Game of Survival

by T R Tells

  “Stop it!” Thea yelled. She couldn’t bear to hear any more. Freya’s forced retelling made Thea’s memories of Eddie resurface. “Can’t you see what you’re doing here!?”

  “Thea,” Maggie hissed, she tried to pull her back, but Thea snatched her hands from Maggie’s grasp and shouted, “No!” She stomped away from Maggie and stood in the middle of the hall. Freya was the only thing between Flint and Thea.

  “He needs to stop what he’s doing. He can’t keep treating us like this! We aren’t his damn slaves. We’re mundane beings, we have feelings!”

  Flint stood up straight and the entire room went silent, even the men’s cackling had stopped. Thea, on the other hand, was only focused on Flint as she furrowed her brows at the vile man. The silence broke and the men burst into loud, boisterous laughter. The mockery angered her, and she tightened her hands into fists, gritted her teeth, wanting nothing more than to slit Flint’s throat.

  “Well, I see you still have some spunk left in you after all,” Flint said sarcastically. “Perhaps you didn’t do such a good job, Eddie my boy.” He spoke toward his left, and for the first time, Thea turned to see Eddie cowering behind the men.

  Eddie? Thea furrowed her brows and stared at Eddie’s sad look. He looked worse for wear — severely beaten and the sides of his hair had been ripped out. The Eddie that Thea had come to know was stripped clean. What happened to you?

  What’ll happen to you if you don’t keep your mouth shut, the ominous voice responded, sending a chill down Thea’s spine.

  “Let me give you some advice Thea,” Flint pulled her attention away from the broken husk formerly called Eddie and back to the dark look in his eyes. Thea saw that his hand was on top of Freya’s head. “How would you describe life?”

  Thea frowned. She didn’t understand his question and shook her head to let him know she didn’t understand.

  “Trick question, life has no answer because life is meaningless. Whether it is your own life or someone else’s, it is meaningless. Tell me, Freya,” Flint asked, he looked down at Freya who was on her knees, in the puddle of urine, quietly sobbing. “What did you do after those men took your eye, raped your mother, and then made you watch as they killed her?”

  Freya didn’t speak right away but mumbled something inaudible.

  Flint’s hands gripped onto Freya’s hair and tugged; Thea saw Freya wince from the pain. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you . . . you’re going to have to speak up, Deadeye.”

  “N-Nothing,” Freya whispered, but it was still not good enough for Flint. He tightened his hold on Freya’s hair and forced her to stand. Freya let out a cry of pain, “Nothing!”

  Having been satisfied, Flint released Freya’s hair and pushed her to the side. Thea immediately went to Freya’s aid, bending down to pick the girl up and hold her. She felt Freya’s head fall gently to her chest and felt the girl shiver under her touch as she sobbed. Thea wrapped her arms around Freya’s wet back and stared into the devilish, cruel eyes of the man she wanted dead more than anything.

  “That’s right, nothing. And if you continue to do nothing, you will die as nothing. As I said before, life is meaningless, but getting slapped around and only barely living is not acceptable.” Flint’s words were harsh and filled with venom. Thea loathed him and wanted him to choke on the very venom he spewed out. “Joining me, doing what I say, you won’t just be barely surviving. Your lives are already a waste of time, but at least you will be surviving.”

  Thea gritted her teeth and clutched Freya tighter. Surviving? It’s more like suicide.

  “Under my aid, you’ll be real thieves, assassins, if you will. You won’t be cowardly as you are now. Once you know what life is, you will survive longer; and another person’s life will mean nothing when you take it. You won’t even be afraid to die because life will be meaningless, but you’ll always be one step ahead of these pathetic insects that call themselves mundane.”

  Chatter arose behind Thea’s back, and she turned around to see that the children were conversing among themselves, swayed by Flint’s hard words and emotions. No, I can’t let them fall this way . . .

