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Chapter Text

„Game: The Maze”

“Difficulty: Four of Clubs”

“Rules: Find the exit before the time runs out”.

The red words were lingering on the screen placed just above the entrance. I stood in place, re-reading them a couple of times before I started to understand what they meant. A game? In the middle of Tokyo?

But I suppose I really shouldn’t be surprised. It had been just a couple of hours since all the people disappeared, leaving me disoriented in the bathroom of a café. Just a few moments before I was chatting with my friend and then she vanished in a second. Just like all of the other citizens.

All electricity seemed to be gone as well, so when I noticed this place lit up, I couldn’t control my curiosity and went to take a look, desperate to find any kind of answer. I did succeed at some point as I’ve found other people here. I didn’t have the courage to ask them about anything though.

“It’s ticking!” one of them shouted, gesturing at something behind the open doors.

I took a step closer to them, interested. It seemed that the doors led straight to an entrance of a big maze, surrounded by roughly 3,5 meters’ high walls.

And then I saw it. A hologram of red digits, well visible on a night sky.

60 minutes.

59 minutes.

“We need to get going.” Quiet murmurs could be heard from around, but no one dared to be the first one to move.

I furrowed my brows in confusion. Were they really going to play this strange game?

I had a feeling they knew something I didn’t, but their almost hostile gazes made it clear they didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Was it because I was new?

“Listen, everyone! It’s a clubs game. It means we have to work together to beat it. Let’s go there all at the same time – we’ll be splitting into groups each time we see a fork. This way we’ll cover every possible corridor and find the exit!” one of the guys proposed. He was well-built and struck as a type used to ordering people around.

His words seemed to make sense and I saw people around nod in approval. I myself felt a strange urge to follow the man’s command.

It seemed rational. I wouldn’t be left alone. And most importantly, I wouldn’t have to think for myself. Since I’ve been thrown into this strange reality there was nothing else I wanted as much as to be able to follow someone’s orders mindlessly and stop trying to constantly figure out what the hell was happening.

I wasn’t alone in my thinking. A majority of the people from the building gathered around the ‘leader’, getting ready to step into the maze. I started walking in his direction as well when a strange figure caught my gaze.

A man, his face hidden almost entirely under a white hoodie. His whole body was relaxed and leaned against the wall as if he was a doctor examining his ongoing experiment. He was the first one to not show me almost visible hatred so I stopped next to him, curious.

“Aren’t you going?”

“I’m not a fan of dying,” his reply was calm and emotionless just as if he’d just stated the most obvious fact known to mankind.

“Dying? I think that’s a bit of an exagger-“ I was cut mid-sentence by an agonizing scream.

I turned in a second, searching for the source of the sound. It seemed to be coming from the maze. And then it stopped. In some way, this was much creepier than the scream itself.

“Attention, players! The time remaining: 40 minutes,” an artificial womanly voice claimed, followed by soft beeping sounds.

Has it really been twenty minutes already? I looked around. All of the other people seemed to have gone into the maze, so that we were the only two left before the entrance. The suffocating feeling of being left behind crushed onto me, making me want to do something, anything, just to trick my mind into thinking I’m not wasting time.

“Come with me. I’ll need you for something,” the man beside me suddenly rose to his feet, heading to the entrance of the maze. He didn’t look back to check if I’d follow.

“H-hey, wait! Please explain if you know anything! What was this scream just now? Do people really die in these games?” questions were piling up in my head but he didn’t bother answering any of them.

He wasn’t running, instead walking fast with his hands kept in his pockets. If I didn’t have to focus on keeping up with his pace I’d find this quite entertaining to watch.

“How tall are you? 160 cm?” he suddenly asked, still ignoring all of the questions I’d asked earlier.

“What?! No!” I denied, feeling more lost with every passing second. “164 cm if you really need to know.”

“Then we’ll need one more person,” he commented, more to himself than to me.

Right. Because why would he explain anything to me?

But even though I started getting annoyed by all this mysterious tone he was keeping, I decided to follow him. Maybe it was because he was so calm and confident, or maybe he was just walking on the only path leading to the maze, where I wanted to go nonetheless.

Either way we entered the labyrinth together, turning right on the first fork. And then I noticed a woman crouched down on the floor, just in front of us.

“Oh, prefect,” he murmured, walking towards her.

I followed him silently, curiously eyeing the woman. She was dressed as a businesswoman – a white shirt and a short dark skirt. She had black heels on and I wondered how did she manage to crouch down in them without breaking her ankles.

“And what now?” I asked the man. The girl didn’t seem to mind us as she gave us a quick glance and then turned her eyes back to the floor.

“We get out of here,” he replied, unfazed.

“How?! This whole maze is a fucking trap! Every corridor, every step… you don’t have time to blink and you’re dead! Dead! There are no clues, nothing… and it’s only a four! I don’t want to die in such a low-difficulty game…” The girl suddenly burst out crying.

The man looked at her, not a single nerve changing on his face. How unemotional could he be, really?

