“Hazel…” Her name fell from his lips like she was pulling it out herself. She gazed down at him with a blank expression.

She didn’t look like herself.

“Promise me.” 

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Promise what?”

Her long hair framed his face as she looked down at him. It was a dark curtain that cut him off from the dreary outside world. He could breathe better when it was like this. When he was trapped, it made the anxiety not so bad.

She closed her eyes. Her forehead touched his. “Tell me you’re not cheating. Please, Varian. I can’t handle it if you are.”

“What?”

He frantically shook his head. He grabbed onto her waist as if he was going to fall down just by the mere idea of him betraying her trust. 

“Never. Not in a million years. What made you think that I’m—“

He understood the look she’d given him and Mary earlier. 

“We aren’t. Me and Mary—there isn’t anything going on. Isn’t and never will.”

They were friends. Neither of them ever thought of each other like that. He didn’t understand why Hazel would ever get the idea.

It was Hazel’s turn to shy away. She dipped her chin, cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. Varian couldn’t help it when he touched her face. He felt something. He was sure it was love.

He hoped it was because he really didn’t know what else to call it.

His thumbs pressed into the hollowness of her cheeks. Her red lips glistened. She licked them once more, leaving a thicker sheen to them.

“Good.” 

She kissed him. With the full force of her body, she kissed him like she was starving for air. He went along for the ride, hands roaming her body like he was searching for the missing piece of him.

He was. He’d been missing a piece of him since forever. He still hadn’t found it.

Hazel moaned as she writhed on top of him. She stripped from her shirt. Her white lacy bra stood out from all the blues and greens in the tent. It was too dark to see much, but Varian knew Hazel’s body in and out it seemed. He knew it better than he knew his.

They kissed, hot and sloppily. They were chasing something that wasn’t there. The heat in the tent made Varian’s wet pants even more unbearable. With one hand, he tried to strip them off. He only got halfway when Hazel stuck her hand in his pants.

He let her take the lead. He sort of liked it that way. She needed to know he was here for her.

Varian was lost in her demanding kisses when he felt the cold shiver run up his spine again.

His eyes opened. They adjusted to the dark tent.

Kacey was staring at them. 

His dark heated gaze shocked Varian. He jolted, Hazel’s hand tightening on his dick. She kissed his now motionless lips. She was still lost in the heat of the moment.

The words to tell Kacey to get out were on the tip of Varian’s tongue. He wanted to say them, but he was shocked still. 

A sick thrill shot through him. He got harder as Kacey’s eyes looked over their joined bodies.

Hazel pulled back. “Varian?”

She looked over her shoulder.

“What the fuck!” She threw her shirt at Kacey. “Get the hell out pervert!”

Kacey threw the shirt back at her. 

“Maybe you two should’ve picked a more private place to fuck. Weirdos.” He laughed as he closed the tent’s flap. “Varian and Hazel are fucking!”

“Shut up you freak!” Hazel threw her shirt on and raced out the tent.

Varian heard Kacey grunt and Hazel yelling. Hazel came back, wet from the rain, and huffing with anger.

“I don’t know how you can be friends with them. They’re all so annoying.”

Varian didn’t want to point out that her friends were annoying too. His friends were just annoyingly goofy. Her friends were annoyingly snotty.

“They’re good people. I like hanging around them.”

She snorted. “I don’t see why. I really don’t. Kacey’s a fucking creep.”

Varian was lost for words. He really couldn’t say anything after he caught Kacey watching them. It wasn’t like that though. Right? Maybe he’d just been as shocked as Varian had been.

He hadn’t tried to get Kacey to look away either. He just let him watch them like it wasn’t a problem. He was the boyfriend. He should have been weirded out by it as well. The chills were one thing, but the gut clenching disgust he thought he should feel wasn’t there.

They were both silent as they got dressed into dry clothes. He shoved his soaked ones into a spare bag and set it in the corner. 

Mary poked her head in. 

“Hey, love birds. You clean up after yourselves?”

“Fuck off.” Hazel flopped down on her sleeping bag. 

“Just asking. I’m tired and I don’t want to be sleeping in someone’s dried jizz.”

Varian’s cheeks flushed. “Goodnight.”

He gave Hazel a chaste kiss and a small wave to Mary as he got out of the tent. It was pitch dark now, but it wasn’t raining anymore. He shivered in his thin pajamas as he got into the other tent. 

Padriac sat across from Kacey who was laying 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 pointer 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 just happened a few minutes ago. He couldn’t get the creepy feeling of Kacey’s wandering gaze out of his head. 

He sat beside Padriac. “Sure.”

Padriac handed him seven cards. They were starting over.

The first and the second game went 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 speaking. It was cool and funny a lot of the time, but when they turned it onto him, it 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 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 used to play as kids.”

Varian was starting to feel left out again. It was another dumb feeling. He couldn’t have been left out if they hadn’t met yet. 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. 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 flap of the tent. Padriac gathered the playing cards and put them away. He turned off the flashlight.

They were coated in 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. The pit was a sad mess and their chairs were vacant. One had fallen over. It was Varian’s.

Kacey headed to the path leading into the dense forest. Padriac helped Varian find his footing. He was glad he wore his jacket. The other two were adamant to get him out there. 

A small voice of reason was telling him this was a bad idea. The fear that gripped him and tried to pull him back was almost enough to tell him he didn’t want to play this game. But he was curious. And there was a part of him that wanted to play.

He wanted to know who would be the Hunters in the end and who would become the Prey.

The moonlight was all they had to guide them. Varian stumbled after Padriac and he didn’t have the courage to ask for a break. He wasn’t athletic. He could barely go 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 sounding like it was right in Varian’s ear. 

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 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 couldn’t handle the rough terrain. 

True fear imbedded itself inside of him. He knew Kacey and Padriac weren’t going to hurt him, but there was a small “what if” that wormed its way into his head. The possibility that what he knew to be true could be wrong made him sick. 

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 weren’t 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.