I calmed my vivid imaginings with facts.

  No one had been hiding in the cornfield and there wasn’t going to be a psycho wielding a chainsaw coming at me from inside this barn.

  Being cautious for self-preservation’s sake, I slowly approached the large structure. I noticed right away that it didn’t have any of the luxury fixtures or elements I’d expect from a Sainte property. In fact, it looked rather dull and plain sitting in the center of a leveled dirt circle.

  There were no windows or notable features apart from a large set of matching pine doors. My attention was drawn to the large black bar keeping them closed. I silently cursed at the sight of it. Did someone lock Grace and Mel inside? What a dick move.

  I knocked on the door to see if I’d get a response. When I didn’t, I slid my phone back into my pocket so that I could use both hands to grab the round metal handle. It didn’t budge an inch at first. I tightened my grip and with a grunt, I pulled hard to the left. With a loud clang, the heavy bar slid out of place. The sudden momentum nearly knocked me on my ass.

  Both doors swung open to reveal a metal grate going from floor to ceiling a few inches inside the doorway.

  Mel, Grace, and a couple people I wasn’t familiar with were all on the other side of it. My sister was nowhere in sight.

  “Lana?” Mel questioned with a hint of confusion when she realized who had opened the barn. I stepped inside intending to let everyone out. A guy in the back yelled out for me to stop.

  His warning came a fraction of a second too late. Once I passed over the threshold, both barn doors slammed shut and the metal grate immediately retracted. Looking up at the high ceiling, I spotted a track-like pulley system that had been triggered.

  A loud bang echoed from behind me, a sign the bar I’d just removed had slid back into place. The music abruptly cut off, leaving heavy breathing to fill the cutting silence.

  “Did you see that? Fuck, we’re never getting out of here!” A curvy blonde yelled.

  Grace rushed towards me and grabbed hold of my shoulders, checking my body over from top to bottom. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” I took hold of her hands and gently removed them. “What is going on?”

  “How did you find us?” Mel asked, coming to stand beside Grace.

  “I got your location in a text from Grace that said you needed help. Not that I did you much good.”

  Grace shook her head back and forth. “Lana, I never text you.”

  “Well, someone did.”

  I pulled my cell from my pocket and showed her the screen I still had pulled up on the Find My app. Her dot was showing right where we both were. They shared a look before settling their gazes on me. I didn’t like what I saw. Mel’s silver eyes had darkened and there was a pensive expression marring her porcelain features.

  “They lured her here too,” a heavily accented voice carried from the far side of the barn.

  “What is she talking about?”

  Grace expelled a breath and glanced at my screen again. “I left my phone in the car because I thought we’d be in and out.”

  I didn’t know that. Hadn’t I locked my doors? Come to think of it, where were my keys? I ran my hands over both pockets and realized my fob was gone. I did it again to make sure I wasn’t tripping. Where the hell did my keys go?

  “What is happening? Someone got into my car and stole your cellphone to trick me into coming here? How would they know you even left it there?”

  “Because they’re clearly on bullshit,” Mel seethed. “Do you know how we got here? Some bitch dressed as a clown told us L would meet us in the barn. It made sense at the moment.

  “Now that I’m in here I feel like a fucking idiot for walking through those doors.”

  “That makes two of us. I think I know who you’re talking about.”

  I looked towards the other people inside with them. “How did everyone else get shut in here? Don’t tell me you all went waltzing through a cornfield together.”

  “Kind-of. I was coming to score some shrooms from my buddy,” a guy with long black hair answered.

  Lovely. I’m pretty sure we had chemistry together my sophomore year because he’d been held back for skipping the class so many times two years before.

  “So, someone made sure that all…” I trailed off and counted how many people were inside the barn. There was the curvy blonde. She probably had people looking for her. There was a tall brunette wearing some type of chic cultural dress. A guy with glasses, a redhead, and another dude with a man-bun.

  “Eight of us got locked in. Does anyone know why?” Multiple looks were exchanged, but no one seemed to have an answer.

  “Do any of you have someone else at the party we can call?”

  “You can’t use your phone inside here,” the guy with glasses answered. His dark eyes peered at me from behind their thin rims.

  “Why not?” I checked my network bars and saw he was right. The same cellphone that got me all the way here no longer had a signal and had gone into ‘searching’ on the app.

  I laughed despite nothing about this situation being remotely funny. Was I dreaming right now?

  “Someone’s using a jammer. They let the phones work off and on.” Glasses held his phone up for me to see we had the same issue. “We were sent to get more beer.” He motioned towards the dude with the man-bun.

  I belatedly realized their shirts correlated.

  The revelation that they walked through a cornfield in the middle of the night for beer they’d have to carry all the way back to the house when there were already cases of it stacked all over the place could only mean one thing.

  “You’re pledging?”

  “Kappa Azathoth,” his friend cupped his hands over his mouth and hollered in a theatrically deep voice.

  “I have officially entered hell,” Mel mumbled.

  Azathoth? These two were connected to the same circle as us then. That frat belonged to Apollon University, which meant they were ridiculously gifted in some type of academic field to be attending there in the first place.

