Fear Games

10. Everybody's Fool

The next few days were pretty dull for the most part. Matt kept trying to talk to me, but I had nothing to say to him. The truth was, I really started to like him, whether I wanted to admit it or not. Saying it would be too hard. I had to keep it to myself.

I had almost no clues as to who this killer was, and I was going insane. The following Monday, I left my house, got in my car, and started to pull out of the driveway when my phone started to ring. I picked it up to check who it was, revealing a blocked number. For a moment, I questioned whether or not I should answer. Finally, I clicked accept.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey there, Josh," the voice said on the other end of the phone. It sounded like a growl. "Things have been getting a little crazy around here, haven't they?"

Chills ran down my spine. "What the hell do you want?"

I heard a chuckle. "The answer will be obvious soon enough. The Games aren't that easy. Now tell me, what do you think I want?"

It was a question I'd asked myself about a thousand times, maybe even more, since this all began. "I truly don't know," I said. 

"I'll give you a hint," the voice said. "It has to do with our wonderful friend Damien and his lovely little girlfriend, Haven. I'm sure that's got you pretty interested now, doesn't it?"

My heart clenched inside my chest at the sound of the killer saying his name. "Don't talk about him like that."

"How about you shut the fuck up, you fag," the killer screamed. "You have no right to talk to me that way. You'll understand soon enough. You'll understand everything, and when you do, you'll have to make the hardest decision of your life."

"Why don't you just kill me?" I asked. "After all this time, I'm sure you could have. You blew up Clary's car in the school parking lot. Is that all you've got?"

The killer laughed. "Of course that's not all I've got. I've got big plans. Bigger than you could ever even imagine. I'm going to tear your world down over and over again until you finally give in. And by then, you'll know everything."

All I heard next was the beeping of an ended call and the sound of my beating heart.

***

"The killer actually called you?" Eden said at our group meeting that morning at school before class. "Is that the first time?"

"Yep," I said. "The killer hasn't said a single thing the last few days, and then boom, they up and call me? The Games are changing. Something big is coming, I just don't know what."

"It's unusual that they're starting to call now," Brandon said. "It's almost like they want to be caught."

I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. "Whoever this person is...they sounded angry. But almost like they were enjoying what they were doing to me. To us."

"Well, what else did they say?" Eden said.

I tried to think back the best I could. "They said something about...about how I'd understand once this was all over. Something along those lines. They mentioned Damien and Haven, too. Said they were involved with this in some capacity, like they're part of why the killer's doing this."

There was silence among my two friends, who gave each other a knowing look. Clearly I was missing something. I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, "Is there something I need to know?"

Eden sighed. "There's nothing you need to know, per se. It's just a theory that Brandon and I came up with. You know, after finding out that Peter's in the clear."