Chapter 38: Codename: Blackheart Chapter Thirty-Eight

I walk slowly into the room and as flashes of artificial lightning light up the dark dining room I catch something glimmering all around the room. It’s only on the fourth flash I finally make it out. The room is covered, wall to wall, in piano wire. I can even make out various wires dripping with blood. Jesus fucking Christ. Them stepping in must have set off some mechanism that triggered all these wires to slice through them like fucking butter. In the span of a few minutes, we’ve gone from eighteen down to fourteen. Numbers are dwindling fast and all I can hope is that I’m not next.

“What the fuck do we do?” Haditha shouts.

“Does it look like any of us have any fucking answers? How about you try something instead of shouting for us to figure it out for you?” Whiro shouts back.

“I need to get out of here,” Iolaire says softly, “I need to get out of here.”

“No shit, we all need to get out of here you dumb bitch,” says Whiro in annoyance.

“The only useful thing you did was nearly get yourself killed and you couldn’t even do that right. So, maybe shut up for five minutes? I’m tired of hearing your incessant voice snapping at everyone,” I say in irritation.

Whiro limps over and towers over me, “Fucking make me,” he taunts. I can’t see his face, but I can tell from his eyes he’s smirking. I look up at him with no emotion in my eyes and kick my foot directly into the wound on his leg, watching as he drops to the ground clutching his leg and groaning in pain, “YOU CUNT OF A BITCH!” he screams as he writhes.

“Sticks and stones, Whiro,” I say as I step over his writhing body. He shouldn’t have challenged me because that’s a challenge I’d happily take any day.

“Look! The window’s open!” Mortsafe exclaims. We all look to where he’s pointing, and sure enough, on the other side of the dining room is an open window.

“I’m going for it,” announces Iolaire.

“Don’t be stupid,” Mamba says flippantly, “That couldn’t be a bigger red flag.”

“I don’t care!” she shouts.

She has to get past the body pieces first, so she doesn’t even hesitate to step on them, using them as stepping stones to avoid stepping in the blood and entrails. I have to hand it to her, even in her suicidal moments she does have some smarts to her. Just unfortunate she’s about to die. She carefully weaves through the piano wire watching for where she steps. Now my joke from yesterday about dodging laser beams is a lot more accurate. Just substitute laser beams for piano wire and here we are.

We watch with keen interest as she manages to get past the piano wire and make it over to the window. She carefully feels the window frame and assesses it for springs or more razor blades.

“I don’t see anything,” she calls out.

“Doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. Don’t be stupid,” Mamba warns.

Iolaire glares back at him and slowly sticks her head out the window looking around outside. The moment her head is through, the wood panel at the base of the windowpane retracts back revealing clean glass, and we watch as the window snaps down with enough force to severe Iolaire’s head clean off her body. Her body flails and twitches before collapsing to the ground.

And then there were thirteen.

Time is ticking down fast, and so far the only thing that’s been accomplished is the thinning of the herd. With everyone too afraid to move, I can’t wait around to use them as pawns, so I have to start moving around myself. I walk over to the staircase and slowly make my way up the stairs being cautious of each step as I go up.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Whiro hisses.

“Narnia,” I say curtly. I hate stupid questions.

Once I make it to the top of the stairs with my only injury being the throbbing gashes in my hands, I make my way carefully down the hallway. The ominous sound of thunder and flashes of lightning, while certainly setting the mood, does nothing for my nerves. As I approach each door, I press myself against the wall and reach to the side to open the door just in case some axe or something wants to come and split me in two. The first two rooms seem pretty benign, which I’m sure means death lurks in every nook and cranny, but I’m still not seeing a way out yet.

I come to the last door, and as I do, a particularly rancid smell that burns my nostrils is seeping from under the door. I once again press myself against the wall and open the door and am relieved when nothing slices or goes boom. I peek my head around and my eyes widen when I see the floor of an otherwise lovely bedroom, covered in some black tar-looking substance. I’m about to give this room a pass when I notice an air vent in the ceiling. So far this is the only room I’ve seen that has an air vent. That means the air has to come from somewhere, so that might just be my only way out of here. But first I need to figure out how lethal this black goop is.

