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"I’ve got to go, but… Dahlia, I’m very glad you’re okay. You understand that, right?"
I nodded shakily. "I do, Drake. I really do."
A sad smile creased his lips and he leaned forward to kiss me. A moment later he was gone, hurrying down the hall to his room. Once Inside my own quarters, I turned the shower on and got in to rinse the dirt, sweat, and sex off of my body. While I did, my mind drifted. Why hadn’t Sam buzzed us while Drake and I had been fucking right in the middle of the hallway? There had been times in the past that he’d shocked us for even holding hands or trying to whisper. Another chink in his armor maybe? Or was he simply screwing with our heads so that we never knew when he was watching? For some reason, I thought it might be the former.
After showering and dressing in fresh clothes, I managed a fifteen-minute nap before my device buzzed, waking me and giving me the orders for the day. The gym. As if I hadn’t already done enough physical things that day. My body still ached from the excursion into the forest. With a sigh, I heaved myself up and slipped on sneakers before heading out the unlocked door.
All of us, minus Bri, were sent to the gym. She must have been off preparing lunch by herself. Sam set us a task of five hundred repetitions. One hundred each of: situps, pushups, squats, burpees, pullups. To be a total dick, he also wanted us to do five hundred calories on the rowing machines before and after the five hundred reps. If I hadn’t had enough reason to hate him before, this would have tipped me right over the edge.
The weakness that had plagued me in my life had vanished. I’d grown stronger. Gone were the days of me flailing and falling apart and being left behind by the others. There was no doubt that Drake was the most fit out of all of us, and I was by no means a world beater, but Payton and Elise didn’t leave me behind. I held my own, right in the thick of it with them. The pullups were the worst part. Physical exhaustion had already set in from everything that had come before. Sweat poured off my body soaking my clothes to the point that I’d stripped off the sweat shirt as soon as I finished the situps. Now even the thin sports bra Sam provided us was drenched as I used my knees, hips, and every other part of my body to get my chin over the bar a hundred times. Drake had already finished the entire workout before I’d even started the pullups and was now off to the side encouraging the rest of us.
"You got it, Payton, keep going. Elise, mind the clock, you’ve got to hurry if you want to get done in time. Great job, Dahlia, use your knees. Whatever it takes."
Elise and I finished the pullups at almost the same time and ran to join Payton who was already on the rower. The red digital clock kept ticking away, lower and lower. I pulled the handle of the fucking demon machine until my hands seared with pain as blisters threatened to form on my fingers. It was miserable. My lungs were on fire, my heart slammed in my chest, ready to explode. My eyes stung as sweat poured into them.
Payton finished first, rolling off the machine and collapsing into a heaving mass on the floor. Surprisingly, I was the next to be done, followed a few seconds after by Elise. While we lay on the ground panting and gasping, the clock ran out and a faint buzzer went off, signifying the end of the workout.
"Well done, everyone," Sam said, "Take some time to recover. Your next task will be assigned shortly."
"Yeah, thanks," Elise grunted. "What a fucking sweetheart."
Payton grabbed a few water bottles from a cooler by the still-locked door. While he handed them out to us, I decided to ask about what I’d seen out in the woods. I had no idea if Sam eavesdropped on us or not. I gestured for the others to lean in to hear me whisper.
"I saw something outside," I said with a furtive glance toward the speakers.
"What was it?" Payton asked, already curious.
Drake leaned even closer, narrowing his eyes. Elise was too busy chugging water to really look concerned, but her eyes were on me regardless.
As quickly as I could, I recounted my waking up in the forest, and my hunt for Mr. Cartwright. I told them about how big the area was and seeing the fence in the distance. Finally, I told them about the chapel or church I’d seen through the trees. All three looked confused at that revelation.
"You saw a building inside the fences?" Drake asked.
"Yup, Right out there. It was at the far end of the property. It looked like the fence wasn’t far beyond it. Why is that here? Like what is the point of it?" I asked, even though it was basically rhetorical.
Bri shrugged and tossed her empty bottle aside. "Maybe it was here when this psycho bought the place and built his little dollhouse. Could be that simple."
"There’s nothing else on this property that doesn’t have a specific use," I argued. "Christ, this mansion and the warehouse enclosing it had to cost a shit ton of money. Then a few miles of fence? This guy, whoever the fuck he is, spared no expense. If that’s the case, why not tear down some dinky little chapel? If anything it looked like it had been maintained. The paint was taken care of. The roof wasn’t rotten. He uses it for something."
"The paint was fresh?" Drake asked, his brow furrowed.
"Fairly fresh," I said with a nod. "That’s part of what stuck out, the white paint plus the big tall steeple."
Drake rubbed at his chin. "Weird. You’re right." He dropped his voice even lower, almost below the whispers we’d been using. "That’s weird he’d spend time keeping that thing looking good. It seems like he’s spread pretty thin as it is."
The four of us exchanged a look. We’d all noticed the same thing. Rather than making me excited that Sam might be struggling to keep the entire place running smoothly, it terrified me. If it got too difficult or things became too much of a drain on him, maybe he’d kill us all? Cut bait and run? That wouldn’t surprise me.
Later that night, I struggled to sleep. Every time my mind began to drift off, I thought about someone sneaking into my room and taking me. My skin crawled thinking about it happening the previous night. Sam scooping me up out of bed, holding my body close to his, stripping me naked and leaving me in the forest. It made me want to puke.
After over an hour of tossing and turning, I noticed a strange smell in the room. Before I could even try and place where I’d smelled it before, darkness descended. The next morning, I woke groggy and tired. I’d been asleep for hours, but it hadn’t been restful.
At breakfast, Payton received his order to go outside and hunt. I watched as he almost dropped his fork in fear.
"It’s okay," I said. "Go get your weapon. It’ll be fine."
He nodded absently and pushed away from the table to go to the weapons room.
Bri watched him go, and once he was out of the room, snorted. "That guy isn’t going to make it. My money says whoever he’s hunting ends up taking him out instead."
