Page 148 of Hide And Seek

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When I openedmy eyes again, the cabin was almost completely dark.

For a few disoriented seconds, I couldn’t remember where I was or why my shoulders ached so badly. Then I felt the rough bite of rope against my wrists, along with the fabric cinched tightly across my mouth.

At some point, exhaustion must have dragged me under despite everything, and while I slept, Rhys had gagged me and tied me to the bed again.

I jerked instinctively against the restraints, but the ropes barely moved. One wrist had been fastened to the headboard while the other was secured to the heavy wooden frame beneath the mattress. My ankles had been tied too, leaving me almost completely immobilized.

I turned my head, trying to ease the stiffness in my neck, and that was when I noticed the tablet. It sat propped against one of the pillows beside me, its black screen reflecting faint strips of moonlight leaking through the curtains.

I stared at it, confused. Why would Rhys leave it there? It didn’t seem like an accident, given the purposeful positioning, but I was tied up, so I couldn’t exactly use it for anything, could I?

And speaking of Rhys… where was he?

I turned my attention to the tablet again. The screen was still dark, but now that I was looking properly, I realized it wasn’t powered off. A tiny blue light was glowing faintly at the edge of it.

A cold unease crept through me.

Suddenly the tablet speakers crackled with static, and I jolted so hard the bedframe rattled beneath me.

The screen flickered before flooding with grainy green night vision footage. Trees. Dirt. The edge of a cabin sliding past the frame as the person with the camera moved quickly through the dark.

He moved between two cabins, and for a few seconds I saw his gloved hand entering the frame.

“Hi, Alissa,” he said in a low voice. “I hope you’re awake. It’d be a real shame if you missed this.”

Of course.Rhys had attached a fucking GoPro camera to himself so I could get a virtual front-row seat to whatever twisted shit he’d planned on doing next.

I had no idea how he’d done it, because all the networks around the camp were being jammed, so none of us had been able to get a signal through since the first night. But somehow, he’d still found a way to stream live footage.

I could only guess that being the heir to the country’s largest telecommunications empire came with certain advantages, including the knowledge and resources to build his own private network when he needed one.

A distant sound suddenly echoed through the woods ahead of him, right on the edge of the campgrounds.

It was a woman screaming.

“Please!” Grace’s voice tore through the darkness, raw with panic. “Anyone, please! I’m out here!”

Every muscle in my body locked.

No.

Grace was dead… wasn’t she?

She cried out again. “Please help me! I’m hurt!”

Rhys continued to move silently, sticking to the shadows as he headed toward the assembly hall.

Another scream suddenly tore through the night.

“Help!”

My breathing turned shallow and uneven behind the gag as I realized it sounded exactly like me. Not just close. Not slightly distorted. One hundred percentme.

Understanding hit a second later. Rhys could’ve recorded everyone at camp. Conversations around campfires or meals, or even during activities. More than enough for AI voice cloning.

Now he was playing manufactured audio files through speakers to lure the others out of the assembly hall.