I crouched down next to the girl, feeling pity towards her. She seemed to be more experienced in games than I, but I understood her feelings all too well. The loneliness, fear for your life and most important the always present confusion… I’ve been there.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. He’s really smart, you know? We’ll find the exit in no time,” I gently rubbed her back, mimicking what my mom used to do every time I felt like breaking down. God, I missed her so bad.

My words seemed to work as the girl stopped sobbing, her smudged mascara the only evidence of her poor state.

“Are you going to waste our time on some sweet chit-chat or actually try to escape the maze?” the man asked ironically, breaking the small moment of comfort. I couldn’t help but give him a reproachful look before standing up.

He couldn’t care less about it, calmly walking towards the wall and examining it for a moment. Then he turned back to us, pointing at the girl next to me.

“You, come here.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, trying to figure out what he was up to. The girl seemed uncertain, but she followed his command, standing next to him.

“Take those off,” he pointed to her heels.

“What? No, do you know how expensive they were?” Her voice showed pure horror.

“Do you want to survive or not?” he sighed, visibly used to dealing with people he considered annoyingly stupid.

I smirked. He reminded me of some old, tired policeman. Or a doctor.

“Fine,” she sighed, visibly displeased but the slight hope of surviving was alluring enough. She took her heels in no time, leaving them on the ground. “And what next? My shirt?”

“Climb on my shoulders,” the man replied, ostentatiously ignoring her taunt.

If the gaze could kill, he’d fall dead on the spot. The girl looked as if it was taking all of her self-control not to choke him right now. But he did nothing besides eyeing her with the same tired, waiting eyes. It made her realise he wasn’t joking.

To my surprise, she didn’t argue any longer. He cupped his hands to help her go up and in no time she was standing on his shoulders, steadying herself by laying her hands on the wall.

“And what are you waiting for? Special invitation?” the man asked, this time his weary gaze meant for me.

“Are we… climbing on the wall..?” I asked, hesitantly walking towards them.

“No, we’re digging under,” the man sneered, rolling up his eyes.

“Ha ha, very funny,” I scoffed, giving him a reprimanding gaze, but he didn’t seem to care about it. “I’m serious. Is this allowed?”

“Hopefully. The rules stated to ‘find the exit’, not to ‘walk through the maze’,” he explained.

I wasn’t convinced, but I had no chance to escape the maze by myself. Thus, I had to trust the strange man’s doubtful intelligence.

I didn’t say anything more when he hoisted me up just as he did with the other girl, nor when I climbed on her shoulders, trying my best not to grab her long hair by accident.

The wall turned out to end just around my chest, so I wasted no time grabbing it and pulling myself up. It was a relief it wasn’t any higher – I certainly wasn’t a sporty type and I probably wouldn’t be able to make it if the edge was above my head.

It seemed I had some luck, after all.

The wall was about a meter’s width, making it comfortable to stay on it. Even though it took me a while to get up from my knees. The over three meters height was quite scary.

I quickly looked around. The maze had a circular shape and was quite big – from where I was standing I couldn’t see another hole in the outer wall, which I supposed would be the exit. Finding it would take some walking, that’s for sure.

I laid down, reaching out a hand to help the girl get up here as well. I wondered how we could help the man up, but maybe if one of us held the other by the ankles…

“Thanks,” the girl smiled, standing up just as hesitantly as I was just a moment ago.

I turned to her, returning the smile when she carefully walked past me. And then she started running.

“H-hey, wait! Wait!” I shouted, jumping to my feet. I took a few steps, trying to chase her, but I realised it was no use.

She was running as if she was used to balancing on thin surfaces. Steady and fast. I knew I could never run at my full speed knowing that I had a three-meter drop just next to me. Besides, what would I do even if I caught her? Force her to help me? Unrealistic.

“Attention, players! The time remaining: 20 minutes.”

“Fuck,” I murmured, returning to the place where the man was and crouching down.

His face was turned up as he was looking at me with slightly rose eyebrows. For the first time I had a chance to take a look at his face and I had to admit he was prettier than I’d expected – light messy hair and dark intelligent eyes.

“Take off your hoodie,” I commanded, snapping myself back to reality. I had much more important things to figure out than to analyse some stranger’s handsome face.

“What?” his eyebrows rose even more.

“Don’t ask, just hurry up!”

Surprisingly, he didn’t say anything and just slid his hoodie off. I found myself even more stunned when I realised he didn’t have anything underneath it. He didn’t give me much time to think about it, tossing his hoodie directly into my hands.

I laid it down on the ground, taking my hoodie off as well. Now I had only basic black underwear covering my chest. My cheeks turned slightly pink at the thought of how exposed I was, but I tried paying it no mind. It couldn’t be embarrassing when it’s saving a life, could it?

I tied both hoodies’ sleeves together, trying my best to do it as hardly as I could. I yanked the makeshift ‘line’ a few times and when it didn’t untie, I threw one of its ends down. I could only hope it’d hold the man’s weight.

