𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | 18+

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟕

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ARES
EMERSON
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This game was fucked. I always enjoyed it—loved it, even—when I played it with other girls and guys. The thrill of the hunt, the adrenaline of prying on my prey, knowing they were somewhere out there, hidden, waiting. But this time? This time it was different.

This time, Rose and Ada were the prey.

And I hated it.

I'd always protect Ada. Selfishly, more than any girl in my friendgroup. Even when I had the biggest cowardly crush on Rose, my priority was Ada.

I watched as the world burned around me, each flame a reflection of my chaos and destruction. I caused chaos. But I—never letting a single burn or chaos drift close to her. She stood untouched, a silhouette against the fire, I would let the fire consume everything else. I destroyed everything, but for her, I kept the darkness at arm's length. The violence was given to everyone besides her, but she was mine to protect, even if it meant being scorched by my own hell.

It was a fucked game.

Two girls who had no place in this shadowed, unforgiving game. Two girls who didn't belong in the labyrinth of darkness I was about to descend into. Rose—well, she was born for this. She craved the chase, the danger. She drank it down like poison and begged for more. The thrill of it all bled into her veins. She fucking read about it, fantasized about it.

But Ada? No. She was porcelain masquerading as steel. Fragile in ways she couldn't comprehend, ways the world would devour. Her innocence was the worst kind of weakness. She was the kind of girl who never belonged in a place like this, not under my watch, not tonight. And yet, here we were.

They'd been given a head start, two minutes of borrowed freedom to disappear into the suffocating woods that clung to the back of my home. The kind of forest that swallowed light, where the air grew colder, heavier with every step. A place I knew better than my own reflection. I could track them blindfolded, find them before they even realized they'd been caught.

But the thought of them out there—Rose, reckless and wild, and Ada, so hopelessly unaware of the real rules of this game—made something inside me curdle. I could imagine their uneven breaths, the way their feet tripped over roots and thorns they couldn't see. They thought it was a game, a thrill, something they could control.

They were wrong. So fucking wrong.

The woods don't forgive. Neither do I.

"You lied to them," I said, my voice low, tight with an anger I couldn't quite disguise. My fingers gripped the edge of the cold, black mask, sliding it over my face. The fabric was suffocating, clinging like a second skin, transforming me into the thing I was supposed to be. A predator. A hunter. A nightmare. "You told them it was just a chase. Something harmless. But it's more than that."

Luca stood across from me, already shrouded in his mask, the dim light catching the curve of his twisted grin. It wasn't a smile meant to reassure; it was sharp, cruel, the kind of expression that warned you to stay far away. Everything about him radiated menace, from the tilt of his head to the way his shoulders rolled like he was ready to pounce. He lived for this. Thrived on the darkness and chaos. "Yeah? So what?" he said, his voice a lazy drawl that only made my blood boil. "That's the point. Makes it better if they don't know what's coming. The fear? That's what makes the game worth it. The masks make it scarier. You're overthinking this, Ares."

I clenched my fists at my sides, nails digging into my palms as I fought to steady the gnawing unease inside me. "You know Ada doesn't like this shit. She'll panic. She's not built for this."