THERE WILL BE BLOOD || DANIEL MATTHEWS ||

IX: BLEED FOR ME

Daniel aided me in searching the library, Amanda and I having not fully looked through it after the secret passage. Throughout the day I had been thinking about the first riddle. And I'm confident, I solved it. Only problem is, if I'm right, I have no idea how we could get the antidote without causing a major fight. I wanted to tell someone, and as I watched him fiddle with the bookshelf, I swallowed my nerve and decided to tell him.

    "Daniel?" I asked him cautiously, looking up from my search at the desk.

    "Yeah, what's up?" He called from the bookshelf.

    "You know the safe riddle from the first room?"

    "Yeah?"

    "I think I know what it means-"

    "Wait what?" He asked surprised. He walked over to me and leaned on the desk, "You do?"

    "Yeah, I just didn't want to tell it in front of everyone, especially Xaiver." I whispered.

    He nodded, "Makes sense. So what does it mean?"

    I suddenly got nervous, I knew I'd be so embarrassed if I was wrong. I fiddle with my fingerless gloves. "Turn around."

    He looked at me confused, "What?"

    "Turn around first," he complied. "May I touch your hair?" I asked.

    "Um, ye-yeah. Sure, go for it," he stuttered, nervously.

    Gingerly lifting up his blond curls, I looked at the back of his neck. Sure enough, there was the number 13 written in green there. I brushed my finger against it, no smudge, must be tattooed on. I turned him back around.

    "What was that about?" He asked, rubbing his neck.

    "The "numbers" are literally tattooed on the back of our neck," I explained in a whisper, "In color, like the colors of the rainbow. Your's is a green 13."

    "Woah, a tattoo's kinda cool," he smirked, "Turn around so I can see yours."

    I obliged, turning around. My breath couldn't help but hitch as he lifted my hair to my right shoulder and I could feel his breath against my neck. Just as he did that, Amanda came swooping from around the corner.

    "Oh! I'm so sorry. My bad!" She rambled, her eyes wide, clearly mistaking the scene in front of her.

    "Oh no! We weren't-" Daniel and I talked over each other, incoherently, trying to disprove the picture in her head.

    "I'll leave you two alone," she said, hands out as a sign of defeat and walked away.

    "Shit," I breathed.

    "That was embarrassing," Daniel echoed my thoughts.

    "Yeah," I lightly laughed.

    "It's a purple 8 by the way."

~~~

    Daniel and I were looking in a hallway to the right of the first room. Amanda went on up ahead with Addison and Laura were in the hallway to the left. "I wonder what everyone's in for," Daniel whispered to me.

    I laughed, "My money's on prostitution for Addison."

    "Hey guys! Come here! We found another room!" Amanda called. The carefree atmosphere Daniel and I had immediately disappeared. We looked at each other solemnly and ran ahead.

    Jonas, Xavier, and Addison were already in the room. It was an inner room, so there were no windows. There was a fireplace, with burnt wood and ashes. A singular painting was on the wall, depicting the death of Jesus Christ. The paint was peeling, and the floorboards, scuffed like the other room. In the center of the room was a contraption, the next trap, I assumed. There was a big wire box with a smaller box attached to it on the bottom. I walked over to it and I could see two slots. Looking in it was smaller blades above and below the slots. There were holes in the slot leading to tiny boxes that connected in the middle to another box with two marks on the outside of it. The first one was about halfway, the second mark was at the top of the box. In front of it, a big red button. There was a timer set to 5 minutes. Not started. "What in the world," I muttered looking at.