Page 2 of The Invite (The Massacre Ball #1)

Those three facts are written in stone. Hence, I stubbornly keep my mouth shut, refusing to give them my fear or plead for my life like those pathetic girls in horror flicks.

Neither of us says a word.

Something shifts in his eyes.

His thumb presses on my pounding pulse, which I can neither hide nor slow down. I harden my jaw, causing a malevolent spark in his gaze.

“A fearless prey,” he hums mockingly, tracing my cheek with one finger. A tremor runs down my spine at the touch, as powerful as a thunderbolt. “A first for me. I love it. Breaking your spirit… I’ll love it even more.”

I don’t know what compels or comes over me, but I blurt out in a shaky tone, “Just get it over with.”

He stares at something over my shoulder. “She wants us to get it over with.”

“Does she now?” drawls a second voice, whose body heat swiftly appears at my back. Until I’m sandwiched between their brawny chests.

Somehow it’s the one holding my neck that’s scaring me more.

“I vote no,” the one with the sinister eyes says, mirth dancing beneath them. “It’s not as fun, and dawn is hours away.”

His partner twists the chain. “I agree.”

“I’m afraid the verdict isn’t in your favor, little runaway,” he tells me, as if I didn’t just listen to the two of them converse over my head. “Wait… we never really asked what it is that you’d like us to get over with.”

“Do you need me to spell it out for you?” I taunt with false bravado, without a care for my safety. “Maybe give you ideas? Because whatever you two want is going to be so much fun for me.”

“It could be.”

“Is that what rape is nowadays? Fun?” I arch my brow. “Or is it torture? Murder? Or all of the above?”

My sarcastic taunts are met with inquisitive silence.

My heartbeat and breathing drum to the same tune, while the moonlight flickers through the flying leaves of the tall white oak trees.

“We have a firecracker on our hands,” jokes his partner after a beat. His voice is deep and smooth, but no less dangerous. Unlike his friend, he isn’t serious and brooding.

“Torturing and murdering a mysterious creature like you will be blasphemy.” Tilting my head back until it rests against his shirtless friend, my monster roams his wicked eyes down the length of my body. “It won’t be rape if we make you beg for our cocks and you enjoy it.”

Oh my god! Does he not hear himself?

They’re crazier than I thought.

Nevertheless, I won’t let them scare me. I’ve survived evil worse than them.

A sharp ticking nose breaks through my mental speech and I turn my head, as much as the grip on my throat allows. What I see gives my defiance a swift death and I’m unable to breathe.

It glints in the dark, awakening my nightmare.

“No! Please! Get it away!” I thrash in their arms with all my strength. It’s the last thing I expected either of them to have. He loosens his chain to yank my wrists behind my back and tie them together. “Let me go!”

“Beg.”

I stare into my monster’s bottomless pupils, bewildered. “What?”

“ Beg. ”

“Will you let me leave?”

“Depends.”

I swallow nervously. “On?”

“How nicely you plead and show us the respect you haven’t until now.”

“You’re insane.” I marvel at his audacity.

Hooking his fingers in his front pockets, he replies in a calm yet chilling voice, “I don’t like being called a rapist, a torturer, and a murderer in the same breath.”

I was wrong.

He’s worse than a monster.

He’s talking and demanding as if I’m the one committing a crime. The one who is offending them. Unpredictable and arrogant, I don’t stand a chance of outsmarting them. Physically, I never stood a chance. Mentally, it seems impossible.

“I-I’m sorry.” I push past the dryness in my throat. “I was rude to call you those things. Please let me go.”

“To report us and get us arrested?” tsks his friend in my ear. The soft material of his mask brushes the side of my face, making me shiver in fright.

“How will I?” I whisper. “I haven't seen your faces. I’ll forget all about this, I swear.”

As they lock eyes in a wordless conversation, I pray my plea works.

Or provides me an opportunity to escape.

I’m pondering how to uncuff myself from the chains and stay out of reach of that knife without drawing attention to my movements when they focus back on me.

“All right,” says the one whose voice alone makes my skin crawl. “You can go.”

“Thank you!” I sigh gratefully, sensing my wrists go free. The moment the weight of the chain disappears, I turn away from them and walk faster. The heat of their gaze is searing me. Nevertheless I don’t look back.

A few steps remain between the forest and the street.

I march faster, smiling in relief.

Almost there—

Something locks around my ankle and I trip, screaming. “Ahhh!”

Flat on my belly on the unforgiving ground, I’m dragged backward. I futilely seek purchase and all my hands grab at is dirt and dry leaves. I look behind and see my masked monster looming over me and holding the chain in his fist.

“Why?” I whimper, betrayed and frightened beyond words.

Straddling my back, his knuckle traces my jaw reverently, in stark contrast to the malice staring me down. “You said it yourself, little runaway. You don’t know our faces, which means you’re our perfect prey tonight.”