Lia delivered Devon a few tater tots, then left, removing the rock from the door and rejoining Gem in the car. Lia let Devon know that Gem was out
Devon texted as Gem drove Lia home.
Lia said.
Lia grinned and tucked her phone away. “It wasn’t Nelson the other day, you know.”
Nelson was a stout kid with lanky brown hair and a love of neon hoodies. His family had lived and died in Lincoln for over a century. The tradition must have run too deep in his family for him to quit even with the ban.
“Yeah, our park stalker was too tall,” Gem said.
Lia turned her phone over and over in her hands. “I wonder how many people withdrew.”
There was no way to know how many people were still playing, but Lia was convinced there were definitely more than Devon, Lia, and Nelson still in the game.
If Nelson was willing to get Gem so close to school, maybe her assassin—Aubree, Bryce, Cassidy, Devon, Hunter, Jeremiah, Mercedes, Nicky, Noah, Oliver, Rose, Stephen, Tamora, Zack, or someone else she hadn’t considered—was too.
“Can you drop me off at the corner?” Lia asked as they turned onto her street. “I want to walk around the block.”
Gem stared at her. “Alone?”
“Hardly.” Lia gestured to the handful of people getting home, checking the mail, and walking after work. “I have an hour and a half before sunset, and I’ll be three blocks away. I just want to see how closely my assassin is watching me.”
Gem stopped the car a driveway over from Lia’s house. From there, Lia could see her father through the kitchen window making coffee. He was already in his after-work clothes—a sweatshirt from Mark’s college and cheap joggers. He used to make coffee for Mark when he left early on weekends to play Assassins. He had listened to Mark’s strategies. It wasn’t the same, of course. Mark was a good student, and playing had been a reward. Even before Abby, her father hadn’t been thrilled about her playing.
“Is he being weird?” Gem asked, following her line of sight. “I swear, we had two friends die, and if he’s bugging you about your grades, I will—”
“He’s being okay,” Lia said. “I would rather deal with my assassin over him right now.”
He wasn’t being anything. It was like he was trying to pretend it wasn’t happening, like Lia was too much of a bother.
“Do you have a plan?” Gem pulled out and drove past Lia’s house. Three blocks away, at the entrance to their neighborhood, Gem pulled over again. “I could stay.”
“No, go change clothes,” Lia said. “I’ll just walk slow enough for him to be out of the kitchen and figure out if my assassin is hanging around.”
“Be careful.” Gem unlocked the car door. “And text me when you get home.”
Gem lingered at the stoplight for a moment after they drove off. Lia waved to them, her phone in hand just in case. Her water gun was hidden in the front pocket of her coat, and she searched the yards and streets around her. No shadowy figures lurked behind trash cans or cars. Only a few squirrels paid attention to her.
So Lia walked, one hand holding her phone as if she were busy but her eyes darting left and right with each step. A few neighbors waved. Several dogs barked. No one approached.
“So much for assassins,” she whispered, texting Gem as she paused at the corner before her house.
Lia turned to head home. At the far end of her street, in the dark foliage of a privacy hedge, two spots like binocular lenses glinted. Lia swallowed and carried on walking straight past her street. She pulled her hood up around the back of her neck, but not high enough to block the edges of her sight. If they followed, she would need a new plan.
At the next corner, she paused and twisted around, pretending to crack her back. No one followed.
Lia continued down the street, and at the next corner where the street ended, a lone figure stood one block away to her left. A hood covered their face, and the evening light made them nothing more than a silhouette. They must have cut through backyards and smaller streets. The only identifiable thing about them was the way their hood bunched up at the back. Hair in a bun?
Lia had three choices then: turn around and head back, turn left and face them, or turn right and see how intent they were on following her.
She turned right and didn’t look back. Cars passed on the street, keeping her safe if this were part of the game.
If it wasn’t, then there wasn’t much that could keep her safe. At least she was in a populated place. Unlike Ben, she wasn’t alone in the dark. She glanced over her shoulder.
No one there.
The next corner was a three-way stop with one road leading to a small neighborhood pool that was closed and one leading back toward Lia’s house. She was a good five-minute walk from home now. A car turned in front of her. A shadow skittered behind it.
There, the figure knelt near a parked car. In their hand was what had to be a water gun.
Who was it? Too tall for Aubree or Rose or Zack. Lia’s mind was spinning. And whoever it was, was fast. They must have been running to keep up with Lia through the backyards.
And it meant they were either herding her toward the pool or egging her on into a head-on confrontation.
Lia backtracked. She jogged, and by the time she hit the turn she had come from, the figure was there, in the distance, blocking her path. They wanted her near the pool, then.
