To Doubt A Rabbit

[Degree]

Chapter 1 - Introduction



I felt as if I’ve been here before. It seemed just like a recent memory, a fragment of the past. Even though I couldn’t see my surroundings, the noise reminded me of the numerous trips aboard New York subways. Was this a train? My eyes felt like an iron weight welded together to the back of these thin eyelids. No visible light could be seen through; only darkness. In all honesty, I was never afraid of the dark, but I was aware that it always made people feel uneasy. This was one of those times where I have to agree with that uneasy feeling. There was no way to know where I was, how I got there, or what time it was and it left me extremely unsettled. Why did it feel like I should have known? Could it be the doing of a tired body and mind? My head was putting together cloudy images, almost as if it lapsed during the certain parts of the day. Impossible, I’d remember how this happened if I was consciously going along with it all. I wanted an explanation to this, and an affirmation that I was still alive.


Finally, the weights dropped. My eyes rose the black sheets that covered them, awakening with a sense of relief. An overwhelming darkness remained in my view, hardly improving from before. This was definitely a train. I looked up to see a light flicker as if to notify the passengers of a nearby stop, but it wasn’t going to. While I was passed out on this merry ride, my mouth became dry and lips stuck together with a nasty sweat. Most of my other body parts either felt numb or refused to move.


Willing my eyes to squint at some objects past their shaded outline in the dark was a fruitless effort. I only managed to catch the line of green chairs and swaying ropes near windows where exits should be. After around a minute of trying, the lights flickered on again. The insides of the compartment I was in looked very maintained. For some reason, I had expected it to look worse. My eyes scanned from left and right, trying to see out of the windows that connected other train compartments. It looked the same from where I was sitting. Though, something was still off...what was it? Before, I was extremely tired, but after more of the same dim lights began to turn on, it evolved into a restless fit.


Nothing was as it once seemed; everything had gone to hell! The once well kept place I had been sitting in looked like a garbage dump fell onto a homeless community. The real ghetto everyday people are afraid to go in was now personified: tarnished floors that were past ‘dirty’, broken windows that were smashed by tough winds and hard objects, seats that have lost their upholster, and parts of the room had been laced with some kind of funk I hoped was just garbage. What the hell happened to this place in a matter of a second?! Even the lights had become dimmer and the air had become misty with the vague taste of chalk. The concentration of this air was very heavy but it seemed like it was thicker the higher-



-No, wait…its gas!



My eyes made rapid motions, scattering around the room while I tried to rip myself from my seat. Upon trying, I realized I couldn’t move. There was a rope tying my hands to the back of my seat, or a pole near it, I couldn’t tell. My mouth was covered with a dirty rag, juiced with sweat. The hallucinations my mind made up was a much more pleasant scenario. In my sporadic, fearful rush I looked to my left and right for a second time and saw a difference. There were figures lumped in chairs, like I was. They were, presumably, tied and gagged too. I started to assume other compartments of the train held more as well.


Why would we be here? What purpose was there to practically kidnap other people like this? What reason was there to put me here? I did nothing wrong! I was just an average Joe. Having to undergo this treatment became jarring and impossible, even scary to a certain extent. I would’ve panicked more if the numbness didn’t set in, quelling most of my clouded anxiety. I tried once again to writhe from my bindings, only to meet the same fate as before. It was too difficult to pull off, meaning that whoever tied it did so with a purpose. If only someone else was here to help, to put an end to this …



Then, I heard footsteps.



A figure marched into the room, stomping loudly against the worn out floor. It sounded like a fine pair of boots, since it was able to let out that great of a thud. They were courageous enough to brave the cross over from another car, but I didn’t feel as if it was the arrival of a savior. It felt more like…the executioner. Trying to not give up that tiny glint of hope, I assumed that the person had merely found their way out of our situations. I lifted my head with a slow, sluggish movement half-expecting to see someone standing before me.



What stood in front of me was a bit different than I imagined. This someone wore a uniform; a coat with silver buttons neatly fixed down the center, with shoulder fringe swaying in a delicate tousle. I clearly wore white pants along with the aforementioned boots, but the real puzzle was the person’s face…there wasn’t one. It was concealed by a mask of some animal. Like the chair, it looked like upholster was coming out near where its ear should have been. Some pieces looked crooked, meaning they were attached by a series of stitches to keep it attached. The large round eyes were hard to miss, as they gave off a red glow without any emotion. Although the antagonistic features should have made it clear, the fuzzy laugh it took the cake.


“To think, I made sure everyone was fast asleep for the ride.” The masked person remarked, giving away his intentions. The voice it was using wasn’t normal. Why would it need to change the sound of it’s voice? Unable to do anything, I watched silently as it came close enough for me to get a good look at it. It was indeed a mask- an animal mask. More specifically, it was a rabbit, and the gender of the person sounded male, but I couldn’t be too sure. “You know, it makes me happy that someone gets to see it before everyone else! Really, it does! It does!” The Rabbit laughed sadistically, but I didn’t see the point of it. The next thing it did was whipping its hands into the air and spun three-hundred-sixty degrees in a dramatic fashion.



“Do you appreciate this special welcome, contestant?”



Welcome to…what? As I thought that, the train reacted and emerged into a new area. The blinding light outside pushed through the darkness I was becoming familiar with. My eyes had to adjust to something that emitted a very bright light. As I was regaining my vision, I could make out a large wheel in the distance. There were a few other structures surrounding it at similar sizes. I knew just what it was when I could fully see again.


It was an amusement park. Although far, it had the same ‘rabbit’ theme from what I could see from my seat. It looked a lot like the carnival; purple and white lights piercing the night sky with rides and attractions all around. Despite the strange fascination of the new sight, I managed to catch a few more words.


“Welcome to Rabbit Doubt! Now, go back to dream land and wait for the game to start.”


As my world started to fade back into darkness, I found myself lucky to have lasted this long. I could barely keep one eye open any longer. But from the viewpoint of the person in front of me, it was already too long. A sharp pain whipped across my cheek before I could see what did the job. There were no chances to see what it was after it happened. The only thing I remember before I lost consciousness was that crazy Rabbit looming over me…

---

“Argh!” I groaned, the pain felt like I was hit by a bus squarely in the chest. My voice came out like it harbored a mouthful of sand when I tried to say something; anything at all, even if it wasn’t a word. The sweat rag that was in my mouth must have absorbed all the moisture. It was a good thing no one was here because I didn’t sound very attractive. Thinking this brought up an important topic; there was no trace of other people being here. The Rabbit couldn’t have been the only one, besides me.


Pushing away the question that couldn’t be answered, I started to look around for the first time. This was a room; a living quarter. That’s what they were called here, right? The amusement park shouldn’t even have these unless this was a trailer. Last time I checked, trailers don’t have the thin wooden beds that could fall apart any minute. In contrast, a dresser with the finest wood looked to be the only appealing thing in the room. The floor creaked in a very particular way that ended up helping to establish my bearings. There was a room below me, which meant that this building had at least one more floor to it. Closer inspection on the walls showed they were receding, while the ceilings hung cobwebs in their dusty corners. The room was near empty except a few pieces of cardboard in the bottom right corner, an older-model television in the top right corner across from the cardboard, and a dresser against the same wall as cardboard. All of this was across from me and the bed, and although spacious, wasn’t as big as it felt.


Before anything else, I also noticed a door leading to, hopefully, the exit. There was another door that looked linked to an adjoining room. One was in the space between the dresser and cardboard while the other was on the leftmost wall, near the dresser. To my surprise, the television turned on to a white noise and static screen. The television changed without any of my doing. The screen showed a few words that seemed easy enough to understand: ‘Find the paper - top drawer’.


Paper…? Initially I didn’t realize what drawer it was trying to tell me about till I checked it again and started to drag my sleeping feet over to it. I should have moved around more, who knows how long I was unconscious. Oddly, the knobs on the dressers were in very good condition. The knob was a neat crescent shape that turned easily in hand. The knobs gave me a surprise when I came up to my destination- the top drawer. The knob wasn’t there! It could have been a mistake, so I lowered myself to see if there was a knob rolling under the dresser or bed. No such luck. The next thing that came to my mind was to check the other drawers because there wasn’t any reliability to that strange TV. How does it work, anyways?
The bottom-most, third, drawer had nothing in it but a pin pushed into the bottom part of the drawer. It wasn’t anything special so I pulled the middle one next. There was a picture that was faced down and a dark red spot…probably nothing. Resistance followed the picture when I tried to pull up because there was some tape keeping it down. It was indeed this top drawer I needed to get to. I braced myself to open it with a large inhale. Sticking my fingers into the hole where the knob should be and gently pulling it back- ouch! Why did it hurt so much? I expected that I’d psyche myself out in that it would hurt me. This actually did hurt me.


