“That’s weird,” I mused aloud, reading down the remainder of the list. “That could be someone actually named Selene.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, her voice lacking conviction.

  “Hey! I drank some of this water. Still alive,” Dion announced as he returned to the main room.

  “Good, because we know where we need to go next.”

  “And where’s that?” He chucked the remainder of his bottled water onto one of the full-sized beds.

  “Here.” Mel turned and showed him the clipboard she was holding.

  “Vesania Sanitorium? They want us to go to a crazy house, like this whole place isn’t already insane enough?”

  “We--.”

  “Don’t have a choice,” he cut Mel off.

  “I know. I know. I’ve been hearing that from your friend since we met. Is my girl’s name listed on that thing?”

  “Wait...hang on.” I leaned in and studied the sheet of paper on the clipboard again.

  When I didn’t see her name, I flipped to the next sheet. Fourth row down, she was listed as admitted, just like Gracelyn and possibly Selena.

  “Let him see.” I tugged the clipboard from Mel’s hands and thrust it at Dion. “Row four has a Morrigan H.”

  He lowered his glasses so that they rested on the bridge of his nose and blinked as if he couldn’t believe what he was reading. Mel quirked a brow, giving me major side eye. I returned it as if to say knock it off. Dion looked up at us, his throat bobbing with a swallow.

  “When do we go get them?”

  “Now,” Mel and I replied in unison.

  Moving the quickest he had thus far, the clipboard was tossed down without a second thought and he began moving towards the room’s exit.

  “Don’t get reckless,” I warned.

  With no rebuttal or acknowledgement of my warning, he pulled open the door and froze. Where there had just been light, was now nearly complete darkness.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I wasn’t expecting him to step into the dark, but I was here for this sudden gallant knight energy. His entire body was almost swallowed whole by insidious shadows.

  The only thing keeping his silhouette visible was the orange glow coming from the right. I reached back for Mel’s hand before following him. I didn’t want to risk us being separated. I brought myself nearly flush with Dion’s back, breathing in the smell of dried sweat.

  “That wasn’t lit up a few minutes ago.” Mel indicated an exit sign, the culprit for the glowing light.

  “I didn’t see that at all a few minutes ago,” I replied.

  “This way then?” Dion asked, already heading towards the sign.

  Something rattled behind us, the sound carrying from the opposite end of the darkened hall. Dion stopped, causing me to crash into his back.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know. Probably not something good. Keep going.” I gave him a slight shove to get his legs moving.

  The noise came again, a little closer than before. It was hard to see much of anything now. I concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other, making sure I kept hold of Mel and practically attached myself to Dion.

  We were almost to the exit sign when a door slammed shut, lifting the hairs on the back of my neck.

  “Fuck this,” Dion lilted, picking up his pace to the point of nearly running.

  I shared that sentiment whole heartedly. I didn’t know what caused that and I wouldn’t be turning back to find out. Rushing forward, he misjudged the layout and slammed into the wall, bouncing off it with another curse, nearly knocking me on my ass.

  “To the right,” I urged, sweeping out a hand to make sure there wasn’t anything blocking the way.

  He heeded my directive and lead the way down a smaller hall, this one narrower than the previous. At the end sat a small block window, streetlights just barely shining through from outside. Another slam echoed from behind us as we made it to the door.

  “It’s locked,” Dion stammered.

  “So then unlock it,” Mel retorted, squeezing up beside me.

  “No shit? There isn’t a keyhole,” he snapped back.

  “Get out of the way.” I grabbed one of his shoulders and pulled him backward so that I could take his place. I ran my hands along the cool metal doorframe, hoping to find some hint as to how it opened.

  “Anything?” Mel asked.

  “Wait.” I skimmed a palm back up. A few inches above the door handle there was an engraving. I traced over it.

  “Six…six?” I retraced to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, feeling a small dip where the center digit should have been.

  “What’d you say?” Dion asked.

  “There’s a number missing. The one I think.”

  “How the fuck are we supposed to fix that?” Mel stressed.

  “I have an idea,” Dion answered. “But we need to go back to the room.”

  “Why?” she queried.

  “We’re going with you,” I replied.

  I more felt then saw Mel look at me. I’m sure she was wondering why I just said that. I wasn’t going to jump into the logistics with her. Dion had proven he knew his shit. The guy might’ve been ‘off’ in his own way, but since we’d linked up, he’d helped get us this far. He helped save her life. I was going to do what I said I would and make sure he stayed alive.

  Forming a single file line, we made our way back down the narrow hall. Another door slammed as we reached the exit sign again. What was this, the third or fourth time it’d happened? I was starting to think that someone was screwing with us.

  I rescinded that thought the second we rounded the corner.

  Purple and green lit up two of the masked trio lurking in the main hall. I determined one was female based on how small they were beside their friends.

  The LED lighting from their masks helped illuminate the third person.

  He—because no way was a woman built like this guy--wore a mask that was all white. A bloody red leviathan cross was centered amongst splatters of red. The eyes were nothing more than black slants. A creepy Cheshire smile finished it off.

