "You think it's perfectly fine to smack me because I happened to appear in a photo, and you've had full access to her damn car! You're fucking serious, dude?"

Hunter shrugs. "At least I'm not a drug dealer."

"You say it like I have a choice," Matt mutters, but he doesn't press matters.

"What about Emilie?" I ask, still frantically looking round. "About the crown – oh, shit, the crown! That's what your crown meant, in your tower! The crown shatters when you take it out of your comfort zone! That's what it meant, right?"

"I guess," Emilie says. "I honestly don't know what that's gotta do with me murdering her though."

"I don't understand that either," I say. "It could mean – fuck!"

They see it after I do. My vision's a mess, my head's throbbing like someone's shot me, my mind's spewing thoughts like smoke from a coal factory. I refuse to believe that Alison Carter is hanging from the ceiling.

***

"ALISON!" I yell as loudly as my throat allows, hoping they've done nothing else to her. Her hands are tied with red rope, and their ends are fixed to some sort of beam on the ceiling. I don't know whether to be relieved or not at the fact that they haven't killed her yet.