  “To hell with that!” Thea yelled she could feel her throat burn and her eyes hurt as the tears started to peak. “You talk about how life is meaningless, and you only have to survive, but fear is what keeps you alive. Having people care for you and show you kindness when others have wronged you, is surviving! You're preaching a bunch of idiocrasies and I won’t stand for it!”

  Flint didn’t so much as bat an eye as Thea’s face turned red with anger and tears began to pour out of her eyes, her voice broke from time to time. He just stood and watched her, grinning like a madman.

  “Oh, Thea, whoever said that to you lied. When you truly survive you receive raw, undeniable pain and suffering. Only grasp it and willingly release your doubt. You will free your mundane self and know that life is nothing and you are nothing.”

  His words reminded Thea of Hel, and she gritted her teeth in anger, hating how powerless she felt. She immediately gripped tighter onto Freya as he slowly made his way over to them, crouching low to the floor.

  Flint reached his hand out and grabbed Thea’s cheeks together with one hand, pulling her forward and jerking poor Freya with her. “Those are nice scars on the sides of your head, they look like they’re from the pommel of a sword, and by the insignia branded into it, it looks like Kingsland’s crest.”

  “Screw you,” Thea sputtered out, with her cheeks in Flint’s hand, her lip poked out slightly.

  “Those hits should have left you in a state of unconsciousness, or at the very least, brain dead. Tell me, what did you do to survive the king's men twice?” There was a glistening in Flint’s eyes, and he was thoroughly intrigued.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know. I swear I’ll kill the king, and then I’ll kill you too, Flint.” Thea threatened.

  “I’d like to see you try.”

  Flint’s words left his lips as he released Thea’s cheeks from his hand, pushing her back to the ground.

  “You’ve only got two choices, kiddies,” Flint shouted as he spoke to the children, but his words were directed solely at Thea. “You can train under my wing, learn to steal, kill, prostitute, and even learn to ingest poison or,” he paused and shrugged his shoulders, “I could kill you, and you’ll die pathetically. No remorse, only fear and doubt to rock you in an endless void of darkness – your choice.”

  The hair on the back of Thea’s neck stood on end, and when she turned around, she felt her heart drop. Flint’s words had sunken in right away, the others believed everything he’d said.

  “Looks like I’ve won this one, Thea,” Flint said, watching her from the corner of his eye. “Though before we proceed, there’s something that has been irritating me for these last few minutes.”

  Thea saw him reach him into his pocket and frowned, wondering what he was doing. As Flint revealed the contents to be a dagger, which briefly glistened in the light. Thea immediately jumped up, knocking Freya from her grasp. But, Flint had been so fast she had not seen the dagger fly from Flint’s hand until the sound of a heavy body dropped to the ground with a thud.

  Silence filled the room again. Flint had his hands back in his pocket as he stared at the figure on the floor, several of the children circled the body.

  Thea opened her mouth and stared at Flint, who only sheepishly grinned. She turned back to where everyone crowded around the body and went over to inspect it. When she got closer to the body, she gasped.

  The body of a boy was dead. The dagger that Flint had thrown had landed right in his heart. His eyes weren’t surprised, most likely not expecting his death so soon.

  “And another lesson, if you’re going to steal from me make sure you don’t get caught.”

  Thea let his words sink into her head. She stared at the lifeless body of the boy’s now pale, chubby face. Thea didn’t know him very well, but seeing his body, dull and void of life made Thea angry. She could
hear Flint’s mocking voice replay over and over in her head: “life is meaningless, and you are nothing.” It began to overlap with the mocking voice that lived in her head.

  “Looks like you’re down to thirty-nine now,” Flint said and cackled. He ushered Eddie to come to him and he obediently followed. “Get everyone ready. We’ve got a lot of work to do before Bifrost.”

