Chương 17: Unveiling Shadows: Bonds Tested
"You bet your fucking life! without telling anyone of us in the cell! and your only words are your sorry?! Are you fucking insane?!" he punches Edward in the face and they both dive for the floor, he gets on top of Edward and keeps throwing blow after blow after blow at him. Mr. Will quickly rushes to get Cayafaz off him
"Cayafaz, please, get off of him. It wasn't his fault"
"Oh yeah?! Your going to tell me he was just looking out for us? You know none of us here would have agreed to that!"
"Your right. It was selfish of me and I deserve all of your hatred and anger, ill at least take all of that now before becoming a demon"
Edward sits up and cleans the blood dripping from the edge of his lip. Mr. Will still pulling Cayafaz away finally manages to calm him down.
"Cayafaz, please understand. He did this because he cared"
"That's enough. I don't want to hear anything about this anymore"
With a disappointed and disgusted look on his face spits on the cell floor and says to Edward "I can't even look at you right now"
He walks into the corner of the cell and sits there. The clown speaks
"Come now Fazzy, no need for you to get so upset. In fact, I've had a change of heart. I won't turn Edward into a demon"
The whole cell is suddenly filled with relief but Edward is more shocked than he is relieved
"Wait what?! I thought you told me we had a deal?"
"Yes, I did, but. Why would I waste such good nature? Such self-sacrifice"
He holds his head up and moans "Ooh, such things in this world are so difficult to find, it would break my heart to watch it disappear. Lord knows when I might find another such as this"
"So, the deals off?"
"Hmmm, I guess you could put it like that"
"It can't be that simple, you're never that simple. What are you really planning!"
Edward raises his voice questioning the clown
"You read to much into things Edward, then again, maybe it's a good thing."
He sighs "Well! No use in hiding it, todays misery is proudly sponsored by me of course bringing you the lovely Ad about tomorrows activities. We will be having a battle known as the death games between multiple cells. I'm thinking about putting a couple cell mates in one team and pitting them against another but, the details are still unclear to me but I do know your all going to be on the same team and if you lose, I get to take your souls instead. All your souls but Edwards."
Isabel protest "You can't be serious? That isn't fair"
"Really? That's harsh since I think I'm a pretty fair guy, but if you want to trample on my kindness I'm going to be really unfair. Ill put Edward on the opposite team and if you beat him, your souls are saved but if his team beats yours your souls are forfeit and his is safe"
"What!" Ethan yells
"Is that better?" The clown asks
Isabel replies "No it's…" before she can complete the statement Cayafaz gives her a death glare and she stop's herself midsentence
"What was that Isabel? I didn't quite get you, you sort of stopped midsentence"
"I-it was nothing. I'm sorry"
"As I thought" The clown says with a smirk
Mr. Will steps forward saying "Sir, I think you're a very bad liar"
The clown in clear confusion "Uh, I'm sorry but who are you again?"
"I'm William but the Youngsters call me Mr. Will or Will and I was just saying how you are a bad liar sir. Your plan from the very beginning was to pit Edward against us from the very beginning. You just needed an excuse to make it look fair on your part. You're also lying about not having the details of the rest of the game down yet, you actually have been planning this for a while now"
The rest of the cell stands firm, turning their heads to the clown. With an annoyed look on his face he looks at everyone in the cell. In that moment Nathan crawls behind the clown falling into his shadow. The clown inhales and deeply and exhales. A small smile creeps out of his face
"William…Right?" The clown asked
"Yes sir. William"
He leans forward with his face only an inch away from Williams "I don't think I like you, and in my game's… I hope you're the first to die"
"I'm honored to be the center of attention"
"Don't be, you won't be for too long. I'll be taking my leave now, that was the only announcement I came to deliver so prepare yourself everyone. For tomorrows death games in our garden"
And so, he left with a smile on his face, a new demon servant behind him, and despair on his lips. After he left it was night time and once night fell no one spoke to anyone or said a word, they all remained quiet. You could tell everyone was mentally preparing for the death games. The anticipation, fear and anxiety that filled the cell was so thick you could cut through it with a knife. It was as though death creeped on the chains and on the cages, rattled the bars and slammed the cell doors. The noise continued and got louder, and louder, and louder, until all of a sudden, the noises stopped. For the first time… hell was silent.
