Fear Games

4. Family Reunion

EDEN

"And that's why I had to tell Jax about the Fear Games," I said to Rachel the following day in the ICU where she was being held for just a little while longer. They said that they just wanted to make sure that she was recovering well from the surgery, and that once they saw her making some progress, they could give her a room of her own on a different unit. And then, eventually, she would be able to come home.

I just finished telling Rachel everything that happened with Jacob, even though I'd sworn with Jax that we wouldn't tell a soul. But that didn't include my best friend who'd been there with me through hell and back and now back to hell again. Plus, she deserved to know if the Player was going around killing husbands and fathers. That meant that Drake could be in danger as well.

"I don't blame you for telling him," Rachel said as she scooted herself up in bed. "He deserves to know, especially if his father just got murdered." She made sure to keep her voice low so that no one heard us talking, but I was still anxious about the whole thing. I just wanted this nightmare to be over, but I knew in my heart that it was truly only beginning.

Deciding to change the subject before a nurse overheard us talking, I said, "How are you feeling otherwise? You seem to be recovering quickly."

"I don't care how fast I recover if my daughter isn't home," Rachel said. "And I'm sure you feel that way about your kids as well. Nothing else matters if they don't survive this."

"They will," I said softly in a way that probably wasn't all that convincing. Not in the way I intended it to be.

"Are you positive about that?" Rachel asked. "Have you heard from any of the other kids' parents?"

"No," I replied, "but it won't be long before we both get questioned. You and I both know it. So we just need to prepare for the worst."

Rachel looked me dead in the eyes, coldness behind her own. "You mean prepare for the fact that they may be dead?"

It wasn't something that I wanted to think about either, but she and I both knew it was a real possibility. The Fear Games when we were teenagers was beyond dangerous. It was hard to imagine what it might be like now twenty years later. There was no telling what this killer could have in store for all of us.

"I'm just saying that we need to think about the likeliness of survival here," I said. "I mean, out of all the kids that were involved with Fear Games when we were young, only three of us survived—supposedly. We don't even know with a hundred percent certainty now that Josh is actually alive. So we just need to—"

"Mom! Eden!" Calix's voice came from behind me. He was rushing into the room, huffing and puffing like he'd just ran a marathon.

"Calix, are you okay?" Rachel asked.

He sucked in a deep breath and said, "They're alive!"

That immediately caught both mine and Rachel's attention. "What do you mean they're alive?" Rachel asked before I could.

"Emerald called me from someone's random cell phone," Calix said. "They just escaped from an underground bunker underneath the old St. Paul's building. That's where they were being held captive. They left and just started walking until they came across someone with a cell phone and Emerald called me right away."

"Where are they now?" I asked, my heart ready to burst out of my chest. Please tell me that my kids are still alive!

"I'll give you the address," Calix said. "Aunt Eden, can you go pick them up?"

I nodded slowly and said, "Are my kids..."

"Alive? Yes, Cinder and Kael survived," Calix said, smiling. His grin dropped when he added, "There was one death though. That kid Freddy. He was shot in the head. His body's still in the bunker."