Chapter 9:
Emily's POV:
His words chilled me, but the look on his unfamiliar face just confused me. Instead of a smirk or the cocky grin that I would've expected with his creepy statement, he looked sad, almost scared just like the rest of us.
Tristen stood protectively in front of me, holding out his arm like I've seen him do a lot since we've been here.
"Who are you?" Tristen spat at the black-haired boy, sizing him up with his narrowed green eyes. The boy furrowed his eyebrows in response and opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Quil suddenly bursting out in front of everybody.
"I know who you are, you're that kid.... Cameron Denton... you went missing two months ago," Quil stated knowingly, cocking his head to the side. The boy, whose name was Cameron I guess, nodded his head sadly. I turned to stare incredulously at him, unable to believe that he had been missing for two months.
"Yeah, I am. A couple of my friends and I thought this would be a fun thing to do on a Friday," Cameron said softly. That's when I noticed a couple of strange things about Cameron; he was cut up, deep cuts all over his exposed arms and neck that looked extremely painful, and I could only guess that the rest of his clothed body looked the same way.
I carefully stepped forward around Tristen and placed my dainty hand on Carmeron's cut up arm, gently feeling the intriguing wounds. He looked at me skeptically for a moment, before smiling faintly. His beautiful blue eyes sparkled, and we didn't speak for a moment as I felt the bumpy, cut up skin under my cold fingertips.
"Wait, what happened to the other kids?" Nick interrupted, and the smile faded from Cameron's pale face just as quickly as it had appeared. The smile on my face involuntarily turned into a frown too, waiting to hear the horror he's probably been through.
"Cameron!" someone yelled from behind us, suddenly running up to our group of survivors. She came the same way Cameron had emerged from, and she almost resembled him too. She had deep brown eyes, long, curly black hair and porcelain skin. She wore a tattered jean skirt and a blood-stained yellow tank top, and she too appeared to have painful cuts littering her pale skin.
"Are you.... Camilla Denton?" Quil asked, pointing to the black-haired girl. She nodded slowly and I noticed a few tears escape from her exhausted eyes.
"Whoa whoa wait... what the hell is going on here?" Hayley asked loudly, throwing her arms into the air dramatically with exasperation. Camilla and Cameron both turned to look at Hayley, a solemn expression on both of their tired faces.
"We have been stuck in here for two months," Camilla whispered simply, wiping a stray tear from her brown eye.
That must have been absolute hell; we could barely last a day in here as a strong group of eight, and these two have been stuck for months. I snuck a curious glance at Cameron, and he turned to look at me too. His dark eyes met mine, and a chill ran down my spine. I saw him in a different light than I did a minute ago, but he still kind of gave me the creeps.
"So... there's no way out?" Jeff asked quietly, with a look of defeat on his tired face. Cameron shook his head slowly, and suddenly all my hope, all of my spirits, just fell.
We were never going to get out of here... at least alive, and now I was sure of it.
"There is one way out," someone suddenly yelled from down the hallway, and we all turned in the direction of their ominous voice. I knew it was Ryan before I even saw him, as he leaned against the dingy wall with his arms crossed over his chest. The usual smirk we had grown to know was plastered on his knowing face.
"You!" Collin said, pointing an accusing finger at Ryan as his green eyes narrowed. The ringleader's smirk grew wider in response, and he walked casually over to us. Collin stepped back hesitantly as did Quil; I guess those two weren't used to Ryan popping up yet, because the rest of us didn't even flinch at his close, looming presence.
"There's a way out?" Hayley asked incredulously, standing straight in front of Ryan. Ryan slowly shook his head yes, and hope filled my insides once again.
"Where? Where is it?" Camilla asked a bit frantically. You could hear the joy in her voice, although I had the bitter feeling Ryan that wouldn't just tell us where it was so easily. Knowing him, he would make us work hard for it, probably by playing his twisted games. I was willing though if it meant we could get out and no more people died.
Memories filled my head, and I solemnly looked around at our group of people: Nick, Hayley, Jeff, Tristen, Collin, Quil, Cameron and Camilla.
Jacob, Lily and Brianna were all dead, but it's like we hadn't even been given proper time to mourn the deaths of our best friends. That would be traumatic to any human being, especially watching their gruesome, torturous murders happen before their very eyes.
Just a few hours ago, we were sitting at Taco Bell eating and joking around, stealing each other's cheesy nachos or sugary sodas for a quick sip. That felt like so long ago to me now, and I couldn't help but think about how I had taken advantage of such simple happiness between friends who I'd never seen again now.
"I will give you a hint," Ryan stated teasingly, successfully playing with our heart strings. Camilla's pretty features switched from happiness to fear, as did everybody else's, including mine.
"You must pass a test to get to the exit."
Fear was inarguably the main emotion among us now. A test? That could mean literally anything, we could be doing this mysterious test right now and not even fucking know it.
Ryan strolled over to me and started to pet my hair like I was a little dog, and I stiffened at the unwanted touch, but I was too afraid to move. Cameron quickly slapped his hand away for me, and Ryan smirked at him, before walking on down the hall without another word.
That was one freaky dude.