The heavy-lidded eyes of the oversized infant focused on us. No matter how much we stood still or allowed the mound of straw to conceal us. The beast's glare never left us, only becoming more prominent.

The rustling straw beneath him sounded through the space as he shifted the weight of his body to stand. And when he finally stood, his true height and stature caused me to gasp.

"The Troll."

Getting a better look at his jaundice skin and large two front teeth made me compare him to the massive picture of him on the wall of Arcanum's lobby. Seeing him up on screens, next to images of the Witch and the Big Bad Wolf, diminished his threat in my mind at the time. But that changed quickly when I found myself face to face with him.

I couldn't take my eyes from the mounds of flesh that draped from his chest and gut, and he refused to tear his glare from us. The creases in his forehead deepened with his irritated scowl.

As he towered over us by a few feet even at a comfortable distance, his mouth opened, showing the gap in his top two front teeth. "Play!" he mumbled, even sounding like a toddler with bass in his tone.

"We gotta get to the safe zone." I refused to look at Jade or Millie when I spoke, choosing to keep radar on the giant troll who stood only feet before us.

"Someone's in there already," Jade pointed out. "I can see their shadows under the door."

"The brothers?" I suggested.

"What if it's Sonya?" Millie went on. "You ready for that?"

I nodded. "I'll confront anything other than this giant."

Upon mention of the giant, the Troll stomped and the ground shook. "Play. Now." His voice came out in a deep growl.

"I'll distract him," I said. "Take Jade and get to the safe zone. On my cue."

With that, I took the blade from my cuff and stepped fully from behind the towering haystack. "You wanna play?"

The Troll didn't answer, he only marched toward me as I backed up.

Millie waved her hand to Jade, gesturing for her to follow as she rounded the haystack the opposite way, being sure to stay out of the Troll's sight. Jade reluctantly followed and together they disappeared around the stack leaving me face to face with the giant.

As I continued to retreat far from the safe zone, stepping backwards faster than he stepped forwards, I kept the hut in my vision. Ensuring Jade and Millie made it inside without being detected by the towering beast.

"Play!" The voice of the Troll came out as a deep roar, startling me.

I lifted my blade, unafraid to use it, but opting not to. If I could get through this without hurting or killing anyone or anything unnecessarily then that was a win. Most of the people and creatures in the Games were here due to unwarranted circumstances anyway.

However, if my life was ever in immediate danger, I wouldn't hesitate to make one with my blade and the threat.

The stomps of his hefty footsteps caused my heart to race and adrenaline to rush through my veins. The sweat dampened my forehead, but I ignored the discomfort to lead him further away from his hay nest near the safe zone.

I watched Millie attempt to open the door to the shack, but she couldn't get in. Whoever was inside had locked it and wasn't moving to open it fast enough for my tastes.

"Come on," I groaned, frustrated with Millie and Jade's exposure to the open and the danger.

Finally, the door opened, yet they still hadn't entered. Instead, they waited at the entrance with their hands up in defense, scared looks in their eyes.

"Damn it," I said aloud, frustrated and frightened at what might happen.

They needed me.

"Play." The troll continued to move forward at a steady speed. The rolls on his belly jiggled mesmerizingly, but it was the saddened look on his face that drew me in. In a heartbreaking whisper unlike the voice I had heard until now, he instructed, "Run." Something in his eyes intrigued me. The sadness, the worry, the lack of control. "Run!"

Without a second thought, I turned and ran. Gripping the blade tight in my palm, I ran around hay piles feeling the Troll's stomps rumbling behind me. His stature and gate allowed him to keep up even as I maneuvered through and behind stacks of straw.

"Play!" he called out, and I glanced over my shoulder to see him plow through a towering haystack making the pieces fly all over.

I made my way back toward the safe zone, the only place that could prevent him from harming me or anyone else.

With the shack in sight, Millie and Jade stood in the doorway with Dylan and Spencer beside them, weapons in hand.

"Come on, Kam!" Millie called out. "Hurry."

I ran with all my might, nearing the shack. And like clockwork, I tripped and skidded on my chest on the trail. My blade went flying forward, feet out of reach and obscured by the scattered hay.

"Kam!" Jade called and ran toward me.

"No." Millie pulled her back by her elbow.

"Let me go." She struggled against Millie's grip.

"You'll get yourself killed," Millie screamed.

Just as I was to flick my cuffed wrist to retrieve the blade, a vice squeezed my cuffed arm to my side, and a searing pain across my gut stopped me from breathing. I looked down at the yellowed five-fingered appendage of the troll as it pinned my arm and gripped my waist with a hand three times the size of my own.

"Play!" he said near my ear, maneuvering me around effortlessly before lifting me feet in the air.

I couldn't scream even though I tried. The grip on my arm and abdomen prevented me from doing anything but trying desperately to pry his fingers from me with my free hand. The pressure was so intense, his manhandling must have damaged something in my abdomen internally.

