by Adele Huxley
“What uh… what exactly happened back there?”
Despite the cold, her skin prickled with heat. She knew exactly what he was referring to, but hoped he wouldn’t bring it up. After the fact, him seeing her panic like that left her vulnerable and terribly exposed.
“What do you mean?” she deflected.
“The uh… the whole hood thing.”
Penny struggled to keep her reaction neutral, but she couldn’t help but stiffen at the memory. The second she saw that burlap come out, she knew her bravado was done. It triggered a deep memory she’d tried so hard to forget, repress, and ignore.
The quiver in her voice doubled. “I don’t like not being able to see.”
“Ah.”
“It’s completely normal to freak out at shit like that.”
“I know, but… there’s freaking out and then there’s—”
“I get it,” she snapped.
But his comment tickled the back of her mind. The thought hadn’t occurred to her until just then. Of all the things they could’ve pulled out, it had to be a hood. It was almost like they’d known what kind of reaction she’d have to it…
The realization immediately set her on edge. But that edge also brought her a much needed touch of clarity.
Phoenix fell silent but that gave her plenty of time to mull it all over. She pressed her head against the beam at her back and stared at the ceiling. The last few shreds of light faded between the gaps and cracks. Despite her jacket, the cold threatened to seep through to her bones.
Fear tickled at the edges but she refused to let it in. Nothing good would come from welcoming it into her mind. She had to remain critical, observant, and above all, impartial. It was bad enough she could practically smell it on the others.
“Will you stop it?” Phoenix grumbled. His deep voice vibrated through the beam, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Who? Me?”
“I’m begging the kidnappers for mercy. Of course, you,” he spat.
“Stop what?”
“Cracking your goddamn knuckles. It makes me want to crawl out of my skin.”
Penny flexed her fingers and smiled into the darkness. I’ll have to remember that one in case I need to drive him crazy. “Sorry. I didn’t realize I was doing it. It’s a bad habit when I think.”
“No wonder I haven’t noticed you do it too much then,” he snapped. She could almost hear the smirk in his voice. Even though he’d broken her concentration, she couldn’t help rise to his provocation.
“Let’s just look at the facts, yeah? You’re a meathead, adrenaline junkie skier and I have a—”
Her tirade was cut short by the creak of the barn door. As she pulled her legs in tight, she released a little guilty and relieved sigh. In her anger, she was about to reveal far more about herself than she’d intended.
The kidnappers were still fully concealed from head to toe. However, now they were completely navigating around the barn with the use of red headlamps. The glow was oddly disturbing. It reminded her of a horror movie she’d once watched.
Two of them went to work distributing blankets. The way they draped the rough fabric over each person wasn’t without kindness. Penny turned her head as she was covered. She bit her tongue as the stench of horse hit her nose. At least the blankets were warm.
The two others worked their way down the rows with bottles of water, gingerly tipping them to each person’s mouth. When one reached her and Phoenix, she ventured a question with a carefully constructed tremble to her voice.
“Will we get food?”
The kidnapper shook his head. When Phoenix was finished, he moved to her. With the bottle to her lips, the cold water soothing her sore throat, she greedily swallowed.
“Tomorrow? Will we have food tomorrow?” Phoenix asked while she drank. He also put on a fearful tone.
It was hard to tell, but it looked like the kidnapper shrugged in reply before moving on. When the two pairs had completed their work and left the barn, a new mood washed over the group.
They wanted to believe they were safe for the night, tucked into their painful, cold beds. Murmured conversations were chanced now that they felt less likely to be interrupted.
The line between Penny the Unity Games persona and the true Penny was blurry and hard to navigate. How much should she reveal? How much was safe? She’d already crossed some professionally inappropriate boundaries with Phoenix… not all of them, mind, but many.
She didn’t have a lot of information to go off, but she did know one thing.
An American athlete was associated with whatever group was behind this and she was no closer to discovering who it could be. And, she was running out of time. With the emergency SOS button activated, it was only a matter of time before rescue came crashing in those doors. She had to figure out who it was.
“I have to tell you something,” she whispered into the dark.
Chapter 6
“Okay…”
Penny huffed. “Well, you gotta come closer. I have to whisper it.”
He grunted yet complied. In order to get near enough to his ear to speak into it, they both had to stretch their arms painfully far behind them.
As she breathed in the musky scent from his neck, she had to bite her lip to keep from making a sound. Somehow in the last few days, she’d begun to associate his scent with safety. Just having him close was a brush of luck in that regard.
I hope…
“What is it?”
Even though she could barely see his figure in the darkness, she closed her eyes before she began. Too many of her senses were filled with him, she had to shut one off.
“It’s about Rhett,” she sighed. “After all of you were lined up and marched away, I hid on the bus. He was there, too. He’d managed to escape them as well.”