The tip of my index finger allowed a red droplet to escape from the tiniest of openings. What did this mean…no, it couldn’t be. Was this a trap? Could there be poison on it? This place was turning into a closed room of paranoia. Dismissing the sharp object, I checked the doors to see if they could be opened. The one that looked like the exit had a keyhole under the handle, which was the easiest way to unlock the way through. All that was needed was to find the key. The other door which extended to another part of the room wasn’t budging, either. There was no keyhole or visible lock attached to this door, in contrast to the door before. Making an educated guess, the key had to be in the top drawer if only to make things more difficult. I was reluctant to hear the television’s words change, indicating something much more unfriendly than I wanted, to what now read: ‘Escape’.
No hints either…huh. I looked back to the drawer and steadily kneeled before it. Taking another breath, I felt around the hole to find a safe space to grip inside. No such luck, as all were ready to incapacitate my finger. I brushed my thumb against my lower lip and tried to concentrate on the solution. I couldn’t open it with my hands but there wasn’t any way to do it without doing so. That didn’t make any sense. In the corner of the drawer was a stain of dry, brown marker. The stain created an odd blot in the middle of the dresser’s wood pattern. Maybe…


I quickly licked my thumb and rubbed it slowly against the odd blot. My thumb moved up and back down once, then I repeated it with more force. Amazingly, some words were starting to show up with the next few strokes until it became legible. Words were scratched in with a knife or something sharp. It read: CARDBOARD + PIN. Another hidden message it seemed; which might have been the hint I wanted earlier. The ideas started to roll in about the pieces of cardboard in the corner and what it could be used for. Without this hint, the connection between the pin-trapped hole and that stiff paper wouldn’t have been made so easily. Needless to say, I went on to grab a piece without so much as a second thought.


Putting this new item on the dresser, I looked around for what I needed to pull this off. There was tape attached the picture lying down, which is what was needed to get inside the drawer. As I tried to rip off a piece of the tape, I thought about what it was trying to hold down. It was the backside of a small paper so it really could have been a picture of something. The tape finally gave way and ripped the picture in a singular, jagged direction. “Oops.” I remarked softly, although more of my worry went to escaping first. Scotch tape could was necessary for this plan to work. I grabbed the cardboard with both hands and ripped it into a smaller piece. From that rip, I took the smaller piece and wrapped it around my index and middle finger. The tape was needed to conjoin the piece that had been bent around these two fingers in order to perform this little experiment. Hopefully, this would be the answer to my dilemma.


I steadied myself as I stepped close to the objective, with my fingers making way slowly into the drawer. The cardboard attachment pressed down gently on the sharp pins until it was safe to press harder. The pin felt like a round nub over the protected fingers, as if read to penetrate. This was going to work; I had to continue! I pulled back and managed to get the drawer to crack open. This sight fueled me! Just a little more pull and…viola! It moved up and back smoothly, allowing me to get my hand inside to grab the rewards that waited. I tore off the cardboard and tossed it to the side as soon as I realized it was open—and went for the key.
What was in there wasn’t a key, though, just a paper. Only the many pins put into the side near the hole were the other objects of interest. “Who would have set this up?” I asked myself with an extreme sense of exasperation. Someone must have placed the pins there on purpose to try and keep me from opening it, but they also gave me the items I needed to open it as well. Whoever put the paper in there was giving some heavy mixed signals. Almost forgetting the paper, I quickly reached out for it before it had the chance to disappear. The paper held some strange looking information, as it read:


“Game Codename: Degree

How to Escape: Complete Pin Circle”



My codename was ‘Degree’. Did it mean something? I had no college degree, pretty sure I was no thermostat, and I shouldn’t have any particular angles everyone else wouldn’t have. I really didn’t understand what it meant. The next part wasn’t much better at being descriptive. The only pin circle I knew of was the one near the hole giving me trouble in the first place. I took the sides of the drawer and pulled it out farther until it stopped.
Shouldn’t it have come out? That didn’t really matter.


The pins were actually in the incomplete circle, like the note had informed. An impression where one would go was right at the bottom. It didn’t take an idiot to guess what needed to be done. The dresser was now the only thing that stood out with the useless tape, ripped picture, and cardboard lying about. What was in the utmost bottom drawer of the dresser? A pin was the sole item in that specific drawer. My hand automatically reached for it and easily picked it up without some complicated work to go along with it. The puzzle was now finished and I could finally leave as soon as I fit it right in. Right in here…


Click.


As soon as the pin was fitted into the impression, it sounded an unlocking mechanism in the door without a keyhole. There must have been an intricate setup to this lock. I was still wary of what this place might have in store, so I was going to be opening the next room with a high level of cautiousness. Creeping closer to the door with paper in hand, it slipped right into the pocket as my hand instinctively turned the rusted door knob. I gulped a stream of saliva down my throat, coughed, and swung the door open like a breeze. And like a breeze…it only made a small, alerting noise. The inside of this room was extremely dark, much like the trip over to this place.


The light from the room behind me shed some light on the front pathway where a shiny object hung down from. It was exactly what I needed—the key to get out! The air felt damp, and filled with a thick gross odor. The smell was near unbearable. I continued to step forward until I was below the key and I grabbed hold of it firmly. I took a deep breath…and pulled! The key was detached from the string it was connected to and the room’s light bulb suddenly powered to life. A light switch must have been what it was connected to. Either way the key was mine, now, and shaped like a king’s crown in my hand. I felt a powerful rush of relief once I had the key in hand. This feeling didn’t last long.


I turned my head without thinking. The smell became even more prevalent and terrible. What awaited me was more than a disgusting feeling. The walls were painted with streaks of red wallpaper and words were drawn with impure wine that dripped into a pool. A figure contorted beyond recognition of it’s brutal fashion, maimed into a disgusting heap. My entire being was flipped upside down. It was a human carcass.


This place wasn’t normal. I made the mistake of underestimating my kidnapper’s attitude towards this game of his. There was no other choice but to go along with this horrible place, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it from happening.


Chapter 2 - Bloodbath


My strength had finally been taken away. I’ve used most of it in trying to figure my way inside the ‘key room’ to begin with, but now I was sure there wasn’t any more strength to muster. The feeling of accomplishment and confidence had also exited my mindset. What was there left to me, I wondered. All the empty spaces that were left inside my mind became seized by gory pictures a human being would never want to remember. Or see, for that matter.


All I could see around me was bloodied walls, bloodied floors, and bloodied bodies! I cried out for something to stop this lunacy but my voice wouldn’t escape. A sudden numbness irritated my legs causing me to drop to my knees. My body had already been uneasy from the train ride and the suspicious room was only furthering this upheaval. It couldn’t handle this anymore, I couldn’t handle this! The uneasiness took action, rioting furiously within me. I swayed in my stance like a hopeless drunk and felt the tightening of my stomach, muscles contracting, chest compressing, and my throat blowing out air that hadn’t been there into a dry cough. I could feel my heart rate while my body pushed outward, letting me know I was alive, only to send a great deal of questionable fluids onto the floor in front of me. I groaned, I cried…and I wasn’t even aware of it.
After that, I blacked out. It wasn’t possible tell how much time passed. My face was soaked with tears overlapping the dried sweat. My mind felt a little fuzzy, but was clear for the most part. Even though my own stomach was more empty than it could possibly be, it was a relief to get the feeling all out. It was nasty, sure, yet the cause was even more gruesome than a pile of throw-up.


The body was just as described; maimed of any recognition, bloodied beyond thought, and just overall disgusting. It still had a decent amount of clothes on so the scene also matched with the word ‘bizarre’. After what I had gone through, I didn’t want to risk staring any more at it. My eyes averted any direct contact. The only parts I could see what looked to be a hand, or part of it, and the blood. Behind me was a sink below a mirror to look in. The mirror was intact as far as I could tell- which meant the guy didn’t bash his whole being into it. Then again, it was highly unlikely…


Correction: This whole thing was highly unlikely.


