My grip on Rosalie’s hand was tight as I dragged the her through the building, struggling to stay calm.  Every second felt like an eternity, like the clock had suddenly stopped ticking and we were all trapped there in suspended time forever.  On the other hand, it felt as though time was moving too swiftly.  We didn’t have enough of it.  One minute, Samantha said.  We had one minute to hide before our time was up. 

One minute until people began to die.

Rosalie’s breaths were as labored as mine as we rushed through the hall, toward one of the rooms.  The building, I observed through a frantic gaze, was set up strangely.  The halls were wide and long, as though in a public building, but the rooms were set up like rooms from a house.  My mind didn’t linger on the building’s setup however, because my terror battled out almost everything else.

Teenagers ran in all directions, the horror and anxiety clear on all of their faces.  I knew that my expression mirrored theirs, and I also knew that they were searching for the door in a panic, only wanting to get out before the abductors could have any time to try and find them.  But that was completely futile—I felt it deep inside.  Our abductors wouldn’t place us anywhere near the door.  Our abductors wanted the game to drag on.

I tugged Rosalie into what looked like an office.  There was no door for us to hide behind, but I wasn’t surprised.  The three of them probably came in here and removed all the doors just to make things “interesting.”  I glanced around, my eyes raking our surroundings as I searched for a proper hiding spot.  There was a desk on the far right that leaned against the wall with a chair sitting in front of it.  A torn-up couch rested in the middle of the room, dust like a blanket covering the top.  Other than that, there was absolutely no furniture—none.  None.

“There’s a window,” Rosalie whispered, pointing ahead.

And there was.  In a rush I pulled Rosalie toward the window, my chest heaving.  I dropped Rosalie’s hand as I struggled to pull the window open, to throw it upward so that me and Rosalie could climb out and escape.  But it didn’t open.  No.  It wouldn’t budge at all.  “Dammit,” I whispered harshly.  “Dammit, dammit, dammit.”

Rosalie let out a shaky sigh.  “It won’t open,” she muttered in despair.  “We’re going to die aren’t we, Serenity?”

I shook my head and backed away from the window, my hands shaking.  “I don’t know, Rosalie.  But I don’t plan on it.”  I gestured to the desk.  “Hide under there.  We don’t have time to go find somewhere else.”

Rosalie nodded, and, with a sniffle, she hurried over to the desk, pushing the chair away so that she could hide underneath.  I moved toward her, grimacing as I ripped off the top part of the chair.  If it weren’t so worn with age I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it.  I handed the piece to Rosalie, whispering for her to use it against anyone who tried to attack her.  And, after that, I ripped off a piece for myself.

I could hear Rosalie sniffling as I pushed the chair back in to conceal her.  Even with the pieces missing it was difficult to see the girl—which I was grateful for.  At least Rosalie would be hidden from the evildoers, even if it was only for a little while.  And as for me?  I stood back, my eyes wide as I attempted to find somewhere to hide.  There was nowhere except for behind the couch.  And that was like asking to be shot.

I brought a hand through my hair, hysteria rising within me.  I could easily leave the room and attempt to find somewhere adequate to hide, but I refused to abandon Rosalie.  Even if it meant dying, I would not leave Rosalie alone in the dark.  I was terrified at the prospect of being alone, so I couldn’t expect anything less from Rosalie.  And she was so young….

That being said, I threw myself behind the couch and squeezed tightly onto the wood of the chair.  My eyes flicked from side to side as I swallowed.  My breathing felt too loud.  It was too loud.  Anyone walking by would be bound to hear me there and then I would die.  I covered my mouth with my hand, squishing my eyes shut.  I had to quiet down, I had to….

But my breathing wouldn’t quiet down.  As I sat there, breathing into my hand, I prayed that the captors wouldn’t go in there.  Just the thought made my heart thud painfully in my chest.  How long would they torture me before they killed me?  Would they even torture me at all?  This was a game to them, and they were trying to win.  So would they waste time by cutting into me first or would they go straight for the kill?

My distraught thoughts were cut off as I heard footsteps approaching from outside the room.  I gulped down a cry, my eyes wide as I stared down at the floor.  Oh no.  Samantha, Al, or Dan had come to kill me.  They’d find me first, I knew they would.  Rosalie was completely concealed underneath the desk.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they looked in the obvious spots first.  People (like me) were really desperate when it came to hiding in time.

I listened as the footsteps drew nearer and nearer, until they were only a few feet away.  The person was obviously in the room now.  I could hear my heart beating, could practically hear my anxiety in the way that I was breathing.  I tried to stop breathing entirely, but I couldn’t.  Nothing was working for me.  It was like my body was rejecting me now that it knew I was done for.

