Deck of Cards

Day 30- Ava

Eight of Hearts- chained up for 4hrs

Ava's POV

The day of reckoning had come, it would either lead to success or I would be left to rot in the gutters. Looking around the cell which I had refused to call home I saw all the pain I had felt, all the tears that had threatened to fall and yet I didn't feel weak but instead stronger than I had ever felt.

Despite my eagerness to leave the death trap, I wanted to take something along, something to remind me that I was stronger than anything that could be thrown at me. Grabbing the deck of cards which had sculpted my time in the game, I placed them carefully in my pocket, hoping that they wouldn't shuffle too much. I heard the clinking of my guard coming and I sucked in a breath. The time had come.

He faced me, his features illuminated by the orange light of his lantern, looking ghoulish. Despite his height I calculated that I could easily shoot him down or run past him when the opportunity arose. It was just making that opportunity happen.

"Hey warden, I think there's a hole in my cell," I spluttered out loudly before he even had a chance to speak. I didn't want to seduce a man like him- he was disgusting and I wanted to avoid touching him. Thankfully he was slightly dumb and came into my cell almost immediately.

The minute he was in my cell I heard a click from behind me which symbolized that the cameras were off- Scarlett was free. Taking one last breath in that cell I ran for it, pushing the door open with the speed of light and trapping him inside.

Alarms rang through the air as I sprinted through the familiar corridors, I knew that if I heard any footsteps I was done. The girls weren't going to cross my path till the final stretch. Using my good eyesight, I could navigate through the dark without much hesitation and ran into nobody at all. It seemed too quiet for my liking and instead of being comforting it was nothing but scary. I was constantly waiting for a body to slam into me and knock me to the ground.

I made my way to the larder in great time and pulled the door open so hard I was surprised that it didn't break. Rushing in I could see that the window had been pushed open and the dawn light was seeping through giving me just enough light to find the secret door which had been abandoned years ago. Knocking on it lightly, I heard a few whispers inside and then out popped the head of Jen who was smiling like an idiot. Her face was stretched out as the grin she had plastered on couldn't be broken.

Clambering in, I was greeted by four other girls all with smiles that ceased to fade. To my surprise I was the last one, despite my knowledge and expertise I was the last to arrive. I could have missed the time bracket and be the only one caught; I shivered when I thought of what they would do to me.

"We thought you had ditched us," Hannah admitted guiltily, her face was no longer weary from insanity but joyful and bright. Despite my preconceptions, I realised that she was genuinely a good person who was just so guarded and secretive because of her past. Scarlett came over and brought me into a bear hug,clinging onto me like a baby monkey.

"We wouldn't have left without you," she whispered in my ear and despite it being a very comforting thing to say, I knew it wasn't true. If you could escape- you would. It didn't matter who was hurt.

"We should probably hide in here, in case they come in," Sally suggested and then I was struck with an idea which had never occurred to me before. Even in all the planning time I had done, I had not thought of the most obvious yet ingenious escape plan. Inside the mansion there was an abandoned basement which was only ever used to store equipment and furniture. It led all the way outside the mansion and into the expanse of the fields that bordered the house.

"Follow me," I said with a smile now etched on my face like a plastic doll.

Walking through the abandoned door which had always puzzled me as a child and I only saw the contents of as a teenager, I felt nostalgic. Not nostalgic for the house or the horrors that it held but for the childhood that I had. Nostalgic for the past.

All the other girls were squealing, whether it was from excitement or fear I didn't know. The darkness inside the basement was so much more intense than the darkness we had felt before. It smothered us and invaded us as we tried to push through to get to the exit which I knew was a only a short while away.

"How much further?" asked a worried Sally and I sighed. Why couldn't they enjoy the freedom rather than be afraid of it?

"We're here," I gasped as I felt the iron doorhandle. We had made it, we were free and yet I was so scared of what was outside that door. All my life the game had been a constant and the thought of anything new terrified me, I wasn't sure whether I could adapt. Before I had a choice, Hannah opened the door and we were greeted by gentle sunlight that was now covering the whole area. The basement went out to the field because it was where the original games happened and he didn't want anyone to hear or find them. Nobody went into that field. Nobody until we did.

As I placed my feet on the grass it was so much better than I had imagined. Twenty nine days of pain were gone in an instant as I felt freedom circle me. The other girls were also wrapped up in their own private thoughts and we stood in a line for a minute being thankful for the luck that we had been given. Thankful for our success.

"We should run," Scarlett said and I whipped my head around expecting to see a mob of people chasing us like they do in the movies. Nobody was there but I understood her message, it was best that we left the area and made our way to get justice. The game was going down once and for all.