I retrace my steps back down to the dining room and pick up one of the severed arms off the floor. Might as well put these idiots to use. I race back upstairs to the bedroom, pull the sleeve off the arm before tossing it onto the tar. Within seconds the arm starts to sizzle, and it looks as though the skin is melting off. The smell is seeping through my mask and making me want to hurl, so I take deep breaths through my mouth in an attempt to ignore the odour. I squat down and try to pull the arm back, but it’s stuck to the floor like this black stuff is made of industrial-strength glue.

Okay, so safe to say I can’t walk on the floor. Shit, I’m going to have to Floor is Lava my way to that vent. I have to climb, and I went and injured my hands. My fucking luck. I take a deep breath, rotate my neck, and cling to the door frame, then carefully use it to swing myself to a nearby chair. Once on the chair, I stretch out and climb onto a dresser. So far so good. From the dresser, I jump onto the bed and as soon as my weight causes the bed to sink, a large spike shoots up from the mattress narrowly missing me by centimetres.

I stand frozen in place as my heart pounds in my chest. The spike quickly retracts, but now I’m hesitant to take another step. If I step in the wrong place I’m going to become shish kebab. Deciding my only option is to try to jump from the bed to the wardrobe, I take a few deep breaths and focus on what I have to do. With all my strength, I leap off the bed and manage to grab onto the top of the wardrobe, but this fucking bodysuit is making it hard to grip onto anything. As I feel my hands slipping, I try to keep my feet off the ground and at that same moment, I hear a loud scream of pain coming from down the hall. That was all I needed to give me a boost of adrenaline and with it, I manage to pull myself up to the top of the wardrobe.

I’m now directly under the vent. Using the wardrobe, I push off it and proceed to ram my shoulders into the vent above me. The loud banging is probably going to bring the attention of the others, so I don’t have a lot of time. I use all the force of my body weight and finally, the vent bursts open. I can hear footsteps running down the hallway, so I quickly pull myself up into the vent before they can see me. I thank my slender frame as it gives me enough room to manoeuvre around in this vent. The vent stretches in two directions, in front of me and behind me, making me unsure of which way to go. I take a moment to stay very still and feel a slight breeze coming from in front of me, so I start crawling in that direction.

I continue crawling through the vent, turning this way and that as I continue to follow the slight breeze, hoping I’m making the right decision when I suddenly come to a dead end. I slam my head into the metal wall and curse my shit luck as I roll onto my back. What’s worse is I have no idea how much time is left on the clock, so I don’t know how long I have to get myself out of this mess.

I open my eyes, ready to turn over and go back the other way when I notice a latch above my head. Cautiously I reach up, turn the latch, and feel a panel above me open up as bright light streams into the vent. I sit up and pull myself up through the panel as bright lights completely blind me. The moment I’m out, I hear the thunderous applause of an excited crowd. I made it! I actually made it out.

The panel snaps shut behind me and as my eyes adjust to the light, I find myself standing in the middle of the arena. Holy shit, they built an entire fake house under the arena? These people have too much time and money on their hands.

Looking around the arena, I can see the jumbotrons. Some zoomed in on me standing in the arena, while others are showing live recordings of various rooms in the house I just escaped. Of course, they were watching the whole thing. Was there ever any doubt?

“Ladies and gentlemen, what an incredible display of quick thinking, careful planning, skill, and ingenuity. Is it any wonder our Blackheart has been a three-time champion? Give it up for Blackheart as she makes an impressive move to the top of the scoreboard!” Hexton cheers from his podium.

I look up at him as I think of all the ways I would like to kill him – and I’d make it incredibly slow too. I would take my time and make him suffer in unimaginable ways for the hell he has put me and others through, but I can’t. So instead, I raise a bloody bandaged hand to the sky and give the disgusting crowd a wave.

A set of doors open to the side of the arena, and I don’t hesitate before moving towards them. This time, I don’t even glance towards my family’s box. I just want to sit down, get patched up and see how many others manage to make it out of that hell house.