Chapter 55: The King is Not Odin
1226 Words
Timmy Cruz always wanted to see sufferings.
To see the pain, the agony, the hatred, and the everything that makes a human suffer, it gives her joy. Extremely odd satisfaction. With the satisfaction she always get, it made her to move par on different level, and even made her do things which not everyone would do—kill someone while watching it being tortured by her.
She was able to do it inside the Zero program. She was able to cleanly kill a man without any obvious trace—what’s worse is that she brutally played his body before killing.
However, despite the satisfaction she gets from other people’s pain, she hated one thing: the thought of being the one who will experience pain. This woman knew that pain, suffering, and torture does not give joy if she will be the one who will experience it—if the pain would curse all throughout her body without her permission.
She was a fan of other people’s pain, but she always hated it whenever she will be the one who will experience it. No, she does not hate it—she feared it.
Being in the current situation, Timmy was staring at Amara with a horrified look. Amara was now lying on the floor, eyes are wide and trembling while he scornful red light has covered her whole body. Little by little, she was taking steps backwards as she kept on shaking her head because of fear.
“No, no, I don’t want that,” she said.
She kept on stepping backwards until at a certain point, she could not take one anymore, because she has already reached the wall. Though like that, she kept on attempting on stepping backwards, simply hoping that the walls would open, and then swallow her away of the place.
“I … I don’t want pain,” she said. As she spoke, it was noticeable that her strong way of speaking, has gone soft and trembling.
“Please make this stop,” she said, cold sweat forming at her forehead.
Yet, a minute passed, but the red light was still not being extinguished. Timmy’s body shook more when from the ground, the suffering Amara had shifted her gaze and then looked at her. By the way of those dark glare, it was as if Amara was a demonic predator that is hunting her prey.
“It’s your time now,” Amara said with a gritted teeth, a coarse voice, and a dark expression.
How irony works: the predator of pain was the one being hunted now. Despite the unexplainable torment of the red light, Amara was able to stand up. Still, she was looking at her as if she’s clearly telling that her only goal was to transfer the red light out of her body.
“No, No, get it away from me. G—Get out!”
Rain, Blaze, and Tammy, even though they were weak, and their body being traumatized by the recent pain that they experienced, has stood up from the ground.
“What are you doing? G—Get away from me.”
The three has forcefully grasped Timmy’s arms, and even though they were extremely tired, they strongly hold Timmy, so that she won’t run or escape away from the terrifying red-colored light.
Slowly, Amara walked towards Timmy. Still, her gaze was terrifying.
“s**t,” Timmy cursed. Tears was about to burst from her eyes.
“I am sorry, sis. W—We need to become fair to this, or else someone w—will die.” From behind Timmy, her sister said.
Then, having no warning, Rain, Blaze, and Tammy has pushed her forcefully towards Amara. Because she was unaware, she was dragged by the pushing force, and then, Amara caught her.
She was about to scream in a disgusting pain the moment Amara grasped her hand, but in a burst of miracle, just as after she was being held … the red light disappeared.
It was gone.
“I solved it!” From the other side of the room, they heard Tristan shouting!
When Timmy looked at Tristan, she saw him running towards them, smiling. The beam of his smile was outstandingly bright and full of joy.
Damn, this man knew nothing about how Timmy was thankful to him.
****
“To solve this problem, I have to note that Jack was already dead,” Tristan Fauxier told to himself.
Recalling the set of numbers arranged in the chessboard-like floor, he slowly tried to solve it, with the use of the new clue he had found.
To solve the ciphered text was just too simple. He would not take a long excruciating time deciphering that message, had only he quickly got every clue inside the room.
The notion that the rank below the Queen (which is Jack) was killed has a simple interpretation for Tristan. It simply means that Jack should be taken out. In the Solitaire cards, the Jack was represented by an image of a soldier. Then, on its left part is a letter that represents the card of Jack: the letter ‘J’.
Since Jack was killed, then the letter ‘J’ was too, eliminated.
He recalled the tabled English alphabet he imaginary created on his mind. Yet, this time, since Jack was killed, the letter J was too, exterminated of its position in the table:
--
0-----1-----2-----3-----4-----5
1-----A-----B-----C-----D-----E
2-----F-----G-----H-----I-----K
3-----L-----M-----N-----O-----P
4-----Q-----R-----S-----T-----U
5-----V-----W-----X-----Y-----Z
--
Tristan smiled even wider when he realized that the letters has already fit in the five by five table. Earlier, he did not realize that he would need to cancel out one letter just to make sure that the table is complete. How disappointed he was, because he already knew that some of the ciphering ways was using the method of exterminating one letter to concretely hide the message. He did not realize that it was also used in this ciphered room.
Now, he recalled the set of numbers that was given by the white light on the floor:
4,4—2,3—1,5—2,5—2,4—3,3—2,3—2,4—4,3—3,3—3,4—4,4—3,4—1,4—2,4—3,3.
When he was sure that he has still not forgotten the set of numbers, he then located its indicated coordinates on the table.
Series of numbers and letters amazingly floated on his mind. He was a gifted man, for even though how confusing the table, the letters, and the numbers was, he was not having any forms of confusion. The confusing deciphering he had done was now amazingly arranged:
--
4,4 = T
2,3 =H
1,5 = E
2,5 = K
2,4 = I
3,3 = N
2,3 = G
2,4 = I
4,3 = S
3,3 = N
3,4 = O
4,4 = T
3,4 = O
1,4 = D
2,4 = I
3,3 =N
--
Having the golden vision of the ciphered message, Tristan both closed his hand to make a ball of fist. Thrilled, he read the message he formed on his mind:
“The King is not Odin.”
Immediately, he looked at his groupmates. There, he saw how the red light completely vanishing out of Amara’s body.
Tristan’s smile beamed. “I solved it!” he exclaimed while running to them.
- Writer