A pair of shoes appeared in front of me.  I let out a gasp and lashed out, my grip tight on my weapon as I tried to whack the person’s leg.  However, at the last moment the person hopped out of the way, and the wood swiped nothing but air.  I felt my stomach tighten.  I wasn’t fast enough.  How screwed could I possibly be?

The person knelt down and I finally saw his face.  It wasn’t one of the captors, I realized with a breath of relief.  He was one of the boys.  If this had been any other time, I would have thought him attractive with his tanned skin and light brown hair.  Wide, hazel eyes that seemed especially fierce and determined.  His pale blue shirt hugged his body nicely, as did his jeans.  But now wasn’t the time to ogle.  In fact, I couldn’t even bring myself to be excited that someone so attractive was kneeling in front of me, his hand wrapping around mine as I lowered my weapon.  No, all I could think was, Even he’s doomed to die.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” the boy whispered.

I tensed and my eyes widened.  I knew that voice…. “Coden,” I said softly.  “Oh my god, Coden.”

Coden’s eyes widened as mine did.  “Serenity,” he said.  He crouched beside me, as though silently declaring that he wasn’t going to leave me alone in a terrible hiding spot like this one.  “This is a horrible hiding spot,” he told me, his eyebrows raised.

“I know,” I mumbled, shaking my head.  I didn’t understand how he could seem so at ease.  My hands were shaking, and his were firm at his sides.  It was like he wasn’t even afraid. 

“Why didn’t you find somewhere else to hide?” he demanded.

I glanced around, swallowing.  Was it safe to talk?  The captors were bound to have finished counting by now.  Surely they were lurking around, sneering as they searched for the teenagers they’d snatched off the streets.  Would it cost me my life to talk to Coden right now?  “I couldn’t leave Rosalie alone,” I whispered so lowly that for a moment I thought Coden wouldn’t hear me.

Coden opened his mouth as though to reply, but suddenly a scream of terror shook the all but silent atmosphere, and a gunshot fired.  I grabbed onto Coden’s arm, my nails digging into his skin, as fear spread its way through my veins.  Oh shit.  Oh shit.  We were next, we were—

“Oh no.”  My voice trembled as pounding footsteps aimed in their direction.  “They’re coming, they’re—”

My words were cut off as Coden wrapped an arm around my torso, hugging me to him as he slapped a hand over my mouth.  I felt tears burn in my eyes.  His grip was tight around me , and even if I wanted to move I wouldn’t be able to.  One might think I would find this uncomfortable, but in reality this was the safest I'd felt since we arrived.  Like maybe Coden knew what the hell he was doing.

The footsteps were getting closer now.  My concentration fell away from Coden and tuned in on each step, my stomach growing tighter with each one.  Every so often the footsteps would falter, but then a moment later they would start up again with a new resolve.  The captor was glancing in rooms, no doubt, checking to see if there was anyone out in the open.  I wondered if they actually walked into the rooms and looked around.

I hoped not.

“Come out, come out wherever you are,” one of the captors cooed from down the hall.  His words were like slime, oozing their way toward the floor as they slithered to find their victims.  The captor repeated his words over and over again, the amusement clear in his tone.  He found this funny.  He found it outrageously hilarious.  I could tell that he was resisting the urge to burst out laughing.  And that disgusted me.  It disgusted me so much, in fact, that for a moment I forgot I was afraid.

That moment didn’t last long, though.

I hid my face in Coden’s shoulder as the voice drew closer.  I could feel Coden’s steady breathing on my neck, and for some reason that comforted me.  It didn’t strike me at all odd that I was practically cuddling with a guy I didn’t really know or that if this were any other situation it would be considered incredibly intimate.  No, all that occurred to me was that there was a killer down the hall and Coden was the only thing protecting me from that killer.

I held my breath as the wood right outside the room creaked.  I silently prayed that the captor didn’t see Rosalie under the desk, that he didn’t walk in and look in the only two spots there were to hide.  Please just let him be stupid, let him shrug the room off and move on.  Let him think, oh no one would hide in there.  The spots were too obvious.

Please, please, please.

My silent pleas proved themselves successful.  The captor only paused for a moment in the doorway, scratching on the wood with his knife before snickering and moving away.  “Yoo-hoo!” he called.  “Come on, kids, no need to be scared!  This will be fun.”

