Chapter 39 The hunt
Anastasia (Interlude)
I was still sniffing with tear-stained cheeks when Gregory came to meet us in the museum. He was with the rest of the family, as well as a few guests, and they all moved about the room chitchatting while my father excused himself to go talk with his associates. General Yuri and Derek Malone.
I tensed up when I felt a hand wrap around my waist. Gregory. I didn't need to turn to know it was him. "Hey, beautiful... Are you crying?” I turned my head away when he moved to peer at my face.
“No.”
“You are. Why? Because of your friend?” I bristled silently when he scoffed.
“I mean, she just got a head start to the game. It's what…” He removed his hand from my waist momentarily to check the watch on his wrist, then put it right back. “...11:25. I can't wait, man.”
I fisted my purse tightly and swallowed the vomit that threatened to burst out. God. I just… I want to die.
By 11:40, the whole process started. First, drugging the girls, or, as they liked to call them, runners. There were a total of sixty here tonight. I had found myself counting throughout the night. I was always counting. Two. Put them all in the room with the cameras, or antechamber, as they also like to call it. Then three, map out the rules for the players and secure the deck for the game.
There were a total of five decks on the yacht: the main deck, the upper deck, the first lower deck, the mess room/deck for staff and then the second lower deck. The game has always been played in the second lower deck. They even called it the game room, like a fucking simulation they created for their entertainment with no care for human life whatsoever.
I felt that familiar pain blossom through my chest again at the thought of Andrea. What they had done to her…
Ariel reminded me so much of her, and it was killing me to know I had done this to her. I had initiated contact with her when I should just have gone to the stupid Lancaster dinner. But I'd thought I had a plausible reason. PR stunt to apologise for my mistake, but he had clocked my intention from a mile away.
He was smarter than me, and now he was making her pay.
“Look at it.” He instructed as the camera feed in our watch room displayed before us showed the ladies lying sluggishly on the antechamber’s floor. “Look at what happens when you defy me.”
I choked on a sob and forced my eyes to it. After all, he had one thing over me he wouldn’t hesitate to use.
My mother.
Ariel
Sound was the first sense that came back to me. It was a mix of loud silence and silent mumblings that made me wonder if a mosquito was nearby, followed by my sight or what I could make of it as I forced my eyes open.
Oh my God. What happened? My eyes felt so blurry, my limbs heavy and my mind foggy. I had no clear recollection of how I'd ended up here.
I turned my head around slowly, still lying down because it genuinely felt like there were weights attached to my arms and legs. Was I tied up?! I mean, I could move if I tried, but all of my actions felt like my brain was lagging.
“Ladies!” I winced when a loud screech suddenly went through the room. The fuck?! Who was that?!
“Can I have your attention, please?” It felt like the room was zooming in and out as I tried to focus on what I was seeing currently beside me.
A woman? Is that another lady? She seemed to be peering at me too as my eyes tried to take in everything around me simultaneously, and after a minute, I saw it – or should I say felt it?
My first sense of danger since opening my eyes. Oh my God. Just how many ladies were in this room?! We were all sprawled out, moving around painfully as a voice screeched yet again. “I won't repeat this, so listen!” I winced, lights flashing before my eyes.
“Welcome to our highlight for the night, the hunt, or as you all might say, a simple game of hide and seek.” I still wasn't sure who was talking, but his voice was in my head, reviving memories I'd forgotten just moments ago.
They all came rushing back. Why I was here. My pity party with Anastasia and the sharp sting I'd felt before going down. He'd injected me with something. That man, and now, now I was here, in this room with all these ladies, listening to an instruction for a game I'd tuned out about a minute ago.
“All you have to do is not get caught, and if you do, nothing is guaranteed. Remember thirty minutes to hide, and then we start. Have fun!”
I was fully panicking now. My body still felt fucking heavy, my head aching and my mouth dry as fuck, but I could move my limbs a bit now.
"Go!" The mumblings grew throughout the room, everyone still moving sluggishly, and it was then that it dawned on me.
Everyone was drugged. All the ladies and we were being made to play this stupid game that had no meaning, at least to me. “I still don't see anyone moving.”
I raised myself up with the support of my arms and instantly regretted it. It felt like I might pass out again.
“I don't see anyone moving.”
I tried again after a deep breath and then tried to move one of my legs. “Maybe you all need a little motivation.” I raised my other leg. “A little something.” Loud screams filled the room when a gunshot suddenly rang out through the room.
Oh my God. Was that… did he just kill someone?!
Another gunshot.
“I'm going to start picking at random.” People started moving, shrieks filling the room, followed by more gunshots. My heart was in my mouth as I finally forced myself up into a standing position.
I didn't even get to take a step before another gunshot rang through the room, and the woman right in front of me, the one I'd been peering at, fell to the ground right as a bullet went through her head.
I froze.