“Take this,” Coden said stiffly. “I’ll trade you for the scissors.”
I glanced down at Coden’s hand, knowing what I’d find even before my eyes landed on what he was holding. It was Al’s knife. “No,” I said immediately, shaking my head and taking a small step back. “No, you need that—”
Coden let out a short sigh before setting the knife into my empty palm and closing my fingers over it. “Serenity,” he said sternly. “Please.”
I folded my lips over each other before finally conceding and handing over the scissors. Coden took them without saying anything and stuffed them into his back pocket. Something about handing him the worse of the two weapons didn’t sit right with me. In all honesty, I hated the thought of him having the scissors while I had the knife; he deserved the better of the weapons after everything he’d done for me and the others. But I knew that we didn’t have time to argue about it, so I just kept my mouth shut. We had more pressing matters to deal with right now—like finding Rosalie and Valarie. Everything else was irrelevant at the moment. Well, except for keeping us alive.
“Come on,” Coden muttered, gesturing toward the doorway. I watched numbly as he headed toward the door, back out into the hall. Something held me back for a short moment, like my subconscious mind thought that if I stayed in this room Rosalie and Valarie would come back eventually and we’d all be together again. But I knew that those chances were more than slim, so I pushed myself forward and followed Coden out of the room.
“I shouldn’t have chosen that hallway,” Coden hissed to himself, bringing his hand through his hair. “I should have—”
My eyebrows creased and I frowned. “You had no way of knowing that Dan would be coming that way,” I said softly, not hesitating before placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Besides, if we had thought for a second that someone was close by, we would have told you to go another way. None of us knew—it wasn’t your fault, and it wasn’t any of ours.”
Coden glanced at me and down at my hand, but didn’t answer. After a short moment of silence I removed my hand from his shoulder and looked toward the far wall, my jaw working. I wanted to comfort Coden, to convince him that none of this fault (which it most definitely wasn’t), but it was obvious that no matter what I said he’d still feel guilty.
My mind started reeling as I struggled to think of all the possible places Rosalie and Valarie could be. So many possibilities, each more gruesome than the next. Samantha or Dan could have come around and they could have fled for their lives. While fleeing, they could have been run down and killed. Did Valarie decide it was time to move on so that they could search for the door? If so, had they found it and made it out, or had someone found them before they could make it?
Were they alive; were they dead?
There was one thing I knew for sure, though: I wasn’t leaving until I knew for sure.
“I can’t look for the door until I find them,” I muttered. “I don't know about you, but it seems wrong to concentrate on getting out when they could be trapped somewhere.”
Coden nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed softly. “We’ll find them.” He paused for a short moment before looking over at me. “Can you promise me something?”
I hesitated a second before gesturing for him to continue. Something in his tone hinted that I wasn’t going to be pleased with his request, that I wasn’t going to want to say, “Yes, of course, I promise” without a second’s hesitation. The look on his face wasn’t helping much either.
“After we find the girls, if we get separated get yourself and the others out of here. Don’t keep yourself and the others here just because I’m still stuck in here.” He frowned as though the thought pained him. “I’d rather die than have you guys stuck in here because of me.”
