The Only Girl in Apex

Kill or be Killed

Kaia's POV

The fear in my chest got even worse when the guy moved even closer to me with one hand still wrapped around my chin. His fingers weren’t squeezing hard enough to hurt, but there was something about the casual way he held my face that terrified me more than if he had been rough. It felt natural to him, like controlling people was something he did every single day without thinking about it.

The smile on his face only made it worse. It wasn’t warm or friendly in the slightest, and instead it looked calm, almost amused, and somehow that calmness was far scarier. I couldn’t stop staring at him and wondering if the stories I had heard about Apex over the years were actually completely true. The servants back home always talked about the boys sent here, how they were violent rich sons, extremely dangerous troublemakers, and monsters hidden away where nobody could control them anymore.

Growing up, I always thought that they exaggerated those rumors because servants loved drama, but sitting tied up on the floor in front of this guy made those stories suddenly feel very real.

Unable to completely hide the shaking in my voice, I swallowed hard before asking, “What are you going to do with me?”

My voice came out lower than I wanted, and I immediately hated myself for sounding weak, but it was impossible not to feel terrified right now. His hand was still resting against my jaw while that creepy smirk stayed on his lips, and the longer he stared at me without answering, the more my imagination started running wild.

I genuinely felt like he could snap my neck at any moment just because he wanted to. There was something deeply unsettling about how relaxed he looked while I sat there helpless in front of him. Most people at least pretended to have emotions, but this guy looked empty in a way that made my skin crawl.

Instead of answering my question, he leaned even closer toward me until our faces were only inches apart. My breath caught immediately, and my heart started pounding even harder inside my chest.

“Are you afraid?” he asked softly.

The question should have sounded simple, but something about the way he said it made chills crawl through my entire body. Up close, his eyes looked even stranger than before. They were black, but not normal black, and I couldn’t properly explain what was wrong with them no matter how hard I tried. They just felt… dark, and not dark like normal eye color, but dark in a way that almost felt alive.

It was like there was something hiding behind them, something cold enough to swallow people whole. I found myself frozen under his stare because every instinct inside me was screaming that there was something terribly wrong with him.

I couldn’t answer him. My throat suddenly felt too tight to speak, and honestly, I was scared that if I opened my mouth again, he would hear how terrified I actually was. For a few long seconds, he just kept staring at me, almost like he was enjoying watching me panic silently in front of him. Then finally he pulled back slightly before letting out a low chuckle that immediately made my stomach twist tighter.

“You shouldn’t be afraid,” he said calmly, and for one tiny second, relief almost slipped into my chest, but then he continued speaking. “Because I’m not going to kill you.”

My body loosened slightly at those words before immediately going tense again when he casually added, “Although, I can’t promise you won’t get seriously hurt.”

The relief disappeared so fast it almost hurt. My heart dropped hard into my stomach while he continued looking completely calm, like threatening people was the most normal thing in the world to him. Meanwhile, my tied hands were trembling harder behind my back, and I hated that he could probably see every bit of fear on my face now, no matter how hard I tried to hide it.

Then suddenly, like he hadn’t just casually threatened me, he tilted his head slightly and asked, “I heard your name is Kaia?”

The sudden question confused me enough that I just stared at him silently for a second. My brain was still stuck on the part where he admitted I might get seriously hurt. I didn’t even know what to say anymore.

His expression changed slightly. “What?” he asked softly. “Cat got your tongue?”

This time there was a darker edge to his voice, and I noticed it immediately. Fear rushed through me again, and I quickly nodded my head before forcing words past my dry throat. “Y-yes,” I answered quickly. “My name is Kaia.”

The moment I said it, his smile widened slightly again. “Kaia,” he repeated slowly like he was testing the name in his mouth. Then finally, he removed his hand from my chin and stood back up to his full height. Seeing him standing over me like that made me feel even smaller somehow. He was tall enough that I practically had to tilt my head back to properly look at him.

“My name is Riven,” he said calmly. “Riven Ashcroft, and believe it or not, it’s nice to meet you.”