Her phone vibrated as she backtracked yet again.
It was Devon.
Lia texted him back, glancing behind her after each word.
Her phone rang.
“Hello?” she asked, and tried to keep the soft thrill of his instant response out of her voice.
“Do you have no sense of self-preservation?” Devon said. Someone spoke over him. Lia couldn’t make out the words. “Yes. Yes. I know. Lia, where are you?”
“I told you,” she said. “I’m walking home. I wanted to walk for a minute, so Gem dropped me off at the entrance to the neighborhood. It was only three blocks.”
“Good.” He sighed. “No, wait. What do you mean ‘was’?”
Lia hesitated at the edge of the small park that was little more than a four-car lot, drained and covered pool, and little grassy area with concrete tables and benches. At the far edge of the park was a short drop-off shadowed by trees and a tall house. A dirt path encircled the whole area with one little fork leading out of the neighborhood. It was a shortcut to the next housing development.
If Lia took it, she would be near Abby’s house, and if she carried on over the trail, she would be in the park where Abby died.
“The other day there was someone spying on Gem and me at the park,” Lia whispered into the phone. “Pretty sure it was my assassin. And now, today, I saw them when I was nearly home, so I tried to go a different way. They keep trying to cut me off. I figure they want me someplace quieter.”
The chain-link fence around the pool creaked in the wind, metal rattling against metal, and Lia looked back.
Between her and the exit stood the figure. Here, they looked taller than they had on the streets and the other day with Gem. Maybe it was how close they suddenly were. Maybe it was the way their shoulders didn’t slump as they moved.
No, as they stalked.
“You went someplace quieter, didn’t you?” Devon’s voice dropped until the static of their connection nearly drowned it out. “Lia, where are you?”
She picked up her pace and put the pool between her and her assassin. Her phone shook against her ear.
Her assassin tucked their empty hands into their hoodie pocket, and Lia pulled out her water gun. Goose bumps prickled across her arms.
“The Pine Valley pool,” she said. “But it’s fine. I have a water gun.”
“That is not what I’m worried about.” A door on Devon’s end slammed, and Lia jumped. “It’s a game, Lia. Just let them shoot you. This stress isn’t worth whatever it is you want.”
But it was. Recognition, acceptance, understanding—it would all be hers if she won the game.
And she could win it. Because she understood it.
Winning it was something she could achieve. There was nothing else in Lincoln for her.
Footsteps crunched over gravel. Her assassin darted around the corner of the pool. Lia ripped her arm up and fired once. Water splattered against her assassin’s neck, soaking the front of their hoodie, and they doubled over. Lia sprinted down the path and toward the trees. She skidded to a stop at the edge of the park, far out of range for her assassin to shoot.
“I got them,” she said to Devon before shouting, “You’re out, whoever you are. Good show. Who do I tell the Council I got?”
Her assassin didn’t answer. They raised their head and followed. Lia stepped back.
A ding rang in her ears and Devon asked, “Why would you do that?”
“Why would I do what?” Lia huffed. Her assassin was too lithe to be Cassidy and far faster than Stephen. They leapt over one of the benches and headed straight toward her. “I’m too busy to be doing anything.”
Her assassin started sprinting toward her. Lia’s hand tightened around her water gun.
“Hang on,” Devon said. A car started. “Where are you now?”
Lia raised her arm again, panic trembling through her, and aimed for her assassin’s face. It was rude, but they hadn’t stopped. Why hadn’t they stopped?
“You’re out!” She fired once and missed. “Just tell me who you are so I can send the email.”
Still, they said nothing.
“Where are you now?” Devon’s voice shook.
Lia fired again, and her assassin shrieked and rubbed their eyes. “You know that path through Pine Valley that connects to the big walking park in Pleasant Pines? I’ll be there.”
His response was lost in the rattle of her phone as she ran.
“They didn’t stop.” Lia took off down the path, out of her neighborhood. Her phone smacked her ear with every stride. “They were out, but they didn’t stop.”
There was no reason for them to do that.
“Didn’t stop what?” Devon asked, voice reverberating with the dead giveaway of speakerphone.
“I shot them,” Lia said with a gasp. Her calves burned. She could hear nothing but her heart and Devon’s voice over the sounds of her feet slapping against the dirt. “They kept coming after me instead of exchanging info with me for the Council.”
“Are you kidding me?” Devon asked. He was cursing now.
Lia had never heard him curse, and the laughter stuttered out of her. She was, except for whoever was after her, utterly alone.
And this was not part of the game.