Chapter 5 WELCOME TO THE HUNTING GAME ...

Nerissa's POV

I stare at the words on my screen, with my thumb hovering over the glass as I try to understand what I'm looking at.

The app looks simple and almost harmless, but nothing about the last few minutes has felt harmless.

Maya Bennett is dead, and her name was written across my dorm door in blood, and now… My name is sitting inside an app that appeared on my phone without my permission.

I swallow the dryness in my throat and tap “Last Activity” that's just beside the title.

Just as the screen changes immediately, Maya's picture shows on the screen, staring back at me before information starts to type itself letter after letter right under the picture:

``Hunter: Maya Bennett

Target: Nerissa Ivy

Quest: Incomplete

Hunter Status: Removed ``

My eyes stop on the last line, “Removed.”

I read it again, hoping I've misunderstood the word, but it stays exactly where it is.

If I'm not mistaken, this indicates that Maya was hunting me.

The blood on my door, her body that was hanging outside my room, and the strange black envelope I saw earlier … all of it suddenly feels connected, and I don't like the way the pieces are slowly fitting together.

A notification suddenly appears at the top of my phone:

``VIDEO MESSAGE DELIVERED.``

I stare at it for a moment before tapping on it. The screen goes black for a few seconds, then a video starts to display.

Maya's face appears on the screen, but it looks like she's running.

Her breathing is rough, and the camera shakes so badly that her face keeps disappearing from the frame. She looks nothing like the girl whose name has been written in blood outside my room; if not, anything, she looks more terrified.

Then she turns the camera toward herself for a second, and her face fills the screen.

"My name is Maya Bennett," she says between ragged breaths. "If you're seeing this, then they have put your name on the list."

My fingers tighten around the phone as I stare at her face.

She looks over her shoulder before continuing. "Don't trust anyone who tells you The Hunt is just a game. There's..."

Her eyes widen as she suddenly stops when something moves behind her.

I barely have time to understand what I'm seeing before a masked figure steps into the frame behind her and drives a blade across her throat.

Her body jerks as a burst of blood splashes across the camera, covering the screen in red as the phone drops and the video becomes nothing but a blurred view of the floor.

For several seconds, my body stays rooted on the spot and my breath ceases.

My eyes stay fixed on the screen as I wait for something to happen. I wait for Maya to get up. I wait for the video to suddenly reveal itself as some sick prank…

But it doesn't.

My hand finally moves, almost without me telling it to, and I exit the video. I immediately return to the app and tap “Last Activity” again.

I refresh the page again and again … but Maya's name is gone; it's as if it was never there in the first place.

I scroll through the screen, searching for her picture, her name… anything that proves what I saw earlier was real, but there is nothing.

"What the hell..."

The screen changes by itself to complete pitch black before I can scroll any further.

Then words written in white letters slowly appear in the middle:

``PARTICIPANT 259 ACTIVATED.``

I stare at the words, still trying to make sense of this.

Then my phone's camera switches on, so sudden that I nearly drop it as I flinch.

I watch as my own face appears on the screen, but the image isn't live, which tells me more that something isn't right; I can tell immediately because I'm looking at myself from somewhere I cannot possibly be standing.

The camera is showing my room from another angle.

I look at the screen before I turn around slowly, but there's no one behind me.

My eyes move across the room to find anything suspicious like a hidden camera. I check the bed, the desk, the wardrobe, the small space beside the curtains… but I find nothing.

I look back at my phone just in time; the image moves slowly as the camera feed shifts across the room like whoever that is holding it is deliberately moving closer to something.

My breathing catches when the feed finally settles on my door.

For a moment, nothing happens.

Suddenly, I watch as a shadow appears, stopping right outside my door.

My gaze stays fixed at the phone screen, unable to look away as my breath ceases more.

My phone vibrates in my hand once, with a text notification:

``WELCOME TO THE HUNTING GAME, NERISSA IVY``