Chapter 94: HCA - Fun Games
Something about the games we had been playing felt off. They all had the same weird theme: fun. They were just games meant for people our age, like something you’d see at a bored teenager’s house party, not in a haunted, flooded hotel.
The first game was Try Not to Pop the Balloon. A wooden table appeared out of thin air right in the middle of the hallway. There was a cardboard box sitting on top of it and a pile of long, silver needles resting beside it. The rules were simple and stupid. Each of us had to take a needle and poke it into the box, trying our best not to pop the balloon hidden inside. We all took turns, moving in a circle. The tension was thick as the needles went in one by one until someone finally hit the rubber.
The balloon popped with a loud bang that echoed off the red walls. The voice started laughing non-stop, sounding clearly entertained by our jumpy nerves. Then he told the person standing next to the loser to slap them across the face.
The second game was a matching cup challenge. There were five colorful plastic cups on the table, and you had exactly three attempts to match the correct colors hidden underneath. It was actually kind of fun for a second. The water stopped rising while we played.
Sasha, surprisingly, got her match on her very first try. It was impressive how fast she did it. Princess, on the other hand, didn’t get it at all. Jake had to be the one to punch her. He hesitated at first, looking absolutely terrified to put a hand on the Alpha Princess, but he knew if he didn’t follow the rules of the game, he’d get it way worse from the voice. After he finally hit her, I saw a tiny, victorious smile spread across his face. He looked happy he actually got away with punching her.
My turn was simple enough. I matched the cups on my first try too, but it wasn’t because of luck. It was because I started hearing voices in my head. They were giving me clear instructions, telling me exactly where to place the cups and which ones to pick. And I won.
"Looks like you’re having some fun, huh?" Princess said, noticing how excited I was getting.
"Yes, I am. This actually feels like the games I used to play with my friends back in Redwood," I confessed.
I wasn’t lying about that. Back in Redwood, we played games like this all the time to pass the time. We played cards, snakes and ladders, even using Skittles as game pieces when we were bored. The loser always had to buy dinner for everyone else, and somehow, I always ended up being the one losing in the end.
After the second game finished, the cups on the table suddenly multiplied. The voice instructed each of us to pick one up. As soon as we all had a cup in our hands, the table vanished into thin air just like it had arrived.
"This dude must be some kind of magician. Vanishing tables, cups, boxes. He’s definitely psychic," Malo muttered, glancing over at Sasha.
She just rolled her eyes and ignored him, looking bored.
"No. This is the work of a were-witch. They’re the ones with actual psychic abilities," Princess said, her eyes scanning the hallway for any movement.
"Told you! Were-witches have powers, not just chants and vodoos, and that girl with the purple hair is definitely one of them," Malo said, pointing a finger at Sasha.
"Sasha is not a were-witch, Malo. She doesn’t have that kind of aura around her," I said, trying to defend her.
"Sasha is a were-witch?" Princess asked, looking back and forth between the two of us.
"No, she’s not," I insisted.
"Then how do you explain what she does? She senses hearts, she rips them out, she lifts heavy objects without touching them," Malo argued, his voice getting higher.
"She’s not a were-witch. I would have sensed her power by now if she was," Princess said, studying Sasha with a suspicious look.
"But she’s something. Maybe you just can’t sense what she is," I muttered under my breath.
The next game was to catch fishes. Since the hallway was completely flooded now, colorful little fish started swimming around our legs in the red light. The voice told us that whoever caught the golden fish would have their one wish granted. From the way he spoke this time, he sounded like a playful kid, just one with a really deep, scary voice.
The game didn’t even last a minute. Sasha didn’t even bend down. She used her powers and lifted the golden fish right out of the water with her mind. It hovered in the air, flopping around in front of her face.
"See? I won," she said proudly, looking around at everyone.
"You cheated! You cheated! YOU CHEATED!" the voice started screaming, his voice echoing and bouncing off the walls. "How is this possible? That spell was supposed to suppress all of your powers!" the voice muttered, sounding confused.
"So you really are a fucking were-witch," I said, looking at the voice’s general direction.
The voice went quiet for a long moment.
"This isn’t about me. It’s about her. She used her powers to cheat, and I absolutely hate cheaters. How did you even do it?"
"Well, looks like your little spell didn’t work," Sasha said confidently, her chin up. "I didn’t cheat. I played your game. You should’ve set rules against using powers if you didn’t want me to use them."
"You are a werewolf! You are not meant to have that kind of power! You cheated! You cheated death itself, didn’t you?" the voice snapped, sounding more and more angry.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if you’re looking for someone who cheated death, maybe you should ask that big guy over there," Sasha said, pointing her finger right at Peamah.
Peamah didn’t even react to the accusation. He just looked away from everyone, staying as calm as he had been since the bus broke down.
The voice went silent again for a few heartbeats, then finally spoke up.
"I see what’s going on here. My spell didn’t work because you two are beyond Weres. You are linked together. A string tied to another string."
"You have a plug. And all I have to do to stop you from cheating in the next game is pull it."
Those were his last words before the air changed.
Then suddenly, I felt it hit me. A burning sensation started in my chest. It was the same feeling I had in my ears earlier, but this time, it spread through my entire body like wildfire. It felt like I was being burned alive from the inside out.
I grunted in pain, my legs giving out. I lost my balance and started collapsing into the water, but Princess caught me before I went under.
"What’s wrong, Omega?" she said, her voice sounding panicked as she gripped my shoulders.
"My body..." I tried to say, but the words wouldn’t come out. My throat felt like it was on fire.
"What you’re feeling right now is your very blood boiling," the voice echoed through the red hallway. "You tried to cheat my game, and now I’m going to make you suffer for it."
There was a short pause. Then the voice spoke one last time.
"You bloody Moon Wolf."