Back onto the topic of the mirror, I looked like utter PUPPIES. I seemed to notice this as soon as my eyes laid into the reflection. The unhealthy paleness of my skin was easy to reason with because of my current situation. A dark brown mess of hair was one of the darkest things I had besides my tired, brown eyes. For a guy of my age, I was about averagely tall or even taller than that. Even if you didn’t know my age, I probably seemed way older than I was with my personality. Back at home, I used to make all these potshot jokes and witty remarks with my friends and family. I was a joker, sure, but I suppose some said I was mature in some ways too. Will I ever be able to go back again? I had to think it over, just one more time. Will I…?


No! I couldn’t make this worse than it already is. I was going to get out of here! I almost tipped over with my proud, thoughtful exclamations inside me. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure at all. How could a sane person make it through this? There was no crazy false accusation here because there was a good chance this won’t be the only dead body I will be seeing. All the time to put me here and leave this body with me was on purpose. That was the only sure thing I could figure out right now. Well there was another; the Rabbit had something to do with this. The most evil looking rabbit I had ever seen had put me through the looking glass.


It was wrong for me to calm down because I looked to the side with a startled jump. I unintentionally focused a glance onto the dead body that reflected back into the mirror as I had. The sight made me throw up a little of something in my mouth. I was done! Screw the mirror!


My instincts told me to turn around again, blink to clear my head, focus on what was ahead, and find something important. I turned to see there was a curtain right next to the dead man. It was pushed up by a piece of the ground that was at a different level- which meant it was a bath. So this was a bathroom, I got it. My feet moved by themselves without a second thought. My weak resistance to the curiosity forced me to stand in the stains of dry blood and grab hold of the ruby curtain. I pulled and saw…!


What? What was…?! What was this?! Below me in the bath was a pool…of blood. The crimson pond was better than what I seen before, but it wasn’t any more pleasant. I tried to imagine it as fruit punch or something, anything really. But there was no sugarcoating it- it was a pool of blood. To top it all off…no, my mind was playing tricks with me. The thickness couldn’t let me see past the surface so it was probably all made up. I could have sworn another body was in there. Right, there couldn’t be…haha…ha...


Why had I been wasting all this time in here? I had the key, so why not go and find some help? For some reason, this room drew me near. No, the room was a necessity, but I couldn’t settle with the minimal input. I could have just taken the key and turned back without looking around. There would have been no need to start starving myself or almost making myself piss my pants. I wouldn’t have needed to turn on the light, or look in the mirror, or hear a splash-like sound, or anything else! I could hardly imagine what waiting- I stopped myself short. Something entered my train of thought that I hadn’t noticed of before. Something was splashing.


The dread in the air was back at whispering into my ear. Death was slowly stepping out of the tub, raising the level of the blood inside of it. The blood overflowed onto the floor and started to release the sound of droplets falling back into the bigger reservoir of liquid. Some inhumane sound, which I couldn’t stand to guess, was anything else, echoed off the walls this small room had to offer. My eyes grew wide with surprise. As a bloody foot stepped onto the floor, it made a loud thump that put the fear into my senses. This was a different kind of fear than before; an urgent one. I didn’t even stay to see what else was about to come out. The only
other thing I heard was grumbling, thumping, knocking in the next few seconds.


I ran for the door. That ‘thing’ was right there, right on my tip of my heels! My feet moved faster than I ever thought they would, pushing forward to the exit of the bathroom. I couldn’t hear anything else but the smacking of my feet into the ground which should have shook the whole room. I turned, ready to flee, but was stopped short when I tripped over the mess I made earlier. My knees flew against the dirty bathroom tiles and my face smacked right into the wooden floor past the door frame. “Ah! Ahhh!!” I yelled out loud, shaking of my pain that way. I had no time to be whine about it! It was either I run or I die! What would anyone else go for?! Stop! I need…to move! My feet pushed myself forward to skid out of the room. A large squeak hurt my ears, but the moans of the ‘thing’ were louder. This persuaded me to push on despite my pain because I had no other option! I pushed my hands against the floor, creating an indent, but also putting me to my feet and flying back.


My balance was majorly off and was beyond help right now. The door was at a ninety degree angle to begin with, and my body swung against it without leniency. My head threw back as well and made another impact. I could feel something running down my head but I didn’t care. I slammed the door shut and shifted over to the dresser beside it. Snapping out my daze, I ran my hand alongside it to the other side and pushed with force. Harder, I told myself! It fell in front of the door. Then…silence.


Bang!

Bang!

Bang!


“Nevermind!” I hurriedly said to myself, my voice shaken by the trauma. Whatever was trying to get out was pushing it open with all the force it had. I couldn’t think anymore. I had to leave. The player of the death game, Rabbit Doubt, went to the door and used the key to unlock it. Hopefully, this meant the time to renew his life as his alias “Degree” arrived. For now, safety beyond the door was the next best thing. At least…that’s what I tried to tell myself. The death room door opened and the time for staying around was over.

---

The outside was even better than I imagined it would be. The cool breeze blew against my face refreshingly. It was but a compliment with the lukewarm air coiling around my very being. The dark sky seemed still; as if time had stopped at this very moment. I would have wished it had a minute or two ago and maybe I still did. The lights were a bright shade of purple, illuminating the area around me without a misplaced spot of shade. For the most part, the whole park seemed to be illuminated aside from the shadows that grew from the concession stands, rides, and buildings. Although I hadn’t taken a look around to really confirm that. On the way out of the building I woke in, I noticed that there wasn’t any real source of light.


There was even a reason for the hallways and rooms to be like that: it was a haunted house. This would explain the lack of maintenance and odor, but I knew that the body wasn’t a prop. The exterior of the haunted house wasn’t anything special either. The front sign read ‘Rabbit House of Horrors’ and had a picture of a Rabbit’s head; similar to the one that person wore to conceal their identity. It sure as hell lived up to the name, that’s for sure. When I took my leave from the haunted house, I seemed to notice many other things about these stands.


There were many rabbit dolls, as well as some other animals, that weren’t like real rabbits. The prizes seemed just as, if not more so, unusual as their appearances. The games seemed to be just like the type other amusement parks had with just a conservative glance at them. The weirdest part about it was that there were high-definition monitors on the corner to some of them. The cords never went in the same direction as each other either which only made finding the outlet even harder. So I just didn’t even bother with it. On the monitors was a clock- at least it looked like one. The time was counting down, however, now at 10:11. Then it was…a timer? What was the timer counting down to? I felt exhausted and trying my best to not think that the thing that was following me was still going to be following me. I’ll figure it out later, I’m sure.


Conveniently, there were signs with arrows planted into the hard ground. Signs of impact were shown on the top of the spoke, which meant someone put these here and I had a feeling I knew who…


I decided to follow them until something else with more logic came along. By the time I got to where I was being led, that didn’t happen. The arrows pointed to a ‘main hall’ sort of building. It was possibly the center of some business when this place used to be popular or just some main center people walked through to get info on what the best places here were. If I was a spokesperson for this place, I would not recommend the haunted house to minors. Haha…yeah, this probably wasn’t the best time for jokes. I could hear crickets now but I wasn’t sure if they were actually real. The nearest timer screen had listed an eight individually, so it meant that there was eight minutes before whatever happens would happen. There was no reason to stay out here to wait so I
grabbed the handle and stepped in as it surprisingly came back with ease.


“LOOK OVER THERE!”


It was the first thing I heard when I entered. Truthfully, it startled me greatly to hear it. The voice had been the most human thing I’ve heard for a long while. To even further my surprise, a girl had spoken. I don’t even know why that surprised me, but it did. When I looked up to see what the girl looked like, I had found three others as well. Not only that but they were nothing like each other.


The loud girl who had gotten my attention looked to be of college age. It might have been the round glasses, but she looked mature enough, I suppose. The eyes she had are a crystal blue that shone back a reflection and her hair was short around the front. It was longer in the back and barely any bangs covered her forehead, yet all of it seemed astray and not groomed at all. A pale face and some type of mischievous look complimented her ripped beige jacket over a T-shirt with some cursive ‘M’ symbol on the front. The cargo shorts and combat boots with striped purple-black knee socks only continued to confuse me about her sense of fashion.


When I met her eyes, it seemed she saw I was staring and looked away whistling. Great, she probably thought I was a creep. I still couldn’t help but sweep over each one of them; not only because they were staring right back, but because we were staring at each other for the exact same reason. There was more surprise to me finding them all there than them seeing me, or it could have been the other way around for all I knew.


