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She couldn’t see him. Her eyes burned too much. She couldn’t even open her eyes. It was like they’d been forced shut. Tears poured from her even as her body still shuddered and jolted.

I lost my gun. Where is my gun? On the ground, near her? Had it fallen close by?

Bam. Bam. Bam. Three fast blasts of a gun firing. Someone had just fired a gun!

Tears streamed down Shelby’s cheeks. “Hunter? Hunter!”

Laughter. Grating, harsh. A fist slammed into Shelby’s head. The right side of her head. A fast punch, and then she felt her hearing aid being ripped away.

Rain kept falling down on her. Her eyes remained locked shut.

You know that happens. Shelby, think. You have mace. You carry mace. You know what happens when a person gets sprayed with mace. She did know.

The eyes close. Involuntary eye closure because of the mace—the irritation. The eyes burned. Like acid had been poured into them.

Not acid, though. Mace. She struggled to open her eyes, but the mace had led to the helpless closure. And even if she did manage to pry them open again, Shelby knew what would happen.

Temporary blindness. Not a total darkness. But shapes would blur and bend and she’d be helpless. “Hunter?” His name choked from her.

She’d thought that he fired the gun. No, she’d hoped that he had. She’d hoped…

“I see you.” Kimber’s voice again. “All alone now, aren’t you, Shelby?”

And she knew that Hunter hadn’t been the one to fire the gun. “No.” Please, no. Not Hunter.

“I see you, but you can’t see me, can you? And you can’t see your would-be hero, dying on the ground, as his blood drains out of him. Thanks for dropping that gun, by the way. It was just what I needed.”

The taser wasn’t hitting her any longer. Shelby scuttled back. Twisted around. Desperate. Lost in the dark. “Hunter? Hunter?”

“I told you, he’s busy bleeding out. It’s just you and it’s me. For the moment, anyway.”

It hadn’t been Jonah. He wasn’t the killer. He hadn’t attacked Kimber. She’d done the attacking. She’d…killed Rochelle? Tiffany? Harvey? The poor cook—Shelby didn’t even know his name!

And Hunter. She shot Hunter. “No!” Shelby yelled as fury grew within her.

But Kimber laughed. “You’re so weak.”

The rain fell harder. Shelby tipped back her head, needing that rain to help wash the mace from her eyes.

Step one, open your eyes. Open your eyes! She strained and struggled and her hands searched blindly near her body.

“Some big, brave final girl you are. But then, despite the hype, I never thought you were anything special.” Kimber’s voice…

It was coming from the left?

Shelby’s head turned toward Kimber’s voice, but without her hearing aid and with the rain falling so hard…

Say something again. Speak again. Louder. I need more.

“You’re not escaping tonight, Shelby. It’s actually pretty hilarious. You can’t even see that I have a gun pointed right at you. I could pull the trigger. Bam. And helpless little you would die without a fight.”

Yes, yes, Kimber was to the left. “Hunter?” A whimper. Hunter could not be dead. Please. Be alive.

More laughter. Grating and loud. “Keep calling for him. That’s precious. Hoping he’ll come to save you, huh? Spoiler alert, he’s dead. As dead as all the others. I decided to re-write the story tonight, you see. I’m gonna be the final girl. The way I should have been years ago. I was always the special one. It should have been me.”

Then Shelby felt it.

A gun muzzle, pressing against her forehead.