The Death's Game

39. Game of Fire

The biggest problem started once Percy entered the room. She turned around to check where the door was, but the last thing was Millie screaming something to her about this being a stupid idea, and the moment the doors closed, they disappear. Just as if the game didn't want it to be so easy to leave this nightmare.

The fire was real, but it was only starting to spread, so at first, walking around the creepy animatronics festival wasn't that hard. Percy had to watch out for structures that, under the influence of the fire, began to break and fall from above, causing a real danger of being crushed by a wooden plank and burning. The booths that were burning along the pathway were not as dangerous as the elements falling from above. And although Percy wanted to run the distance separating her from Kyle as quickly as possible, she remained calm enough not to get burned by the obstacles she encountered on her way.

As soon as Kyle saw her, he began to wonder if he was hallucinating or if Percy was really here. Earlier he thought he heard his mother's voice, but he saw no reason for hallucinating about Percy. Rather, about her friend. That would have made more sense.

His eyes were dilated with fear, and his body seemed to refuse to follow the one command that resounded in his head - run away!

"Kyle, we need to go!" Percy crouched down by him. "Unless you want to die here."

"Why would you come?"

"Well, you wouldn't jump for me in the water, but now you will owe me a favor."

He realized Percy was here for real. And so was the fire, unfortunately, as the burns on his hand showed. He thought that maybe this was only a projection, but he was so wrong.

"There's no way out of here."

"There must be one. Come on, we need to go."

"Where?"

Kyle looked as if he lost all of his hope, but Percy was here only a few minutes and she was not ready to give up. Not after everything they've been already through.

"Just come, we'll figure it out."

He raised from the ground, but Percy had no idea which way would be the best for escaping. It was about Kyle overcoming his fear, and she tried to find any clue that would help them.

"This festival happened for real, right?" Percy asked, making Kyle surprised she knew anything about it, but then he realized that Millie indeed was telling everything to her best friend, and so Percy probably knew half of the story, if not whole.

"Yeah, it did."

"Which way did you escape last time?"

He looked around, trying to remember anything at all, but the past was blurry for him. For so many years he wanted to forget all about it. And the way it all happened, so fast, in the aura of fear. What was the way his mum walked him through?

"The festival had four escape exits," he said, looking at the fence in the distance that was keeping people without tickets from entering. "Two in the south, the ones where tickets were checked, one in the west, and one in the east."

"How you know that?"

For someone who couldn't remember his escape route, he remembered a lot about possible emergency exits.

"The first rule of going anywhere was to always check the plan of emergency exits. 'Cause you never know what can happen. My mum always said that."

Wherever they were going, checking for escape routes was the first step, to always be prepared.

And it worked. It would've worked if only his mum didn't try to be a hero. If only she wouldn't come back to save more people.

"Watch up!" Percy pushed Kyle out of the way of a tree that began to burn, causing one of the larger branches to go down. He fell to the ground, and sparks flew onto his skin, causing an unpleasant sensation. He quickly picked himself up, grabbed Percy, and pulled her to another spot that had not yet caught fire.