“That’s great! We have to tell—”
“We can’t,” she whispered forlornly. The best lies were truths at the core and it didn’t take much acting to sell the next part. “Two of those bastards came back to check the bus. He distracted them to give me a chance to escape. But as I was running,” her voice seized on its own. She was surprised at how choked up recounting it was making her. “There was a gunshot. Just one.”
Phoenix dropped his head, the movement tickling her face with his hair.
“I didn’t see anything,” she continued quickly, sensing his sadness.
“I get it. We can’t tell her. You’re right.” He sighed and shifted away for a second before snapping back. He moved so close his lips nearly brushed her ear. “There’s one thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve noticed they’re taking head counts all the time. They counted us before we were dragged in here and each time they come through, someone double checks.”
Penny blinked in surprise. “You noticed that…”
Phoenix twisted further around, his voice dropping even lower. “The thing is, they were bothered by the number when they first counted. It was like they’d ordered stock and received it all, you know what I mean?”
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see. “I saw the same thing back when they first grabbed us. Remember Hunter jumped on at the last minute? I think he threw off the counts.” She reached out for his fingers, the ties agony in her flesh. “Good job, noticing though.”
She hoped her confession was enough to earn a bit of his trust back, but apparently not. He pulled away the second their skin brushed.
“Penny…”
She held her breath, the unspoken words pummeling her as hard as if he’d screamed. Worse, even. If he’d screamed, at least she could shout in return.
“What happened back at the Lodge, before we left…”
“It honestly isn’t what it seems,” she defended weakly. Even though it was the truth, it wasn't convincing. “I didn’t have time to explain.”
The tired sigh he released tugged at her heart. “What is it then? Why did you have all those photos? I’m listening.
”
She wanted to spill everything, to come clean about it all. The pressure of the situation had worn down her defenses to hardly standing, yet she clung to the story. If anything, she knew there were dozens of ears everywhere. Phoenix wasn’t the only one listening.
“I didn’t actually put those cameras in the rooms. A lot of that footage was stuff I’d found in places it shouldn’t have been.”
Phoenix snorted but didn’t reply. The sound ruffled her nerves like nothing else.
“Right,” she snapped. “Cause I don’t have the money for food and a jacket without holes, but I can afford a half dozen mini spy cams.”
“Maybe you can’t afford all that because of the cameras.”
“You’re an idiot.”
A long few minutes of silence stretched between them. The other conversations in the barn quieted as well. With night fully on them, the darkness robbed many of their hopes to escape within the next couple hours.
Penny and Phoenix’s conversation came in the fits and starts, a few comments exchanged followed by long bouts of silence. She couldn’t tell if she was getting anywhere with him. If there was anyone in the barn whose trust she needed to gain, it was the man she was tied to. She tried to convince herself it had nothing to do with who the man was.
Before he spoke each time, Phoenix rocked his head along the post to the side.
“I haven’t been with anyone else, you know. I mean, here. At the Games. I’m not saying I’m a virgin or something.”
Penny scoffed, trying to hold back a laugh at his humor. “Why do I care?”
“I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the one with all the photos of me talking to other women.”
“There were photos of you talking to men, too. Fucking Rhett just didn’t put those ones up.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Whatever.”
…
…
“If you don’t care, why did you come over to my room all those times?”
“Why did you invite me over all those times?” she threw back at him. She felt self-conscious about how flustered he made her. She was grateful for the cover of darkness.
“Because I like you,” he snapped. Her breath caught in her throat at the confession, but swiftly blew out when he added, “Liked. I liked you. Not really digging the stalker vibe.”
“You wish you were so lucky,” she replied, her heart pounding in her chest.
Faint crying from across the barn distracted their conversation. The whole situation was too much for one of the athletes to handle. Penny had to admit, it was a rough spot to be in, but with Phoenix at her back, she wasn’t too scared.
If anything, that thought terrified her.
The lull stretched longer and longer until she wondered if he’d drifted off to sleep. She listened to his breathing, having spent enough evenings with him to know he faintly snored just when he fell asleep.
In her sleep-deprived state, she at first mistook the sensation as a loud sound. She was the one falling asleep only to be stirred awake. It took a fraction of a second for her to recognize the tremor. The subtle vibration traveled up through the ground, reverberating along the pole at their backs. It was so faint, she would’ve easily slept through it had she drifted off sooner.
“Do you feel that?” Phoenix demanded in a harsh whisper.
“What do you think?” she sighed.
“What is it? What do you—”
“How am I supposed to the know? It’s probably a truck.”
Phoenix tugged at the restraints, pulling her arms back. “It’s an earthquake. I know it is. Shit, shit. It’s an earthquake and I—”
“Will you stop!” she whispered, yanking at the rope. “It’s not an earthquake. Besides, it’s already stopped.”
“How would you know?” The sheer terror in his voice surprised her.
“I lived in California. I lived through lots of earthquakes. That was a big truck.”
He slammed against the pole and pulled again, as if trying to snap their restraints through force. All it was doing was digging deeper gouges into her flesh.
