Total pages in book: 186
Estimated words: 176552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 883(@200wpm)___ 706(@250wpm)___ 589(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 883(@200wpm)___ 706(@250wpm)___ 589(@300wpm)
I didn’t care.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice deceptively calm.
“I’ll be sore,” I managed. “But I’m okay. Britt got it worse. And—.” I shook my head. “When the hell was someone going to mention the creepy-ass tunnel connected to our locker room?”
Sydney’s eyes went wide. “What tunnel?”
Zara blinked. “There wasn’t a tunnel when we first got here.”
Mrs. Gale pushed forward through the crowd, face pale, mouth pressed into a tight line. “They’re using the tunnels already?” She immediately straightened like she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
Roxxi’s head whipped toward her. “What the fuck do you mean already?”
Cloe wisely took hold of her before she assaulted our cheer coach. Ari moved closer to me.
“They were sealed off last year,” Mrs. Gale explained, her voice taut. “We weren’t informed they were reopened. You can only open them from the inside—they blend into the walls.”
“And you didn’t think to fucking mention that at any point?” Roxxi snapped.
If I hadn’t just been yanked through one, I’d be more concerned about her revelation.
“Well, people came through it and Dennis was one of them,” Brittany seethed, jaw clenched.
Gasps rippled through our audience.
“Dennis?”
“No way.”
“He’s weird, but come on…”
“How would he even know about the tunnels?”
I turned my head and saw a guy who had nothing to do with football or cheerleading recording. Xander followed my stare and walked right up to him, plucking his phone from his hand without saying a word. He hurled it straight to the ground. The screen shattered on impact. He crushed it with his cleat to shatter it entirely. The guy cursed, crouching to grab up the pieces when Xander walked back to us.
“Stay with the girls,” Ryder ordered softly. His thumbs brushed the edges of my jaw before he released me.
“Rye,” I started, reaching for him, but he was already moving.
Roxxi pulled me closer, her hand tightening around mine. Cloe and Ari flanked me immediately, their eyes scanning me like Ryder had just done.
He, Cade, Xander, Dougie, and a few more broke from the crowd, entering the girls’ locker room with one shared goal. The football coaches started trying to reassert control, but no one was paying them any attention.
Roxxi turned to Mrs. Gale. “Almost all of us are Marked. I suggest you make this right, and so it never happens again before anymore of our squad gets dragged through your tunnels.”
One of the assistant football coaches stepped forward—Mr. Crane. Thick-necked. Square-jawed. Perpetually annoyed. “It’s not our place to get involved, Miss Sterling.”
“Then make it your place,” she countered coolly.
Together, we walked away from the mess of it all and the endless speculation already circulating.
The evening chill was sinking through my uniform now that I wasn’t moving. I wrapped my arms tighter around my middle, but it didn’t help much. There was still no sign of the others, and Brooke was damn near in tears about it. I leaned against Ryder’s truck, Cloe beside me, Roxxi on my other side, with Ari tucked close to my left. Layla and Sydney stood a few feet off, huddled together for warmth. Most of the other cheerleaders had taken off once the locker room was cleared.
Brooke’s voice broke the silence. “I hope Ryder’s okay.”
Cloe shifted, voice low, meant only for me. “He’s not the one I’m worried about.”
Brooke started pacing. “They’ve been in there for a long time.”
“They’re fine,” Roxxi said flatly, resting her head on my shoulder.
“I just hate not knowing what’s happening,” Brooke worried.
So did I.
The locker room was roped off after the squad had been allowed to grab their things. More faculty had shown up since, already arguing over how to handle this. For all the higher-ups' obsession with The Hunt, the people who helped enforce it clung just as tightly to their rules and red tape. In two days, this kind of assault would’ve been sanctioned. Well, not Brittany getting backhanded and dragged by the hair. The Hunt wasn’t supposed to draw blood. Now that it had, who was to say it wouldn’t happen again when things really kicked off?
Layla caught my eye and smiled.
I couldn’t bring myself to smile back.
I didn’t even know how to face her yet. Losing that friendship would hurt, not in the way losing Roxxi or Cloe or Ari would. They were family. But Layla still meant something to me. She’d seen sides of me that not everyone had, and I’d made space for her in ways I rarely did for others outside my friend group. I couldn’t unknow what I knew, though. She’d gone behind my back at least twice, and with everything happening, trust wasn’t just fragile, it was sacred. She’d fractured mine.
“Oh, shit,” Ari mumbled.
I followed her gaze instinctively.
A cluster of guys was crossing the parking lot. Hockey players, football guys, and a few others were trailing behind like they were watching a parade. The real show was dead center. Ryder and Cade, flanking Dennis, who walked stiffly, his mascot suit ruffled and half-stripped, the crow head gone. Nick had joined them at some point and was at their backs with Xander. Coaches followed, too, but they stopped and hovered nearby, watching on like this was all perfectly routine.