“Wrap it around your wrist. I’ll try to pull you up!” I shouted, doing the same with the other end. I felt it clench around my hand almost painfully, but I ignored the feeling. It was going to get much worse in a second.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked, but he did as I had commanded.

“No!” I replied, getting as low on my feet as I could.

And I took a step back, pulling the line as hard as if my life depended on it.

The cloth immediately tightened around my wrist, feeling as if it could rip it away at any second. I grabbed the line with both hands, trying to loosen the unpleasant feeling, even if just a bit.

I assumed he was a bit heavier than me, but I hoped that with the right used force and some prayer I’d be able to pull him up.

And so far, it was working.

I saw the line move a bit in sync with my steps. A wave of euphoria rushed over me, making me forget about the pain for a second. It really was working!

The next steps were a bit easier. My wrist was hurting as if it was being burned alive and my thighs were trembling, but I focused on taking a step back. And one more. And one more.

I almost cried from relief when I saw the man’s hand over the edge.

And then I tripped.

My heart sank to my stomach when I started rapidly falling down. My eyes shut closed and I felt my own scream ring painfully in my ears. I was almost certain I’d lost consciousness when my wrist yanked up so hard I squealed in agony.

“Hold tightly. With both hands,” the man’s calm voice somehow managing to control my exhausted body.

I gripped the cloth so hard I saw my fingers turn white. My whole body was throbbing from weariness and pain. For a moment, I thought about dropping the line. It would be so easy. To just stop holding it so tightly and let the fate finish what it started. No more struggles, no more pain, no more questions left unanswered…

But as I saw the wall slowly moving down, I decided to fight as long as I physically could. I’ve suffered so much I’d be a disgrace to my past self to just die like this. If I have to die, I’ll die fighting.

When I finally felt solid stones under my feet, I exhaled breath I didn’t know I was holding. I wanted so badly to kiss the ground, but I gave up on this idea, realising I’d look really stupid. Just as if I hadn’t just made a complete fool of myself by tripping over my own feet.

“We don’t have much time.”

I realised the man was still here, looking at me with his usual calm gaze. I opened my mouth to thank him, but I changed my mind mid-sentence. He didn’t want appreciation. He wanted to get moving.

I took a few more deep breaths, just until my vision stopped being blurry. It took me a few tries to get up on my trembling knees, but when I did, all of the symptoms seemed to suddenly be gone, and I felt determined to find the exit.

“Here,” he handed me my hoodie, which I almost snatched from his hands.

Hell, I’ve forgotten I was still in my bra.

When I got dressed, I spotted the man standing just right on the outer side of the wall. He had his hand extended as if he was reaching for something. And then I saw it. A faint red wall of lasers, followed by a strange wheezing sound. He quickly retreated his hand.

“Try not to fall on this side.”

And with that, he just started walking with his typical hands-in-the-pockets style. I had no choice but to follow, keeping as much distance from the outer end as possible.

I looked at the timer, feeling as if we’d wasted a lot of time.

13 minutes.

How far from the entrance could the exit be? The worst scenario would be it placed just near the other side of the starting point. Would we have time to walk around the whole area? Probably not. Especially not with this speed.

“You didn’t give me your name,” I said, trying to keep my mind off the timer by talking.

“I didn’t feel like I needed to,” he replied, and I couldn’t tell if it was an insult or just a logical explanation.

“I’d prefer to refer to you as something else than ‘hey, you’.”

“It won’t matter anyway if we die in the next ten minutes.”

“Wow, how optimistic.”

“You think so? You’re the first one to tell me so.”

I shook my head in defeat. This man was either really bad at conversing or just didn’t want to talk to me. Given his intelligence, I’d guess it was the latter, which wasn’t especially pleasing.

“Attention, players! The time remaining: 10 minutes.”

I grit my teeth, holding back the urge to walk faster. My body was screaming to run, but I knew better than to do this on top of more than three meters wall. I also couldn’t abandon the blonde man, who, on the contrary, seemed to be totally indifferent to the announcement. Just as if he had everything already planned. I knew he couldn’t have had. But even though I really wanted to believe that this was the source of his calmness.

“Attention, players! The time remaining: 5 minutes.”

“We should have gone in the other direction!” I couldn’t stop the words escaping my lips. A tear ran down my cheek, and I was grateful the man was walking ahead of me and couldn’t see at the moment.

“I don’t lose,” he replied.

I raised my eyebrows, surprised. I didn’t think he’d even bother to respond.

But it didn’t help at all. I felt the timer burning holes in my head as if it wasn’t a hologram but a whole hot sun at midday. There was no way we could find the exit in this amount of time. We were about to die. After all of this, I was about to die on this ugly as hell stone wall, doing nothing but walking with some-

“It’s here,” the simple words made me stop in place.

I looked at the man with wide open eyes, not believing what I had just heard.

He didn’t hesitate for a second. Before I knew, he was already holding the edge of the wall with one hand, his back pressed hard into the cold stones. He lowered himself down as much as he could, and he jumped, landing with an almost smooth roll. And then he looked up at me.

