Game On

Chapter 17: Guilty

"I'm done listening to your bullshit", Nick tell both Peter and me and I can feel my cheeks wanting to turn crimson, but I have resisted it the past half an hour and I'm not planning on letting the bars fall down now.

Nick still doesn't know that I'm lying, and I'm trying my best to keep it that way, but Peter does everything in his power to get me caught.

I can't blame him, though.

What Nick has planned for the guilty one is still unknown, but what I do know is that neither Peter nor I want to find out, but the time is ticking and Nicks patient is running out.

We're sitting in the living room in the basement, and I sit on a couch with Peter by my side, and Nick and Zeke are staring at us from across the room, their gazes almost burning through my skin.

Zeke hasn't said anything to us at all, Nick has done all the talking, but now it seems as it isn't only Nick's patient that's running low, cause for the first time since Zeke stepped into this room twenty minutes ago, he speaks up.

"Here's the thing", he starts and make a pause to look both of us in the eye, "I've been sitting here for a while, and both of you keep going on and on about why you're innocent, but one of you is clearly lying, and if there're two things I don't like, it's liars and to wait. One of you makes me put up with both and now, I'm going to put an end to it." Somehow, his voice sounds extremely threatening and he turns his head to face me, his blue eyes bore into mine.

"Alex", he says with a mischievous glimpse in his eyes, "your best friend is Lindsey McGordon huh? Red hair, bubbly, talkative personality?"

I don't know what to say, but his face gives out that he already knows the answer and he moves on to Peter.

"And you, Peter", he says empathizing the name, "you're very close to Patricia, your girlfriend you want to keep away from this... business you're in."

Peter clenches his jaw and fists, and I get an extremely uneasy feeling in my stomach.

"Where do you wanna go with this?" Peter asks in a harsh tone.

Zeke cracks into a blinding white smile and I get a feeling that he is no longer my favorite out of my kidnappers.

"Since you guys are very fond of the persons I just named", he starts, "I'm going to use it as an advantage. The rules are simple. Alex, if you're the guilty one, you better tell us now because if you don't, I will bring your friend here as well. Same thing goes for you Peter, if you're the guilty one, you better tell us if you don't want Patricia to know what you've done and what you're doing. If neither of you confesses, I'll just bring both."

I almost choke os the words leave his mouth.

No.

Not Lindsey, he can't do that.

I'm sure my eyes widen to the size of saucers, and I hope it won't give out the fact that I'm the liars.

But if it won't, I still have to confess because I can't be the reason to Lindsey being kidnapped too. It's just... too terrible to even think of.

This time, I'm trapped, because Patricia is my friend too, and even though it would hurt Peter to let her know what he's been doing, I can't risk having her here either.

I glance over at Peter, whose face is now pale as if he's seen a ghost.

My heart is threatening to jump out of my chest or up my throat to choke me to death, and everything starts to spin around and melt into a blur.

The time seems to go in slow-motion and I try to open my mouth to let out the few words that would let them know I'm the liar, but the words get stuck in my throat and won't come out.

Feelings of panic erupt in my stomach as I try to get the words out, but they refuse to be said out loud.

I swallow in an attempt to make it easier for the words to slip out, but still, my lips won't move, won't make a single sound.

If Peter's face is pale, I must look like a doll of porcelain.

It's whizzing in my ear and I try to focus on getting those words out, tell them it was me, but it's like the connection between my body and will have been cut off.

Through my blurry eyes, I can make out Peter's lips moving, but thanks to the sound in my ears that's almost roaring like waterfalls, I can't hear what he says.

But I did read his lips.

And as the fact of what he said sunk in, the whizzing diminished in strength and vanished, and my sight became sharp once again.

I stared at Peter in confusion and surprise with my mouth slightly opened and my lips formed into an 'o'.

"What?", Nick shouts with controlled anger, and my gaze turns towards him. He stares at Peter as well with furrowed eyebrows, clenched jaw, and a tense body.

"It's me", Peter repeats, "I'm the liar."