The Game

by Scollins, Shane

  They watched Julia and Orion shimmy through the hole at the base of the door, then turn back towards the center of the facility. Just as they turned a corner, the lights came back on.

  Candice heard the alarm that signaled the start of the game, but refused to leave her cell. The next round was starting but she didn’t want to play. She wondered what would happen if she just refused to participate. So she just sat there on the cot and refused to move.

  She casually examined the red marks on her arms and legs, still stinging from the balls of waxy fire that had slammed into her. They got off easy yesterday and she knew it. Although Angus hadn’t specified anything for round two, something told her it was going to get incrementally worse.

  After several minutes, the loudspeaker addressed her. “Candice, if you refuse to play, I will randomly kill one girl right now.”

  A long sigh involuntarily escaped her. Begrudgingly, she dragged herself from the bed and headed toward the white room. Once there, Candice saw that Alexis, Missy, and the blonde twins, Sienna and Sophia, were waiting. So too was the animated man on the screen, only today his hair wasn’t yellow, but dark blue. The setting behind the man was not spinning gears but a waterfall of fire.

  “How are you doing?” Candice said to Missy.

  “I’m tired, light-headed.”

  “You should be resting.”

  Missy shrugged. “I don’t think I have that option.”

  The realistic animated man knocked on the screen with his digital knuckle. “Nice of you to join us, Candice.” She faked a smile and crossed her arms.

  “Today’s game, in honor of my blue hair, will be black and blue day. I hope you ladies know how to defend yourselves in combat, because today you’re going to get that chance. But first, we must spin the wheel and see who the hunted will be.”

  The wheel spun. Sienna’s name came up.

  Digital man smiled. “Ah, the lovely blonde Sienna. Caleb will be hunting you this round. Will he kill you? Or take you to the torture room where Julia currently wishes for death? Only the voters can decide. Of course, the Bonus Round participant will have the opportunity to save a life.” The screen went black.

  The door rolled up and they had to proceed into the corridor.

  One second after the door closed behind them, everything went black. There were screams and Candice felt arms wrap around her. She struggled but couldn’t break free. She twisted and writhed, attempting to break the bear-hug grasp until she finally wriggled away in the darkness. A door slammed.

  When the lights came on, she gasped. Lukas and Zee stood before her. Ragged breaths of joy and relief attacked her body. She turned and threw her arms around Zee. “Oh, Zee, this is unreal.”

  “Shhh, keep it down,” Zee replied.

  “Vince, I mean, Lukas, how…”

  Zee looked at Lukas with a tilted head. “I thought you knew each other.”

  Candice nodded, smiled. “Oh, we do… I’ll fill you in later. Right now we have to go.”

  Chapter 31

  Angus could not believe his eyes, what he saw was impossible. The lights came on, Candice was gone, and Caleb didn’t take her.

  He picked up his two-way radio. “What’s going on down there?”

  “I don’t know, boss,” Caleb replied.

  “Abort it now. Get them back to their cells, I’m cutting the transmission.”

  He pulled up the interface and killed the uplink. He was furious. Angus navigated to the camera feeds, tracking backwards into the corridor, and saw nothing. Then he saw it. A strange man had pulled Candice into one of the side rooms. They were creeping out right now. They had Zyanna with them, too. This was inconceivable. Who was this man? How did he find them and sneak in here?

  He picked up the radio. “We have a breach, a man has broken into the game. He’s freed Zyanna and he’s got Candice. They’re coming right toward you, corridor number six. Kill all of them.”

  This was unbelievable. The game was ruined. He might have to start over completely, a new location and everything. It was a devastating blow. Angus was frozen with confusion, he couldn’t even move. He’d never been thwarted in his life and now everyone watching the show would see this. He’d lost his tight grip of control.

  Lukas made sure they were close behind him. He heard the screams just ahead and he hurried up the hallway towards the chaos.

  When he turned the corner, he came face-to-face with Caleb. The big man charged him with a large knife. Lukas shot him in the chest but the big man didn’t stop coming. He shot again, but Caleb plunged the knife toward him. Lukas tried to deflect the large blade, but was overpowered. He felt the searing pain rip into his chest and they both went down in a heap.

  Lukas scrambled to his knees, ready to shoot again, but Caleb was dead. Once the adrenaline spike subsided, he realized he was in trouble. The pain was too much. He put his hand on the wound and looked down at his hand. Blood flowed over it. He dropped the gun and fell. He looked up at the faces standing over him. A smile came over him. He’d died so many times it hardly phased him at all, but this time actually felt okay. He’d saved everyone. Even though they weren’t out of the funhouse yet, something told him that with Candice and Zee at the helm, there would be no stopping them. That was the last thought he had before he felt too sleepy to think.

  Candice reached down and picked up the gun. “C’mon, Lukas, get up.”