Penny yelped in pain and felt the first twinges of fear herself. Not because of the tremor, but because of him. Phoenix was spiraling. If she didn’t get his mind off it, she could find herself tied to someone in the middle of a panic attack.
“I honestly didn’t peg you for a true chickenshit,” she joked. "I was only messing around earlier."
“I’m not fucking around. The ground shouldn’t move. The ground is the ground. It’s the only thing that stays put and—”
“Hey. Hey!” she insisted, pulling on him. Prodding him into an argument wasn’t going to work, so she thought to try something else. “I haven't thanked you for what you did earlier.”
Phoenix didn’t reply. The only sound coming from him was a tight groan in the back of his throat as he thrashed against the bindings.
“It was really brave stepping up like that, when they were going to…” She forced a scared hitch in her voice, hoping sympathy would override his panic. “Well, I don’t know what they were planning on doing exactly.”
“It wasn’t brave,” he replied tightly.
“Of course it was.”
He grunted and lurched forward, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “It’s what I do. I do it all the time.”
At least he’s talking, she thought, knowing that the warm trickling sensation down her fingers was probably blood, either his or hers.
“What do you mean?”
Silence.
“What do you mean you do it all the time?”
“With my mom,” he replied through clenched teeth.
Penny’s heart dropped. She was hoping to bolster his mood, make him more confident. The last thing she wanted to do was drudge up painful memories, but she was curious. Besides, talking was calming him down a little.
“Your mom?”
His swallow was more of a gulp. The sound reminded her how thirsty she was. He struggled through the story with minimal prodding on her part, slowly gaining confidence with each word.
“My uh… my real dad died when I was a baby. Don’t remember him. Good guy, I guess. My uh…” He swallowed again, his mouth smacking with dryness. “Mom was never good at being alone. That’s what Aunt Katie says, at least.”
Penny waited a moment before encouraging him to continue. “Right…”
“She married Glen before I could sit up, so really, he’s the only dad I ever knew.”
She could tell he was relaxing. His breathing was more regular, deeper, not the shallow panicked gasping from a few minutes before.
“Was he a good step-dad?” she asked, forgetting how they got on to the subject in the first place.
“Glen?” he balked. “Fuck no. He’s a prick. I mean, he used to be alright when I was younger. Believe it or not, I have some good memories of all of us,” he chuckled sadly. “Then, I don’t know. He changed. Right when I turned thirteen or so, it was like he became a completely different person. It was nuts.”
“He hit you.” Penny didn’t exactly ask. It was more of a verbal confirmation.
“A little, but mostly just talked shit. He’d call me a fag, say I was gay. He wanted me to be a man’s man, ya know? Tough, strong, that kind of stuff.”
“Yikes.”
“I mean, yeah,” he replied, bristling a little. “He didn’t go about it the best way, but in his own Glen way, he was trying to do right by me. But when he changed… it was less teaching and more challenging.”
“Like you were a threat?”
“Yeah, exactly!” he replied a touch too loudly. “I never thought of it like that.”
Penny was happy to have talked him off the ledge, but wasn’t entirely comfortable with the direction the conversation was heading.
“Anyway, he used to rough me up a little, which again, was fine. Whatever. But he started to push Mom around and that was too much.”
A lump lodged in her throat
. She’d tried to distract him, not pry into his life. Now him stepping in for the beating earlier, if it indeed happened, was even more heartbreakingly brave.
They spoke at the same time.
“Anyway,” he said.
“Do you smell that?” Penny asked.
“No…” He stiffened. “If this your way of trying to say it smells like bullshit, you really have—”
She gave their restraints an annoyed tug. “No, stupid. I smell smoke.”
“Probably a wood fire or something. It is cold out tonight.”
“Maybe…” she replied, hoping he was right. When she was about to make a comment on his story about his step-dad, he spoke up.
“But it is getting stronger.”
“Right? It’s not just—”
A woman’s scream tore through the still night air. It didn’t come from within their barn but it wasn’t far off. Out of fear, they reached for each other’s hands. The scream was followed by a quick succession of shouts.
“Over there,” he whispered.
Before Penny could ask him to clarify, the distinct orange glow of flames caught her eye.
Something was burning. Something big.
Chapter 7
Out of the pan and into the fire. Literally. Between the ground shaking, being tied up in the dark, and now this, Phoenix felt like his nerves were completely fried.
The acrid scent of burning wood filled the barn. It was thick enough he figured the air would be smoky, but in the darkness, they had to rely on their other senses. Not being able to see made the whole thing so much more nightmarish.
The screams became more insistent and panicked. Dozens of voices screamed out for help.
“This is horrible,” Penny whispered.
Phoenix nodded wordlessly. He felt like he might be sick. The very idea of being bound and trapped in a burning building was second only to his fear of the Earth swallowing him whole.
If he craned his head as far as he could, he could see the flickering flames through the cracks of the walls. The ambient flickering broke through the darkness, casting them all in a low, hellish light. Others in the barn were crying and calling out to those trapped. There was no way of knowing what was happening.