Page 204 of Stay Scared

Ash stumbles backward. Cade catches himself against the wall.

The motor beneath the platform wakes with a low mechanical growl.

Rook thrashes as the chair pulls harder.

Ash looks toward the controls. “What did he do?”

“I don’t care.”

I grab the emergency handle.

Rook plants both boots against the floor and tears at the restraint across his chest. The restraint stays locked.

The platform keeps shifting beneath him until his beak turns sharply toward me.

“Release it.”

Cade laughs without humor.

Rook jerks harder. The chair groans.

Ash starts toward the rear of the platform, and I catch him before he gets close.

“Stay away from it.”

“The mechanism is running.”

“So let it.”

He looks at me. “That thing can kill him.”

Across the room, Rook gets one hand around the broken steel arm again and rips it free from where Cade kicked it.

“Then he needs to stop swinging weapons at us.”

Rook swings. Cade ducks, and the jagged metal misses his face.

Whatever concern Ash had for the mechanism disappears.

Rook drives the broken arm toward Cade again. Cade catches it, and both men pull while the chair drags Rook farther sideways.

Rook is losing leverage. Cade has all of it.

“Let go!”

Cade releases the weapon.

Rook’s own pull sends it backward into the chair frame. Metal wedges between the restraint and the seat.

The platform jerks.

Rook makes a raw sound the mask no longer hides.

Ash moves toward him again, and I catch his sleeve.

“He is trapped,” Ash says.

“And still armed.”