Amanda POV

I left Daniel because I needed to clear my head. I felt genuine betrayal once I was reminded of who his father was, and I was hit with a hard bitchslap from reality. I was here as John's apprentice, to watch over the game and see how it pans out, and if Daniel survives, I'm to bring him to John so Eric's test can begin. I couldn't be having any feelings for Daniel. I had to be strong, solid, unattached.

All these thoughts completely left me once I saw Jonas' dead body.

Ice cold fear ran down my spine at the thought of leaving Daniel alone, prone to Xavier's madness. I returned to where I had last left Daniel as fast as I could. Luckily, he was still there, in the exact position I had left him in, in fact.

I grabbed him and led him back towards the room with the safe. I could hear Addison's screams as I closed the door. I knew I couldn't intervene. It was against the rules. But hearing yet another person scream in agony, I just couldn't take it.

As Daniel and I stood with our backs to the door, I scrambled to figure out what to do. Yes, I knew the combination to safe, so I could easily open it and give Daniel the antidote, but that was for the nerve gas. John hadn't prepared me for murderous psychos.

I looked again at Jonas' body, with the nail-bat sticking out of his head and got an idea. I ran over and, though the idea was making me sick, I ripped the bat from his head, turning away so I wouldn't have to see. I used the bat to jam the door, but even that wasn't going to hold off Xavier for much longer. He was much stronger than Daniel, I, and the bat combined. It was when I looked towards the safe again that I saw it. Jonas' blood was seeping around the outline of something in the floor, a trap door or a loose board or something.

I always hated it when John and Hoffman kept shit from me, but this was crossing the line. If I hadn't found that door when I did, I don't think either Daniel or I would have made it out of the house alive.

Once we got the door free and unlocked with the key that came with the tape recorder, we descended a flight of stairs and ended in a place I was all too familiar with. I knew that area was below where we had been in the house, but I had only been down there a different way. So I was surprised yet relieved that at least I knew something. We heard Xavier opening the door, so I grabbed Daniel and started leading him in the direction of the bathroom.

At one point, Daniel had to stop and I felt my heart drop. If we stopped now, Xavier would most likely kill us, and I wasn't about to leave him alone. This refusal to abandon him probably should have told me that my fate regarding Daniel Matthews was sealed, but I wasn't exactly thinking about that at the time.

I let him lean on me and eventually we made it to the bathroom. I watched him look around, his gaze shifting rapidly, taking in the carnage that had been left after Adam and Lawrence's test.

I heard him sink to the floor and watched in horror as blood spilled from his mouth. I knew that if I didn't get the antidote to him soon, he wasn't going to make it.

I watched as his eyes slowly slid closed and immediately went over to check on him. I felt something plummet in my chest when I couldn't feel a pulse. I'd failed him. At that point, I wasn't thinking about John and my job in the game. All I could think was that I had failed Daniel, the one who trusted me and cared for me; the one I had developed strong feelings for at what anyone else would say was an alarming rate.

I watched as Xavier entered the room. The gas was getting to him; he was slouching and stumbling. I knew if I could just distract him long enough, the gas would eventually kill him. I asked him how he would get the antidote if he didn't know his own number. I expected him to think about it for a long time, maybe get frustrated. I wasn't expecting what came next.

I watched, my eyes growing by the second, as he cut at the back of his neck. Once he had the piece cut off and was still standing, I started to get scared. I had no idea how I was gonna get out of this.

I shrunk away from him, resigned to my fate, when Daniel leapt up. I had no idea he was holding one of the hacksaws until I saw Xavier collapse, blood pouring furiously from his neck. As he fell to his knees, he reached out for Daniel, but I held him steady, squeezing his arms with bruising force.

I tell myself I was holding so tightly just to keep Daniel from being pulled down by Xavier, but truthfully, I was also holding him to keep myself from collapsing in shock.

It was in that moment, seeing him somehow miraculously come back to me, watching him, despite his obvious aversion to both death and violence, do what he could to save my life, that I realized that I, at least for a moment, had something to live for.

TBC