“Attention, players! The time remaining: 1 minute.”

“Jump!” he shouted, but I shook my head in desperation.

Jump?! From here?! There was no way. I doubted my arms would be able to hold my weight to get down, let alone land this fall, so I wouldn’t break every single bone in my body. “I’ll catch you!”

My heart was beating so loud it almost drowned out his voice. Suddenly, the air felt short on oxygen. Did I really have to jump?

If I wanted to have a chance of survival, yes.

“Please don’t make this too painful,” I prayed silently.

And I jumped.

Once again, my stomach twisted wildly while my eyes closed. The darkness was somehow comforting. Better than the blurred environment, for sure.

To my surprise, I didn’t feel much. I had an impression I heard some loud thump and a beeping sound, but there was no pain following. Did I die in the end?

“Congratulations, survivors! You have earned a visa.”

The non-human voice leaked into my subconsciousness, making me slowly blink and open my eyes. It took me a while to adjust to the shining sun and make out where I was.

And unfortunately, it was not afterlife.

The cold stones of pavement were painfully hard against my back. When I regained enough strength to sit up, I realised I was just outside of the maze.

Outside of the maze? I was pretty sure I jumped into the entrance, just where the man was standing. I double checked, but my mind wasn’t playing any tricks on me – for sure I was at least a few meters away from that place.

I decided not to dwell on it, feeling my head throbbing painfully. The adrenaline was slowly drawing off and all of the pain from strained muscles was hitting at once. My wrists were burning, I was sure I had bruises all over my body and my head was threatening to split open right here and now…

I looked up, curious if the man in white hoodie had made it out as well. I immediately spotted him right next to the nearest building. He was leaning back against it, just as before the game. It was comforting in a way – it seemed like even a near-death experience couldn’t change some things.

“Thank you,” I said, a bit embarrassed at how cracked my voice sounded. “For saving us.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” he replied, shrugging his arms.

He didn’t add anything more, just wandering off in his own direction. I sighed quietly, squeezing my head with my hands in an attempt to ease the headache.

Here I was once again, alone and lost. I was hoping to ask him about this reality, but it seemed I had to figure out everything on my own.

Maybe that was for the better. No friends meant no feelings. And no feelings meant no problems.

Just as in the real world.

Chapter Text

A few weeks have passed since my first game. I’ve played some more of them, getting a vague understanding of the meaning of different suits and difficulties. And I’ve certainly got stronger.

I was no longer scared of blood or dead bodies. I’ve grown used to them. Indifferent.

Of course, if I could, I would try to save as many people as possible. But if I had to trade their life for mine – I didn’t hesitate.

Did this make me a bad person? Maybe. But at the same time it was making me a living person, and it was enough for me.

When I was entering a rather old-looking castle, I felt a familiar mix of determination and adrenaline burning in my stomach. Another arena, another deadly game.

I still had three days on my visa, but the game appeared so close to my hideout I couldn’t resist. It looked as if it was calling me. Challenging.

And I was not one to shy away from challenges.

The inside of the arena turned out to be a classical medieval castle. The entrance led to a high-cellar corridor, with solid, stone walls on both sides. The ground was covered with a large, red carpet, evoking a sense of luxury. The only downside was the smell – one of an old mould, hidden in the tiniest nooks and crannies.

The other end of the hall was defined by massive wooden doors. I saw some people standing near the walls, their gazes flicking between the gate and me. This meant the doors must be closed. At least for now.

I walked towards the table located in the middle of the hall and took the only remaining phone. I was the last player. Great.

“Registration closed. The game will now commence.”

I leaned onto the wall, taking some time to scan the rest of the players. Two girls, besides me, some boys standing closely to each other and more men scattered around the room… I almost choked from surprise as my eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar white hoodie.

I haven’t seen the untalkative blonde man since my first game and I started to think he didn’t make it this far. Seemed like I underestimated him a bit.

My lips curled up slightly. I wasn’t counting on him to win the game for me – I’d learned to play them by myself. It was the feeling of curiosity – was he really as intelligent as I remembered or had I just been amazed because it had been my first game?

“Game: French Guillotine

Difficulty: Six of Diamonds”

I smiled faintly, hearing the category. The difficulty wasn’t optimistic, but I certainly preferred diamonds over spades. Or hearts, I never knew what to expect from these ones.

“Rules: each player will be marked as ‘criminal’ in a random order. The criminal will be led to a guillotine. The rest of the group will have 5 minutes to choose one ‘defender’ from themselves. The defender will then head into the execution ground. He will have a chance to save the criminal by answering a riddle unique for every round. If he fails, the criminal will be executed. If no defender is chosen despite one being available, all players will be executed.”

I furrowed my brows, trying my best to remember the rules. They weren’t quite optimistic – it seemed like the game forced people to rely on each other with their lives. What’s more, the responsibility was on a person with no risk involved – the defender would survive despite the correctness of his answer.

“The defender might defend only one person during the game, regardless of whether his answer was correct or not. If there are no free defenders left, the criminal will be executed without a defender.”

