Matchstick Excerpt 11: The Choice

There wasn’t a magic signature at all. Whatever this was, it wouldn’t blow up if I touched it. I carefully opened the door. It was a piece of fabric, roughly cut, that had been rolled up and laid across the floorboards. I glanced around quickly to make sure no one was paying attention to me. I carefully unrolled it. I didn’t want to alert anyone else just yet. No need to send everyone running if they didn’t need to. There was a note and a couple of pictures attached to it.

You are not as smart as you think you are, it said across the top.

Underneath it were Polaroids of Arthur and me from today. One from each location we’d been to except this one. My jaw clenched. I was tired of this bullshit.

Tick Tock. Who will you save? was scrawled across the bottom.

My heart dropped, and my hands started to shake as I tossed the fabric square back in the car.

“She knows we are all here,” I said frantically. “There was a note in my car. It asked me who I was going to save.”

“I haven’t seen anything on the cameras,” Elise said.

“I’ll come to you,” Mel said. “I can get my car later. Arthur put a call into Annabell. We need to bail.”

“I’m not calling her. I’m going to her. If they know we’re here, there’s no need to pretend,” he said.

It sounded like he was jogging. As his breathing picked up, so did my heart rate. I was paralyzed. I didn’t know where to go or who would need it. These games made me want to scream. She was always a step ahead of us, playing with our lives.

“There wasn’t a picture of Mel,” I said quietly.

“What?” Elise and Arthur said.

“There wasn’t a picture of Mel,” I said louder. “Bethany doesn’t know she is here. Don’t come to me, we need to go to them. It asked me who I would save.”

Just as I started moving toward them, two shots rang out. Arthur cursed and dropped off the call.

(All excerpts are taken from a lightly edited first draft. Contents are subject to change or may be removed from the final novel entirely.)

Matchstick Excerpt 7: The Aftermath

 “You think Maria was doing the shooting? Mark would have been there, though. He wouldn’t want to miss her reaction.”

“I also don’t think he would have taken a shot at me. He is mad at me, but I don’t think he could kill me. Maria was pissed he called me. She would probably be thrilled to have a chance to take me out.”

“We need to tell them,” Elise said.

“I know. I will. Annabell and Arthur are down and need to rest. Onyx can barely walk. Harley has a lot on her plate with everyone that’s been injured. I think it needs to wait until morning. Let everyone sleep, and then tell them.”

I was restless, but I needed the rest. The level of adrenaline that courses through you when you’re being shot at takes a toll. My mind was whirling too quickly for that. At least the living room was big enough to pace in. Elise stayed perched on the edge of couch. All her muscles were tense, she was ready to spring up at a moment’s notice. I didn’t blame her.

“Do you think the house will be ok tonight?” she asked.

“Maybe? It’s hard to say for sure.”

“We need to get Harley’s car. Arthur’s too,” she said. “We can take a cab to Harley’s and then drive to his.”

“I don’t know if that is a good idea. We would be out there on our own. If something happened… they wouldn’t even know where we had gone.”

“Let’s get Renee then. She can drive us in her car.”

“No one will be happy with us involving Renee.”

“What about involving me?” she said as she walked into the room. “Everyone else is sleeping.”

“I wanted to go get the cars. We can’t just leave them, it will draw attention.”

“None of them will like it, but it needs to be done,” Renee said. “Let’s go get it over with before someone wakes up and tried to stop us.”

“I just don’t think that’s a good plan. We don’t know if they are still watching the cars or if they left some kind of surprise at them,” I said.

“It will be ok,” Renee said. “While I don’t have much in the way of formal training, I have spent a lot of time with Arthur and Annabell. I know what to look for.”

“It won’t take long and we’ll be careful,” Elise added.

(All excerpts are taken from a lightly edited first draft. Contents are subject to change or be removed entirely from the finished novel)