  “I’m Dion, that’s Max,” he put forward.

  I nodded and forwent doing the same. In any other circumstance, I would’ve loved to sit and pick his brain, right now we needed to figure out how we were going to get out of here.

  “Unless the plan was to lock us away to die, there has to be something inside this barn that will help us get out.”

  “Yeah, because we didn’t think of any of this shit already, newbie,” the guy with long hair retorted sarcastically. He made it sound as if they were an exclusive clique I’d requested to join.

  Mel turned on him with a glare. “Look at that, the guy who was damn near crying in the corner has suddenly decided to dig deep within himself and find his tiny little balls. Maybe you should thank her for helping you with that.”

  “Hey. It’s fine, he’s no one,” I said softly.

  Despite him saying they already had, I searched the room anyways with fresh eyes. It was close to empty. There were a few bales of hay stacked in a corner people had turned into seats.

  An old car was parked off to the left. A heavy-duty tool bench was to the right. Another set of doors was on the back wall but seeing as they’d all been stuck in here longer than I had it was safe to assume they were locked too. My attention slowly drifted back to the dusty Station Wagon. It didn’t fit in. Everything around us looked new, including the plain-looking building itself.

  “That shouldn’t be here.”

  “Cooper just checked it and said there wasn’t anything inside,” Dion replied, implicating the guy with long hair.

  “I’ll check it again then, just in case.”

  “You do that sweetheart, kill some time,” he responded with a forced laugh.

  I ignored his petty sarcasm and walked over to the car, yanking open the driver's side door, causing the hinges to groan in loud protest. I stuck my head inside and was immediately smacked with a smell that reminded me of eraser dust.

  All the leather was cracked and had foam spilling out.

  “I’ll re-check the back,” Grace volunteered. She climbed into the rear seat and began to diligently look over the faded yellow and cream exterior.

  I opened the glove compartment and then ran my hands over the ruined seats. It was the passenger one where my palms skimmed across something hard. I pressed down lightly and felt the outline of a rectangular object.

  “Did you find something?” Mel asked in a whisper, watching over my shoulder.

  “Maybe…” I didn’t want to say for sure until I saw what it was. There was no point in getting everyone excited over nothing. Slipping my fingers beneath the torn leather, I started to pull and pluck.

  Chunks of yellow foam fell to the floor as I burrowed deeper into the inner workings of the bucket seat.

  The tips of my coffin nails scraped against something plastic. Wrinkling my nose, I stretched my fingers as far as I could until I had three wrapped around the object good enough to start pulling. After a few back-and-forth motions, I tugged it free.

  “Seriously?”

  Grace stopped what she was doing and peered between the seats with a frown. “Someone’s really taking this prank gig to heart.”

  Mel peeked over my shoulder and cursed when she saw what was in my hand. “Who the fuck still uses those?”

  “The police?” I shuffled backward and placed my aching feet back on the dirt floor of the barn.

  “I don’t think they had much to do with this,” Grace remarked.

  “What is that?” Max questioned when he looked at my hand.

  “It’s a tape recorder,” the blonde voiced loud enough for everyone to hear. “How did you miss that when you searched the car before?” she lobbied at Cooper.

  “I must’ve overlooked it, sorry. It’s just a tape deck. How is it going to help?”

  I flipped the recorder towards the small circle everyone had started to form around me. The brunette’s brows furrowed as she read the message someone had scribbled on the black device in red ink. “Play with me?”

  “You’re not actually going to listen to that, are you?” Dion asked. He eyed the device from behind his thin-rimmed glasses as if it were the devil itself.

  “I don’t see why we wouldn’t,” Mel replied. “There’s a tape inside, isn’t there?”

  Her question was rhetorical, but I answered anyway. “Yeah, and it was probably here for a reason.” I don’t know if I said that more for them or myself, but this felt like the right course of action.

  It wasn’t like we had anything better to do or a ton of other options. We were trapped inside a barn and none of our cellphones worked. Finding this tape was not a coincidence. Someone had diligently done the groundwork in anticipation of it being found. Despite the voice in my head starting to stir up doubts again, I took a breath and pressed play.

  CHAPTER THREE

  At first, there was nothing but the sound of the tape spinning. When someone finally began to speak, their voice gave off a discomforting Loli vibe. It sounded almost exactly like the jester from back in the woods.

  “It’s my favorite time of year and what better way to celebrate than with a group of special friends?” she trilled happily.

  “What a nutcase,” the ninja mumbled.

  “Now, I’ve got a few secrets you’ll be dying for me to share, but first we’re going to see who amongst you deserves to hear it.” At the end of her sentence, a portion of wood paneling above the tool bench slid up.

  There were mixed reactions as a variety of masks affixed to the wall and a small digital clock were revealed.

  “Surprise! I got you all a present. Hurry over and put on your new faces. I’ll give you four minutes to get yourselves ready!”

  “Is this real?” the blonde stammered, wringing her hands together.