I nodded my head slowly. Of course, Six of Diamonds. This couldn’t be easy. One wrong answer didn’t just kill one person – in the worst scenario, it led to two people dying. It also seemed like the game favoured players who would be chosen as criminals at the beginning.

And we had nothing to do about it – if one wanted to survive, all he could do was to answer the riddle correctly and hope that so will the others.

“If the defender saves the criminal, they have to confirm the acquittal with a kiss. If they fail to do so, both the criminal and the defender will be executed.”

“What?” A gasp of surprise escaped my lips as I stared blankly at the instructions. This was… quite unexpected. It was something I’d be ready to see in a hearts game, not a diamonds one. Looked like this suit could still surprise me too.

“The criminal for this round is: Yuki Arashiya.”

I watched curiously as one of the girls shifted uncomfortably in place. Her eyes started tracing the surroundings curiously, but when nothing happened, she seemed to relax a little bit.

I looked around, counting players in my mind.

Ten.

Not very much, not very less. If the riddles weren’t broad, the game wouldn’t last long.

Suddenly, the doors opened with a loud, creaking sound. All eyes turned in its direction. Two figures, dressed in knights’ armours, slowly made their way into the hall. There was a soft clank following their every step, perfectly audible in the spacious hall. One of the knights was holding a dangerously looking halberd, and the other carried a thick rope.

Yuki left out a quiet sob but didn’t dare to move. She seemed to know, just as the others, for whom the knights were heading. Her eyes were flicking around anxiously when one of the knights tied her hands behind her back. Soon, she was escorted through the doors, which closed after her and the guards with a loud thump.

“You have five minutes to choose the defender.”

The artificial voice seemed to snap all of us out of the stupor that we’d fallen into the moment the knights entered the hall.

“I’ll go,” a well-built man stated, crossing his arms. His eyes were darting around as if daring anybody to object.

Nobody did. Be it his intimidating demeanour or the first round’s uncertainty. The doors swung open sharply five minutes later and closed after him, leaving the rest of the hall in silence.

There was no screen, no instructions. Nothing. Just big wooden doors closed shut.

I felt as if it lasted for eternity. Waiting in this hall, knowing nothing, was excruciating. I fought the urge to make my way across the corridor and find a place next to the blonde man. I felt like having anyone anyhow familiar would ease this anxiety a bit.

I wanted to talk about something that could take my mind off this pointless waiting. But his eyes were focused on the doors and he clearly wasn’t in the mood for friendly interactions. Not that he ever was. I didn’t want to impose myself on him.

I fiddled with my fingers, scanning the ceiling. The stoned pillars keeping this hall from collapsing were linked there, creating a web of ornaments. I started counting the squares created by them, but I quickly messed it up. I physically couldn’t focus on anything that demanded any longer attention span.

And then the doors opened again. My eyes moved to it in the blink of an eye. All of the group held their breaths, trying to see the people coming back. My heart dropped when the man walked into the hall.

Alone.

The look on his face made it clear he wasn’t in the mood for a conversation. No one bothered him when he walked through the hall, stopping far away from any other player.

And just when I thought they were going to announce a new criminal, the doors opened again and two knights entered once again. This time, instead of a rope, one of them was carrying a basket. When he laid it just next to the door, the girl standing closest to it started screaming in horror. I watched as a few other people standing close moved away from it, turning their heads in disgust.

I couldn’t help but take a look.

And I regretted it the very next second.

In the basket was the head of the girl who had just been executed. Her half-open eyes, mouth parted as if she tried to say something, but didn’t have a chance to, blood still dripping slowly from the neck with no body connected… it was horrific. Much more brutal than anything I had seen up until now.

It also meant that at least one person wouldn’t have a defender.

The last one.

“The criminal for this round is: Shan Yamahito.”

The whole process with knights entering and tying the ‘criminal’ was repeated, this time not intriguing but rather disgusting. When the man left, a silence fell in the room. No one dared to volunteer to be a defender.

I wasn’t an exception. I thought that maybe next round… but I didn’t want to go just yet, when the pressure was so high.

In the end, one of the boys from the group volunteered. The man chosen as a criminal was also a part of it, so I assumed his acquaintances talked him into taking the role.

When the defender disappeared behind the door, I once again felt the pressuring weight of anticipation.

It wasn’t the riddles that made this game hard. It was the overwhelming tension.

I tried to focus on anything, but it was no use. I was waiting for the slightest creak of the doors, the lightest noise of heavy boots rambling on the ground… I felt as if my breath had been held the whole time since the defender had left.

And when the doors finally opened, my head spun from relief.

Both of them were back.

Their expressions were a bit flustered and awkward, but it didn’t stop a loud wave of joy from erupting in the hall. Some people were whistling, others gave them assuring pats on the shoulders. The mood in the group lifted instantly; these two had just proved that the riddles were solvable.

I decided I would go next. Maybe the pressure of waiting would be more bearable after seeing what was going on on the other side.

