“Hope you go well tonight,” I said awkwardly. I was out of earshot of anyone but Kara, but still, I was going to feel silly if she didn’t answer me.
She fiddled with her wristband, remaining silent. Then she climbed into bed without another word and turned away from me.
Kara was so strange. Maybe she had a mental illness—and if she did, this wasn’t the best place for her.
Settling down onto my pillow, I was surprised to find myself drifting to sleep. I thought everything would be running through my head, but I’d somehow found a sense of calm. I wasn’t going to throw this opportunity away, and I wasn’t going to let the actions of others make me doubt myself. Maybe talking with Brother Vito had helped.
When the bells sounded at midnight, I was ready.
I sprang from the bed.
Ruth’s wristband began flashing first.
I stared at mine, waiting for the digital display to start up.
But two other women jumped from their beds, holding their bracelets high—Yolanda and the tiny Chinese girl named Mei.
The display on everyone else’s wristbands remained blank.
The teams had changed. I hadn’t guessed the mentors were going to change up the teams.
Poppy and I turned to each other in dismay.
“Oh well,” Poppy shrugged. “At least we get to lose ruthless toothless for the night.”
Ruth looked back over her shoulder at Poppy. “I heard that.”
Pulling a face at me, Poppy refused to meet Ruth’s glare.
The door opened, and Ruth and the other two women exited.
Inhaling slowly, I sat back on my bed. So this was what it was like to have to wait.
My muscles remained clenched for the next fifteen minutes.
I’d almost begun to relax when my wristband flashed with the number two. I was in the second team.
A couple more people stood.
The first was an older woman who I knew nothing about except that her name was Louelle and that she was an American who liked country music.
The other person was Kara.
My heart fell a little. Kara was not going to be a team player. She tugged the hood of her top over her forehead. She didn’t look in my direction at all.
The three of us rushed out into the hall.
Three men joined us from their dormitory—Cormack, Saul and Richard.
Mentally, I tried to calculate our odds as a team. We had six people this time rather than seven. Kara—a hostile teenager. Cormack—only just out of his teens, who, although he desperately tried to sound worldly, didn’t have the experience of the older people. Saul—a man who seemed afraid to make a wrong step. Louelle, who I barely knew the first thing about. Richard, who had such a restless drive for the finish line he didn’t seem to be able to concentrate on the task at hand. And myself, and I didn’t place a lot of trust in me.
The odds didn’t seem good.
We charged along the hallway together, at least giving the appearance of being a united front.
The same sound as the night before seemed to follow us, the rustling and the sound of feet.
Louelle and Saul turned to look at the left wall as they ran, frowning. They’d heard it too. But unlike me, the frowns quickly left their faces. They had better things to worry about.
After the things I thought I’d heard and seen that first morning, I’d been jumping at shadows and listening hard for every creak. The monastery, with its age and its vaulted ceilings and hard stone spaces, was producing eerie, hollow noises all its own. And there might be rats too, but Brother Vito was getting the monks to take care of that.
I had to shut down any thoughts that might get in the way of a challenge. The challenges were about mental strength. And I had to be strong.
The mentors were standing together just as they had been the night before, their expressions calm.
“Without further ado,” said Sister Rose, “your second challenge is about to begin. Be sure to look around you and think before you take action.”
I wanted more from the mentors, some sort of clue. But nothing more was forthcoming. I could hear our group taking deeper breaths as we followed the mentors to the door of the second challenge room.
“We wish you well.” Sister Rose opened the door and then stepped back to let us enter.
The room fell into complete darkness as she closed the door behind us.
“Smells like—” Cormack began.
“Seawater,” Richard finished. “And I can hear a motor running.”
Lights sprang on in a circular pattern.
A gasp rose in my throat.
“What in the weasel’s piss is this?” Cormack’s thickly Scottish voice echoed around the glass surfaces of the room.