Page 111 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

The news landed hard. Violet playedRed Worldall the time, and her father had never approached her there. She could see how easy it would be, to create an avatar and seek to connect. If he’d wanted to, he could have reached out to Violet, too. But he hadn’t. Just Blake.

“For how long?”

Blake looked ashamed, like he was reading her mind. “A long time. In the game, he was Charger.”

There were so many things to be angry about she had no idea which one to choose. Her head started to ache, and finally she sank into one of the kitchen chairs.Think, Violet. Think.But her head was a confused swirl of thoughts.Coral came up behind her, put her hands on both of her shoulders.

“Red World,” said Blake, eyes widening.

“What about it?” Violet snapped.

“I know someone on Falcão Island. He’s the one who told me that Extreme was coming to the island, about the hotel.”

“Who?”

“His avatar name is King Killer.”

Violet threw up her hands. “Perfect.”

Blake spun and sat down at the table, fingers dancing across the keyboard. “Maybe he can help us.”

“Red Worldis not the real world, Blake.”

“Maybe it should be. Anyway, I have something he wants. Maybe that will motivate him to help us. He and his friends are all adventure guides. If anyone can get to the site, it’s him.”

Coral leaned in close and whispered so that only Violet could hear, “Violet, do you hear that? Are those sirens?”

Violet felt her father’s eyes on her, and when she looked over at him, he smiled. His eyes were glistening. Did he hear? Would he run again?I love you, he mouthed. Violet couldn’t say it back. Did she? Yes, but it was buried deep beneath anger, betrayal, grief.

A booming voice startled her. “Hey, Extremists!”

“Mav is live,” said Blake, moving over to the other keyboard and turning up the volume.

They all crowded around to look at the screen.

“Oh, my God,” said Coral. “Look at all those views. There’s like a million people watching.”

Maverick’s face filled the screen, and the comments section was a rushing river of emojis, expletives, praise, anger, jokes.

“As you may know, everything has gone completely FUBAR here on Falcão Island.”

He was moving backward, voice breathless, eyes wide.

“And the game has taken an ugly turn. We’re trapped. The storm is raging out of control. Our hiders are off the grid, because back at the trailer we’ve lost power for our devices. So the trackers we gave them are useless now. I hope they’re okay, and Iwilllook for them soon. But before I do that, I have to save Angeline.”

He pointed the camera down to reveal that he was wading in knee-deep water.

“I’m in the basement of Enchantments. And this place is flooding fast. And I don’t know how much time I have.”

His face filled the screen again.

“I think I may have found where whoever is doing this is holding Angeline. I’m about to go in. Wish me luck.”

The screen went black.

Violet just stared at the emptiness. Coral dropped an arm around her shoulder and held her tight. Her father had put his head into his hands. He seemed beaten, no help at all. Why had he come back? She wanted to remember him how he was—before. Not like this, someone hollowed-out, deeply flawed.

Blake had his back to them and his headphones on. He was onRed World, presumably looking for King Killer.