And then the artificial voice said my name.

I was completely dumbfounded. Why was it saying my name?

When I was two knights heading for me, it hit me. I was chosen to be a criminal. It wasn’t bad. I still preferred to be one now than at the end. But the logic couldn’t shut down the feeling of anxiety when I felt my hands tied behind my back.

I yanked at them slightly, testing how likely they were to be broken. Very unlikely.

I focused on walking, not used to the strange feeling of my hands being tied. This certainly wasn’t easing the anxiety I was feeling.

In fact, it got even worse after I crossed the doors.

They led to a small square, looking just as in a classical medieval castle. The ground was covered by sand, and the whole area was guarded by high, stone walls, giving off a bit of claustrophobic vibes. But there was one element much worse than all of it.

The guillotine itself.

It was placed just in the middle of the square – a high wooden platform with the mechanism lying on top of it. The blade, located so high I had to turn my head upwards to see it, was shining dangerously in the artificial light. This was probably a more merciful way to die than being struck by the laser, but certainly I didn’t want to test that. The thought of my head, just as lifeless and creepy as the first girl’s, lying in the basket and scaring everyone else, wasn’t quite appealing.

The knights led me onto the platform. I was forced to kneel down and bow my neck painfully. When they tied a rope just underneath my chin and others on my wrists and ankles, I couldn’t help but struggle. The feeling of being stuck in this uncomfortable position was distressing. Suddenly, I got painfully aware of the blade hovering above my head.

And the smudges of blood under my chin.

When I looked down, I also noticed a basket placed in front of the guillotine. It seemed to be waiting for my head.

I shivered. What a creepy thought.

More with my intuition than any other sense I realised the knights took a few steps back. This probably meant the five minutes to choose a defender had started. I forced myself to move my gaze from the basket and look at the doors in front of me.

The only mercifull thing in this game was the placement of the guillotine. My line of sight was lined perfectly with the entrance to the square, so that I could easily see who’d be playing for my life.

The time dragged on mercilessly. I couldn’t help but to wonder who would it be. A small part of me wished for it to be the blonde man I’d met earlier at the maze. He proved to be somewhat smart and was probably a better bet than any of the other men in the hall. But he didn’t quite look like he was to play this early into the game, so I figured out I’d be unlikely for him to show up.

I just hoped I’d be someone smart.

“How much longer will it take?” I murmured to myself, trying to ease the pain in the overstretched muscles in my neck, but the very limited range of motion I had didn’t allow that.

When the doors finally opened, I subconsciously held my breath.

And I had to blink twice to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.

It was really him. The blonde man from earlier. He was walking towards the centre of the square in slow, cautious steps while his eyes were busy scanning the surroundings. He looked as if he was trying to memorize every detail of this place, or maybe he was looking for something, I didn’t know.

His hood was down this time and I had to admit, even if he would turn out to be stupid, at least he was as handsome as in my memories. The light hair and captivating dark eyes were an unusual combo, but with his calm demeanour and occasional half-smirk, surely an attractive one.

“This looks quite unpleasant,” he commended, standing before me, but keeping his hands in the pockets.

“Then maybe you’d try to help me out instead of admiring the architecture?” I suggested, which made him tilt his head slightly in amusement.

“I’ll think about it.”

“The riddle will be shown on the screen above. The time to solve it: 60 seconds.”

The man’s eyes went up instantly, and I felt an unsteady beat of my heart. A minute? It was short. I had no idea what kind of riddle it was. The game made sure I couldn’t see it. They were really going overboard with torturing the players with anticipation.

I turned my gaze to the man’s face, trying to read anything from it. It was only then that I realised just how good of a poker face he had. No slight frown, no eyes squinting, no twitching lips… nothing, really. I couldn’t tell if he found the riddle an insult to his intelligence or an illogical sequence of words.

“Time remaining: 10 seconds.”

My breath shuddered slightly. I didn’t dare to say anything as I didn’t want to distract him. Despite my best attempts to believe in him, I felt doubts start to spread in my mind. Was the riddle really this hard? Did he not know the answer? He was as calm as always, but this didn’t mean anything. I swore he wouldn’t change his expression a bit, even if I were to die right now.

“Time remaining: 5 seconds.”

I held my breath, already starting to pray in my mind. And then I saw it. A slight shift in his body. He turned his head down, crossing his gaze with mine. I felt a strange spark run through my body and it had nothing to do with the ticking time.

“Silence,” he said slowly, smirking slightly.

I shut my eyes, subconsciously getting ready for the blade to drop and end my life.

But it didn’t.

“Congratulations! The answer is correct. Now the defender has to confirm the acquittal with a kiss.”

I almost didn’t hear the mechanical voice, as a huge wave of relief washed through my body. I was safe. I wouldn’t die. I suddenly felt incredibly tired just as if I’d just fought a whole national army.

The man walked closer and I felt my cheeks turn slightly red, despite my best attempts not to pay it much attention. Who the hell designed these rules?!