  As Flint started to walk away, his arm wrapped around Eddie’s neck and he suddenly stopped. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He felt the air suddenly tighten and sensed an invisible vibration of energy surround him. Though it was weak, it made Flint slightly twitch from the force of the magical power. Thea didn’t realize that her magic was slowly beginning to seep from her pores and permeate the room, a gold line connected her to Flint. Her eyes were amber, her Roma powers were awakening.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Month of Bifrost, Year 662 of Ya’skr

  Winter had finally come and within four months Flint had taken over and made the Forty Little Thieves into The Thieves of Hawold, turning them into a thieves’ guild. At one point, “The Thieves of Hawold” used to reside in Hawold, but from its constant plagues, drunken brawls, unfair constitutions, and terrible farmlands the pirates came to Kingsland in search of a better way of life.

  During times such as these, Thea almost always thought about Jiran. She felt her stomach churn and her heart grew heavy with sadness. She felt her eyes burning to, she wanted to release the tears that filled her eyes, but she held them in. It was another one of Flint’s “lessons:” Never cry, for crying is weakness and anyone can use that against you.

  Thea had not planned on letting Flint’s words get to her, but it had been hard not to listen as the sickly words danced around her head. She even picked up several things from being in “the thieves guild.” She had learned to be a better thief and work from the shadows. However, she wouldn’t kill. Not again.

  The memory of her swearing never to kill again, surfaced in her head.

  “You’re simply weak, Thea. You are aware of that, yes? Just look at the others, in the past two months, five of your little ‘forty children,’” He coughed then and chuckled, remembering that he had killed one of them, “Excuse me, thirty-nine, have killed a random beggar.”

  “I don’t care what you think of me, Flint. I won’t kill again.”

  “Even when your own life is at risk?”

  Thea didn’t answer him. She just walked away and trudged out into the deep snow. Thea was surprised that Flint, or any of the men, let her leave. She looked around briefly before finding a good perch on the roof of a house. Yet another perk of what Flint had taught them. it still took Thea plenty of tries to get her footing right, but after a while, she managed to grab onto the cracks and shimmy up the side of the building.

  She pulled her thin coat closer to her as the cold clung to her body, seeping into her bones. She pulled the hood over her head and her ratted scarf closer to her mouth. She brought her hands to her mouth and blew into them, hoping to send life into them with her breath. She looked up at the moon and surveyed the starry night sky.

  The sound of crunching made Thea perk up. She spun around but saw nothing.

  Thea carefully got on her feet and crouched low; she brought her chin down. She kept her back straight and slightly leaned forward until her shoulders were in front of her. She carefully began to tread lightly giving pressure evenly from the heel of her foot to the balls of her toes, slowly approaching the edge of the roof and spied a person trudging through the snow. A long, thick sword hung from his back. Thea couldn’t see his body as a cloak covered it.

  He looks suspicious. He was heading in the direction of the guild. Thea stood and began to make her descent down the roof of the house, not wanting to risk jumping to the other roof.

  ***

  Thea had followed the cloaked man with the giant sword, she hid behind the wall of one of the houses. The man was only several steps before he would be able to reach the porch. Thea peeked her head out from behind the wall, expecting the man to walk inside but instead, he stood perfectly still.

  What the—

  “I’m going to ask you why you are following me,” a baritone voice came from the tall stranger. Thea had not expected him to speak, or even notice her, she pulled her head back into the shadows of the alley and pressed her back against the wall. Damn it, of course, he would hear you! What were you thinking of sneaking up on him!

  Well, I suppose now you’ll be answering Flint’s question, the mocking voice piped up. Will you kill him to protect yourself?

  Don’t goad her into getting herself killed, the motherly voice chided. She’s useless to Maggie if she gets herself in danger following this man.

  It’s not like we don’t already know the answer anyways, the angry voice replied, sounding bored. Thea has done this before, and she will again if she has to. She may try to ignore Hel’s teachings, but you know they’re still sitting in this stubborn head of hers.

  Thea tried to control her breathing, and ignore the bickering of the voices, knowing that the guy must have heard her from the moment she started following him. He could probably listen to her heart rate too.

  “What is a child doing out here?”

  Thea’s face immediately turned pale and her body went rigid and cold. She slowly turned her head, looking up to see the six-foot tall man glaring down at her with a dead look in his eyes.