  He was barely conscious, but they had enough hands on him to drag him along. “C’mon, help him. We’re leaving,” Zyanna ordered.

  Candice marched forward, gun outstretched. The large roll door started to come down, but they were able to hurry under it. They made their way straight into the gut of the facility toward the front door.

  They continued down a long hallway until they reached a dead end. Suddenly the door started rolling up slowly. Beyond it was the glass lobby, and the welcome spinning lights of police cars.

  They got to the sidewalk as the police moved in. Paramedics took hold of Lukas and carried him to the back of the ambulance.

  “Julia!” Candice was amazed to see her.

  Orion came up to Candice and nudged her hand. “Who’s this?”

  Julia nodded towards the ambulance. “That’s his dog.”

  Candice sat on the ground, exhausted. It was finally over.

  Chapter 32

  The violent shakes racked his body and he was back. He was in between again. Craig Easton must have died. There were several odd things at work here. First off, he hadn’t punched out of a shallow grave. That was different. He was lying on a stainless steel table in an empty slate-colored room.

  Lukas stood up and looked around. He had no memory beyond the moments in the asylum after he pulled the trigger and shot Caleb. Hopefully, everyone else got out alive. Candice had to be okay.

  As his current state allowed, he stepped across time and space to the front door of the asylum. Iron Stone Mountain was wrapped with yellow police tape in all the right places. There were several cops milling about, uniforms and suits.

  Candice was clearly not here, but he had a good idea where she might be. He stepped into a shimmer of space, across time, and into her apartment. He wasn’t even sure how he knew where she lived, but he knew this was her place. Candice walked around the corner. She gasped and dropped the cardboard box she was carrying.

  “Oh-my-God.” She raised her hand like she was going to smack him. “You have to stop that!”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to do.”

  She looked at him and let out a chuckle. “You’ve got to stop coming back from the dead and scaring me.”

  “I don’t mean to.”

  “I know you don’t.” She reached out tentatively to touch him. “You are real, right?” Her hands pulled back.

  “Yes.�
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  “How is this possible? I mean, I know you explained it already…I just…” She shrugged.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “You don’t remember?”

  He shook his head.

  “Well, Caleb stabbed you after you shot him. You bled to death on the way to the hospital. Or should I say, Craig Easton bled to death.” She waved her hands. “Whatever, someone died.”

  “Is everyone okay?”

  She nodded. “Everyone is okay. We all made it out. The cops shut down the asylum.”

  “And Angus?”

  She shrugged. “Angus and Rena got away. They got out somehow, there’s no sign of them.”

  He took a deep breath. “This isn’t good. You have to get out of here.”

  “I’m not running.”

  He knew she was going to be stubborn, but he had no choice except to trust her. “Well, at least we saved them. At least Angus’ dream is temporarily ruined.”

  She squinted at him and turned her head slightly. “You think he’ll try again?”

  “He’ll lay low for a while, pull up stakes and probably start up somewhere on the other side of the country. He’s sick, arrogant, and those people don’t like losing.”

  Her face turned down. “How long have you been chasing Angus?”

  “I didn’t know who I was chasing until recently. But for several years, I’ve been going down the same rabbit hole.”

  “Did you get any more clues this time?”

  “I won’t know until I become whoever I’m supposed to be. Whoever I am, I should be another step closer.”

  Candice suddenly looked sadder.

  Lukas asked, “What’s wrong?”

  She frowned. “I don’t know. I just wondered, what happens if you don’t come back?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not sure.” She went up to him and touched his chest with her palm. “Wow, this is amazing. You’re like…liquid gel.” She ran her hands through him, making slow ripples in his form.

  He nodded. “I know. I’m not a physical being.”

  She continued to run her fingers through him. “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “You’re the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.” He found himself feeling things he’d never felt. The urge to reach out and touch her was too powerful to deny, but he knew he couldn’t touch her. “You’re the first person who ever recognized me. I was Craig, and you saw me as I see me, as the same person.”

  Candice smiled slightly. “What does that mean?”

  He shrugged. “I wish I knew. But it has to mean something. I think it means you’re even more special than I thought.”

  She leaned her face closer, moved her lips into his, at least where they should be. And for the first time in his life he wanted out of the in between state right away.

  She whispered, “I want to kiss you for real.”

  “I missed you when I woke up and you weren’t there.”

  “When you — when Craig died, something inside me broke. Zee, she knew it right away. She knows me so well. She said, ‘Candice, you’re in love’ and I didn’t believe it. You never came back for anyone before, did you?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “But you came back for me. Why?”

  “Somewhere in the middle of all this I started to feel things. I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”

  “You think?”

  “I know!”

  Candice smiled, bit her lip, and looked up towards the ceiling. “And now, you’re a ghost.”

  “I’m not a ghost.”

  “Whatever you are…a water mirage. A gelatinous mold.” She smiled.

  “I’ll be back soon.”

