The Death's Game

15. Game of New Alliances

Earlier.

"It was Percy's rope." Millie kneeled beside the piece of rope that loudly came back to them and rolled back up to the hole in the floor. She wanted to touch it, but the rope hid in the dark as if it didn't want anyone to disturb it.

"Are you sure? It could be anybody's." Trevor leaned over. It's not like he didn't care about the fate of other players, he just didn't care for them as much as for Percy.

"I'm positive." Millie frowned, trying to figure out what happened. Why, out of all ropes, it was Percy's that got cut off? And how? "I'm going in." She took one of the more brave ropes that didn't try to escape her hand.

"If you're going, I'm going."

"Oh, come on, don't leave me alone!" moaned Angelica. Nobody returned yet, and she wasn't keen on being here all on her own.

Millie touched Trevor by the arm and gave him her sweet look.

"One of us must stay here." She didn't trust Angelica, or anybody else, at that matter. "I'll be fine. Besides, who wouldn't want to see the insides of a book maze?"

If he wasn't so worried about her, Trevor would probably laugh at the joke. But this place wasn't some human-made maze for fun. It was made to keep them forever here.

"Maybe I'll go?"

"Too late. I'm already tied up." She showed the rope around her waist. Part of her wanted to see what's inside. And she was not going to leave her friend alone there.

"Just be careful."

"I'm always."

Millie kissed him on the cheek and entered the maze before Trevor would change his mind of letting her go inside.

"Insane." She couldn't stop admiring the surroundings. Flying and talking books  were like the things taken from some kind of surreal movie. If they weren't deadly, she'd fall in love with this place.

"Percy!" She was calling her best-friend's name every turn she was taking, hoping Percy would hear her. After the tenth time, it started to become obvious that Millie chose the wrong road, because Percy was nowhere around.

Just as she turned around, Kyle, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, caught Millie and pressed her against the wall. He put his hand on her lips, so she wouldn't be able to scream.

Millie tried to escape, but she didn't have even a small percent of Percy's strength. There was nothing she could do against Kyle, and her heart started beating rapidly at the thought of all the things he might do.

"Jeez, chill out, Millie, I just want to talk," he tried to calm her down, noticing how she was shaking. "I'm gonna take my hand and you will not scream, okay?"

She slowly nodded her head, not believing in any word coming out of his mouth. He took his hand, but screaming was useless anyway. Nobody even heard her calling Percy.

Nobody except for Kyle apparently.

"Leave me alone!"

"No. Now to the point. When did you and Nica become friends?"

"Nica? As for Veronica?" She raised her eyebrow. He even had a nickname for her. They must've known each other rather well. "About a year and half ago. When I was a freshman. Why do you care?"

"Because I do. By the way, you look amazing in pink." He took a strain of her blond hair with pink highlights in his hand, making Millie furious. She plucked her hair lock from his hand, since he had no right to touch her without permission.