The next girl looked more normal and seemed to fit the idea of ‘casual business women’. The look on her face seemed to give away the fact she was looking me over too, which was understandable. Located near the other girl was this one, who also had white skin. This time, she was not Caucasian, at least not from my judgment. It looked like she was Asian, but I didn't want to assume a specific part of Asia. Around the same height was this agile looking woman, whose emerald eyes made me feel unsure about even considering to look at them. Her solid black hair was going down a straight path to the midpoint of her back, which seemed long since she was around the same height as the other girl. The classy part was her clothes as if she were here to dress to impress. She wore a Larry Levine Coat, double breasted wool blend walker with silver buttons so it was hard to see what was under it and black dress pants that people would wear to accommodate a formal dress code.
Again, I have a lack of bad judgment. I also forgot to mention the distance between them was enough to avoid hearing any kind of secret conversation. While on the topic, the two girls stood close to each other while a male sat on a taped-up cardboard box a few feet in front of them. The only one really spaced out in this wide open area was another male leaning against the wall in the back, acting as if he was cool.


Now was the time for the man on the box to claim my attention. The first thing that stood was his dark skin, which was obvious to me. I bet anyone would kick my ass if I said this stuff out loud…Anyways; his hair was in a bushy mess in some kind of smaller sized afro. That itself might have been a little humorous if his face hadn’t shown how serious he was. I wasn’t in a mood to start a conflict so I was pushed back into my untrusting, scared corner I was pretending not to be in. The numerous television shows about animal packs taught me that the underdog needs to show strength in the pack to come out on top. I puffed out my chest a little and created no showing of emotion on my face. This series of actions seemed to make the guy in the back want to stop looking; as if my presence was more of a nuisance than a curiosity.


The African American man’s eyes seemed like black beads of a rosary, which had also been situated around his neck, which shot at me with displeasure. What was his problem? There wasn’t anything special about his clothing other than the rosary. A goatee lined his face shortly and neatly in such a way that I barely noticed the tired circles under his eyes. Other than that, he had dressed fairly casual with a solid black T-shirt and jeans. From what I could assume right now from looks, he was a fairly religious guy and was quite serious about it.


“What are you standing around looking stupid for? You’re starting to look like a creep.” The Asian woman said, approaching me while I was distracted by the others around her. I could tell the tone she used with me was a soft one, as if this woman had really tried to be friendly, with strict undertone. I had no real manly thing to say, no witty comeback or anything. It’s not like she was some monster or anything, hopefully.


“Uh…Yeah. I mean, uh, I’m, ah, sorry?” This gibberish came out like a rocky avalanche. I regretted saying anything the moment I said it. However stupid I was, she just continued to roll with it.


“Speak up! You ARE a man, aren’t you? I swear, these uncivilized- never mind. As you can see, everyone else doesn’t seem to want to greet you properly. I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised since you are the first person we’ve seen in a long while. Still, I suppose I DO have to be the one to organize things around here.”
I said nothing. Was I supposed to answer or was it rhetorical? No one seemed to mind when she pointed people out at their mention.


She continued, “Anyways, I am ‘Fallen’. It’s very nice to see you, especially since you came to join us. The girl who very cleverly pointed out that you arrived- the one with her hair all over the place, see? - is called ‘Xetka’. The pokerfaced man on the soapbox with nothing to say would be ‘Assassin’ and that loner over there leisurely doing nothing has only mentioned one thing pertaining to his name: ‘D’. So I assumed that is what he is called since said little to nothing the whole time we have been together. Did you get it? A lot of people to remember, I know, but deal with it. Now would you mind introducing yourself?”


I, again, said nothing. There was this nudging feeling that made me feel like she was implying something about all of us. Or even just me— that I was some kind of brain dead baboon. No, no…I mean, she seemed nice enough. This girl, whose name was now Fallen, added something else that snapped me out of it. What a weird name for her parents to give her…


“Just to be clear, everyone here has received a slip of paper with a word on it. You know that, don’t you? It has this clear label ‘Codename’ on it and all…so…?”


Right! Well, Fallen could have put that in a nicer way, sure, but I still understood what she meant in the end. “Yeah, I got it. Sorry. My codename is…Degree. It’s Degree.” That was far simpler to understand than I made it to be. A sweat drop rolled down my hairline and down the left side of my cheek. This was making me nervous when I see how maintained she was compared to me. I’ve never seen a prettier woman in all my life or I just happened to not remember any that could compare. I attempted to show how calm I was by lifting my hand for her to shake, albeit a little clammy, but it’s still an offer nevertheless. The reaction to it was less than pleasing.
The emerald eyes I described earlier had grown darker and had some sort of glint to them which I have never seen before. A few creases appeared on her face and a glare made me turn wide-eyed. “If you try to touch me, I’ll kill you!” Said Fallen in an angry whisper that only the other girl named ‘Xetka’ seemed to hear. The disgusted face Fallen wore left me stunned, and her words sent me into a spiral. As soon as she turned around, her mask was back. It covered her true feelings of resentment she had towards me. Was she just acting somewhat polite? Did she only despise me for whatever reason? Why was she trying to maintain an appearance with everyone else?
Could I trust these people…? I wondered this when I got into the small circle forming with the three people located nearest to each other. A few more minutes passed in silence. I seemed to get an amused look and snickering from Xetka as if she thought what happened was funny, the other two just kept to themselves. Either it was that or they were secretly keeping checks on me when I passed my glance to the other. I guess I really shouldn’t be complaining since they trust me enough to not kick me out of here. If I had to say there wasn’t one to trust by appearances alone: ‘D’. Fallen might have acted rude but D was the type to go berserk first; the quiet ones always have to be watched.


I only got to really see that he had a slight tan to his skin tone. His clothes were most likely some shirt covered by a black jacket (that wasn’t leather, at least) and some windbreaker pants. This kid was a clear thug or delinquent. The color of his hair was black, similar to Fallen’s, except he had a heavy dose of red highlights in it. Just the thing a delinquent would do to stand out. I only assumed he was through that 'atmosphere' he has around him.


A knock interrupted me before I could go on. It wasn’t really a knock, but a slam of the door. There in the doorway was a man dripping blood and exhaling like a broken car. A loud, angry voice shattered the sound barrier, “Where the hell is the stupid Kanye West that slammed a door in my face?!” and I had this weird feeling this guy was talking about…me. There he stood with a twisted look, soaked with some red fluid I had only presumed to be blood. The only reason I knew this was because his white polo was tainted with an odd pink. Before I could make a move for it, he rushed forward. sh**.



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Assassin and D finally got up to do something and held this man back. Fallen had stood by my side, apparently just observing. Xetka continued to be amused, swinging her legs blissfully as they hung down from the fold-up table she sat on nearby. As I said earlier, this was like some kind of ‘main lobby’. Folding chairs and tables were easy to move around with when you handle merchandise in a big market like this; albeit it could have been bigger. To me, this seemed like heaven compared to what I had seen so far.


“You sick son of a bitch! I’ll kill you for trying to barricade me inside! Were you trying to kill me? You probably put me there too, didn’t you? Didn’t you?!” The raging man continued to swear and make claims with his aggressive tone. My body felt a rush of excitement, but I could hear my legs knocking together. This guy was really was going to try something.


“What did you do to him?” Fallen inquired, as I expected she would. Even she knew she was going to ask judging by the way she talked about it. It seems I have become expected to do stupid things in her mind. Not that it wasn’t really bad, per say. “I- I swear, I really had no intention to, err…You know, lock him in. I thought he was some weird creature! If you knew the circumstances, you’d understand why I did it.” Oh how was I going to get myself out of this predicament?


I looked back on the story of what had happened. What was that guy even doing in the tub while ‘that’ was on the side? I felt this hot liquid attempt to spew out of my mouth like a hot pepper. I quelled my feeling and tried to not think further on it. I squinted to pretend to be in deep thought. A coin was sent flying from Xetka’s fingers to the man’s forehead. What did she do that for? “Shut up,” she said with a sly snicker, “you need to chill.”


Eventually, the man shook the two off and snorted like a bull. It seemed like the problem was settled for now. “Fine,” He retorted, sulking away with a defeated attitude. When we asked his name, he replied “Unlucky” and said it ‘fits me too well', and gestured to his outward appearance. ‘Unlucky’ must have had some story behind it. Why was it we were practically located in the same room? The door that led outside made a slight clunk. Assassin went to investigate it to see it was unlocked and still on its hinges. Had it locked during the time me and Unlucky ‘argued’?