For a second, my brain didn’t fully process the last name, but then it did, and my eyes widened before I could stop myself, and I nearly gasped out loud. Somehow I managed to catch myself before making a complete fool out of myself, but the shock still hit me hard enough that my chest tightened painfully.

Everybody knew the Ashcroft family. Even my father, powerful as he was in his own world, looked completely insignificant compared to them. The Ashcrofts were the kind of family people talked about carefully because they practically owned everything. Companies, politicians, nobles, and entire cities, at least that was what people said.

Their money and influence were so crazy that most people couldn’t even imagine it properly. Growing up, I had heard their name enough times to know one thing for sure, and it was that nobody crossed the Ashcrofts and survived the consequences, and now one of them was standing right in front of me, which only made this entire situation feel even more hopeless.

Riven noticed my reaction immediately, and amusement flashed briefly across his face before disappearing again. He looked completely unsurprised by the effect his last name had on people, which somehow annoyed me even through my fear.

Then he spoke again. “For every newbie,” he said calmly while sliding his hands into the pockets of his pants, “there’s a welcome tradition here at Apex.” His black eyes landed on me again, cold and unreadable. “And just because you happen to be a girl doesn’t mean I’m going to spare you from it.”

A terrible feeling settled heavily in my stomach.

I swallowed hard before asking shakily, “What tradition?”

But instead of answering me directly, Riven simply turned away from me like he had already gotten bored of the conversation. The three other guys standing nearby straightened slightly the second he moved, and it was obvious immediately that all of them listened to him without question.

“Take her away,” Riven said casually.

Panic exploded inside me immediately. “Wait…what?” I blurted out, struggling to sit up properly as two of the guys instantly moved toward me.

Golden eyes grabbed one of my arms while the tattooed guy grabbed the other before roughly yanking me to my feet. Pain shot through my wrists from the ropes cutting into my skin, and because my ankles were still tied together, I nearly stumbled forward face first.

“Where are you taking me?” I demanded loudly, panic rising higher and higher inside me, but neither of them answered.

“Let me go!” I snapped angrily as I tried pulling against their grip, but it was completely useless. They were both far stronger than me, and the harder I struggled, the rougher they became. Golden eyes tightened his grip painfully around my arm while the tattooed guy shoved me forward hard enough to nearly knock me off balance.

“Move,” the tattooed one growled impatiently.

“No!” I yelled back, twisting harder as panic and anger mixed together inside me. “Let me go!”

But struggling only made things worse. The more I fought them, the more aggressively they dragged me along with them like I weighed absolutely nothing. Fear was starting to claw painfully up my throat now because I had no idea where they were taking me or what they planned to do once we got there. My breathing became uneven as they pulled me toward the door while the third guy followed quietly behind us.

Meanwhile, Riven simply walked ahead calmly, like none of this bothered him in the slightest, and that terrified me most of all. The fact that he looked so relaxed, like hurting people was completely normal to him, like I was already nothing.

“Riven!” I shouted angrily after him before I could stop myself.

To my surprise, he actually stopped walking. The entire space suddenly went quiet except for the sound of my uneven breathing, and slowly, Riven turned around to look at me again, and the moment his black eyes met mine, cold shivers immediately crawled down my spine.

“What are you going to do with me?” I demanded breathlessly.

For a few seconds, he said nothing at all. He just stared at me with that same calm expression on his face while the others held me tightly in place. Then slowly, a small smile appeared on his lips again, but this one looked colder somehow.

“The one and only rule of Apex,” he said calmly, “is kill or be killed.”

My entire body went cold. The entire place suddenly felt too small, too dark, and too hard to breathe inside. I stared at him while my heart pounded violently against my ribs, trying to convince myself I had heard him wrong, but then he continued speaking.

“And to welcome you to Apex,” he said softly, “I’m giving you your first chance to either kill or get killed.”

The words hit me so hard that for a second my brain completely stopped working.

‘Kill or be killed.’

No, no, that couldn’t possibly be real. This had to be some kind of sick joke, but the expression on Riven’s face never changed. He looked completely calm and completely serious, and suddenly the rumors about Apex being filled with monsters no longer sounded exaggerated at all.