I turned my gaze away, trying not to give away how embarrassed I felt. I was sure the man had his unusual indifference plastered to his face, which was only making the whole situation worse. If he could be so calm, why couldn’t I?

When he knelt down to get to my level, I felt something turn in my stomach. His hand gently guided my chin in his direction, making our gazes cross.

Yes.

Still as indifferent as always.

His lips were surprisingly soft on my own. The kiss lasted no more than a second, just to make sure the condition of the game was met. And even though it was enough to make my chest burn with strange warmness, one that I hadn’t experienced since my very first kiss.

Shit, did I really had to be the weird one?

Soon after, knights untied the ropes tying me down, and I stood up with a quiet sigh of relief. I felt like I hadn’t moved from this place in months. I never thought I would appreciate the possibility of walking on my own.

I walked down the platform slowly, savouring every step. The blonde man had been waiting at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes wandering around once again. His gaze met mine once, when I got closer, and then turned in the other direction again, as he followed me silently. I didn’t know if this was a coincidence, but this time he was walking right next to me, not as fast as he used to before. Maybe he was just busy studying the castle.

“You’d known it from the beginning, hadn’t you?” I asked, trying to make my voice not sound reproachful.

“I was making sure that was the only answer,” he replied innocently.

Even though I couldn’t shake off the feeling he’d known much longer and just wanted to keep me waiting for a little more. He could be a bastard sometimes, really. A quite handsome and intelligent bastard, to be exact.

The next few games felt like a routine. I’d never admit that, but I’ve grown used to them. The announcement, the knights, the waiting and then repeat… I’d taken a place far from the doors, so even the sight of the baskets didn’t affect me much. I just didn’t look at what was inside them.

After some time, there were four people left to be criminals – and two defenders to play for them, including me. I didn’t realise when my fists clenched, while I was waiting for the next announcements. The blonde man was yet to be a criminal and if he wouldn’t be chosen in the next two rounds he’d have no chances of survival, despite all of his intelligence.

“The criminal for this round is: Chishiya Shuntaro.”

When I saw the blonde man taken away, I sighed with relief. My lips curled slightly when I repeated the new learnt name a few times in my mind. He didn’t give it to me the first time we met, and yet I still managed to get it.

“I’ll go,” I announced, taking a few steps towards the doors.

I didn’t expect any objections. Up until now, there were fewer volunteers than more and nobody disagreed when one wanted to be a defender. So when one of the men blocked my way, I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“That’s irresponsible. Such a pretty lady… are you sure that you want to waste your time on such a… hostile man..?” He spoke slowly, trying to choose his words wisely.

I felt my lips curl up into a smirk. I knew what he was up to.

He was one of the men who hadn’t been criminals yet. And it seemed that he’d much rather be saved and kissed by a girl and not a dude.

I took a quick glance at the only other defender left. He was curled against a wall, trembling. The pressure was eating him alive even now, so what would happen after he’d stand under the guillotine, knowing that his answer would determine someone’s fate?

I wasn’t going to leave Chishiya at the mercy of someone like this. I had a debt with him for saving me earlier, after all.

I turned my head towards the man blocking my way, making sure to avoid his gaze. My hands started trembling slightly, but just enough for him to notice, and a single tear ran down my cheek.

“It-It’d be better… I’m just a sim-simple girl from town… I wouldn’t dare to play for such a fi-fine man like yourself…” I sobbed, covering my mouth with my hand.

It gave me the opportunity to glance at him quickly, judging his reaction. And I knew my little play had worked.

He took a step back, visibly uncomfortable. He glanced around, trying to find someone to pull him out of this mess, but as no one was willing, his gaze moved to me again.

“O-of course! Don’t worry yourself with it too much, there are limits to what a girl can do, after all. And this game truly is mind-wrecking, ain’t it?”

With a polite smile he retreated, moving to the side to let me get to the doors. I gave him a quick nod and walked towards the exit.

I quickly wiped the tear away, a bit disgusted. To think I had acted this stupid for a man this selfish. Good that his will to survive was stronger than his greed. Better to survive while kissing a guy than to die, right?

Thankfully, little did he know I was to finish the last year of psychology in the University of Tokyo.

When I stepped into the square, my mind instantly focused. A huge weight of stress and responsibility was almost pinning me to the ground. Hell, I didn’t know which place was better to be in. To give your fate into someone else’s hands or to know that your answer would determine someone’s life or death? I’d much rather have everyone solve riddles for themselves. But this dilemma was a part of this game’s brutality, wasn’t it?

I tried not to look at Chishiya tied under the huge blade, instead focusing on a screen displayed above him. Luckily, he wasn’t talking, probably for the same reason I had kept quiet when I had been in his place.

When the artificial voice started speaking, I couldn’t understand a word. My eyes were buzzing from stress, making it impossible to hear anything. Luckily, the riddle was written on the screen, allowing me to at least understand the instructions.

“What are the next three letters in this combination: OTTFFSS?”

What?

What???

I was scanning the text over and over again, trying to figure out what it was about. I felt a drop of sweat run down my neck. This was bad.

