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Fallon

W e split up again.

And again.

And again.

Getting out of this fucking maze was a nightmare.

My phone buzzed.

Kelly: I found the end!!!

“Score!” I said.

“Score, indeed,” a voice said from behind me.

I looked up, a large imposing figure before me. I typed an SOS and hit send before clicking my screen off and backing away to run, hoping I could remember which split Kelly ran off into.

He laughed a deep, wicked laugh that made me want to vomit. “Now, now, little girl. Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m leaving the maze,” I whispered back, slowly continuing to back away from him.

His legs were longer and caught up to me quickly, grabbing me by the hair. “You aren’t going anywhere.” His features were dark, almost black with a soulless expression.

I let out a small yelp in pain from him gripping my hair. “Let go.”

“No, you keep escaping my grip and I don’t care to give chase any longer.”

He kept hold of my hair and planted his mouth onto mine, forcing a grossly wet kiss on me. It wasn’t like anything else I’d experienced; it felt all wrong. He forced his tongue into my mouth, letting it flop around like a dying fish.

Pushing on his chest, I tried to force him away from me. No dice; he outweighed me by a good seventy or more pounds.

Forcing me to step backwards, my back connected with a pole of sorts, trapping me between a literal rock and a hard place. “Stop it,” I tried to wiggle away from him to run.

He gripped me even harder, digging his fingers into my skin. “No chance, sweetheart. You’re mine. Didn’t I tell you that?” He lifted my shirt, exposing my stomach. “Look how soft your skin is. I can’t wait to dig in,” he growled.

God, I hoped Kelly would be looking for me. Did my text even send?

“Get off of me, Alexander,” I said, smacking at his hands. What good that would do, I didn’t know. I had to try something, anything.

“You keep slipping away from me. It hurts my feelings,” he breathed against my neck, his voice low and chilling. Before I could react, his teeth sank into my skin. “We’re meant to be together, baby girl.”

“Ow! Get OFF!” I stamped on his foot, getting him to release me from his grip, and bolted holding onto my neck where he bit me. I couldn’t tell if it was saliva or blood on my fingers and I didn’t care to find out.

I heard his heavy footsteps pounding on the ground behind me, getting closer with each second I tried to run. I was too short to outrun him.

Turning each corner I met, I kept going until I hit a dead end. Well, time to go through , I thought while pushing through the corn, the stalks scratching at my arms and face as I pushed through. The stalks sounded so loud as I pressed through them and out into the other side, leaping back into a sprint.

Hoping I was getting toward the end, I chanced to look back but ran headfirst into a hard body. “Oh God, so sorry,” I muttered, trying to sidestep and continue running, still holding my neck like I was preventing myself from bleeding out.

“Jesus Christ, Blondie.”

I froze for half a second, looking up in disbelief. “Brent?”

“Kelly found me at the exit and said you sent an SOS. She said Alexander was in here being a fucking freak, per usual.”

I gripped his arm, my eyes wide in fear. “Brent, he tried to...”

“Not one more word if he’s going to make it out of here alive tonight.” His voice dropped to a low rumble, daring someone to try him. Even in the darkness, I felt his face getting that dangerous look to it. “Why are you holding your neck like that?”

“Don’t beat up anyone else today, Jesus. Just get me out of here.”

I turned at the sound of heavy footsteps crushing leaves, dirt, and gravel beneath them as he almost reached us. “No way you get away that easy, baby girl.” Alexander’s voice was closer now.

“ Baby girl ?” Brent said teasingly.

“Ok fine. Kill him.”

That was all he needed to hear. The moment Alexander broke through the wall of corn, Brent pounced like a cheetah chasing its prey. It was terrifying— and oddly hot —to see him sprint full force, closing the distance in seconds.

Alexander had no chance to see him coming before he was tackled to the ground.

“What the fuck, bro!” He struggled underneath Brent straddling him, laying into him with his fists. “Get off me,” he muttered.

“Get off you?” A sickening laugh escaped Brent’s chest, his fists still going.

They rolled and Alexander took his best shot to get a hit in, missing and hitting the ground. Brent rolled off of him, effortlessly getting back to his feet and throwing his jacket in my direction. “Cover yourself up, Blondie. The exit is just behind you to the right.”

He motioned for Alexander to approach with his hands, taunting him. Playing with him.

Unleashing the predator that lay just beneath the surface.

I covered myself up in his jacket and rushed down to the end of the maze.

“Fal!”

“Let’s get out of here,” I hurried toward her.

She caught me mid sprint, wrapping an arm around me as we rushed to her car, the sounds of the fight, the festival, and the horrors fading behind me. The sooner I was home, the better.

At home, I was wrapped in a blanket and served bottomless hot chocolate while we watched fictional scary movies.

“Another movie?” Kelly flipped around with the remote looking for another horror movie to watch.

“No way, I need to go to bed. I’ve got another briefing tomorrow to prepare for Brent’s grandfather. I don’t know how my mom did it,” I said, sinking into the couch.