The door was now open, and we could see the limited view of the park. The timer located on the screens had reset and was now at twenty minutes, which surprised me since there was no explanation to it’s purpose. I looked around our current location to see where the television was located. There, I spotted it. Near the left corner of the room, closest to the door was the clunky model I had seen from my room. It was placed on a rolling stand with a compartment below it. Unlucky noticed my glance and seemed to not trust my looks, going over there and trying to open it himself. No luck. For the next five minutes we watched the timer closely and decided on a plan of action.


“Whatever this clock is for, we need to make sure to get back before it’s up. It would be useful for us to assess the surroundings, if all of you can handle that. I’m sure no one else has a better idea.” Our ringleader Fallen said, seeming to take charge. How could she act the way she does and NOT hesitate? Glancing from side to side, she assessed her current team as well. “We will split into groups of two. This way we will cover more ground. The teams will be: me and Assassin, Unlucky and Xetka, and D and Degree…any disagreements?”
I was totally fine with it. As long as Fallen OR Unlucky wasn’t on my team, it was all cool. Both seemed to claim the right to ‘kill’ me within a few minutes of meeting me. To my surprise, D spoke up to disagree.


“This is totally illogical! Why should we listen to you like you actually know what to do? Well, news flash- you don’t know anything! Why the hell do I need to go with ‘that’ guy anyways?” After D finished speaking his mind, I had this feeling that these people thought I was stupid or inept. I didn’t even do anything to him either! Well…not yet. I was about to say something but Assassin put his lengthy arm in my path. Fallen went forward and got in his face, D retaliated and started fighting back, and I was relieved Assassin stopped me. I nodded toward him even if he wasn’t paying attention.

“You really want to play this game? What’s your idea then, tough guy?” Fallen started, guns blazing.

“I don’t have one, but I’m sure someone else has some clue!” D shot back, with no improvement.
“Well guess what, you’re the only one that spoke up! Now you better say something or you can shut that smart mouth.”


Silence. That led to such an anticlimactic finish.


I decided to butt into this conversation, “D, ah, let’s just go. Just stop fighting for a few minutes and you two can continue when we get back. Deal, eh?” Fallen walked away quickly with an “Hmph!” to follow, D grunted and then proceeded on his way out. I just sighed and decided not to dwell on the subject. Hopefully no one would be yelling for a few minutes, at least. Thankfully, D was the silent type.



________________________________________



D and I were the first to leave, so I ended up not being able to notice the direction the other groups chose to go down. We had taken a sharp right and proceeded forward along the park. D ignored everything besides the road ahead, so I also felt it was needed to not get distracted by all the things around. Flag poles, stands, trash cans, and the other usual things you’d find were pretty basic. Though you wouldn’t be surprised that all of it was themed to be the ‘Rabbit’ I saw earlier. The garbage cans could be lifted by pulling on some cool looking bunny ears! “What are you doing…?” D asked, looking at me as if I lost my mind. I guessed he wasn’t the kind of guy who could take a joke.


The only time we really had stopped to look at anything was this large purple and black striped tent. The door was only a curtain and the size was smaller than the main building but as long as the haunted house. This seemed to be big enough for an audience to arrive in. Yet, I was having a premonition that this wasn't a circus tent used for entertainment and fun. A serious, dark feeling washed over me like the lighthearted mood escaped. I realized now that this wasn’t meant to be just some random kidnapping, it felt planned. D took the lead and was about to enter the tent.


I stopped him from going inside as I urgently made a compromise, “Look, I’ll take a look inside. You can stay out here to watch the time for me. I promise I won’t be long, and well…I seem to have a bad image with you guys right now so…let me make it up!” I swallowed my nervous saliva, breathing erratically. D rolled his brown eyes, ruffled his dyed hair and stepped aside. “Make it quick.” He told me with a lack of interest. I took a deep breath and stepped through the curtain, making my way into the mysterious tent. The inside was nothing like I expected it to be.


There was nothing inside that looked fit for an audience. No stands or stages for performances. All along the center aisle, straight up from where I stood, was a space four feet wide and over three dozen feet long. On each side of this center space were chairs edging along for the gravel road ahead. The chairs, made of wood, had been perfectly stable, and each had one rabbit doll sitting on them. Every one of them had identical stitching over what ripped in the past and pink colored fabric which appeared to be the lights fault. At the end of the isle was a figure in front of a table. The table had numerous cards scattered over, but that wasn’t the thing that made me freeze. It was a girl with heavily tanned skin, short, hugged a similar rabbit doll to her chest, wore a black gothic dress and stared at me with glowing purple crescents. She smiled and those eyes glowed fully, but they didn’t…look sane.



“Welcome! Would you like me to…”



My chest started to beat like a drum, my ears pounding with a rush of blood. A new fatigue washed over me when this girl stared over…with those ‘lunatic eyes’.



“…Predict your future?”


Chapter 3 – Mistress of the Night


I drooped upon the sound of that line. Yet, I could feel myself being reeled into some outlandish ordeal. I never was one for fortune tellers because they seemed a bit too extravagant for my tastes. It was hard to tell if they were trying to give decent advice or use the old ‘take the money and run’ tactic. An abandoned fair is not the best place to reel in some future customers.

“Ah…No, I couldn’t.” I told this straight to her face, but it seemed like the girl’s reaction was the complete opposite of what I expected

“Great! I get to try out my new tarot cards for the first time!” It was followed by a cute little giggle. The girl was short, with dyed purple contacts, and wore a black gothic dress. Those unnatural, translucent eyes were definitely bright. Was the violet contact-dye fundamentally safe? I was almost obliged to ask while she continued to misconstrue facts.

“I said, hear the emphasis on ‘said’, that I did NOT want my future told. What I do want is-“

“A cake? Mm-mmm-mmm, sounds delicious!”

What the hell was she saying? This girl must have been without oxygen for a very long time. And they thought I lost it!

“That isn’t a nice thought, DeeDee.” She continued on, completely taking me aback. The things she was saying were so random. It was as if she read my mind. “You’re silly, you know! It’s an adorable quality dear, hehe. No tricks, the Lady of the Night told me about it, is all.”

…Okay. “Told you what, exactly?”


The girl stuck out her tongue and gave a bright smile. Honestly, I wondered why I even had this bad feeling since I came here. Sure this girl was odd, but what was so bad about her? Nothing from what I could see. Then past images flashed in my mind to remind me that not all is on the surface. But maybe I can trust her.


“Every girl has her secrets, DeeDee.” I assumed she got her name from the ‘Lady of the Night’ too or else this wouldn’t have made sense. Wait…did I accept her words that easily? I was so hesitant at first, but now she pulled me into a comfort zone. So she is that type of person. It was an interesting claim, of course.


The girl then gestured to the chair in front of the table as she placed herself on a chair vertical to mine. Across the table seemed to be the ‘fortune teller’ and her toy rabbit next to the sprawled out deck of cards. She shuffled the cards with finesse and delicacy. The way she handled the bunch of cards must have meant she took pride in them and understood how they worked. Earlier, she also mentioned they were new. But why exactly was she so happy in the possession of these things when she must have also been kidnapped? While her hands worked the cards, her mouth spoke something like a proper greeting. Though, it was more of an introduction than anything.


“I am ‘Priestess Liel’. The Night’s Mistress I spoke of before gave me the title ‘Ithiliel’. You may call me whichever you please. Everyone here was put here for a game. You are probably wondering why I refer to it as a ‘game’, but I assure you that it is no lie. It is right now is when you enter another kind of game; a very fun one!” The smile she wore had it’s lost meaning and it felt like I was receiving a blank stare. ‘Liel’ tilted her head and reached into her pocket. There was card with her codename on it. “I was told to give you a sub-game that tested you fully. By the cards of your future, no less! You’d be surprised how unique these tools you get are! Yep-yep, so…what was next?”


Liel bore her radiant eyes into the back of the white card and then her features perked back up. “Right, now watch closely as I explain the rules.” She began, reaching back into her pockets to take out a shapelier object. It didn’t really tickle me fancy all that much. It was a small, rod-shaped object with a cherry colored button on the top. It looked like a pen…I guess…

“This is a trigger,.”


A trigger?! What the hell did she mean? What? No, no…it was a joke. It WAS a joke. Haha! Yes, why am I overreacting? This is so simple to figure out…wrong. The next few seconds gave the repeated feeling of when I found that ‘body’ and the ‘blood bathing’ Unlucky. I was going insane with the fear of each psychological stab at my fragile heart.


