Maleficium: Duo (Devil's Playground 2)

“What the hell is that?” Mel asked from my other side.

“Did I tell you guys about the photo I found?”

Once Grace shook her head no, I began to explain what I’d seen the first time I saw this same photograph, continuing to study the unblemished one.

The building behind us was Troy Sainte’s converted barn. The same Troy Sainte that just attempted to decapitate me and my best friends.

I knew without a doubt I’d been here before, at least I’d gone to his parties. I couldn’t remember this night, though. What I was doing with Ciaran, or why we were all covered in blood.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I hadn’t planned on falling asleep.

Mel gently shook me awake and it took me a minute to remember how I wound up on the bed.

“We only have twenty minutes left,” she said softly.

I pushed myself into an upright position and nodded so that she knew I understood, reaching for the bottled water I left on the nightstand. My head was absolutely killing me. I thought I was sore before, I felt like absolute shit now. If limbs could rust and squeak mine would be in dire need of some WD-40.

I swept my hair away from my face and downed the remainder of my lukewarm water.

“Where’s Grace?” I asked when I was done, wiping my mouth with a forearm.

“Waiting in the living room.” Mel slid off the bed and held out a hand to help me up, which I gladly accepted.

“You look better,” she noted.

“mm.” I rolled my neck to rid it of some kinks, stretching my arms above my head. “I don’t feel it. You look good, though.”

“It’s all on the outside,” she joked lightly.

She’d pulled her colorful hair into a high ponytail and swapped out her dirty clothes like I had. The outfits were identical to what we’d already been sporting—minus blood and guts.

I checked the room over as walked towards the door. There wasn’t much else for us to do or see here.

I’d put the cell back in the toilet tank and the duffel bag in the shower. The photo was out of its frame and stashed safely in my back pocket. I wanted to keep it with me.

So far none of us had been able to remember the event that surrounded it aside from the obvious. We’d been at one of Sainte’s parties, and something must have gone down that resulted in so much blood being spilled that it stained our clothes. I couldn’t think of any circumstance beyond Goetia or the Devil’s Playground where that would be possible.

Back in the main living area, the television had seventeen minutes displayed on the countdown with the seconds ticking away.

“You okay?” Grace asked the moment she saw me.

“Yeah. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“You needed to rest,” Dion stated, rising from where he’d been sitting on the couch.

I had to disagree. Sleeping had only intensified how sore my body was. I rubbed the back of my neck and studied him as discreetly as I could. He and his girlfriend had been in the photograph, but I couldn’t recall meeting either of them before. The same went for Selena.

Why were Ciaran and his friends the only ones that remembered anything? Whatever had occurred that night tied us all together and at the base of that connection were our families and the truth.

In the kitchen area, our tagalong was leaning over the breakfast bar, looking deep in contemplation. He hadn’t been in the photo so what purpose was he here for? This guy wasn’t even in our age range. Then again, the original group from the shuttle buss had all been different ages too.

“He said his names, Chip,” Dion told me.

“Oh,” was all I could say in response. I didn’t care to know this man’s name.

Sensing my disinterest, he quickly changed the subject.

“What’s the plan?” Dion changed the subject drawing my attention back to him.

“I don’t have a plan. We just need to get to this carnival the television was talking about.”

“Why do we need to go there? How do you know we need to go there?” he rephrased.

“They wouldn’t have shown us the commercial for no reason,” I replied, keeping what I knew a secret.

“Oh, right,” he agreed.

The timer hit twelve and I made my way towards the apartment’s foyer. I didn’t want to delay any further. The others joined me and together we waited for the door to unlock. Those last few minutes felt more like hours. Unable to see the television, it was the retracting of the window curtain that alerted us our time was depleted.

A telltale click sounded from the front door, and I cautiously opened it up. Not seeing or hearing anything I stepped out first. Grace and Mel filed out behind me with Dion and tagalong tailing them.

We had to go back the same way we’d come. As I looked down towards the end of the hall, I belatedly realized that someone was riding the elevator to the second floor.