I could only grit my teeth to bear the pain.

Jade continued to wrestle with Millie to get her to let her go. Instead of stepping in to break them up, Spencer approached the giant with his makeshift club in hand. "Hey, asshole!" He called to get his attention.

It did nothing.

They all wisely kept a safe distance but the pressure from the Troll's grip grew intense. And if his version of a play date was as gruesome and violent as it was during last year's Games, I didn't have long to get free.

Movement from a nearby haystack got my attention and I looked to see an oversized rat scurry from the straw to approach us. The rodent disappeared beneath me and a split second later the Troll hollered out in pain, dropping me to the straw covered ground.

I fell with a thud, and collapsed on the spot gasping for air that still had a difficult time getting to my lungs. My chest burned and I wondered if this was how I would go out, in front of my sister and my beloved.

The rat scurried back toward the pile of hay, but before disappearing completely, I took note of the dark bruise on its hind leg near the scrawny belly.

I rotated my forearm and the blade emerged from the straw that concealed it to reattach to my cuff while the giant roared in pain behind me.

He stomped at the pile to try and crush the rodent, but the rat was too quick and had already scampered back into the hay. When the monster stomped, I got a good look at the stream of viscous black goop that trailed down the obvious bite mark on its ankle.

Spencer waved his club in the air to distract the beast while his brother aimed his spear, readying to attack if needed. While they prepared to fight, Jade and Millie finally came to my aid, dragging me the short distance to the safe house and inside.

Spencer and Dylan rushed in right after and closed the door before the Troll could even get close enough to peer inside.

With the door closed, a sense of safety and relief hit me. With Jade kneeling next to me, I relaxed on the straw littered ground.

"Oh my god, Babes!" Jade panicked, I detected it in her shaky voice. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Millie stood over us, looking down at my stomach. "Did that thing break your ribs?"

"I don't think so." I palpated the soreness in my stomach, moving my fingers around the tender spot. "He squeezed me pretty good though."

Millie huffed and rubbed her temple the way she does when she's stressed but trying to hide it. "Thank goodness that's all he did."

Spencer's eyes were wide, and he and Dylan's breaths were quick as if the fight in them amped up their defenses. "What was up with that giant rat? Why did it bite him?"

"Yeah," Dylan nodded. "That was weird. Where did that thing even come from?"

"My sister helped it," I said.

"Wait." Millie kneeled. "That was the same rat I fed?"

"It had a bruise on its hind leg where you kicked it." I lay still, allowing the intense pain to slowly fade. "Maybe it was helping?"

Millie scratched the white hairs at her temple. "You think so?"

"It must like you." I smiled at the thought, trying to get her to smile too to no avail.

Millie pressed her fingers to my stomach, assessing the damage. "Maybe the poor thing is just starving."

I winced when she pressed a tender spot. "Rats aren't known to go around eating living flesh."

"Weren't you the one who said these rats weren't normal rats?" She stood and extended her hand.

Spencer shuddered. "I hate rats."

I took her hand and allowed her to pull me to my feet. Pieces of straw and dirt clung to my black jumpsuit, but I didn't care. I attempted to walk to assess the damage.

Jade stood and held her hand to my lower back for support. "Maybe you should sit down and rest."

"I will, I just want to make sure I can run if I need to." I paced the small room, not walking more than five steps before meeting the other side of the space.

Another flat screen monitor was anchored on the wall and a perfectly round hole in the floor in the corner of the room acted as a toilet. A table and a rickety wooden chair were positioned in the opposite corner.

"Thank you for helping me, especially you two." I nodded at the brothers.

Spencer shrugged, lengthening his backbone as if enamored by the acknowledgement. "It's instinctual. You see someone in need, and you help. You don't really even think about it. You just act."

"Except you just cost us a chance at a win," Dylan mumbled loud enough for us all to hear.

Jade sneered. "At least your brother still has some integrity."

"I'm surprised," I said, remembering Millie and Jade with their hands up outside the shack. "Because at first I didn't think you were gonna let them in."

"Does anyone here know what the 'last ones standing' mean?" Dylan shook his head. "Plus, she's not even supposed to be here. I'm sure all these crazy attacks are just to get rid of you." He glared at Jade.

"Hey!" I butted in. "She has nothing to do with this. And you're right, she's not supposed to be here, so if she stays it shouldn't impact who wins or not."

"But it does." His strong grip tightened around his spear. "Because she's helping you two. Not fair."

Millie lengthened her spine. "So now you're gonna turn on us? Typical."

Spencer stood in front of the door, our only way out. "We can't really trust ya'll, can we?"

"What are you talking about?!" I grabbed my stomach as I yelled the words, pain seeping through the frustration. "We helped you. You helped us. We made it this far. It's simple."

Spencer sighed, reluctantly. "Wherever you go trouble follows. Obviously, you're a risk. All of you." He lifted the club and adjusted his grip on it like a baseball bat. "Sorry."