Read Online The Dead Game by Susanne Leist - Free Book Online Page A

them went simultaneously dark.
    It was definitely leading them somewhere, Louise surmised, but where?
    On the right wall, a third door hung open with steps leading down to the basement. Refusing to move forward another step, Louise cried out, “I definitely don’t want to go down into the depths of this house. It could have a dungeon or even a torture chamber.”
    Glaring back at her over his shoulder, Mike sharply remarked, “You have the choice of either remaining here alone or following us downstairs.”
    Louise couldn’t believe how cruel Mike was to her. She was used to men flirting with her and doing things for her; she used to be very popular before she’d arrived in this town. But she didn’t know how to deal with a man who didn’t seem to like her at all.
    The steps were slippery without any railings for support, forcing them to grab hold of the slimy walls. After making their way down the wet stairs, they heard the door slam shut behind them. Mike ran back up the stairs, only to ruefully announce that the door was securely locked. “Now we have to continue forward, since there’s no other way out,” exclaimed Mike with a new quiver to his voice.
    Mike wasn’t so brave anymore, decided Louise. She was suddenly distracted by a cold wetness. The dampness was coming from her feet: her feet were wet. Looking down, she was horrified to find herself standing in a basement filled with water—water that reached above her ankles and covered most of her leg. She couldn’t understand it; the water had definitely not been there a second ago. A pool of water couldn’t appear on a whim from out of nowhere.
    Not waiting for the others, Edward charged ahead into the water. Stopping in the middle where the water reached up to his knees, he looked up in horror, his whole body tensing.
    Louise also gazed upward but couldn’t see anything. In the darkness above, she couldn’t even see a ceiling in the open, endless space. Then she heard a shrill clanging noise originating from somewhere above them, echoing throughout the basement. She couldn’t figure out what or who was making the awful noise; it sounded like a large machine was about to fall on them.
    Instead, frighteningly huge metal cages—suspended by thick metal chains—came crashing down from above. Sharp metal spokes extended from their bottom corners, to better catch any unsuspecting intruders with their ultra-sharp claws. The cages seemed to be targeting Edward, swaying dangerously close to him. He had to frantically dodge their sharp rods, which were threatening to ensnare him and crush him to death. He dove into the water, eluding them—one after another.
    Then all was quiet. The empty cages that had missed Edward were lying harmlessly in the pool of black water. There didn’t seem to be any more cages left hanging in the darkness above. With his legs still deeply submerged, Edward stood panting on the far side of the water.
    Breaking into the bleak silence, Tom hysterically cried out, “Watch out, Edward!” while jumping into the deadly water. Loud swooshing noises screeched from above…slowly building in tempo. Huge circular saws were now descending to sweep the water between the submerged cages, methodically searching for heads to slice off, their sharp edges glinting eerily in the dim light of the basement.
    In his desperation to reach his beloved Edward, Tom tripped and fell face first into the water. A huge saw was rotating toward his slumped over body. Louise stood stunned in place, unhappily realizing that there was no way she could help him in time. She was even too far away to see if he was still breathing. The saws were methodically sweeping the basement floor, lined up in rows with only about a foot of space between them. There was no way anybody could safely reach Tom without having their own head chopped off.
    Spotting Tom’s immersed form, Edward immediately dove into the water, reaching him right before the last saw could finish its