Page 38 of The Killing Game

“Wh-what are you going to do with that?” I stutter, my eyes wide as I watch him cautiously.

He places the sharp end tentatively against the exposed skin on my inner thigh. I stiffen in response, knowing damn well with one well-placed gash, he could bleed me out in minutes.

The cold blade trails up and down my leg. I shiver. Goosebumps raise on the spot the blade teases. I’m trying my hardest to stay still. I can feel my core warm to the touch. My body, used to knife play with my previous partners, betrays my rational mind. A moan escapes my lips before I realize what’s happening.

Jason smiles. He knows this is my weakness. He’s entranced by the blade against my skin as he talks. Inch by inch, the knife gets closer to my aroused core.

“The Senior Slayer - Master - has something special planned for you. You think you can take his stories and profit from them? Live your own life and not follow The Order? You think you’re better than us because you channel your inner demons into your books? You walk around like horror and smut make your world go round. Well, little bat, let’s see how much you like it when you are the main character.”

A plea tears through me before I have a chance to think.

“Slayer! Slayer, slayer, slayer!”

A sinister laugh echoes through the empty cabin.

“Your safe word won’t help you anymore.”

TWENTY

Screams bounce off the living room walls. It takes a minute to register that the sound is coming from me. I watch, hopelessly pulling to try and get free, as Jason jerks the blade of the knife upward between my legs. Searing, hot pain radiates from my center. I slam my head down against the hard table. The motion reverberates through my skull, dazing my consciousness. Wetness envelopes the spot where the blade made contact. Sticky as glue, the puddle becomes larger underneath my exposed ass.

Shivers rack my body, my skin hyper sensitive to every sensation as I lay prone on the freezing table. I continue to thrash against the restraints. The rope around my left wrist slips. It’s slight, but there’s no denying the tug I felt. I glare at Jason as he stalks around me, holding his attention as I continue to wriggle my wrist against the restraint. His knife drags across the table top, screeching with each step.

“If you’re going to kill me, do it. Stop fucking around,” I bark, baring my teeth at him.

His fingers float onto my face, caressing my jaw line. I snap my teeth towards his unwelcome touch. Jason flinches, pulling back an inch. With the speed of a viper, he cracks his palm across cheek. I gasp for air. My back arches in response to the pain before I right myself on the table. I shoot him a withering look, wishing I could melt him with my stare.

Holding the knife to my neck, Jason leans in. “There’s no fun in cold meat. Besides, aren’t you going to ask me how I did it? Any good final girl would, baby.” He croons each word like a lullaby as he slowly slices the blade at the backside of my neck. My jaw clenches against the sensation and I swallow down the pain.

Jason stalks lower on my body, his eyes wandering over my naked frame. He’s drinking in every piece of me, stripping bare beneath his gaze before he cuts again. This time, the blade grazes the center of my stomach. I lurch forward in the restraints at the contact, careful not to pull too hard on my left side.

Jason raises his gaze back to mine, lust filling those hollow, dull irises. His lips are parted slightly as his breathing shallows. Grime-covered fingers slip through the fresh wound on my abdomen, digging deeper as I cry out. It feels like he’s ripping me open from the inside out. Those fingers, bloodied and slick, slide down. Down. Down. Resting at my entrance, Jason gingerly rubs his thumb across my clit. Mentally, I flinch back from his touch, but my body betrays me. Leaning into his touch, Jason grins. Callus fingers play with swollen folds as his thumbs continues its relentless rhythm.

“You want this. Just admit it. You’re depraved and twisted, just like me.”

“No,” I growl.

“There’s a little killer in there, isn’t there? And she wasn’t created tonight. No, no.” He chuckles. “The little killer has been there all along. Living under the surface, begging to be let out to play.”

I jerk my face away from his, choking against the foul smell emanating from his blood soaked clothes.

“I’m nothing like you.”

“Oh, but you are. Or did you not kill Tristan our senior year to be saved from becoming The Slayer’s next victim?”

My eyes widen.

No one knows about that. They can’t. I never told anyone.

“Ah. You don’t know. You took that check he gave you and never tried contacting him, hm? Well, let me be the first to tell you— congratulations. You found the one loophole in Master’s game. He doesn’t like that too much, no.” He chuckles to himself. “No, he doesn’t. Not one bit. So, over the past year, Master has been…” he pauses, mulling over what word to say next, “recruiting people for a new kind of game.

“You are his greatest achievement. And his greatest failure. No one knows why Master plays his games. Why he picks the victims he does, but it all serves a purpose.” Jason walks away, hands open towards the sky. “It’s all meticulously planned for a bigger picture only he knows. So,” he quips, with a little bounce in his step back towards me, “since you inadvertently broke the rules of the game, he changed it. Anyone who has graduated from Graveslake High after his original killing spree is eligible. Instead of recruiting one person to do his bidding, he made a public declaration for open season on you. One just had to know where to look. A random post on the dark corner of the internet most people don’t visit.”

I don’t say anything as I stare at him. My lips pull into a tight line as I focus on my wrist, the restraint becoming looser with each movement. Jason pauses for a second before continuing his stalk around my pinned body, the dull knife leaving its torturous scrape against my tender flesh.

“Tyler found the post first, fucking around on the dark web, searching for porn. The idiot. He thought it was a prank. He sent it to me asking to verify it, since Ty didn’t want big bro to know and I was crazy enough to attempt contact.” Jason shrugs. “You can use your big author brain to imagine our surprise when he responded to us with his proposal.”

“So, what? You guys decided to go halfsies on killing me? How romantic. It’s like a match made in heaven.”