  I didn’t know how to answer that. Clearly, someone had gone through the trouble of setting all this up. It was pretty elaborate and well thought out for a prank, but also impressive.

  “I’m annoyed with how intrigued I am right now,” Mel quietly divulged.

  “Me too.”

  Despite the given situation, I wanted to see how everything would pan out. Keeping hold of the recorder, I walked over to the tool bench with Mel and Grace to get a better look at the clock and masks. Dion followed right behind us.

  “They have our names beneath them,” Grace pointed out.

  I looked over each mask, seeing they were all different except for our three that were the same style of LED in different colors.

  “Here.” Mel stretched up and grabbed two of the three off the wall. She handed Grace the pink one and me the white, removing the blue assigned to her last.

  “Y'all are wearing those?” Cooper asked, sounding completely baffled by our decision.

  Mel smiled at him as she slid her mask on. “They want to play a game, right? I say let’s play.”

  “Yes, let us see what will happen.” The brunette made her way to the front of the group. “Can someone hand me mine? It’s, Hayven.”

  “You’re the bunny.”

  Grace placed her mask on her head and then snagged the leather piece with rabbit ears down.

  “Anyone else?” Mel asked.

  They looked at us as if we’d lost our minds. I placed my mask on and bit my lower lip to smother a laugh. It was lightweight and breathable, allowing me to see out perfectly. I didn’t get what they were all so afraid of. We were here now, and my night was already ruined. I didn’t see the point in wallowing.

  I should’ve been in a cozy theater right about now, thinking ahead to the meal I’d order at my favorite bar and restaurant. My ETA home was going to be blown to shit. I hadn’t met my sister and unless this wrapped up quickly I probably wouldn’t.

  Whoever was fucking with us was partially responsible for everything that had gone wrong.

  The voice on the recording came back, gaining everyone’s attention.

  “Time’s up! I hope you all prepared well. I’ll be mighty disappointed if you let me down.

  Now listen closely, it’s a matter of life and death.

  Sixteen in total, take away one.

  The price to be paid is within your hands.

  A small token to show you’re paying attention.

  Your ears will hear.

  The mind will solve.

  Your tongue will help you give me what I want.

  Once you see it, take a breath.

  One quick cut and the maze awaits.

  Be quick and steadfast, you have fifteen minutes. If you fail, your life is forfeit.

  Tick, tock, it’s time for judgement.”

  There was an audible click that signaled the recording had ended.

  “What did she mean by our lives will be forfeit?” Max questions, his voice slightly shaking.

  “Who knows. It’s nothing to be scared about. All of this is clearly some big ass ruse to make us shit our pants,” Cooper replied.

  “I think we should try to solve the riddle in case it is more than that,” Hayven argued.

  He rolled his eyes and stepped away from the tool bench. “Suit yourselves. I’m going to sit down until the clock hits zero. They should let us out afterward.”

  I glanced down and saw a countdown of sorts had begun. Based on the numbers already shown it had started as soon as the recording ended.

  How was that possible? Someone had to be listening in or watching us right this second. That was the only logical explanation for the way everything was panning out.

  “I don’t think they’re going to just let us go. Think about it, why go through all the trouble of setting this up just to open the doors anyways?”

  He didn’t respond, but he didn’t flat-out reject my theory either.

  “That makes sense,” Dion agreed.

  “Or like Cooper said, whoever is doing this only wants to scare us,” the redhead suddenly chimed in. There was a hint of southern twang in her tone. “Why would we feed into this crap? Do you really believe we’ll be in real-life danger for not going along with some weird kids' elaborate prank?”

  Well, there she and I had a difference of opinion. If this person was a kid, then technically so were we and I didn’t think they were weird. I thought they were kind of brilliant. I didn’t say any of this out loud. I could sense a debate brewing and knew to diffuse any possibility of it beginning.

  This may have been some ridiculous scheme thought up by who knows, but I’d decided to play along and right now every second wasted was one we couldn’t get back.

  “We have approximately thirteen minutes left to solve this riddle. How about focusing on that so we have a better chance of possibly getting out of here?”

  “Wait. Shouldn’t we introduce ourselves first?”

  I looked towards Cooper with slightly raised brows. “Is that direly important right now?”

  “In the future when you tell your grandkids how you got locked in a barn with a group of strangers, won’t you want to tell them their names?”

  The answer to that was a simple no. I didn’t plan on having children so there would be no possibility of grandkids, but I didn’t need to tell him any of that.

  I also refrained from pointing out his lack of awareness of our surroundings. Less than a foot away two masks belonged to the girls not wearing them.

  “Which one of you is Elizabeth”

  “Me,” the blonde raised her hand.

  “Then that makes her Jessica.” I pointed to the redhead. “Now we’re all introduced.”

  “Too good to tell us who you are?” he challenged.

  I forced a smile while reigning in my temper. He was testing my patience and when that was gone, he was going to profusely regret speaking to me at all.

  “Can you stop? Everyone knows who they are, man. Knock it off,” Dion cut in.

  Mm. Brownie points for him.

  “She mentioned sixteen…” Grace trailed off, voicing her thoughts out loud.