Finally! It was day time and my cell mates were up early, put precisely no one was able to sleep. There was too much anxiety for them to even catch a bit of peace and other than a few yawns here and there the cell remained quiet. No one said a word to each other, no one offered a greeting, everyone just got on with their routine and prepared for the games. No one was willing to break the silence until finally Mr. will had enough of it
"Lets at least have the curtesy to tell each other good morning before were forced to make the cruel choices of today! Come on guys. Are you telling me you're all just going to let the clown make us enemies before the game even starts? We should walk out of here with our heads held high and our bonds as strong as ever to show him we wont just fall into places like pieces on his chess board, because I assure you if we do we would have already lost before the game. Let's promise ourselves that no matter what happens out there. Were all still going to be friends"
Everyone in the cell felt the energy of Mr. William speech, everyone started to feel better and were almost free of their anxiety and depression. At least until Cayafaz stepped out, with his fists clenched and his feet slamming against the bars on the floor he approached Mr. Will, placed his lips right next to his ear, and spoke loud enough for the entire cell to hear him but not to loud that he'd shout in his ears as he's about to speak. A voice like a siren signals the start of the death games calling everyone out.
"When your done living in your fantasy world I think you should wake up because none of us are really friends. How long have we even known each other? We aren't a family, we have no ties, we have no real bonds or connections. We are in hell, Now I don't know about you and maybe you have forgotten but we didn't come here to make friends, we came here to survive. When you all remember that come fight at my side in the games but if you don't?"
He walks out the cell and slams the door "Stay the fuck away from me"
And just like that, the little hope most of the others had mustered thanks to Mr. Will and even a bit of his own were shattered, In an instant. Everyone walks out of the cell and takes the ferry men to the arena. Everyone leaves besides Maya, who stops to ask me
"Edward… just what will you do now"
"I'm not sure. But unlike Cayafaz I believe our bonds are real and if there's a way I can save them and not lose myself in the process ill find it. because I don't want to lose you guys but I also have a promise to keep"
"That's a little greedy you know" Maya says playfully as she giggles "Don't you know when you're that greedy you end up losing everything?"
Maya with a bright smile on her face walks towards me and gently fist bumps my chest
"If that's what you've decided I'll be rooting for you the entire time"
We leave the cell and take our ferry men separately. The ferry men take us to the arena where the death games are supposed to take place. The arena is huge, like some sort of national stadium, it looked like the combination of a Colosseum and Trafford stadium, with its metal beams and support structures and with its rugged rusty looks. It was so large that other than using a ferry man to get in the only other way would be to fly to the top and that looked like it would take a couple of minutes. there were many creatures flying above it and there were many gates that allowed one into the stadium. I could also see many ferry men riding into the stadium from all sides that meant there would be a lot of prisoners participating in the death games.
I finally got in and when I did there were human escorts leading us in the directions towards rooms and areas where we would get ready for the games. I lost sight of Maya and in all the commotion was forced into a room with people I couldn't recognize but there I saw more humans handing out uniforms. Did that mean that there were humans willingly helping demons to officiate this game? And why? Up until now its been demons handling everything so it can't possibly be because they didn't want people freaking out. If everyone is from the prison they would be used to demons working. But other than that, I had another question… where these humans doing this of their own free will? Or where they mind controlled? Asking these questions meant nothing knowing I couldn't get answers and I wouldn't get them later if I died in these games so I have to focus on that. While I thought this a girl approached me from behind and tried to tickle my side I can't be tickled so I didn't feel anything other than a stranger's hands touching my body softly as she said to me
"You know you look scary when you squint so hard. What could you possibly be thinking about?" She said as I saw to see a quirky, genuinely, young energetic smile
"Oh me? Sorry It's nothing serious, I'm just lost in thought that's all" I responded as polite as I possibly could, though my first instinct was to yell at her and tell her how rude it is to touch someone without their permission I held off on that. My reason being, there was an air to the girl that just felt off about her… I couldn't quite put my finger on it but there was something
"Don't get to lost in your own head before the game, out there that's gong to get you killed on the field" She came even closer to me and presented herself. She stood at attention and gave me a salute
"My name is Cheshire, like the Cheshire cat and I'm 14years old. If you want to call me or speak to me that's how you'll address me" she said like a soldier reporting to his commanding officer. I was marveled and confused at the same time by this strange girl. I wanted to ask questions but there was no time I simply just introduced myself to her
"The named Edward but you could just call me Eddy, if that's okay with you"
I usually wouldn't do this but for some reason I feel compelled to talk to this girl, this strange white-haired girl with beautiful brown eyes and soft looking light skin
"Yeah, I'd like that very much!"
