Fear Games

3. The Truth Will Set You Free

That night I could barely sleep. Throughout the night I continued to wake up abruptly, expecting someone to be holding a knife to my throat. When morning came, I laid in bed, trying to think of ways to get myself out of this.

Secrets. Secrets are the root of Fear Games.

There was only one secret I could think of that made sense. One secret that no one in this entire world knew, not even Damien.

Especially not Damien.

But what was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to admit it? If it really was the root of why Fear Games are happening again, that meant someone else knew. Whoever this person was knew my secret, or at least was pretending like they did.

Another thing that kept bugging me was whether I could actually trust Rachel or not. Sure, she'd been through it herself, but that didn't mean she hadn't lost her mind in the process. Maybe she was so stuck on herself that she couldn't see past the fact that there was a new killer on the loose.

I groaned, rolling over on my side to grab my phone off my desk. I texted Eden.

We need to talk. Can you come over today?

I crawled out of bed, heading downstairs to the kitchen. Mom and Dad weren't home, so I helped myself to some cereal. About a half an hour later, Eden replied.

Sure. Has something else happened?

No, I replied. There's something I need to tell you. It's important.

***

Eden arrived about an hour later. As per usual, she was dressed in all black. She stepped inside and I led her over to the couch in the living room. We sat down and I tried my best to compose myself by taking a deep breath.

"You're scaring me," Eden said softly. "Did you do something bad?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that," I said. "There's just...a secret I've been keeping. Something I've been keeping from everyone, including..." I paused. I couldn't even get out his name.

"Damien," Eden finished for me.

I nodded.

"Well, what is it?" she asked.

I sighed, knowing I needed to do this. I had to get it off my chest. "Last year...I was over at Damien's house one day. We were supposed to have a sleepover. We'd always had them when we were kids, but as we got older, we didn't like them as much." I hesitated, trying to find the right way to word what I was trying to say. "He went to go take a shower, and while we was gone, his phone beeped. We'd never really kept secrets from each other before, so I kind of snooped."

Eden's face was blank. She clearly had no idea where I was going with this.

"It was...a picture from Haven," I said. "A...naughty picture of Haven."

Eden actually chuckled. "A naughty picture? As in...?"

"Yeah, no clothes," I replied. "And a few messages above that was a picture of Damien."

"Oh," was all she said.

"Yeah, and...Damien walked back in the room with a towel on. He took the phone from me--I'm still not even sure if he knew what I was doing--but then took it with him into the bathroom. I don't know what he did, or if he even did anything at all, but there was a twinge of jealousy inside of me. Something I'd never felt before."

"You liked Haven?" Eden asked.

I shook my head. "No."

A few seconds went by before Eden realized what I was saying. "Oh."