The tournament

2000: Snitch

I felt my body wiggling side to side, I can hardly recognize the movement, It felt like walking, only I don't think I felt my legs moving. There's a severe throbbing in my head. My vision was so dark that I easily come to realized my eyes are closed.

I could barely open them though, they felt heavy. Through half-open lids all I see was sand, moving, shifting.

That shouldn't be the sky, the sky is blue...

"How many participants are left?" A female voice interrupted my trance.

"Apart from the five of us, there's seven more in the game." Says a familiar voice.

Five of us?

"Silas?" The first voice asked.

What's a Silas?

"He is alive, not too far from here." The familiar voice explained.

"Of course no one can play against the asshole." Someone hissed.

From their little dialogue, it seems Silas is a person.

I've also finally learned I'm held over someone’s shoulder.

"Worry about this, not Silas. She might have no powers but she's the real competition." Said the first voice.

There were heavy struggling footsteps and noises of movements.

"Then we kill her and get done with it." My heart vaulted in my chest. It was a male voice, it came from above me.

"I say we kill her too." I instinctively squirmed, luckily the person carrying me over their shoulder didn't notice the motion.

"Easy... We will do that. But I have to know why she is special, she's just sixteen not even old enough for the game." The first voice commented.

"I think the chairman played us."

"He has no idea, as I said he only wanted cover for his son." The familiar voice promised.

And that's when I bind the voice and the statement together. The only one who can know that is Harper.

Who knocked me out was the person I trusted.

No!

I think what I am experiencing is anxiety, I begin battling with air, it became hard to breathe, which has nothing to do with the way my head is position upside down.

"Is the little prince still alive?" Asked the first voice, the voice that seems to control power more than the other participants.

"He is." Oh bitch... She played me.

It wasn't Cuthbert, Harper was the snitch.

If only I know, why did I let her deluded me? So much for trusting strangers. Now I've gotten myself to my death and I have no help coming. I've pushed Cuthbert away.

"If this is all a game..." The voice was interrupted with some sarcastic remark. "It actually is a game, Drusilla."

"Don't interrupt me." Said the voice that belongs to Drusilla, I guess. "If this is all a game, chairman Ephraim has set us up, I will make sure I die with his son right next to me."

That got to me as deep as a blade and a gasp I couldn't control rumpled out from my throat.

"Oh look who woke up." Says the person holding me over their shoulder.

"Drop her," Drusilla commanded.

"We are out of time, there's no time to waste, we have to keep walking forward." Says the other girl that isn't Harper or Drusilla.

For a moment I watched them, there were three girls, and Rees standing over me.

What could they possibly want from me?

That reminds me of my suit, of course, it was intact, so is my face protector. However, inside I was dripping sweat from the scorching sun.

When I was dropped to the ground my eyes flicker to my wrist, I have forty minutes left of oxygen.

But that wasn't what I need to check, I dug my fingers into my pocket, and successfully that stone of mine was there, it soothes me.

"Harper?" It was the first thing that left my mouth.

"Okay quick summary of what you're living right now, in case harper's punch was more than necessary." The other girl halts and turns to Harper whose avoiding my eyes. "It was more than necessary, didn't I told you?" The girl added.

"Agnes!" My eyes shifted to the familiar face, the girl from the shore. She must be Drusilla.

"Alright, Alright." Agnes lifted her covered palms as surrender before she continues. "So you see we are all special creatures with powerful abilities you humans have not. Which left us wondering how harper had seen you crossing the bridge when no human from Archiefield had ever walked through. So we planned everything that you had crossed to get a grip of you. Thanks to Harper here we are..." Her hand waves over to Harper. "About to kill you to proceed a fair game." She sneered.

They're exaggerating, I am only an orphan who had nowhere to sleep.

"How is killing me a fair game?” I shook my head at the four participants starting down on me.

"If you look at it from the age difference, I think that explains everything. You shouldn't be here." Agnes smirked.

Unfortunately, I wasn't that frightened as they expect, but still, it's my life, I owe it to myself to try and don't get killed.

"I am no one, with me or without me, you will win perfectly, this is not necessary."

"Maybe we won't kill..." Drusilla again was interrupted only this time it was the tall boy with a deep voice who exclaimed: “What?"

"She is going to stay alive," Drusilla confirmed to him and he swallowed, huffing out a heavy breath.

It suddenly provokes Agnes, in a matter of seconds she was in Drusilla’s face.

"There is no way we are agreeing to that."

After some moment passed, Drusilla had observed her friend quietly, she pulled back and turned to me: “I am doing you all a favor, for me all I need is her dead body buried in this desert and is enough for me to cross the bridge with no worries. But taking her to the bridge is an option-even better.”

“How is that better?” Rees confusedly asked what had mazed me.

“We will exchange her for a pass to the ultimate planet,” Drusilla told her friends.

“How? We don't even know what's so special about her?” Rees retorted

“And the way things are going it's obvious she has nothing better to offer.” Agnes sarcastically remarked and shuffle her toes.

Drusilla took one step closer and squat on one knee, her eyes prying with intense pressure.

“Whatever she's hiding, she won't be able to hide over there."

The statement didn’t sound like a response, no she was directing telling me.

"What if they still insist on only one winner?" Harper asked.

She talked, and when she did it was about crossing the bridge. So the whole thing about being defeated, not making it on the game, it was all a lie, but for what?

Oh! to get me here.

"Too bad we all have something to offer is like buying one good with four additional bonuses." Drusilla hinted.

"That's smart." Rees smiled at her.

"I am who I am for a reason, now Rees, get her up." Drusilla jerked her head towards me, responsively I back up with the help of my hands.

"Why don't you girls help her, I've been walking around with her for hours." Rees protest.

Agnes' eyes widen through her head protector and she scoffs at him.

"Seriously Rees?"

"She doesn't weigh like a loaf of bread." He throws at them but actually, it was towards me.

Drusilla scans the three of her friends, her eyes roll before she shrugs off and says:

"It's an embarrassment. I will float her."

Okay, I will not sit here and let them treat me like some bag of potato.

"I can walk myself." I stood up. With my hands, I stroke off the sand from my uniform.

"Good choice..." I heard Drusilla said behind me, as I walk past them.