“Do you? Do you really? If you really wanted to make it easier on me, you’d lie to me. Tell me what I want to hear.”
“That wouldn’t make it easier on you, sweetheart. Sorry…I mean Katelyn.” He picks up a roll and bites into it harshly, as if he’s ripping the head off a chicken or something.
He’s angry. Even in his eating, he’s angry. Why shouldn’t he be? He’s being held here just as I am. Against his will.
The only difference is he began this quest to find Luke. He has a reason for being here.
I’m here as an innocent bystander.
I pick up my steak knife—yes, they gave us steak knives—and slice off a piece of the chicken. Then I hold up my knife. “Can’t you do something with this?”
“First of all, they’re not going to let us keep these utensils. They’ll be back to collect them as soon as they think they’ve given us enough time to eat, so eat quickly.”
“But still—”
“Katelyn, these people we’re dealing with are not stupid. And they know we’re not stupid. They know I won’t try anything with a steak knife. And even if I did, they’d be well prepared.”
I nod. “So we’re really on our own?”
“We are. I’ll get us out of here, but you need to let me do it on my time. I’ll figure a way out. I always do.”
I nod. I cut another piece of the chicken, the serrated blade of the steak knife grinding against the ceramic of the plate.
I remember again… The plate I hid under my mattress.
And what I paid for it.
Diamond hesitantly leads me through the dorm and outside.
“Where are you taking me?”
“I’m so sorry, Moonstone.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re going on a hunt,” she says.
“In daylight?” It’s not unheard of, but most of the hunts take place at night. It’s more of a challenge that way. The guys who come here live for the challenge. In their warped minds, hunting defenseless women at night is a challenge. “Who requested me?”
“No one requested you. This is a special occasion.”
“What kind of special occasion?”
“You’ll be hunted. Hunted by…all of the men here on the island.”
“What?” Have I heard her correctly?
Normally only one person is allowed to hunt one of us at a time. And normally I don’t get hunted that often. It’s only happened a few times before.
More often I get taken by someone who wants to talk to me, sometimes beat me, sometimes rape me.
Then there’s Ice Man.
All he does is pee on me. It’s humiliating and awful and I hate it, but…at least I live through it.
It’s a sunny day on the island. Sometimes it rains, but not today. How can I hide anywhere on the hunting ground when the sky is blue and there’s nothing to camouflage me?
“Get in,” Diamond says.
“Diamond, please…”
She cups my cheeks. “I wish I could change this for you. I wish I could take the punishment instead of you.”
She seems sincere. But is she? I never know. She keeps doing what she does, all the while saying how terrible it is. But still…she does it.
She opens the passenger door side of the Jeep.
I don’t move.
“Get in,” she says again. “If you don’t, I have to give you this.” She pulls a syringe out of her pocket. “Please don’t make me do that, Moonstone. If I do, you’ll be drugged. You won’t be able to run as quickly. Believe me. You don’t want me to have to do this.”
I relent and get into the Jeep.
“You know the drill.” She hands me a hood.
Yes, we’re hooded when we go to the hunting ground. I never really understood why. I can’t think of one of us who would go there on our own if we knew the way.
The ignition roars to life, and the Jeep begins moving. It’s a hot tropical day, and the black fabric of the hood absorbs heat, making it difficult for me to breathe.
Or perhaps it’s my racing heart. At least I won’t hyperventilate with the hood on. I’ll be breathing a lot of carbon dioxide.
Despite the heat, goosebumps erupt over my flesh. Diamond didn’t give me any special clothes to wear. I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt, what we girls always wear in the dorm.
This means only one thing.
She will take my clothes when we get to the hunting ground. I’ll be naked. Naked and at the mercy of whoever catches me.
Sometimes we’re given weapons. Simple things like a fork or a chopstick. Garnet has done some real damage with a chopstick. She’s a natural athlete and boy, does she fight.
Which is, unfortunately, one of the reasons she’s so popular on the hunt. She gives a good fight. Apparently the men like that. She’s worthy prey.
That’s what they call her. Worthy prey.
I remember the two men saying that about me before I was brought to the island. They called me worthy prey. I only met one other woman in that concrete dungeon. I told her to go. I told her to kill me, but when she wouldn’t, I told her to go. To escape.
Although both my shoulders were dislocated, I eventually forced myself to get up and move.
That’s when they decided I was worthy prey.
Despite that fact, I’ve been to the hunting grounds rarely.
I don’t know why that is. Something about the way I look. I’m in decent shape—we all are—but I’m not a natural athlete like Garnet.
“Diamond,” I say, my voice muffled through the hood, “I didn’t use the plate. Doesn’t that count for something?”
She doesn’t reply.
I suppose it’s easier for her now that she doesn’t have to look me in the eye.
Or she supposes that replying would do me no good. She has to do what she has to do, apparently. I’ve often wondered who she is, and why she does this.
But I’ve never asked. Some of the other girls have, and she doesn’t give any answer. Not surprising.
Every nerve in my body is on alert, as if I’m already out there being hunted.
I clear my throat. “How many men will there be?”
Again, Diamond doesn’t respond.
“Please, Diamond. Tell me something. Anything that could help me.”
I hear a sigh. Then, “I can’t, Moonstone. You and I both know that I can’t.”
I don’t say anything else for the remainder of the trip. All I do is think. I think about my cousins—second cousins, actually—Jared and Tony, whose fault it is that I’m here. I think about the other women—Garnet, Tiger Eye, Onyx, Crystal, and so many others—who have survived worse than I have.
I try to console myself with the fact that they won’t kill me.
Except…
Will they?
Now that I was caught with a potential weapon, do they mean to get rid of me?
“Diamond!”
“Yes?”
“Are they going to kill me?”
She doesn’t reply at once, but just when I’m sure she’s not going to at all—
“I don’t know, Moonstone. I just don’t know.”