Truth or Dare?

“Truth or Dare?” Allie grinned at me, her face barely visible in the moonlight.

My mouth was dry from anticipation and I felt a tickle in my throat as the dust from the corners of the abandoned cabin swirled around us. I coughed loudly. “What?”

I wondered if I played dumb, if I could get out of this game. I didn’t agree to come here for… this.

“Truth or Dare? You know, the game?” Allie smirked and glanced over at Jen, who fiddled with a flashlight that flickered and cast a yellow glow on the leaves and discarded junk that surrounded us. “Don’t girls like you play this?”

Girls like me. Preachers’ daughters. The isolated, homeschool outcast set. “Yeah, I know the game. Dare, I guess.” I wasn’t ready to reveal any kind of truth yet.

“I dare you to go in the basement. Alone.”

I shrugged my shoulders, walking toward the cellar stairs.

“Wait, at least take a flashlight, June.” Jen jumped up and pushed the flashlight toward me.

“Don’t need it,” I called back. I wasn’t scared of the dark. The dark isn’t even scary; it’s the stuff hiding in the dark that’s scary.

I took each downward step slowly and paused at the bottom of the stairs, soaking in the blackness. My hand trembled as I reached into my jacket pocket. I hadn’t been scared until now, as I ran my fingers across the wooden stock of the gun and its tiny, metal barrel. It was hard to imagine something so small could be lethal. I moved the gun from one hand to another before stuffing it back in my pocket.

I stood at the foot of the stairs for a moment and took in the irony. This is all I’d wanted for years: To hang out with Jen and Allie and be one of them. They’d finally asked me to hang out and my dad insisted I go, so here we were. I never imagined it would be like this, though.

“I didn’t really think you’d do it,” Allie smiled at me as I emerged from the basement and flopped down onto the floor next to her. “Your turn. Give me one: Truth or Dare?”

This was my chance to make a move. “Truth. Tell me who your dad is.”

In spite of the shadows, I could see Allie’s face fall.

“June, really?” Jen looked uncomfortable.

“This is Truth or Dare, isn’t it? I asked a question. If she doesn’t want to answer she can go ahead and lose the game.”

Allie stared at me, expressionless. “I don’t know.”

The three of us sat in silence.

“I don’t know who my dad is.” Allie’s voice was as dark and flat as the cabin's air.

“Let’s just move on,” Jen said, “I guess it’s your turn again, Allie.”

I couldn’t let this go. “’I don’t know’ isn’t an answer, but Jen, I’ll let you take her turn if you really want to let her off the hook.”

“Fine.”

“Good. Same truth as Allie’s: Who’s your dad?”

“Stop!” Jen jumped to her feet, dropping the flashlight.

“What? I thought that’s how this game worked.” Part of me enjoyed the deliberate obtuseness. Girls like me didn’t get to play games often.

“Don’t be a bitch. I know you have, like, the perfect family, but you don’t have to mock us.”

Perfect family. Funny. “I’m not mocking. I’m trying to…” My words trailed as I stood up and reached out to Jen, grasping her expanse of auburn curls and splaying it out around her head like an elaborate crown. “You can’t tell me you never noticed,” I said, lifting my own red locks. “The three of us…” I trailed off, gesturing to Allie, who sat stroking her curls like she hadn’t donned them for her entire sixteen years of life.

“What are you talking about?” Jen’s voice quivered. “A lot of people have auburn curls…” She didn’t sound confident because she knew it wasn’t true.

Before either girl could speak, I took out the gun and pointed it at Jen, then Allie. Their screams pieced the air as they fumbled their way through the dark back to the entrance to the cabin.

Dad was waiting outside. He’d expect two clean shots. “Wait!” I yelled to them. “Stop for a minute.” I pressed the cool metal against my own head. It wouldn’t matter to them if I was gone, but it would matter to me if they were. But the fact remained: If I didn’t do this, dad would. After all this time, people were starting to talk, putting the pieces together. He couldn’t afford this, dad said. “You’re my only girl,” he told me when I mentioned their invitation to hang out. “Remember that. I can only have one girl.”

I watched Jen and Allie huddle in the darkness. “Please trust me,” I said, raising the gun above my head. “Whatever you do, don’t scream.”

I fired two timed rounds into the ceiling. Jen and Allie silently flinched with each shot.

I inched toward the door with the gun pointed at the opening. My heart pounded in my ears; I wondered if dad could hear it from outside.

The door creaked open and I pulled the trigger. Game over.