The red cloth fell away. A normal dartboard stared back at them nothing ornate, nothing carved with symbols. It could have been any pub's board, which made the contrast with the room feel cruelly ordinary.
The masked man's voice cut the silence. "Kai's team vs Sara's team first game. Remember the rules."
He walked slowly around the circle as he spoke, measuring them with the same flat tone. "To win, your team must score three bullseyes. The concentric rings are safe zones: if your dart lands in a safe ring, no punishment will be inflicted. Hit anywhere else… and you will receive your 'gift.'"
He nodded once and stopped before the teams. "Begin."
Kai, Jinni, Sara, and Eli stepped forward and took their places. Jinni and Eli stood at the throwing line, palms sweating around cold metal darts. Kai and Sara sat on chairs a few feet away, their hands bound the ones who couldn't throw would receive the consequences.
Jinni was first. She breathed, focused on the small red center , and let the dart fly. It thudded low, against the bottom edge of the board outside the safe ring. A guard moved with practiced efficiency, ripping a thick mask over Sara's face. Sara gagged; her lungs protested. The mask sealed around her mouth and nose. She clawed at it, eyes wide and frantic.
Ethan and Finn watching from the back went pale. Ethan's fingers trembled against his leg. Finn's jaw clenched so hard the muscles ticked.
The masked man's voice was calm as a scalpel. "Make it stop. Hit the safe zone. Now. Or she suffocates."
Eli's face went white. Rage and terror braided together in him; he couldn't stand to see Sara vanish like that. He stepped up, breath short, and hurled his dart. It struck the right side of the board a hard, sickening miss. A guard seized Kai's arm and smashed down with a dull, bone-clenching force. Kai cried out as something in his right arm snapped with a wet, final sound. He doubled over, clutching the ruined limb.
Jinni stared, frozen. The world narrowed to the smell of sweat and the metallic tang of fear. Tears blurred her vision; she couldn't process the chaos. The dart in her hand felt impossibly heavy.
"Hurry," the masked man said softly, as if reminding a child of homework. "Jinni. Your teammate's life is in your hand."
Sara choked and thrashed in her seat, muffled coughing beating against the mask. Her legs kicked, useless. She grabbed at the ropes, the desperation in her movements raw and animal.
Jinni's hands shook so badly the dart trembled between her fingers. She breathed, tried to steady herself, and launched the throw. The dart missed again.
Silence fell, thick and accusing.
Eli had one chance left. All the air left the room with his throw. He bent his knees, focused, let everything he felt anger, fear, the taste of helplessness condense into that movement. The dart arced, spun, and found the double ring the edge of the safe zone. For a heartbeat it hung on the rim of possibility, then stayed. A small sound like a released breath passed through the room.
A guard ripped the mask off Sara's face. She coughed violently, gulping deep, heaving breaths as if she were surfacing from deep water. Her whole body shook with the aftershock of not breathing. Kai stared, pale and clenched, his injured arm limp in his lap.
No one moved. No one spoke. Their throats were raw with silence; their hands were trembling with borrowed guilt. Jinni folded into herself, sobs building and then muffled behind her teeth. She wanted nothing more than to run, to curl up and stop participating in whatever nightmare this was but there was no running, no choice. The rules had left them with only decisions that tore at them.
The masked man watched them with an unreadable tilt of his head, as if he were savoring the next moment the same way a hunter savors a twitch in the grass. He wanted to see Jinni's next move.
Jinni swallowed, wiping wet palms on her jeans. She picked up another dart. Her whole body hummed with fear and rage. The game continued.