Coden’s grip tightened around me as he tensed.  I could practically feel Coden’s infuriation with this whole situation, could practically feel his desperation to get us out of there.  I could already tell that he didn’t plan on leaving me and Rosalie for dead.  He would have found a different place to hide if that were the case.

Coden let his hand fall from my mouth, and he released my torso as well.  I hugged myself as though my arms were going to protect me and sighed shakily.  I had the sudden urge to mutter, “That was a close one.”  I wasn’t quite sure why.  Maybe it was because that was what people always said in the movies when it was a close one.  Either way, I didn’t say it.  What would be the point?

“We have to get out of this room,” Coden whispered.  “We’ll die if we stay in here.”

I nodded.  “Rosalie,” I called softly, stepping cautiously toward the desk.  My eyes flicked between the threshold and the desk as I silently prayed that no one would come in while I was standing out in the open.  “Come on, hon, we have to go find a better place to hide.”

I pulled the chair away and Rosalie crawled out, trembling with fear.  I helped her up, and she hugged me tightly.  Rosalie wept silently as Coden stood up and walked over to us , his eyes narrowed as he listened for any distant noise.  “Where should we go?” I whispered.

Coden nodded in the opposite direction of where the captor—Al, I was guessing—went.  “That way,” he said softly.  He hurried over to the chair and broke off his own piece.  “If there’s trouble, I want you to take Rosalie and run.  Okay?”

I nodded.  All at once we were like a family.  Promising to protect each other no matter what happened.  I wasn’t sure if I'd be able to leave Coden if trouble found its way to us.  In the end, I'd probably have Rosalie run and then I'd stay there to (try and) help him.  “Okay,” I mumbled.

The hairs on myy arms rose as the three of us made our way down the hall.  I felt so incredibly out in the open now that I was walking around and not hiding.  At any moment someone could come out there and kill us.  At any moment any one of us could die.  All I wanted to do was crawl into some hiding spot that could never be found and stay there until things blew over.  But, of course, that spot didn’t exist.  The only way to truly get out of this alive was by finding the door.  And how the hell were we supposed to do that when we were too busy hiding?

Rosalie’s nails dug painfully into my arm as we continued on.  Room after room we passed, Coden leading the way.  Why wasn’t any room good enough?  Why couldn’t there be a single room that had a decent hiding spot or three?

I just wanted to go home.

Rosalie let out a small squeak as a gunshot rang out.  She and I spun around, their eyes wide.  In that moment I could truly understand why the heroines in the movies were all so stupid.  How could they not be when their judgment was clouded almost completely by fear?  All I could think about right now was getting away.  If I were them I'd probably run up instead of down, too.  I'd probably make all the stupid moves and get myself killed.

And I probably would do that tonight.

Well, maybe not.  Coden was there and he seemed to know what to do.  So maybe there was a small—and extremely small—chance of getting out of this alive.

“Come on,” Coden muttered, grabbing onto my arm and yanking.  “The gunshot wasn’t close.  It’s just the echo.  Come on, we don’t have time to just stand around.”

I nodded once, tugging Rosalie with me as we crept down the hallway.  I wondered where everyone else was.  How large was this place, really?  How long would it take for all of the rooms to be searched, for all the captives to be slaughtered mercilessly in this sick game?

“I want to go home,” Rosalie whimpered.  “Serenity, do you think we’ll ever go home?”

I didn’t answer at first.  I concentrated on the sounds around them: the creaking of feet on wood, the screams as a captor murdered its poor, defenseless victim.  The cries were so distant that I almost couldn’t hear them.  I wondered how many of us were left.  It seemed like so many had died already, and I hadn’t even seen a body.

“Honestly, Rose,” I murmured finally as we rounded a corner, “I don’t know.”

Rosalie nodded into my arm, tears wetting my skin.  I ignored the uncomfortable wetness.  What did it matter?  At any moment I could lose my arm anyway.  I'd rather have a wet arm than no arm.

I let out a muffled cry as the ground suddenly disappeared and I tumbled to the floor.  I blinked, rubbing my eyes blearily and looking around.  Rosalie was beside me, rubbing her own face in blatant confusion.  What the hell had just happened?  I knew I was terrified, but randomly tripping like that?

I heard Coden suck in a breath and my eyes shot to him.  His gaze was settled on the floor in front of me, his eyes wide with what I could only describe as horror and disgust.  And, as my own gaze made its way to the spot in front of me, I realized why.  Rosalie and I hadn’t just tripped on the floor because gravity randomly decided to pull us down for no reason.  No.  We had tripped over something.

We'd tripped over a body.