THE LAST ONE STANDING

PAINFUL PARTING

"This isn't legit, is it?" I doubted the authenticity of the letter.

The contents of it seemed to make me wonder if someone was pranking me. The details that were presented inside the letter seemed quite reliable though. While staring at the envelope, I asked myself, “Should I contact the organizers? What if it ended up being a fraudulent scam?”

Upon crawling out of that stagnant corner of the street, I told myself, “What’s wrong with giving it a try? Besides this, I have no other options.”

Thereafter, I moved over to the nearest payphone. When I dialled the provided number, the call was answered by a man who asked me to verify my details. I did follow through with all of his directions. After that, I was told to wait at a particular location for the pickup early at dawn. I agreed to it.

As I walked away, I gawked at the contents of the letter. My eyes were fixated on the prize money. I couldn’t believe it. Their offer seemed too good to be true. They just wanted us to participate in a game, and then they'd pay us. For some strange reason, I couldn't put my faith in it.

Thereon, I returned to the hospital to get some insight into my sister’s condition. It had only gotten worse. While her face developed several marks and turned pale, her eyes barely opened. Witnessing her in pain was heart-wrenching. While trying not to wake her up, I moved towards her and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek.

As I moved away, she clenched my sleeve with her cold hands and then asked me, “Older sister, where am I? Why aren’t we home?”

I didn’t want to enlighten the poor child about her own situation. She was too young for that. Hence, I lied instead, “We are at our aunt’s place.”

“Why are we here? I want to go back to the apartment. I want to eat the saucy pasta that you make for me,” insisted the seven-year-old child.

While trying to fight back my tears, I told her, “Since I haven’t been able to pay my tuition in school, I need to go away to a different city to pursue a scholarship.”

“No! Don’t go! How will I live without you?” protested the young one while having her eyes closed, struggling to open them.

I gently caressed her forehead as I reminded her, “You will not be alone. I’m not going for forever. I will be back after a month. Can’t you be a good girl till then?”

“No, Harriet! I want you to stay with me. Without you, I would become vulnerable to my pain. I can’t go through this,” mumbled an exhausted Lucy. "Do you know how much it hurts? My body seems to be working against me. Every limb seems to have been broken."

Watching her heightened tension, the nurse advised me to let go of her as I was only making her more anxious.

I wanted to get away from Lucy, but she wasn't ready to lose her hold on my shirt. Her unwillingness to leave me forced the nurse to make a harsh decision. She decided to inject Lucy with a sedative.

When the nurse moved towards her to inject her with sedatives, she let out a spine-chilling cry. While my hands were shaking in fear of witnessing her despair, I was stubborn as a mule in my decision. I needed to leave for her own sake. I knew that I would slip out of the hospital the moment she fell asleep. Understanding the need of the hour, I let her hold my sleeve while getting the shot.

As the sedatives began affecting her, her hold over me became less intense. From the manner in which her feebleness seemed to compel her to sleep, she understood that she would have to let me go. Hence, she told me before losing consciousness, “If you’re leaving me at this crucial stage, it’s better that you don’t come back. You want to get away when I need you the most. I hate you, Harriet.”

That was the last thing I needed to hear before leaving. I wasn't abandoning Lucy. I was going to an anonymous game show to procure the funds for her treatment. No matter what she said, I knew that it was unavoidable to leave. My only concern about the offer was that I was worried about heading to a place of no return. If the offer were to be a scam, I realized that I would only be parading towards my death. No matter the consequence, I didn't have any other options to consider in those desperate times.

Lucy's cold-hearted words did push me to reconsider if I wanted to leave. That’s when I had also begun weighing the possibility of staying and leaving. Even if I were to stay, there was hardly anything that I could do to help her. What's worse? I would be forced to live a nightmare.

It's just the beginning of the diagnosis, yet she’s unable to open her eyes. She would only get worse with time. I felt it was better to die in an arena than witness her approaching death. Staying shouldn’t be an option. Lucy might feel abandoned for now, but I feel that it will be mended once I were to return with the prize money and tell her the truth about my urgency to leave. Even though I had my heart set on my goal, I still fidgeted about making the right decision.

