Ethen has a right to know what we are talking about, but I just feel like he should not be fully trusted with this information yet. He is not exactly the nicest guy, and for all I know, we could give him some information, and then he could spill this information to the guards if they ever were to capture him.

While I do not anticipate Ethen falling into the hands of the guards, the possibility remains. Now that there is an increased guard presence due to them all finding me and chasing me down, getting to the Mirror Maze will be hard. Ethen is going to make it even more challenging if he keeps acting the way he has.

He is scared. That is understandable. What is not understandable is that he acts pissed off toward us. He keeps his body turned partly away from us, and I notice that he only maintains eye contact with Aiden, not me. I assume he maybe does not like women, but it doesn't look like he likes Aiden anymore than me. He keeps looking at Aiden as if he is about to charge at him at any moment. This behavior tells me that he is not very fond of us, and he would give up information about us if it meant saving himself.

I know that Aiden wouldn’t tell the guards anything if he were captured because he has risked his life to get himself and the people from his town out of Tundris, and he helped our people get out of this place. I wouldn’t say anything to the guards because then I would be putting Devin’s life at risk. They would have to kill me before I told them anything that could put my brother in danger.

Aiden thinks before speaking, “Two months ago, the government set up a carnival just like this one in my town, Tundris. At the end of the night, they did the exact thing they are doing here. They started killing people. A group of us got out, and we have since been trying to get to other towns before the carnival gets to them. We call ourselves the Jumpers. We are not affiliated with the New World government or any other. We are just trying to survive. Once we get out of here, you can join us if you want.”

The guy looks at the two of us with curiosity, then relaxes more and puts his hands in his lap. “I came here with my three brothers tonight. They are all married and have kids, but we still thought it would be fun to challenge each other and see who could do the best in the games.” Ethen sits back, and his eyes look to the side as if he were watching the memory happen right in front of him. “The games were fun. I can’t help but wonder what the answers to some of the questions were. I like to think I did well on them, but who the hell knows.”

Ethen stops talking for a second, and his mood gets sour. “My older brother Nick has always been the best kid. My parents have always favored him. He could simply do no wrong. He always got away with everything. Do you know what it is like to be the least favorite child?”

“All my brothers,” Ethen points to nowhere in particular, “are successful and have purposeful jobs. But not Ethen. No, Ethen has no wife or kids, and Ethen works at the library cleaning up after everyone's lazy dirty asses. It is as if it was my fault. It is so hard to move up in the world here. There are simply not enough good, respectable jobs. Somebody has to do the less desirable work, and that person just so happens to be me.”

"I wanted to be a firefighter, but the academy said I was too impulsive and wasn't learning fast enough. I then tried to be a police officer, but I kept failing the entry exam." Ethens clenches his jaw as if two strong magnets were the thing keeping his mouth closed. "Nick passed. Nick got to become a police officer," He struggles to say. "Nick got the best job in the whole fucking world."

“All night, we kept playing every game we could find, and I kept hoping to find a game that I could beat him in.” Ethen brings his hand to cover half his face as he continues, “I tried. I really tried, but It was like no matter what I did, I couldn’t win. I couldn’t even get out of last place. My other brothers would laugh at me, but it wasn’t my fault. The games were hard. I think Nick was cheating. I don’t know how, but he had to be. He was winning every game.”

I think about what Ethen says about the games. Every game Devin and I played was fair. I don’t think someone could have cheated on them. By the way Ethen is acting, he probably lost fair and square. He just doesn’t know how to handle failure.

Ethen takes his hand away from his face, and I can see that his facial expression is full of anger and probably some hatred. “Back when we were in school together, Nick would always charm the other girls into giving him whatever he wanted. He probably did the same thing tonight, but I didn’t notice. He was probably telling them to make me lose on purpose, so then they could have a laugh when I lost yet again. At the end of the night, when they told us about the boxes, the light on his box was green, of course, and mine was red.”

He sighs in frustration, “I should have had the green light, and he should have gotten the red one. It was so not fair.”

I am surprised at what I am hearing. Did this guy really wish his brother dead? Does he know that a red light on the box means death? Does he know what he is saying right now?

I look at Aiden with worry and concern. Should we really be bringing him with us if he is practically insane? Having him around other people and kids might not be the best idea.

For a moment, Aiden looks like he is thinking, and then he looks back at Ethen, “You do realize that the people with the red lights were the ones getting killed, right?”

Ethen nods his head. “I know it sounds crazy, but you do not know what it has been like to grow up with them. I don’t agree with our Governors about killing people in order to fix things, but since they were doing it anyway, then I would have liked for them to get Nick, maybe even Trevor and Elijah as well.”

Yeah, this dude definitely has a few screws loose in his head.

Ethen turns to Aiden, “When you said you could get me out of here, do you mean the carnival or Treegrass? Because I would really like to get out of both. I hate it here.”

This dude is definitely crazy. I have never heard of there being a murder here in Treegrass, but if I had, this guy would most likely be the killer. There is no way we can bring him with us.

“Yeah, I can get you out of here,” Aiden says, and I whip my head around to look at him like he is just as insane as Ethen. He glances over at me, but I can’t tell what he is thinking. His face is expressionless.

I open my mouth to question Aiden’s decision, but when I do, the door to the room opens, and we all immediately go still.

“What are you doing, man?” A voice asks.

“I thought I heard something in here earlier, and I want to make sure it is clear before we head back,” another voice responds.

The sound of footsteps gets closer to our side of the table. Aiden moves so that both of his feet are flat on the ground, and it looks like he is crouching rather than sitting. The light from the guard’s flashlight makes it clear that he is heading our way, and I once again put my hand on the gun. Within seconds, the light is on us, and before I can even process what to do, Aiden dives for the guard’s legs, and the two of them end up on the ground fighting each other.

The guard in the doorway has one of his hands on his gun and is pointing it at Aiden and the guard on the ground. His other hand is on the walkie-talkie. He starts to press a button on it, and it looks like he is about to say something, so I quickly pull my gun out and point it at him. The guard immediately closes his mouth and starts pointing his gun between me and the two people fighting on the floor.

“Don’t even think about it,” I say, making sure that the guard hears how serious I am about shooting him. He was most likely one of the people who had a hand in killing a portion of my town tonight, so there is no reason I should spare his life. If he tries to shoot me or Aiden, then I will not hesitate to shoot him.

The guard gives me a hard, stern look that makes me think he does not take me seriously, so I take a step closer and give him my own stern look, which makes him waver a little bit.

“Drop the gun,” I say, and the guard looks at me, debating, “Now!” I yell at him.

The guard lowers his handgun, and I glance over to the fight that is still happening on the floor. The guard at the door sees my temporary distraction and uses his hand that was previously on the walkie-talkie to push my arms to the side and knock the gun out of my hand.

I try to swing at him with my right arm, but I miss, and I am instead pushed to the ground. I can still hear Aiden and the other guard fighting only a few feet away, but I can’t focus on them right now.

The guard that pushed me down goes to stand over me, and I manage to kick one of his kneecaps. The guard buckles slightly but does not entirely fall to the ground. If anything, all I made him do was get angry.

“Now you’ve done it kid,” the guard says and goes to grab me on the ground. I try to push my arms out and kick my legs to push him away, but this doesn’t work. In one quick motion, the guard lifts up his arm, and the next thing I know is that the world goes black.

Chapter 21

0 Comments