Fear Games

2. Dead as a Doornail

I wasn't sure if I was dead, but I was pretty sure that I wasn't fully alive. Everything around me was black and the only thing that I had in that moment was my thoughts. All I could think about were my two children, Emerald and Calix, and how much I wanted to get home to them. I wanted to hold them in my arms, tell them that everything was going to be okay, even though I wasn't sure it was going to be.

Opening my eyes, I found myself in a familiar place. It was a dark, abandoned house that hadn't been lived in for what looked like a hundred years. I recognized where I was instantly—the original Fear Games haunted house. This was where it all began, where the horrors of my life had begun. All because of my connection to Noah, the emotionally disabled kid that I dated and didn't treat exactly right. Sure, I told other people he was in disabled classes. Sure, I wasn't the best girlfriend. But did I really deserve to have his older brother come and try to murder me and anyone associated with him?

I was sitting on this old, dirty couch, and I couldn't remember if this had been there when we were there for the night of Fear Games. It didn't matter, because something—no, someone—emerged from the shadows in front of me.

It was Ryan.

His dark hair and brown eyes were exactly as I remembered him. He was even wearing the same blue jeans and burgundy sweater that he did the night of the Fear Games haunted house when I first met him. As he stood before me, all I could think was, you're supposed to be dead!

Like he could read my mind, he said, "You thought I was gone, huh, Rachel? I'll never be gone, you know. Not in your mind. I'll be here always, waiting and watching."

"Why did you bring here?" I asked, trying to hide my fear. "Is this hell?"

Ryan came closer to the couch, then plopped into the spot next to me, throwing his arms around my shoulder. "Do you want this to be hell? Do you think you're dead?"

"Am I?"

He shrugged. "No more or less dead than I am, I guess."

That didn't exactly answer my question, but I guess that meant that maybe I was in some kind of purgatory. Maybe I could get out. Maybe I could get home to my kids. "I want to go back."

"Don't we all?" Ryan said as he waved his hand in front of us. "I'm sure they do too."

Then, stepping out of the shadows, two more figures emerged. The sister and brother duo, Daisy and Damien Williamson. Daisy's long blonde hair was curled, going way past her shoulders, looking as if it had grown a bit in this place. Damien looked similar to his sister, except his blond hair was a bit darker, but his blue eyes resembled hers almost exactly.

"So, the gang's all here," I said. "Great. If I'm not already dead, are you all here to drag to the job and drag me to hell where you all are?"

"Who said we're in hell?" Daisy asked. She stepped closer, knelt down in front of me, and smiled. "Sweetie, we're as alive as ever. And know why?"

"No."

"Because you can't let us go," Damien said from behind his sister. "After twenty years, you're still holding onto the Games. That's why it's been resurrected. Because you can't let it go. That's why we're just as alive as ever."

"We're alive in here," Ryan said, tapping his finger against my skull.

"Well, if you're all so smart," I said, "let me ask you this. Who is the new Fear Games killer? Who is coming after my family?"

Daisy stood back up, and walked back over to her brother. She said, "Do you really want to know the truth? I don't think you're ready for it."