  She wiped away a single tear, took a deep breath. “What if you’re wrong? What if you don’t come back this time?”

  “I’ve always come back before.”

  “You’ve got to stop getting yourself killed. There must be another way to find these clues.”

  “It’s not my first choice.”

  “But why?”

  He shrugged. “I wish I knew. It’s a compulsion. Every time I get a new life, a new opportunity, I swear this time will be different. But I’ve managed to ruin the name of several good men. Vince Markoe was a well-respected New York detective, and I managed to ruin his name and get him killed. Craig Easton, he clearly had some personal issues, but nonetheless deserved better.”

  “Actually, I spoke with his mother. She said he was so depressed lately they thought he was going to take his own life.”

  “They were right.”

  “Maybe so, but they don’t know it. As far as they’re concerned, he died a hero helping end a psychopath’s version of a reality game death match. You made him a hero.” She folded her arms and tilted her head. “There’s one thing I still don’t think I’ll ever understand.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How come, to me, you still look the same? But to everyone else, you look like the body of the person you’ve become?”

  “I can’t explain it. Everything in the world changes around me. But you saw me for me. That’s never happened before. You knew me.”

  She thought for a second, then said, “What makes me so special?”

  “Maybe that’s it right there.”

  “What’s it?”

  “Maybe it’s just because you’re special. Maybe it’s because of the way I feel about you.”

  “But from the first time I saw you, it was the same. You were Vince, but you looked like you do now. Is this the real you I’m seeing?”

  He turned his palms up, dropped his arms. “This is it. This is what I’ve always seen all my life. This is Lukas.”

  She smiled coyly. “Okay, so this is it then. This is as good as it’s going to get.”

  “Unfortunately, yes. This is as good looking as I will ever be to you.”

  “Well, I guess you’re not bad.” She smiled.

  Suddenly that feeling came to him. It was time. “I have to go.”

  Candice lost her playful look, her eyes widened with uncertainty. “When will I see you again?”

  “I don’t know. Soon, I hope.” He held out his hand to touch her.

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “I want you to know…I love you!”

  He felt his breath catch. For a brief second something odd happened, something that never happened before. He almost didn’t fade, he felt like he was breaking apart. A pain like he’d never felt crawled up his legs and through his torso. When it reached his head, he heard an explosion that seemed to shake the world.

  He was sure he was dying but in the next second, he was on the street of a busy city. Violent fits of shudders ruled his body. He couldn’t even focus his eyes to see where he was, but he noticed a street name.

  The scene shifted around him again. Then the next second, he was in a town that was unrecognizable. He looked down at his body. It was still in that middle state. People on the streets moved around him, some through him. Then it started all over again. He started shaking, the pain took over, he screamed in agony.

  When things stabilized again, he was in a dark room in a wheelchair. His eyes burned, hurt. He moved to get up, but it didn’t work. He couldn’t move. The world around him started to glow brightly, everything turned white, and yet another explosion of pain hit him like a truck.

  He cried out in anguish, begging God to end this pain. Then it ended.

  Chapter 33

  Lukas woke up with no pain, no misery. Whatever that was, it was the first time it happened and he hoped it never happened again. It was brutal.

  It wasn’t a surprise to wake up somewhere strange, the surprise was waking
up with no identification in an abandoned house. A tendril of panic started to wrap itself around his mind but quickly subsided.

  The house had obviously not been lived in for quite some time. The pea-green walls were cracked and aged. The floors had a thick caking of dust. There was a faint, lingering smell of a fireplace. He looked out the windows but there was not another house in sight.

  For a brief second, he wondered if he was in the wrong time. He’d never traveled in time before but he always considered the possibility. That concept was short-lived when he saw a modern Ford Mustang zipped by on the road outside the front windows.

  He moved through the house, looking for clues as to who he might have just become. There were no pictures on the walls, none above the fireplace. In the corner of the living room was a telescope, a fat-tube reflector type, propped on old wooden tripod legs. Since they didn’t change much over the years, it gave away no data on when the house might have last been occupied. It was hard to place the age of anything in the home.

  As he got to the living area, the smell of fire became more pungent. The fireplace was filled with black soot and ash, and pieces of paper and furniture were spread about the hearth. It was clear that someone had burned everything possible.

  Down the hallway, he peered into the first bedroom on the left. It was mostly empty. What was left had been broken into pieces and left in the center of the room. It was the same story in the other bedroom of the ranch style home.

  Then he went down to the two smaller rooms across from each other. The one on the left didn’t have much to say, but the one on the right drew him in.

  The room was still mostly intact. All the furniture was still present. There were obvious signs that a boy had lived here, cars and sports figures were liberally stuck to the walls in poster form. On the ceiling was a star chart made of stickers, the planets were still brightly colored in their appropriate hues. The room had a thick layer of dust and cobwebs but was otherwise in good repair.