“Each of the chairs contains a bunny with a motion-sensitive bomb inside. This is a game of ‘Musical Chairs’, in simpleton terms. The rules are that you need to pick a chair to sit in while the music plays. If you pick the wrong chair to sit in, it’ll explode and you’d die. That’s about what it says!” The joyous ring of her voice threw me even more off guard. The card she was reading was swiftly taken by yours truly. As my hand reached out to retrieve it, it shook. The feeling was similar to a heavy weight being dropped on your shoulders from stressful acts. My hand wanted to drop but the card basically asked for me to read it.
Liel was truthful. However, she didn’t read the two small NOTES made both on the top and bottom of the card. The first note read:


“TASK: HOST ‘THE BOMB GAME’.

FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN DEATH.”


I shivered at how well and clear it was written. The message seemed a lot more straightforward than other messages. It made sense that she was being forced to do this too but I couldn’t help shake this feeling she wanted to do it anyways. Maybe she had a different plan in mind. I looked at her as I thought this and found myself staring at her face. A small gap opened as her tongue slithered out to moisten the upper and lower parts of her mouth. I felt my face get a little hot. My free hand smacked my left cheek with an unruly amount of pain that could only snap me out of my thought. Liel tilted her head followed by a sweep of long, gleaming black hair. I dodged the question when she asked about what I just did.


The second note read:

“REWARD: FATE.”



What was this? ApparentlyLiel had been given a task she had to fulfill and upon fulfillment, would be rewarded. This reward listed on the backof the card came across extremely vague. What kind of reward was ‘Fate’? Fate, in a sense, is the future a person holds close as if a fragile object. I’ve heard people using terms like ‘Threads of Fate’ and ‘Fateful Day’ as if something was predestined. Even so, ‘Fate’ isn’t a possession you can just not have. The shining oddball that was Liel seemed to invoke even more of a mystery to her persona. I just had a hard time figuring out what.


Under the reward section of the card was another inscription I had not noticed before. It was a diagram that went by too fast to examine. Liel had snatched the card from my hand and gleefully took her spot at the front of the table. The trigger rose upward along with her right hand in order to show the start of the game. “Are you ready? Hehe.” Another adorable giggle ignored because of my lack of attention. I thought for sure I’d start to freak out even more but for some reason…I felt fine. She had just sounded like they were words from a drowning man. I became more attentive, but less focused. Knowing how death defying this stunt has changed my entire being. My primal instincts kicked in, blood rushed to my head, I could barely feel anything other than that because of the adrenaline.


This is the first time I ever thoughtthings were going to getinteresting. Hah! A large dog getting stuck in a tree is interesting. Although interest wasn’t a problem, the appropriate word for this moment would be “fun”. I surprised myself at this sudden revelation. It might seem childish or level-headed to imagine this being a fun pastime and I would normally agree to some extent. This is far from normal. Perhaps it is because this is far from normal that I am so eager to participate. Even so, I feel anxious just thinking about it. “…Ha…Hahaha….Hahahahaha!”


I pressed my hand firmly against my face as I laughed out loud. The spaces between my fingers hindered my view. There was some convulsion inside my stomach that felt a bit ticklish, paining me as I continued to let out sounds of amusement. My lips curled upward into a devilish smile, which washidden beneath the bottom of my hand. I lowered the hindrance and showed my sporadic amusement to Liel with pride. “Now, let’s begin.” I said with quite a bit of arrogance. Being confident in your skills is often said to be a good trait to have.


“Oops, I think I broke him.” Liel told herself, as if wanting me to hear. That playful look she had before shone through the darkness I saw overshadowing her face. Then again, the middle of the tent was probably the darkest part of it. Without another word, she pressed down on the button and classical music began to play. I couldn’t see from where it was coming, but it was definitely coming frominside the tent. “Oh don’t worry yourself, dearie. There is a speaker behind the table I was just sitting at.” She said with one-hundred percent certainty. I guess that was resolved.


The music signaled the beginning of the game. My feet moved instinctively to a random chair. Only one would be blown at a time from what I understood. There were still a few more questions I still needed to ask…
“How big is the explosion, Liel? Wouldn’t that move the other chairs and trigger more of them to explode on movement? Also, how many seconds do I specifically have?” I stalled for time just by asking these few questions. I looked around to count the twenty or so chairs. I counted each chair on their respective sides, but it was hard to determine the order. Each had a bunny doll situated on it, with a bomb inside. I’ve already deduced that the second time she pushes the button- a bomb is sure to activate out of the group.


“The explosion is contained in the location it is placed, I believe. To be honest, I had another paper with more to explain. From what I understand, there are chemicals and shrapnel inside the bomb that burst outward when sensing movement. The shrapnel is blown out the side the bomb was put in. So the extra fluff does matter- or whatever was put in the other areas of the doll. So you couldn’t see your death if you wanted to. As for the time…the song needs to loop twice. Less than a dozen seconds, if you want a general time. I also want you to know that…I really hope you don’t die.”


That explained enough for me to see. Normally, I would be embarrassed by what she said but then I got to thinking that Liel might just be a kind girl at heart. But what I didn’t trust was that there was another paper. Even if it seemed unlikely, I felt as if the fact there was one was significant. The classical music and the loud beats of my heart were becoming unnerving as time closed. There second loop was close to the climax, the point of no return. If I had any last wishes-


Click. BAM.


I warily looked over to the second in line on the same row I was on. The chair looked demolished. The bunny was blown to bunny-heaven and the chair was fractured in multiple places. I heard a voice beyond the entrance and a hand slide through to open it. Damn! I forgot about D waiting outside. “What the hell are you doing?!” D blurted out, obviously the type to speak before thinking. Then again, I’m surprised he didn’t overhear the entire conversation.


“No! Don’t come in! I got this!” I yelled over, starting to break out in a cold sweat. I sure as hell didn’t want to involve D. But, as expected, he ignored me. My fault for saying not to come in since that is the common way to invite people inside nowadays. D came in stone-faced with an eyebrow arched above his bangs. “Yeah…” the red-haired, angry fellow looked over to me sitting in a chair with a rabbit and then to Liel in her tiny appearance. “If little girls are your type, then I can’t judge dude. We need to leave soon so we can get back to the others.” It almost seemed as if he told me this while pretending to not be interested in this. I gritted my teeth to hold back a remark at the ‘my type’ comment, which was totally not true!


“Little girl?” Asked the offended Liel, who was trying to hide the irritation on her expression. I noticed her small, soft looking hand clench onto the trigger and a twitch at the side of her mouth. “Why don’t you join us, it’ll be fun!” Although her face made her look innocent, I could have sworn she was just glaring at D a second ago…


No sense of worry entered his frame as he sat in the chair. Making himself comfortable, he tried to get a little more room by pushing the rabbit back. I was really wondering if he was going to blow into little pieces for moving a perfectly working bomb. The past night made me extremely anxious but I don’t want to take out human organs and blood stains out of my hair and clothes. To be specific about his spot, he was across from the first chair next to the one that blew. We were pretty far from each other. Before I had a chance to stand up to ready myself for another round, Liel clicked it four times. That equaled two more bombs. The fifth chair on my side and the seventh on D’s were unsalvageable.


“What the hell!” I blurted out, eyes wide at the scene. I looked over to Liel who stuck out her tongue like it wasn’t a big deal. “Oopsie.” Replied Liel simply and then stating something else as she clicked it on again,


“Sorry about that. Please move to another chair! Also, if you are wondering how a motion-sensitive bomb is exploding when you don’t go near it, it’s because of the short fuse! The motion part is just to prevent you escaping death.”


Answering every question I think is really starting to get creepy. If she were to reply to that, I’d submit. Why did she seem so serious about accomplishing this task? I moved to another seat across from me just as she clicked the button again. My eyes continued to bore into her but she seemed to pay no mind. Her eyes were getting pretty shifty, so I assumed she was still mad at D but…something didn’t feel right.
The bomb went off as soon as I got in my seat. I inhaled a quick breath at my fright because of which blew. If I had stayed in that same chair…I would have died! The blood rushed all to my head, lifting my easy-going attitude from the start. Could I really have died? It was inhumane to force people to do this! That sick bastard was probably making us all do things like this. I could only wonder what torment Fallen and the others were going through. If I was having second thoughts now, I surely needed some kind of plan. One more chair needed to go for us to be a fifth done. Speaking of which, I wasn’t sure why D was still sitting in his chair if he didn’t need to. Perhaps he was just challenging her to just try and kill him. I observed Liel and her movements, expressions, and just about anything to understand the secret to winning. I looked back to the chairs and counted them along the rows to order them in my mind. No, there was something else right at the back of my mind! What was it?


