Padriac was sitting on his side while Kacey was laying in front of him on his side. They were playing cards.
“Mm! Varian. Do you want to play?”
Varian pulled a spare blanket around his shoulders. They had minimal light from the flashlight propped on Padriac’s bag. Varian peeked at the cards.
“What are you playing?”
“Just Go Fish. I don’t know anything else.”
Varian was glad. He didn’t know any other card game as well.
Kacey hummed as he grazed his point finger over the edge of the cards fanned out in his hand. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.
Varian couldn’t quite look him in the eye. Not after the awkward moment that had happened just a few minutes ago. He couldn’t get the creeping feeling of Kacey’s wandering gaze out of his head.
He sat beside Padriac because he didn’t want to be by Kacey right then. “Sure.”
Padriac handed him seven cards. They were starting over.
The first and the second game with without much being said. The awkward silence was accompanied by the light sprinkling of rain hitting the top of the tent. Varian could feel the unsaid words around him. They were caging him in. He didn’t want it to be like this. Not when they were going to start their last year of high school. After that, things were going to change.
He was going to change. It was for the best.
The third game was halfway through when Kacey threw down his cards. He fell back, groaning.
“I don’t want to play anymore.”
Padriac looked confused. “What do you mean? What else do you want to do?”
A sly grin stretched across Kacey’s face.
“Well…”
He looked at the two of them out of the corner of his eyes. “We could play another game.”
Padriac raised both brows. “Oh. That game.”
Varian was the one out of the loop. He looked between the two of them. “Stop doing that. Tell me what you guys are going on about.”
They did this sometimes. They were weirdly connected and knew each others thoughts without anything else being said. It was cool and funny a lot of the time, but when they turned it onto him, it just made him feel more of an outsider than he already was.
Kacey laughed as he turned over onto his stomach. “It’s not a complicated game. Childish really.”
Varian groaned. “Just get to it, Kace.”
“Okay, okay. One person is the Hunter and the others are the Prey. We go in the woods. If the Hunter catches you and there are people left, you become a Hunter as well. And the last person to become caught…”
He stopped there.
“Come on.” Varian roughly shoved Kacey’s shoulder. He was laughing so loud that Varian was sure the girls would be able to hear him from their tent. “Are you going to tell us or not?”
“Padriac knows how to play.”
Varian sat back on his heels. He looked over at Padriac. “You’ve played this before?”
Padriac shrugged. “It’s just some game we use to play as kids.”
Varian was starting to feel left out again. It was another dumb feeling when he couldn’t have been left out if they hadn’t met then. They didn’t know each other so why the hell would he have been playing a game with them in the first place?
“Fine,” Kacey finally said. He grabbed Varian’s wrist, holding it to his chest. “When the last Prey is caught, the Hunters get to do whatever they want to them.”
Varian’s heart stopped. He didn’t like where this was going. The rolling burning of heat in his stomach disagreed with him, but the queasiness made it more manageable. He pulled his hand away. It was burning where Kacey’s skin had touched his own.
It never used to be this way. He didn’t know what had changed between them all. It was like his entire world was flipped on its head.
“Anything?”
Kacey was watching him. His eyes flickered down to Varian’s lips.
He broke the spell when he jumped up. He crawled to the door of the tent. Padriac gathered the playing cards and put them away. He turned off the flashlight.
They were coated in black darkness.
It became hard to breathe.
He felt a hand on his arm.
“Follow me.” It was Padriac.
He was gently guided out of the tent. The girls’ tent was quiet. They must have been asleep. The pit was a sad mess and their chairs were vacant. One had fallen over. It was Varian’s.
Kacey lead the way to the path that lead into the dense forest. Padriac helped Varian find his footing. He was glad that he wore his jacket. The other two were adamant to get him out there.
A small voice of reason was telling him that this was a bad idea. The fear that gripped him and tried to pull him back was almost enough to tell him that he didn’t want to play this game. But he was curious. And there was also the side of him that wanted to play.
He wanted to know who was the Hunters in the end and who would become the Prey.
The moonlight was all that they had to guide them. Varian was stumbling after Padriac and he didn’t have it in him to tell him that he needed a break from all this walking. He was athletic. He could go barely a few minutes of fast walking before the pains in his chest became too much.
“Alright. Here.” Kacey’s voice sounded far away yet at the same time it felt like it was right beside Varian.
Padriac let Varian go.
Then, he felt Kacey in front of him.
“I’m the Hunter. You have thirty seconds to run.”
Padriac laughed and ran somewhere to the right.
Varian looked around him. He’d already lost track of Kacey.
“What—“
“Run Varian.” Kacey gently pushed him in a random direction. “Twenty-five seconds now.”
Varian didn’t have to see Kacey’s face to know that he was grinning. He had a picture of that grin tattooed on the surface of his brain from how common it was. He took a step back, not paying attention to where he was going. He stumbled, but righted himself at the very last second.
He turned around as another image of Kacey’s deranged face filled his vision. He didn’t know where he was going. He just ran and let his feet take him where they wanted to go. Padriac must have been long gone by now. He didn’t know how Kacey was going to find them with how big the forest was.
He didn’t know how he was going to find his way back if Kacey never found him.
But his heart was thumping in his chest. It made his already limited vision become smaller. His chest was weighed down by an invisible force. Like hands squeezing his lungs. He could barely get a small breath in.
His shoes were just sandals he’d changed into because his tennis shoes were wet. They weren’t meant to be treated roughly like this. He couldn’t think about that right then.
True fear had imbedded itself inside of him. He knew that Kacey and Padriac weren’t going to hurt him, but there was just a small what if that kept bugging him. The possibility that what he knew to be true could be wrong.
It was a small possibility, but it wasn’t improbable.
And then there was the small part of him that always craved for darkness. A need that made him sick to his stomach. It liked this game a lot more than it should.
A screech filled the forest.
Varian slid to stop. He looked behind him.
Nothing had been disturbed.
It was Padriac. Kacey had found him.
Varian’s heart went up in his throat.
He was the Prey.
They were the Hunters.
Like a lightning beam was shot through him, he ran faster than he knew was possible. The trees zoomed by him. The sea of darkness was crashing waves around him and he saw nothing. Tears slid down his cheeks, but they were tears of fear or sadness. He was concentrated on escaping.
He would beat this game.
But he slammed into a tree he hadn’t seen. His feet became twisted in vines and brush. He was too shocked to brace himself as he fell to the ground.
He rolled and slid down a steep hill.
He crashed into a ravine of water and rocks. Blood filled his mouth.
He had only a second to think before darkness took him over.
I’ve lost.
And he had.
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