What Game Will You Play

Chapter 24

Authors note:

I am thinking about changing the cover to the image you see here above, what do you guys think?

(This chapter has been edited)

***End of note***

Aiden looks to Ethen to see if he will object to Aiden going first but when Ethen says nothing Aiden checks to see if anyone is coming and then he makes his way to the first booth.

Before Aiden reaches the booth Ethen turn to me, "You trust him?" he asks.

I take a second to think about it before responding. "Yes" I tell him

Once Aiden reaches the first game booth and makes sure no guards are coming he waves for one of us to come over.

"Do you want to go next or do you want me to?" I ask Ethen.

"I'll go," Ethen says.

Ethen pokes his head out from where we are hiding, looks to his right then his left, then slowly moves to the booth. Midway there his feet get faster and he almost runs right into Aiden but he stops himself at the last second.

I wait for both boys to duck down further into the game booth before checking for any guards and making my way to the booth. Once I'm there I crouch down and look at Aiden and Ethen.

"Be as quiet as possible. If this area is anything like the other one then there should be a guard passing at any moment" Aiden says.

The three of us sit in silence for maybe thirty seconds before I hear the sound of footsteps coming our way. I know that Ethen hears it too because he looks at Aiden with panicked eyes. Aiden shoots Ethen an angry threatening look and Ethen's expression changes so now he looks like he is trying to act brave but it looks more like he is in pain. His face starts turning red and I realize he is holding his breath.

Once the sound of footsteps passes us and fades away Ethen releases the breath of air he was holding in and the red in his face slowly starts to disappear. There are more footsteps heard in the distance and when they start getting closer the process on Ethen's face repeats.

After a minute of silence, Aiden slowly looks up from the booth and when he comes back down he tells us that there are no more guards coming at the moment. Aiden once again moves to make his way over to the second game booth and Ethen once again sees that as an opportunity to ask to me about Aiden.

"How do you know?" Ethen asks.

"How do I know I can trust him?" I ask Ethen and he nod his head. "I know I can trust him because he saved me and my brother. He got us out of here and then he was kind enough to bring me back in to try and find my Dad. He also promised my brother that he would bring me back alive and I believe him when he says that he will."

Ethen does not ask anything else and Aiden waves one of us over from next booth.

"I trust him" I tell Ethen one more time with a hundred percent certainty in my words.

He does not say anything in response, he just looks to see if any guards are coming and then he makes his way over to Aiden. I follow after him and then the three of us repeat this process one more time until we are behind another row of games like Aiden and I were earlier when we first came back into the carnival. We get behind the game booth titled Water Bucket as Aiden takes a look around to try and determine if we should go right or left.

"I think if we go left we'll get there quicker and it should be relatively safe," Aiden says.

"Where is there?" Ethen asks, "You keep saying you're going to get me out of here yet you fail to mention how we are going to do that. Do you know of some secret door or something. Are we just going to walk right through the front gates of the carnival to get out of here?"