My name is Emily. Two years ago I lost everything. I thought I could start a new life. I thought Abby was gone. I thought I'd never see Jasper again. I thought I would never have to play another game of hide and seek in my life. Turns out I was wron...
"Great! I knew she was a sneaky little rat," Helena says. "Now we have more shit to worry about."
"Language," Caleb says, walking behind Helena. "What's wrong? I thought we were getting on the ride."
I'm in the mood for any more rides. Rides are the last thing on my mind.
"Look, guys," Jasper says, pointing to the sky. I look up to see a dark cloud heading our way. "Why is it getting dark so fast? It's only five or six."
"The clouds are moving pretty fast," I say.
Mrs. Harmon is walking toward us now, waving for us to come. "Let's go!" she says. "It's getting dark."
"Why so fast? Sunset is at seven," I say.
"Jerod and Doreen are waiting," Mrs. Harmon says. She grabs my hand and leads me to the ride. Caleb, Helena, and Jasper follow behind us.
Jasper sits next to me and Caleb runs off to sit next to Jerod and Doreen. Caleb is a people person. Mrs. Harmon straps us in but stops when she gets to me. She smiles real big and her hands slowly slides off of the handles and onto my lap. "Relax." Is all she says.
Jasper faces me and his face is full of concern. "These clouds. It's not supposed to get this dark."
I look up. The clouds hovering over us are changing from gray to black really fast. All of us pay more attention to the sky than the ride as it slowly moves up. No one is thrilled about the ride because it's getting so dark. There is no sun. It's like the sky swallowed it up, leaving us with a bright moon, which is out. How in the world did it get dark so fast?
Before I know it, we're at the top. I can't see much, now that it's so dark. My feet are dangling, and below me, it's looking rather scary, almost like I'm dangling over a dark pit. We hear a speaker nearby. First, it's just static, then we hear Mrs. Harmon's voice. The song she sings starts off slow, making the ride scarier.
"Ring-a-ring o' roses, A pocket full of posies, A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall-" I'm waiting for the ride to drop, holding on tight and all, waiting for the word, 'down' but nothing happens. Instead, the speaker gets staticky again until we hear a voice.
"You all have made my artwork, masterpieces! Because of most of you, I'm living the dream..."
I can't believe what I'm hearing. The adrenaline floods my system like it's on an intravenous drip - right into my blood at full pelt. I think my heart will explode, and my eyes are wide. It's so dark, I can't see anything, and I'm two hundred feet in the air, hearing nothing but Mr. Harmon's chilling voice.
"Who wants to leave here alive?" he asks.
Suddenly, a flash of bright light comes on from below. When I look down... I see them. My mom and dad, Violet, Rosemary, the three masked children from the first game, Mr. Harmon's mother and father, and Abby. Abby's looking up at us... smiling.
"Hey, old friend!" Abby says. "Long time no see, buddy. You ready to play? I'm playing, too!" She's staring at me. I can barely see her face.
Part of me is relieved to hear that I'm playing because I don't want to die up here. I hear crying. I look at Jasper, but it isn't him. I look to the other side and see Doreen crying. She's holding Jerod's hand and telling him that she's not ready to die like this.
"Hey?" I ask, looking at her. "If we can get the ring, we'll be just fi-" Before I can say anything more, I feel the strings slide in and out of my lips. The same is happening to Doreen, Jerod, and Caleb.
"Now, we'll play by my rules. There are sixteen of you and today, only one of you will leave," Mr. Harmon continues.
I have to count in my mind. There are sixteen of us... just like the last game.
"In this game, each one of you is, indeed, alive. No weapons in this game, you will have to get creative. You will then be given a card. If your card says murderer, it means you're it. You do not tell anyone that you're the murderer: that would be cheating." He laughs. "But as you can see, none of you can talk now. Your lips are only designed to say, You're dead, and, I found a dead body. Whoever gets the card, Murderer, will search for the others.There will only be one light: the moon. It's pretty bright so you'll be able to see something. Hopefully, it's a good something."
Abby laughs and looks at me proudly. "Once you've found someone, you simply whisper in their ear, you're dead, then kill them. You may leave the body or hide it. If someone finds the body they yell, I found a dead body! Once you yell this, the lights will come on and all of us will meet here by this ride. You'll guess the murderer, and then the game will start over again, until there's only one murderer left," she says.
I looked at Jasper and he looks back at me. I looks at Doreen and Jerod, and they look back at me, too. I look at Caleb and he gives me a thumbs up. I give him one in return.
"Hey, Emily!" Abby yells. "I added clowns to the game just for you."
Heaven knows I hate clowns. To make this one hundred times worse, I hear loud, hysterical laughter next to me. Over to the right of Jasper sits a clown. His mouth doesn't move and it's body sits still, but the laughter still somehow escapes from an unknown source of its body.
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