#NoEscape by Gretchen McNeil

Author:Gretchen McNeil [McNeil, Gretchen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2020-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

PERSEY JUMPED AT THE BUZZER, GASPING IN SURPRISE. Someone was watching, cuing off of Kevin’s words for dramatic effect. Why hadn’t they called the police?

“Thirty minutes,” Wes said, as if anyone needed to be told. “Now what?”

No one answered. In fact, no one moved. Unlike previous buzzers that had kicked off a flurry of motion and energy as the contestants began their search for clues, this time no one seemed to know what to do.

Persey didn’t blame them. She didn’t know what she was supposed to believe anymore. Her eyes trailed to Arlo’s crumpled corpse. Somewhere, she had friends, a family. Her brother who went to Notre Dame…What was his name? Atticus. Persey imagined he would be devastated when he learned Arlo was dead. Heartbroken by the loss of his sister.

I wonder what that’s like?

Riot approached Persey, touching her back lightly with his fingertips. “I’m sure she didn’t feel anything.”

I’m sure.

“You okay?”

Persey peeled her eyes away from the body. “I didn’t like her, but I didn’t want her dead.”

“Not your fault!” Kevin called up from the floor. He’d leaned back on his elbows and stretched out his legs before him.

Isn’t it?

Riot glared at Kevin. “Maybe if you’d listened to Persey about that Boyz Distrikt singer, we’d all be outside right now.”

“Maybe if you two stopped flirting,” Kevin countered, “I wouldn’t feel like barfing right now.”

“Us? Are you kidding?” Riot laughed. “You and that prep school groupie have been practically dry-humping since you met!”

Kevin wouldn’t be derailed. “And your eyes have barely left Persey’s face.”

Once again, Persey felt the heat rising up from her neck. She spun away from Riot, picked up her bloodstained T-shirt that Neela had discarded, and gently draped it over Arlo’s remains, obscuring the gaping neck hole from view. She hadn’t been a very nice person, or even a very good person, and there had been no love lost between them, but Arlo didn’t deserve this. None of the contestants did. And Persey wanted to make sure that no one else shared Arlo’s fate.

“Sit there if you want,” she said, without looking at Kevin. “I’m going to try to find a way out.”

“Excellent!” Riot dashed across the room, mounting the steps to the altar in one leap. He hoisted himself back up onto the marble slab and stood facing the crucifix, examining the engraving Neela had spotted on her way down the pole. “Exurge Domine et judica causam tuam,” he read.

Riot’s energy spurred everyone else into motion. “‘Arise, O Lord, and judge your cause,’” Shaun translated. “The motto of the Spanish Inquisition.”

“I knew it,” Neela said under her breath.

Riot continued to read. “Then in the middle, it says Psalm Seventy-Three. Any chance you know that one, Shaun-bot?”

“One of the Wisdom Psalms, also known as the Psalms of Asaph.” Shaun cleared his throat, eager to show off. If he’d felt any fear or remorse in the face of Arlo’s death, it had quickly been forgotten. “‘Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity, their evil imaginations have no limits.

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