Page 48 of The Player

I stood still, staring at Will. Will didn’t look at me; just panted as he waited for what would happen next.

Seconds ticked by, and nothing. The growing stench of blood, guts and shit made me lightheaded, and I reached forward to put my hand on Will’s back. Not only to steady myself but to reach him too. Bring him back from whatever hell he’d just dived head-first into.

Then, in a calmer, more measured voice, the Taskmaster spoke.

“You broke the rules, and for that, you will be punished. Make your way back to your room. Thank you for playing today.”

That couldn’t be it? He sounded too calm.

The calm before the storm.

What the fuck was he going to do to us?

I stepped forward in a trance.

What the fuck had just happened?

“Why did you do that?” I asked Will as he fell in step beside me, his face void of emotion.

“Because I’m sick and tired of this bullshit. He doesn’t control me. He never will.”

“We know that, but making him think he does is part of the plan, isn’t it? We’ve pissed him off.”

“It’s done now.” Will shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do to change it. If he wants a fight, then I’ll give him one.”

“But we need to fight clever. You need to talk to me about stuff like this. We work together. You can’t just go rogue like that.”

Will stopped and spun to face me, blood was splattered on his face, his hands red as he fisted them by his sides.

“Make up your mind, Bee. One day you accuse me of not fighting, the next you don’t want me to fight back. I won’t apologise for what I’ve just done, and I’d do the same again if I had to. What I did, I did for us. He needs to know who he’s dealing with.”

His words hurt, but I tried not to let it show. He was right. I had accused him, but arguing wasn’t going to help us. I knew being stuck in here was making us crazy, driving us insane, but I couldn’t lose Will to his demons. He’d saved me from mine enough times. I had to step up.

“He does know who he’s dealing with. That’s why he chose us. It’s a fucked-up compliment that he wants us to do his dirty work, you’ve said that yourself.”

“And now it stops.”

Will walked away, making my heart splinter as he did. This was a side to Will that I’d never seen before. A side he didn’t bring out often, and I marched after him, determined to bring him back. Bring back the Will who saw the positive in everything and always joked with me. The one who could make sunshine out of shit. The Will I was falling in love with.

My Will.

ChapterTwenty-One

BRYONY

“Don’t do that, Will,” I cried out as we walked back into our cell. “Don’t let him win.”

Will spun around, fury seeping from every pore.

“I didn’t.” He pointed aggressively at me as he spoke with malice. “That was the whole fucking point.”

The door slammed shut behind us, and I let out a deep, ragged breath.

“I don’t mean in there, in the task room.” I stalked towards him, forcing him to drop his outstretched arm. “I mean now. In here. With me.” I jabbed at my chest. “You’re letting him get into your head. Look at you.”

He was breathing heavily now, his eyes boring into mine.

“We’ve spent days, weeks, locked in this shithole,” he seethed. “The only fucking respite we have is walking down a corridor to commit a murder and then walking back down that same corridor to come here. There’s no windows, no daylight, nothing. So, forgive me if I want to go off script once in a while.”