  The man himself was dressed in all black, a hooded jacket concealing his head. This wasn’t Ciaran. I knew that much. There was a much more sinister aura wrapped around this man, as if it were pouring out of him with every breath.

  And between us was room six-one-six.

  Neither of our respective partners made any sign of moving. We all just watched one another to see who would dare go first. As our stares deadlocked, I realized I never heard the overhead bell go off. Had they been inside the inn this whole time?

  “What do you need?” I asked Dion, my voice low, eyes trained on the other end of the hall.

  “The one off the door.”

  That was brilliant. Only problem was, how were we going to get this number, and then make it back to the exit door?

  “I can do it,” Dion said softly, as if he’d just read my mind.

  “Are you sure?” Mel asked, what sounded like genuine concern colored her tone.

  It caught me a little off guard. Not five minutes ago I was certain she wished I would’ve tossed Dion to the wolves.

  “I used to run track.”

  That explained his athletic build. He took a steadying breath and rolled his shoulders. At the same time, the man with the Cheshire smile let a knife slip from beneath the sleeve of his hooded jacket.

  He turned it from side to side, showing off dangerously ribbed blades already coated with red. With one last shaky breath, Dion crouched down and shot forward.

  At the opposite end of the hall, the person in the purple did the same. It took me all of five seconds to decide what to do. I didn’t have any physical weapons, but that wasn’t a reason to stand back and watch this play out.

  I ran after him, seeing the person in purple getting closer. Dion was fast. I had to give him that. He got to the door seconds ahead of us. If the number would’ve easily popped off, he could’ve been back before they reached him. He had both hands working at the digit in a desperate attempt to dislodge it.

  Purple mask ran up as if to attack him. I reacted on instinct alone. I used my forearm to push them backward, feeling breast as it met with their chest.

  The girl stumbled a few steps, quickly correcting her stance.

  “Should’ve ran away,” she jeered rushing at me this time.

  I’d figured this would be coming next. I braced myself, eating the impact as her body collided with mine and we hit the wall.

  “Got it!” Dion exclaimed.

  “Get to the door,” I yelled at him, shoving the girl away for the second time. She tried to grab hold of me. I struck her with my boot, knocking a leg out from beneath her. She went down, digging her nails into my arms to take me with her. I hissed as skin was torn clean off, buckling at the knees from the weight of her body. Mel was at my side in a flash.

  She reached down and grabbed both braids exposed at the back of the girl’s head, yanking so hard her head was wrenched to the side.

  She let out a cry of pain, calling Mel something in another language as she was forced to let go. Her companions were right in front of us, giving zero time for reprieve.

  To be expected, honestly. There weren’t usually time-outs when it came to murder. Dude in the devil mask took the open shot. His blade barely missed slicing apart the whole right side of my face. I felt the tip skim across my flesh, leaving behind a slight sting. I lurched backward with my heart in my throat, almost falling on my ass for the third time that day.

  Still holding the girl with the braids, Mel shoved her into the person wearing the green LED mask, buying us a few seconds.

  “Go!” She jogged backward, spinning at the last second and urging me to run the other way.

  I didn’t need to be told twice.

  We turned and sprinted down the hall, whipping around the corner at breakneck speed.

  I purposely dropped back some so that Mel was in front of me. I could hear us being pursued but didn’t dare look behind me. At the end of the next narrowed hall, Dion stood waiting. He was outside, holding onto the door to keep it from closing. I was legitimately happy as hell to see him. He could have easily left us here to rot.

  Someone’s hand grabbed for me, sweeping across the center of my head. I brought my shoulders forward, pushing myself to run faster. We made it outside, but there was no time to catch our breath. Dion caught someone’s wrist between the door and the doorframe, using his body to hold it shut. It started to open again as our pursuers pushed from the other side.

  “Dammit!” Mel stood beside him and began using her back to help keep the door closed.

  “Is there anything that will hold this?” Dion asked, his voice strained. The muscles in his arms were flexed and tense.

  I searched the area we’d emerged in, looking for something that would help. My eyes fell on a set of metal trashcans. The person who had their arm stuck outside was grabbing for Dion, ignoring any pain they may have been in.

  Maybe we didn’t need something to hold the door closed. It just needed to shut. Everything always seemed to lock here. Back in Goetia once we went through one exit or took the path laid out for us, we couldn’t typically turn back. This place had been proving to be the same. I removed one of the metal lids from the nearest trashcan and flipped it sideways.

  Approaching the door, I looked through the block window, directly at the person in the green mask before I started beating the shit out of their wrist.

  The word bitch was yelled among something else unintelligible. The nasally voice wasn’t one I recognized. Their wrist began bleeding, a dark bruise spreading across the skin not yet covered by blood.

  “Pull back,” the girl yelled.

  Timing it perfectly, Dion and Mel gave just enough leeway for him to do so. His wrist vanished back inside, allowing the door to slam shut and lock, just as I’d predicted it would. Green mask moved away and the man with the leviathan took his place. He stared out at us for a few seconds before disappearing. The window remained empty after that.

  I wasn’t sure about the people in the LED masks, but that one? Something told me we’d be seeing him again.

