The Tides That Bind Us [AfroFuturism]

Adolescent Stupidity

Author's Note

In celebration of Amazon Prime Video's newest series Panic, I am thrilled to be teaming up with Amazon Prime Video and Wattpad to write this exclusive chapter that puts my characters from this story into the world of Panic!

I hope this chapter intrigues and inspires you to learn more about Panic. Visit the #PanicWritingContest on Wattpad for the chance to put your creative writing chops to the test and learn more about the show!

To find out more about the contest, prizes, and how to enter, check out the #PanicWritingContest here: wattpad.com/AmazonPrimeVideo

Don't forget to watch the series premiere on May 28th, only on Amazon Prime Video, here: http://primevideo.com/

***

Adolescence and stupidity went hand-in-hand, but Jade considered herself a smart girl—straight As, perfect attendance. Heck, she'd be attending university abroad come August.

Then why the hell was she at Panic?

Because she'd bought into this nonsense and didn't want her money to go to waste. When she'd first learn of Panic, she'd wanted nothing to do with it, but every senior had to buy into the game, whether or not they wanted to—one dollar for every day of school. 180 days of school and $180 of her allowances later, she was beyond pissed.

The poor kids had it worse. Jade had seen Gibby get his jaw knocked sideways for not paying up on time. The most that happened to her was a threatening note on her locker—a gentle reminder they'd called it. No one expected anything of her, the foreign exchange student who didn't speak, meek and modest as Christ himself.

They didn't expect her. They wouldn't suspect her when their entire game came crashing down. Even now, Skorpi was in her pocket, recording everything. Though there wasn't much to hear beyond the wind rustling the corn and the distant bleat of a goat. She'd transferred every email, every recorded conversation and every picture circulated by the contestants to Skorpi's memory chip, and when she hopped on the plane to Germany in August, it would all be in the police's hands.

"Snitches and talkers get stitches and walkers," they said. But so did the idiots who competed in this game. People had died, people had been maimed, people had irreversible psychological damage. Panic had to end. It would end. With her.

Jade peeped at the farmhouse, a white-washed dwelling just beyond the field of swaying corn. At the ungodly hour, it was hard to make out anything beyond the pickup truck parked out front and the glow of a TV beyond the front window. A porch lamp provided a small halo of light that didn't reach beyond the steps.

The name of the game tonight was breaking and entering. The "judges" whoever the hell they were, expected the participants to break into this house and steal evidence of their entry, because screw laws, right? She'd done her fair share of dumb teenager nonsense, but this was pushing it.

While she didn't know the owner of this property, but she'd learned enough to predict that someone was going to get either killed or sent to the ICU tonight. Spurlock was a gun toting, bible thumping American, whose only masters were God and the second amendment. And they were about to steal from him.

"Is everyone here?" Diggins asked, his voice a hair above a whisper. The rustle of clothing and the shuffling of feet against the damp earth were the only answers given. "Fine, you all know why we're here. Get ready. On my mark."

Jade could feel the reluctance as the participants stepped forward. The air buzzed with tension. Even her own heartbeat sped up. She couldn't tell how many other competitors stood around her, but of the twenty-three competitors they'd started with, five had dropped out and six had been disqualified. She imagined even more people dropped out upon seeing tonight's game.