Fear Games

5. Secrets, and Murder, and Lies, Oh My!

When my parents got home, they immediately called the police. I was questioned for nearly thirty minutes, but it wasn't like I had anything to tell them. All I knew was that someone had come into the house and destroyed the entire bathroom.

I made sure to scrub away all evidence of the message. Or at least tried to. I couldn't have the police finding out about Fear Games--not when the new Player didn't want them to know. If they found out Fear Games was starting all over again, I couldn't even imagine what the person would do.

I lied to my parents and the police, saying I heard someone come into the house and smash the bathroom. When they asked if I saw the person, I said no, that I was too scared to go see what was going on until after they left. Even though they didn't seem to believe me, I made sure that I didn't let anything about the last few days slip.

After they all left, I called Eden right away. She answered on the first ring.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Define okay," I replied. "The Player came here and decided to destroy my bathroom." When I finished explaining the whole thing to her, I said, "It's getting crazy. They were in my house. What are they going to do next?"

"What we need to do is not panic, first of all," Eden said. "The second thing we need to do is figure out what this person wants. There has to be a motive. Ryan had one and used the Fear Games against Rachel. What would this person want from you?"

"You mean Damien?" I suggested, reminding her of how bad she angered me earlier.

"You know we wouldn't say it if it wasn't an actual option," Eden said. "It's not like we want it to be true."

Just then, my phone alerted me of a text.

Hey, is this Josh?

"Uh," I said. "Someone just texted me."

"Is it the Player?" Eden asked.

"I'm...not sure," I said.

Who is this? I asked.

The response was almost immediate.

It's Matt. Brandon gave me your number. I hope that's okay.

A sigh of relief escaped me. "It's just Matt."

"What does he want?" Eden asked. "How did he even get your number?"

"He says Brandon gave it to him," I said. But why would Matt have wanted it in the first place? "You don't think that..."

"Think that what?" Eden asked. "That Matt's the killer?"

I laughed out loud. "No, worse. That he...likes me?"

Eden paused. "I don't know, I guess I could see if he did. He has been staring at you ever since he moved here. He sits next to you at lunch. Who knows? Maybe he does. Would that necessarily be a bad thing?"

I wasn't so sure. It wasn't like Matt was ugly. In fact, he wasn't ugly at all. He was what most people would consider, well, hot. But did I actually like him? Could I like him?

"I don't think it would be terrible," I said honestly. "It's just that with everything going on, is it really safe to be pursuing anything with him anyway?"

"Well, think about it like this," Eden said. "Would he really be safe either way? Are any of us?"

That was true, too. I decided to respond.

It's not a big deal. What's up?

"I responded," I said. "I guess we'll see where this goes."