  The metal lid clanged as it landed on the ground near the trashcans.

  “You’re hurt,” Dion stated, concern heavy in his tone.

  I held out my arms and examined the thin, bloodied lines the bitch with the claws had left behind.

  “It’s just a few scratches.”

  “And you’re neck?” Mel prodded.

  “My neck?” I reached up and felt around my throat, the area still sore from where Ciaran had gripped it. This had to be what she was talking about.

  “There was an incident in the principal’s office,” I replied dismissively. I didn’t want to have that discussion right now.

  Ignoring the studious look, she gave me; I took in our new surroundings. We were in an alley--back alley. A tall chain link fence ran perpendicular on either side of us, the barbed wire at the top indicating it wasn’t meant to be climbed.

  It wasn’t possible to see anything on the right. Pieces of plywood had been put up to block the view of the other side. Majority of the left revealed the main street we’d been on to begin with.

  “You guys ready to keep moving?”

  “We need to find this Sanitorium, don’t we?” Dion asked.

  Mel straightened, tucking some hair behind her ears. “Yeah, the sooner the better. We don’t know what kind of situation Grace is in right now. Possibly Selena too.”

  I wet my lips and started down the alley, rubbing the welts on my arms.

  “That clock has said three AM since we got here,” Dion said.

  “What clock?”.

  He pointed upward. I looked, seeing the massive clocktower I’d given a passing glance when we first arrived. I hadn’t spared a thought for it. Now that I realized it overlooked the entire Devil’s Playground, maybe I should’ve.

  “There’s no way it’s three in the morning. Does that mean anything? The time?” Mel asked.

  He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “Three AM is a significant sign of the devil and dark entities. Since this is the ‘Devil’s Playground’, I would assume it has relevance somehow.”

  I fixed my face so that I didn’t gawk at him. “How do you know all of this stuff?”

  He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. I was noticing he did that when he was uncomfortable. “My father is really religious.”

  I didn’t believe that for a second. But I couldn’t call him on it unless I called out myself. Focusing on where we were going next, I walked with them in silence. We reached the end of the alley and emerged onto another road that turned into an intersection. I paused, seeing a flashing arrow where normally the walk or don’t walk symbol would be for a crosswalk.

  “Left.” I motioned to the light and resumed walking, keeping my eyes peeled.

  “What’s the point of all the cars?” Dion asked.

  I lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

  “I think they’re for decoration,” Mel replied to him.

  “What a waste of money.”

  As we began to pass by an electronics store with televisions displayed in the front window, I was inclined to agree with him.

  We’d nearly passed them when they suddenly flashed on. One by one each TV came to life broadcasting the same show. No. Not a show. It was an odd commercial. The format reminded me so much of Fallout, that I started to feel nostalgic.

  The camera panned to an overview of a city, sweeping through it until a stone wall with a sign that read Devil’s Playground came into view, flashing just like the one we’d seen back in the ballroom. A narrator with a ridiculously cheerful voice spoke during the entire duration of the commercial.

  “Are you one of the misjudged or considerably strange? Malevolent and depraved, eager to relieve those pent-up urges?

  If you’re watching this from home and feel at any point jumping up and shouting, hell yeah! Then have I got the perfect place for you.”

  He continued to speak, hyping this place up, the camera now showing various clips of the masked tyrants that plagued these very streets, some in the middle of killing or tormenting.

  “What is this?” I murmured.

  Near the end of the commercial the narrator switched pitch and began to list off warnings like this was a medication advertisement, going as far as mentioning waivers.

  Beside me, Dion stared with his mouth slightly open while Mel’s expression was characteristically blank. The screens cut to blue, and then flashed again. I blinked twice, taking a second to realize we were now staring at ourselves. Right there, displayed on all the televisions was live footage of us.

  “What the fuck did I just watch?” Dion whispered.

  “Let’s keep going,” Mel suggested, urging both of us onward.

  The hint of apprehension in her voice scared me. Mel was my GI Jane—my kickass Lara Croft. She was doing a superb job at keeping her poker face on. If she was shaken, then things were really fucked up. Unable to fathom any kind of helpful response, I nodded and picked up my pace.

  I felt eyes all over us. Every bush and streetlight had me convinced there was a camera hidden inside them. Empty alleyways and darkened windows had my senses kicked into overdrive, knowing there were killers lurking somewhere within those shadows.

  I fucking hated this.

  Once more I recalled my abuelo’s words mentioning an initiation. That commercial basically showed me that we were here for entertainment.

  So, unless we were being inducted into a goddamn circus, I was more confused than ever. Was this how a rat felt when trapped inside a maze? Put on display to be judged and tested?

  A thought flitted across my mind, one that I instantly banished—that I refused to consider. I needed to keep hold of myself. The most important task was to find our friends and then find a way out of this forsaken city.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Vesania Sanitorium resembled a medium-sized hospital. It’s exterior a smooth off-white color. Deep green grass spread out before it with flowers planted alongside the walkways. There were a shit ton of windows, some of them lit from inside and quite a few dark.