Keeping to my random strategy, I evaded- and so did D through some miracle- another three times. Thirteen chairs were left when I figured something out. Liel clicked the trigger and I examined both her face and the number of chairs. With the second loop of the music starting, I quickly turned with a jagged shift to face the entrance. I yelled over to D, “Move!” and he showed this strange look but still glided to the chair across from him before time went out. As it stopped and the trigger was pressed, the previous chair he was on became a pile of rubble.


“How did you…?”


“I think I know how to beat the game! Just listen to me, alright?”
Liel, who was left out of our conversation, smiled at us. I smiled back with a good sense of triumph. This game was a gamble; I just managed to get lucky.


The plan I had worked successfully for a number of times. Both myself and D moved from chair to chair to avoid being blown to pieces. All the moving was getting tiring since the music sped up and I had less time to work it out. The stuffed-rabbits were massacred and broken chairs could make woodsmen cry. I could really only feel a little relieved upon success. Liel apparently saw that my trick was making things boring as we got to the final five chairs. At least, I think that’s what she was thinking. Liel let out a lively giggle and twirled on the spot, scooping up the rabbit doll from the table into her arm.


“DeeDee, I think it’s time your friend stopped playing. Hehe, you can play with him later, okay? I’ll give you a minute break while I rearrange these.” After saying so, she made a circular ring of those five chairs with enough distance to not cause some kind of chain reaction. During so, she asked me something I expected being asked about: “How did you avoid it for so long?” But it was silly to say because she helped me. Yes, Liel helped me in a way no one else could see.


“The game isn’t finished yet, so a magician couldn’t reveal his act before the big trick.”,I told her with an overly smug look on my face.


“You are neither a magician nor making sense.” She sighed, trying to play it off like I needed to explain it to her. I smirked at her silliness. “But with the chairs down to five, the rules are supposed to change a bit. The two differences aren’t all that big: there won’t be music and you will have to wear a blindfold. I’m sure a magician such as yourself won’t have a problem in tricking out this part.”


A violet blindfold was presented to me for this part. With it came the challenge of choosing a chair blindly, except it was more literal than before. Just because I couldn’t see did not mean I would die. I just had to think of something else because the last plan heavily revolved on visuals. It also relied on the fact Liel had such a…well, ‘nice’ personality right now. I could only imagine how messy this would be if she treated me with the same ferocity she first gave D. “Oh don’t worry,” I assured despite my prickling goosebumps sprouting along my frame, “I have a trusting plan.”


I could tell she thought I was full of myself- mostly because my ideas are always far-fetched to people. I suppose it started in grade school or, now that I think about it, back in day-care. Let’s just say I lived in a family where both parents had some means of income and couldn’t afford to watch me all the time. So, like school, a certain building halved my day’s freedom. It wasn’t all that bad when we watched videos and made macaroni pictures, haha! Though this really isn’t a time for reminiscing about the good days, I understood that the ideas I’ve had were extremely obscure that no one else understood my points unless I explained to them. Even now, I felt underestimated.


“Why such a funny look? Hehe. You might be getting ahead of yourself dear-“


“Am I?” I retorted before she had a chance to finish. It was a small psychological trick, if performed well. The idea of having more attention on you by saying ‘I have a plan’ would make someone wonder if they did or not. Plus the confident, cocky attitude makes it even more convincing especially when…


“Let’s start round two!” I could hear it as she pressed her button, that trigger sounded the sensor for one out of five bombs. If I was right, then Liel was still looking at me as if I actually did have a plan. No, not ‘if’. I DID have one that was pretty predictable. I intertwined my fingers, feeling them stick together as they lapsed and stretched them outward. It was like I had an actual reason to be so relaxed- which is just how I was going with it.


I may not have been looking the best but I could guess that red wasn’t a complimentary color of mine. (Kidding, I actually look pretty good in red) If it wasn’t obvious, I didn’t want to become a bloody pile of spaghetti. String cheese? Ah…I was pretty hungry but comparing these gruesome things to delicious foods made my stomach shrivel at the thought. I took one step forward towards a chair, not knowing which one it was. This was the moment of truth; would it work or wouldn’t it? All I needed to wait for was an explosion.
Also, I was waiting for apowerful impact against wood, one that smacked it hard enough to be heard. To be more precise, it was a foot nailing against one of the chairs of danger. What followed it was an explosion, but not near me. No, I wasn’t the one causing it. My plan had worked on time from what I could smell- some chemicals and gunpowder from the explosion and the smell of charred wood. In a matter of seconds I took off the blindfold and looked at the surprised face Liel had at something behind me. D had kicked a chair that wasn’t active into the one with the bomb, causing both of them to chain react to a third. With just two chairs left, the game was pretty much over. Walking on over and snatching the trigger, he repeated the process of thrusting his foot into the chair and then pushing the trigger while they were still in movement. A final explosion erupted with a feeling of pure accomplishment.


“You never did state ‘no one could interfere’ right? You really should have paid attention to when we were talking during the first stage.” I told her, feeling quite proud. However, Liel felt quite the opposite. Liel’s face blew up into a mix of red and whitedue to a combination of fear and anger. “Don’t worry you didn’t break a single rule. You followed your guidelines to the dot! No need to worry, Liel.” My hands were waved in a way to show I had no intention of making that into a lie.


“Heh…wow, you were right…” D praised, in his subjective way. It almost felt like he didn’t believe in my abilities. His finger gave a straight point over to Liel as he declared: “You really gave it all away with your eyes, huh? Pretty small eyes, but it was easy to follow since they were goddamn bright! You knew the solution all along you bi-“


I shoved my elbow into his side as I passed by. If he said something stupid to her then more bombs might pop out. “Yeah, that was what I found out. You were helping us by shifting your eyes in accordance of the one that had the active bomb, weren’t you?” She nodded to this slowly. “I took the chance because your card had a diagram scribbled on the bottom of it. When I found it unable to read, I assume you made sure to remember it in-case the challenger to this game had a need to look at it. By then I didn’t really know if it was true or not but it worked out in the first round-“


“Which I was pretty useful in!” D interjected, as if he went through other rounds where people didn’t trust in his word. I can kind of see why you wouldn’t want to be involved but…it wasn’t that bad of an idea.


“Yes, yes. Anyways, when D entered he gave away the perfect opourtunity to test it out. When he lived by moving out of his chair, that was the moment of truth. It finally hit me square in the chest. I took the opportunity you gave me and used it to strategize for when we got to the final chairs, in which you would have me hindered- only if I was alone. However, you thought my trick was to continue watching your eyes but that was all thanks to my unhelpful gloating. You went out of your way to give such help even when you had to kill me, so whether or not I trust you is one thing- but I know you wanted me to live in the end.”


Quite the melodramatic finish, in my opinion. I mainly say this because Liel chose to not say a single word or make the tiniest sound as I explained. No questions or even a major facial expression aside shock. Was she mad?
She didn’t seem the type to be mad over something like this. Either I’m really dense- already know I am- or she has some problem with what I did. It was a risky move…maybe I should have played fairly to ensure all of our safety. Depending where everyone else is, I would assume either of two things.


One: They also had to play something like this.

Or

Two: They will rush to the sounds of explosions any minute now.


The second didn’t happen so I could only assume it was the prior choice…


“I guess that’s done and all…” Liel finally spoke and it surprised me that she sounded so defeated now. All that energy and those giggles were gone, making her look worn. I knew how she felt if that was the case, seeing as how I went through a lot in a couple hours, if even! “You can leave…I’ll be just fine.” Her voice rang with a detectable sadness. I wasn’t the type to identify how the person was feeling but I felt the mood go down as she said the word “leave”. This created a situation where ‘leaving’ might have been an emotional ‘trigger’ of sorts. As much as I found it ironic, I also found it disheartening. If she was a normal human being, if she was in the same standing as I was, then how could they putan innocent girl like her here?!


…Unless…she wasn’t innocent. My soul became enwrapped in a darkness I fabricated with my mind. Dark thoughts clouded my judgment; impossibilities that could easily become possibilities. Could I trust her? Should I trust her? I looked back to D who I couldn’t see his face. Only a dark shade was trying to hide those lying eyes. Was he attempting to pull the wool over my eyes? Was keeping me alive and safe part of his plan? Who told the truth and who didn’t? No…no, I can’t have doubt creeping on me in such a fragile state of mind.
I held out a strong hand to the girl who put me through so much danger. I had been distanced from her, giving those doubts of leaving her here. I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to. “Pfft, and you’re supposed to be a mindreading priestess? If you can’t even figure out that we had no intention of not bringing you along- oh, what a shame! Woe is me…woe is me…” I smirked, obviously trying my best at fooling around in order to cheer her up. On cue, she smiled lightly and let out a little giggle. My weird jokes seem to pull it off every now and then.


