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The cuff on my arm buzzed. I gritted my teeth. So fucking close. Maybe I could ignore it for a bit and keep going. After going another ten steps toward the fence I was buzzed again, this time harder:
Failure. Return to the house.
Why? Bri, Drake, and even Liam had been allowed to search longer than this. I’d been out here less than three hours. The others had all had more time. Was he truly disgusted by my performance or was I getting too close to the fence? I took a chance and kept going.
The next jolt was painful enough to make me gasp. Gritting my teeth, I took another five steps, but hit my knees, clutching my wrist when Sam shocked me again. God damn it. If he kept doing that, I wouldn’t make it more than another five or six feet. I had to turn back.
After standing and turning around, the device buzzed again, this time painlessly. A glance at the face didn’t show me a message. Instead, a compass had appeared on the small screen. A red dot sat in the northeastern direction. No matter which way I turned, that dot stayed in that same direction. It was leading me back to the house.
I followed the red dot as the sun began to rise. At first the darkness faded, then the sky turned the dark gray of dawn. Even as I followed the device’s directions I kept looking around, trying to see how far the fence went. At certain times I could make out the metal edge of it peeking through the trees, the manmade materials standing out in contrast to the natural forest. It was during the occasional looks that I first spotted the chapel.
A spire appeared through the trees, topped with a cross.
"What the fuck," I muttered, narrowing my eyes and trying to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
Taking a chance, I walked toward it. It was the first building I’d seen inside the fence other than the warehouse. Bri and Drake hadn’t mentioned it either. Their hunts must have taken them in a different direction. After pushing aside some thick overhanging blackberry brambles, my view of the new building cleared, giving me a better look. It really was a chapel or old fashioned church. It looked ancient but well taken care of. Weird.
My device buzzed, reminding me to get back on course. As badly as I wanted to find a way out, I was not in the mood to get shocked again. Giving up, I continued toward the warehouse but did everything I could to try and look for landmarks to guide me back here if the chance ever came.
The sun had crested the horizon and light lanced through the trees in shining rays by the time I managed to return to the mansion and the structure that hid it. Seeing the size of the building from outside made my jaw drop. They’d been right. It was huge. I’d seen buildings this big in industrial areas outside town. Those typically had roads and big parking lots ringing them. Seeing a massive metal building like this plopped down in the middle of the forest gave it a bizarre look that made it appear surreal and false. Like a hallucination.
The big garage door was open when I rounded the corner. As soon as I stepped through it, the chain above rattled and the motor hummed as the door lowered, locking me back inside. The mansion sat in the middle of the fake forest. After being out in the real world, returning to this place was disheartening, and made me angry.
When I entered the front door, the first thing I heard was Payton hissing in pain.
"Oh thank god," Elise said as I walked in.
Drake stood over Payton, holding a small knife in his hand. He turned at Elise’s words and saw me. A look of relief spread across his face, and he dropped the knife. It clattered to the floor, and Drake rushed to my side.
"Are you all right? We weren’t sure when you’d get back." Drake ran his hands across my arms and shoulders, looking for injuries.
I peered around him at the others. Elise, Bri, and Payton all had multiple cuts on their arms and legs, blood was smeared across their hands.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, wholly unconcerned with my nakedness.
Bri pointed at Drake. "Sam made him cut us. Said it would keep going until you got back."
Bong. "Please, eat."
I sat down and began to feast. Hunger clawed at my insides after the hunt. While I ate, my mind drifted back to the fence and the chapel. If that building was inside the fences, then Sam had to have a use for it. What that use was I had no clue. Maybe after some rest I could think about it, right now I was too tired to care.
Chapter 9
DHALIA
I ate my fill, but not as much as I wanted to. The heat and exertion outside had sapped my appetite. My thirst, however, couldn’t be satisfied. In the middle of chugging my third glass of water, Sam came over the speakers.
Bong. "You will have one hour of free time prior to your daily activities. Your rooms, the music room, library, and gym have been unlocked for your use. Your assignments will be given at the end of the hour."
The door of the dining room clicked and opened, leaving us to stare at it in silence.
Bri scowled in confusion "A free hour? I’m not complaining but why? That’s weird right?"
"Well, maybe he has to get some stuff ready for us?" Payton offered.
Get stuff ready? Again, that weird tickle at the back of my mind. He had never had to do stuff like this before. Was Sam losing control of the situation? Did he have staff that helped him? What if one of them was sick or had gotten injured while kidnapping the people who were here? Something was off, each day made that more obvious.
Being that I still had no clothes, I stayed put until the others all filtered out. Payton, Elise, and Bri all departed fairly quickly, only Drake stayed behind. Once they were out of sight, Drake ran his hands over my body again.