Turning off the television, she looked at me with curiosity. “So, you’re getting into two relationships with Brent. A very personal one and a professional one. Can’t wait to see how that turns out.”

Could the couch have been a cliff to roll off of? That sounded nice.

“I’m not dealing with this. Goodnight.” I stomped off into my room.

Flicking on the lights, I expected a boogeyman to be in my room. Nothing . Unless you counted the weird sounds from outside the window. I pulled the curtains back an inch to peer out into the night.

Tap. Tap.

Were those... pebbles?

I slowly opened the window.

“Fallon, I need to talk to you,” the voice said from below my window.

“Jesus Christ, Garrett,” I breathed, gripping my chest. My anxiety would be the death of me.

“Meet me in your backyard?” His voice sounded desperate.

I shifted slightly. Kelly was still awake and there was no way to get out there covertly. Not that I wanted to; I felt like I didn’t know this guy to the full extent. He could have been trying to lure me out for who knows what.

“Can’t. Kelly is still awake. You can talk here if it’s that important,” I whispered.

He let out a huff. “Okay, well. For one, you didn’t have to sick Brent on me. What is up with you two? He’s with Sloane and she’s not a very...amicable person.”

I rolled my eyes. Was he being serious right now? “Next question,” I said flatly.

“Huh, as soon as I’m out of the picture... Anyway, I needed to clear some of these allegations. The Fitzgerald family is running amuck and acting like a mafia right now with some other families. The reason families like mine are being caught up in cases is because someone’s daddy calls the shots and doesn’t like when people don’t act like their little worker bees.”

To be honest, that tracked. Alexander had this aura about him that screamed ‘I’m a piece of shit and my daddy allows it’ and it made me sick.

“Okay? Doesn’t change that I can’t be seen with you. My advisors aren’t too thrilled with us being dragged into your guys’ drama.” I glanced around, wondering what else was lurking out there.

He grunted and I could tell a frown formed on his face. “Your family has been involved with this shit for longer than you’d think. I’m in the center of this drama spreading around campus because my dad wasn’t abiding by some secret group rule, but from what my family’s advisors and legal counsel are saying, there was some stuff your mom was into that has to do with a lot of what’s happening.”

Great, another mystery. Thanks, mom. Could have used a heads up, you know! I silently scolded her in my head as if she could hear me.

Okay, I was tired of the vagueness from everyone. “So, why are only a few families going down?”

“It’s all to do with the top ten and the group at the very top. You’ve seen the list? Those ten run a lot of shit, Fallon. Sloane's family keeps tabs and track of everyone, organizing shit. Your friend is in the family of blackmailers. I’m surprised you didn’t know that by now with your association with Vaughn. Also, tell him not to attack me again. Shit hurts.” He rubbed his face and in the shadows, it looked like he would have a nice shiner on his eye for a while.

I bit the inside of my cheek, unsure of how to respond. “How can I trust what you’re saying? I’ve been told things about you using me for protection from the fallout. So how do I know this isn’t a ploy?”

He groaned. “Why would I come here after you got my ass handed to me? I still give a shit about you, you know. Even if we never made things official.”

A small pang in my chest left me feeling confused. I didn’t know anything, and I had very little information to go off of in all the situations I found myself in. I was drowning with sharks—while bleeding.

Garrett seemed kind and caring and none of our interactions gave me red flags. But again, he could be a great actor like the rest of them.

On another hand... his family was going down.

I didn’t know what to think. These kids around me turned on each other in the name of self-preservation.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, putting my forehead to the window. “I just don’t know anything.”

He got closer to the window. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t figure out exactly who you were, and that a lot of the rumors aren’t my fault. I feel like a lot of this is my fault. But the charges, the feds, the other families gunning for some of us aren’t. Those are all the doings of the parents around us and all of us are canon fodder for each other to use in their wars. The only problem is some of the families aren’t scared of getting their kids dragged in, or worse.”

My eyes flicked up to him. “What do you mean ‘or worse’?”

“The kid who died? You think that’s an accident? Whatever the reports say, it’s a lie. He was killed in this war zone all our parents have created. None of us are safe—you especially. Your mom died a while ago and the predators have been circling and sharpening their nails in preparation for you. You’re about to be dragged into shit that you can’t come back from.”

He tried to get even closer to the window, a bush in his way. “Fallon, you cannot trust anyone from the top ten. Look what they did to me.”

My eyes shifted to look away from him. “I’m in the top ten, so...I shouldn’t trust myself?”

His hands gripped the edge of my open window. “You can’t trust any of them. If something happens to me, I can at least say I tried to warn you.”

I pinched my eyebrows together in confusion. “What the hell would happen to you?”

“For exposing the truth? A lot. I’m a dead man walking. Don’t play their games.”

And with that he stalked off into the night.

Exposing the truth? What was he about to do?