“I don’t mind really.” She told me, just following the lead. Hah! Her caramel skin seemed to tint a glossy texture on her cheeks. It was a nice compliment to her look already.


“Sure, sure.” I waved it off jokingly as she proceeded to grab my hand as I stretched it out to her. It seems like she was coming with us. Obviously, she seemed pretty happy now but I don’t know how well she’ll be getting along with the others. To the side, D was whistling like one of my friends saying ‘Go get her. I, being embarrassed, let go of her hand immediately. What her reaction might have been, I don’t know. There was a distorted aroma about the air, just the kind of thing you feel instinctively, that felt obscure to my burning embarrassed face. I could have sworn something just made a noise. It took me a moment to realize D and Liel were discussing something by themselves, the first regular conversation since the end of ‘Musical Chairs’.


“Hey, hey…Quiet down.” I ordered, trying to sound like it wasn’t about them making a ruckus.


“Why don’t you?” D replied with a rebellious attitude. His voice seemed to falter as if he didn’t actually want to say anything. I assumed smart-ass comments were natural; hell, I say them all the time! Seriously, I will never understand that guy…


Now that the others quieted down for a time of silence, I could hear a faint mumbling that didn’t sound very consistent. I stepped a few paces in every direction so I could hear it clearly. Towards the table where Liel was practicing with her tarots was the specific direction where you could hear it best. The intervals between each noise itmade were distant, yet close. Whatever ‘it’ was it wasn’t a person rambling or a much needed air conditioner, or even another bomb. It surprised me that it wasn’t a bomb. “Do I hear…” Just saying this made a certain girl fidget in place.


I barely took notice of this. Of course Liel would have something to do with it. Thump. Thump. I stepped closer to the back but my boiling blood was making it hard to move just to get rid of my courageous rhythm I’ve been holding onto. Thump. Thump. My heart pounded as I heard something- crying. The crying of a little kid. Younger than me, I’d say. I reached forward only to expect a dead body with blown apart by ticking trinkets and a child weeping at the sight, or smell, of the remains.


When I reached out to the curtain that blended in with the tent’s texture, pulling it revealed a little boy. It was an odd sight to see when mops and brooms and all the other utility supplies were stashed with him in the other corner. The little apartment barely fit this kid! I stared down at the bleary-eyed child, who only seemed a little younger than me by the dirty facial features. Of course the grime could make a three-year-old into an eight-year-old but that wasn’t the kind of feeling I got from him. It was one of those types who matured early, mentally. The physical body looked small, hair a ruffle of wavy silver going nowhere past his ears, and a blue eyes surrounded by swollen red. The oddest part about him would be his clothes. A grey jacket over a solid teal shirt, a black scarf with orange polka dots, and black pants with regular black shoes…well, actually, they looked like slippers. His complexion was pale, his eyes stood out, and I suppose it was a makeover a homeless person would use. Did I see a hint of blush on his cheeks?


“Hey there…” I whispered softly to the boy, not trying to frighten him. At most, he was thirteen years old. The two other members of my little group came to see what I was doing. One already knew what was hiding behind the curtain: Liel. I looked back with a suspicious look. What could she be doing with a kid like this? I started to doubt her reliability. For all I knew, they were adopted siblings who liked to cosplay. I mean, they looked TOO different, so they couldn’t have been blood related. “So, mind explaining this?” I inquired to Liel, who was starting to smile and blush. What, did I have something funny on my face?


The boy in the closet was starting to whimper uncontrollably. I tried to reach over to reassure that everything would be alright but it wasn’t; his problem was with someone here.


Like lightning, Liel swooped down and hugged the boy tight. “Cute! Cute! Cuuuute! He is SO adorable!” She exclaimed with joy, like a kid in the candy shop. That meant the one she clung to was the candy who didn’t want to be eaten. “L- L- Lemme’ go! Pleeeeease take me away!” the boy whined in reply. Liel pressed her cheek to his and rubbed their blushes (or frustration) against each other with the force of Liel alone. She kept repeating how cute he was to the point it was sick, or delightful. I had a hard time figuring out what to describe her as. I looked over to D who seemed just as lost as I was.


D bent down to pick up a little slip of paper. It was the same kind of card Liel has so I could only guess it was the same thing. If she only dropped it so easily before, this trip would have gone by much faster. D read out a surprising name from the card: “Leum.” I believe I heard. I peered over to see if that was correct and to see if it also had- Yep, another note.


“TASK: TRUST YOUR NEW FAMILY

REWARD: REGAIN THE OLD”



It was vague, but a little more descriptive than the previous I saw. If these two had cards, why didn’t I have one? If I didn’t have one…did everyone else have one? Maybe more than one? I scratched my head on the enigma and looked to ‘Leum’ who was still being cuddled by Liel. I felt bad for the kid. “Your killing meeeee!” Leum whined further, trying to push her away. It didn’t work when he pushed on her chest with his hands or against her knees with his feet. It surprised me that he was smaller than her. “Combo breaker! Combo breaker!” he shouted out like a fighting game, trying to break away from the opponent’s combos- obviously. A true man isn’t a man till he has played a sport and a video game. I nodded solemnly to this statement.


Not like anyone would have noticed. “Leum, right? We can’t leave you here so you better have no problem coming with us.”, offered D surprisingly. I totally had him stuck with ‘arrogant, badass delinquent who is easily angered’. Had I thought of him wrong or did something happen while I wasn’t looking? For now, I’ll just assume it was bad indigestion. The boy nodded with an unpleasant frown to show us. The only problem was getting Liel restrained so he could stand up on his own two feet. When Leum regained his composure, all four of us set outside to meet back up with our group. We had our conversations, properly introduced each other, and slightly got to get more personal while we walked. Even though the time limit went over the designated ten minutes we had to explore, it was as if it didn’t matter. The true countdown had begun…

[takishi]

you better not stop this. or I swear to god that i'll kill you

and I'd better be in it

[takishi]

MOUHAHA

I'm the My Love of the story

[The Great Etna]

BUT WAI I NOT THERE?

[Yukihime-tan]

Dec 21, 2011 17:00:52 GMT -5 The Great Etna said:

BUT WAI I NOT THERE?

I second this~!

[Kuro]

Xetka is my favorite already!

[HARU-SENSEI]

Dec 22, 2011 0:02:04 GMT -5 Yukihime-tan said:

Dec 21, 2011 17:00:52 GMT -5 The Great Etna said:

BUT WAI I NOT THERE?

I second this~!

I... ah whutevar

wanna join the partay too D:

[takishi]

Good stuff, keep it coming !

[okami-kun]

degree.... you better come back and finish this when your back. i love it XD

[Deleted]

ahahahha... I suddenly want to be in this story @_@
I really do love how the beginning starts out. Immediately the image of the interior of the train came into my head.

[takishi]

I'd like to talk to this Arthur chap. He seems like an intelligent enough fellow XD

[Deleted]

Wahahaha... poor Leum D:
Oh well, Liel gets a cuddle bear. ouo Oh no wait she needs Kon. ono

[Dee]

HOLY SH*T THIS IS KITTENS!IN' AWESOME
*^*

Keep goin' Degree. I love the scene. More thrilling, I guess.
For now, there's no negative comment I could say.

Btw, I'm So awesome I love u describe my character.
I cant trust other people easily

[takishi]

hey d wassup

[Dee]

Yo, un.. Nothing much happen in here.
Just make another chapter for my novel

[Dee]

Can't wait ;A;

This is more like JUDGE, but whatever. it's cool

Cant wait

[Dee]

Wahahaha.. As long as it's good, it's fine with me. You and Un are the best writer I ever known.

So, where's the 4th chapter?
#Impatient Reader Mode

Okay. I'm just Kidding
Take ur time. I know how hard to make a story

[HARU-SENSEI]

lawl Kuro you funny xDD

[Kuro]

Is it just me or does everyone here have a very strong personality?

I wasn’t expecting to be introduced so soon. I’m guessing Len, Haruhi and another girl are my companions, unless they are going to arrive with another group and my companions will be only vets.

And I like that you’re taking Leum under your wing. Already working on your army of newbs? Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Oh and I like my clothes.

[HARU-SENSEI]

Oh yes, I wouldnt mind to be in Kuro's group