  How did he move so fast!

  Thea yelled and backed up, landing in the snow where she sat and stared at the man. She could have sworn she saw his eyes were red. “I-I wasn’t following you, honest!”

  The man scoffed and craned his neck from side to side. Every so often Thea saw his muscle arms reach for the pommel of his blade. Thea gulped, hoping he wouldn’t draw the steel blade on her.

  Weakling, the angry voice spat at her, beginning a whole new round of arguments between the voices.

  “Oh? And I assume that you weren’t trying and failing, I might add, to be stealthy as you stole behind the walls of buildings? I do admit, though, you were pretty quiet on the roof. There’s no way a street urchin like yourself learned stealth like that.”

  “T-That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Thea managed to stutter, she didn’t want to die here in the dark with some unknown stranger. “I was on my way back home but when I saw you . . . I panicked, and, well . . . hid. Can you blame me?” She nodded in the direction of his sword.

  The man didn’t speak for quite some time and Thea had thought he would forget everything that she had said and kill her, but instead of reaching for his sword, he took off his hood. He didn’t look a day over thirty with his spiky white hair. His face was tan from being out in the sun too long, and he had a healed scar running down the right side of his eye. His eyes, to Thea’s relief, were not, red but gray.

  “So then who do you belong to, girl?”

  Thea could feel her butt freeze and proceeded to stand on while dusting the snow off her clothes. She then looked at the white-haired man and responded, “I don’t belong to anyone, thank you.”

  “Fine, where are you headed?”

  Seems like he’s headed toward the house, but that would mean he’s friends with Flint, or – Thea couldn’t put her finger on it, but the man didn’t look like the type of person to find interest in a child, but the thought of him acquainted with Flint was highly likely.

  “The house just ahead, you were just about to step on the porch,” she told him, she could see him raise his thin brow and nod.

  “So you belong to Flint?”

  Thea frowned, insulted by his words. “I told you I don’t belong to anyone!”

  The man stayed quiet and stared at Thea, meanwhile she stared back, not breaking her focus. The Bifrost wind, however, blew right through her sheer clothes and made her flinch, before wrapping her arms tightly around her to block out the cold.

  The man grinned, which irritated Thea. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”r />
  The words caught Thea off guard, but she knew what he meant; despite the golden iris in her eye still being faint, it could get her in trouble if more people figured out what she was.

  “Then, what are you?” She asked and looked at the man’s slightly pointy ears. “Are you one of the Horai?”

  “I don’t use labels, kid. Now, let’s get you inside before you freeze to death.”

  Thea huffed. “So, do you at least have a name, so I don’t call you creepy-white haired guy?”

  He stared at her and didn’t say anything for a moment.

  “Well—?”

  “Clodovicus.” He said nothing else after that and continued walking toward the house.

  Thea rolled her eyes, and sighed, following behind him.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  When Thea and Clodovicus entered the house, she could see something on the man that made her shiver. There was a mark on his neck of a snake eating its tail — the same mark as that boy from the Sons of Samuel.

  Think he’ll be as much of a pain in the neck as the last Son of Samuel you met? The mocking voice prodded.

  If he is, remember that Jiran isn’t here to save you this time, the motherly voice said. You’ll have to protect yourself.

  You know she won’t do that, the angry voice replied. Little Thea won’t kill, even to save her own life, remember?

  Thea shushed the voices, then barely managed to disguise it as a cough, rolling her eyes at the voices.

  “Clodovicus, ‘bout time you showed up,” the familiar voice that always made Thea’s skin crawl said in greeting. She felt Flint’s hand press against her back and it took everything in her power not to lash out again. The sharp reminder of pain lingered on her backside and she flinched.

  “Yes. Why did you want to meet me? I’m surprised your letter managed to find me, but then again, you’ve always had your ways,” Clodovicus told him, from the corner of his eye he noticed that Flint’s hand was resting on Thea’s back and the look on her face was pure disgust. He furrowed his brows in curiosity.