after the introductions we were told to change into our uniforms and quickly move to a room where we would be picking weapons for the death games. Once that announcement was made the room quickly got noisy filled by and with the questions of many but most with the same question "Why weapons?"
the announcement didn't move me or Cheshire though. We simply just started to change into our uniforms, I was given a blood colored zip up tracksuit and joggers with the word's damnation engraved in the back. I zipped up my track suit and looked around to see everyone had different tracksuits, there were those with mine and those with a blue and white colored tracksuit. They had salvation engraved in the back of theirs, they even had wings on both ends. Cheshire seeing this approached me while undressing too and said
"Pretty grim don't you think eddy? But I'm guessing that's the team outfit and if that's the case that means there are only two teams and which ever team uniform your wearing is the team your on… looks like you're on team damnation eddy"
"Yeah, and what about you?" she rolls out her tracksuit and shows me the engraving on its back
"Same as yours eddy" She says with a smile on her face like the one from before "Well I should probably get changed, think you could help me dress up eddy?
"WAIT SERIOUSLY!? Why me though!? I mean… are you sure"
"Yep!" she says cheerfully "I usually have to do this myself because there are no girls in my cell and the guys there always try to feel up my body so it's a pain but I can tell your not that kind of guy and since you're not I can save all my energy for the death games"
"Alright then" she turns her back to me and raises her hair up a bit then tells me to unzip. I approach her, unzip her outfit and after doing that she tells me to unbuckle her bra, I didn't question her request but I couldn't understand why I was just going along either. She didn't seem bothered by it at all, she simply just turned her head away from me and let me do everything without flinching, she truly trusted me. I unbuckled her bra and then I took a few steps back she turned to face me and laughed at me saying
"I actually didn't think you'd do that with a straight face, you didn't even try to test my trust in you. Can you also read people?"
"Not exactly" I responded, she smiled grabbing her tracksuit and wore it, after that she grabbed my hand, just when she did, everyone who had finished dressing up was taken to another room where there were all sorts of weapons. Some were displayed don the walls but those weren't for use, the ones that were for use were being distributed from a giant wooden box by three humans all dressed up as male flight attendants with red jackets and a small red cap with a golden string dangling from its top, they constantly had a smile on their face as all three would recommend a weapon for each person and give them tips on how to use it based on what they could tell by looking at them.
After a lot of people lined up to gear up it was i and Cheshire's turn, she was before me so she approached the box, as if she already knew the weapon she wanted to use, before the three men could say anything she plunged her hand suddenly into the box, shoulder deep and scuffled around inside and not even fifteen seconds after she did it did she bring out the weapon she would use, A katana. The three men with a twisted look in their eyes and a wider smile than usual said in harmony
"Perfect choice… Miss Cheshire"
That was the first time they congratulated anyone for a weapon choice or called anyone by name, she smiled as she looked at her blade walking away to the gate into the arena. It was my turn, I reached the box to pick my weapon only for the men to have a weapon ready for me, a shorter version of the katana and there were two of it. This meant I would be dual wielding in the games. I had no problem with the offer, it was shady yet but it saved me the time of looking for it. I could have picked a gun…but a blade is more my style and besides I had already decided to use it earlier on. I took the dual blades from the men and they bowed their heads to me saying
"Thank you for accepting our offer Edward, please do have fun in the games" then pointed me to the gates.
I walked away preparing myself, for what was to come, I could hear them outside, my heart was pounding, the sound of over fifty thousand demons and people screaming, it was difficult for me to catch my breath, the gates opening, I unsheathe my sword…This will be it… the death games
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