As I was about to exit, the nurse held my hands and reassured me, “I will take care of her treatment till you’re away. I might not be able to afford her operation, but I will pay for her medication in your absence, which I know you will return to me after getting back.”

I bowed my head in front of the kind nurse while expressing my gratitude, “What would I do if you weren’t here? In this soulless city, it’s hard to find someone who would be willing to help a child in such a desperate situation. I will pay you every penny that you'd be spending on my sister.”

The woman gently caressed my head and then told me, “I believe in you. You can do this.”

There was no doubt about it. I’d rather die than fail. I just nodded to respond and then begged her to take care of my little sister in my unavailability.

“You have two months to save your sister's life. I believe in you.”

Again, I could only nod. What else would someone do? I already felt pressed down by this heavyweight of expectations. Whenever I deal with such pressing situations, I unconsciously end up thinking that it would've been better if my parents were still alive.

I understood that it was a selfish thing to desire, but I couldn't restrict my thoughts. The thoughts that condemned the very accident that took them away from us. But I also recognised the necessity to abandon the abrogating thoughts that stopped me from preparing for a possible victory, and then I took my leave.

With stern resolve, I left for the venue. It wasn't even dawn, but I had nowhere else to go. Thus, I walked up to the empty railway station and settled on a rusty bench for the pickup. While I saw inactivity around me, my eyes became ladened down with an urge to sleep. I couldn't do that as I was in a public space. If I were to lose consciousness, I might get attacked. No place was safe in Death City. The place was a nucleus of all greed and danger.

Upon thinking about leaving the city, I felt relieved because of only one thing. Since I was going to be away, I wouldn't be required to live a horrible reality. A reality in which helplessness seemed weakness. People would scorn the weak for their inability to earn rather than help them. It was all so disheartening, especially witnessing it at such a young age.

When I saw the rising sun, clad in a red glow, I sensed some movements behind me. Before I could turn to look behind me, some anonymous men directed me to stop moving my head.

"Wait! Who are you?" I wasn't sure if they were the right people.

"You're here because of your contract with the WIC company, Miss Harriet," the man reassured me. "We are going to take you to the arena for the games."

I finally stopped resisting and let them blindfold me while they directed me towards a nearby port. Shortly, the men from the aforementioned company also put my hands in constraints as they took me inside, presumably, a ship. I was taken to one of the cabins inside it.

As I heard the door behind me get locked, I heard a few steps that made me understand that someone was walking toward me.

"Who's there?" I asked the person who was headed to my side.

"Relax! I am here to make sure that you're well fed before the game," informed the man.

Thereafter, he removed the constraints that bounded my hands and asked me to eat as much as I preferred without removing the blindfold.

Before I'd question him about the possible scenario in which I might remove the mask from my eyes, he told me, "If you were to peak, it could turn fatal for you."

Fatal? I was bewildered to hear him say that. What did he mean by that? Hence, I had to ask him again, "Does that mean that you're going to hurt me?"

He didn't provide an answer to any of my questions that were birthed from the strangeness of the whole thing. There was an uncanny silence that prevailed throughout my breakfast. Although I didn't receive an answer, the silence alone made me shut up. When I was done eating, the man asked me to get changed into a fresh set of clothes. He offered me some well-fitted jeans, a t-shirt, a leather jacket and a pair of shoes. Everything was of my size. That made me realize that everything seemed meticulously prepared.

It had been ages since I wore anything new. The fragrance of the fresh set of clothes almost brought tears into my eyes. While I was glad about the services, there was one thing that I couldn't understand. Why were they being so generous towards me? Furthermore, was I going to be the only one participating? If not, where were the other participants? There were so many questions that I had in my mind, but nobody to answer. What was even worse was that the guard even suggested hurting me if I failed to maintain the silence in that cabin.

Though there were restrictions on asking questions, they couldn't stop us from thinking. While sitting idly after having breakfast, I wondered about a lot of things about the game. Since they were offering such a huge sum to the winner, I almost wondered what the game was going to be about while sitting blindfolded throughout the whole journey.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

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