“Time remaining: 20 seconds.”

I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment. I needed to reset. And focus.

“Time remaining: 10 seconds.”

When I looked at the screen again, I felt different. My mind seemed to be working on its own, completely detached from me. It was analyzing tons of thoughts at the very same moment, calculating and looking for patterns I’d never guessed I could come up with.

“Time remaining: 5 seconds.”

And then something clicked. How obvious.

“E, N, T!” I shouted, my voice only slightly louder than the bumping of my heart.

I was almost sure it was about the first letters of the numbers in sequence. But even though my heart was beating rapidly, waiting for the voice to accept my answer. Would there even be a warning if it had been incorrect? Or would the blade just drop down, cutting Chishiya’s neck in half?

I glanced at him, trying to focus on his face and not the guillotine he was under. To my surprise, he was as indifferent as always, his eyes moving around without any anxiety. I started to wonder what would have to happen to break through this wall of calmness?

“Congratulations! The answer is correct. Now the defender has to confirm the acquittal with a kiss.”

I felt a huge wave of relief. My knees almost gave up when I walked towards him, not yet believing that it was over. I stopped right in front of the platform, suddenly feeling a bit strange about kissing a tied-down stranger.

“What, too shy?” his voice was almost teasing.

I cheeks burned again as I cursed him in my mind. He was having fun now, wasn’t he?

I crouched down, locking my gaze with his for a moment. I grabbed his chin, gently tilting it to the side. I was surprised by how easily he allowed me to do that, following the guide of my hand.

And then I kissed him.

It couldn’t feel much as my whole mind was focused on not making it too long as I didn’t want to make it weirder than it was already was. But when I pulled away and turned back to him to not pressure him, a pink shade still lingered on my cheeks.

Did I just seriously start to fall for some unemotional man I’d met twice in my life?

“It took you a while. My neck hurts,” Chishiya complained, walking down from the platform.

“Stop whining or I’ll prove you guilty again. I can assure you your neck will never hurt again after the execution,” I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't stop my lips from curling slightly.

“Guilty? Of what?”

“Of being an asshole.”

For a second I thought I heard a quiet chuckle, but I quickly washed that thought away. Must’ve been a hallucination. I still wasn’t in my right mind after all of this stress.

This time, the silence that fell between the two of us was almost comforting. I had been afraid that the kiss would create a strange tension, but it didn’t. If anything, it brought us together. It was something we had to do in order to survive, after all. Without any special meaning. Or so I told myself.

Chapter Text

The six days of visa weren’t much, given the fact that another deadly game was sure to happen after them. Even though it was the longest I had ever gotten, and I made sure to use them as well as I could – sleeping through almost all days, coming out of my hideout only for occasional baths in the nearby river and to watch sunsets on evenings.

During some of my previous free times I’d found a pretty decent place to stay in – an abandoned camper, parked just next to the park in the centre of Tokyo. It was comfortable enough, especially for one person. Much better than sleeping under a tent, that’s for sure.

Just after the Guillotine game I made sure to go shopping – I’d brought a full cart of water, honey, canned vegetables and chips, so I wouldn’t have to abandon my camper for long in the following week.

I also took an unhealthy amount of ice tea, at this time, its temperature closer to being normal tea than to what it was supposed to be. I didn’t complain – in fact, it was even better for me. Back when I was still living in Tokyo, I was practically addicted to tea. It was one of the things I missed the most here – and ice teas seemed to substitute them, even if all the two drinks had in common was the shared name.

I sighed deeply, watching as the last rays of the sun were shining on the tall skyscrapers in the centre of Tokyo. My visa was to expire tomorrow, which meant I didn’t have much time before I’d have to play another game.

I wasn’t a fan of doing this on my last days, in case the arena wouldn’t appear close enough for me to get there on time.

And tonight, the Tokyo Station lit up, which was at a perfect distance from here. Which meant I had to get going.

I took a last sip of my ice tea and got up, putting the bottle back in the camper with sorrow.

If not for the deadly games, I thought I could get used to this reality. Tokyo without any citizens seemed calmer and safer than how it used to be – I had no problems with walking around, even at night, something I’d never do back in the real world.

This was, until it was time for a game, of course.

The Tokyo Station quickly grew in my eyes as I got closer to it. The red building was quite unappealing, subconsciously reminding me of the colour of freshly shed blood. I hoped it was only an association.

I walked inside, not paying much attention to the players yet. First, I wanted to try to guess the type of game I’d be playing. It could be anything, really. This world proved to be truly unpredictable.

Deep inside I hoped for a clubs game. I felt most confident with them. Usually they went well, except for the first one I’d played, when a certain girl ran away after being helped, of course. But besides this one, I usually managed to have a really low mortality rate.

Diamonds were okay, but I could never completely shake off the feeling of doubt, lingering in the back of my mind. Had I really thought it through? Had I noticed everything there was to notice? Were my conclusions for sure logical?

Hearts games were ruthless. But to my surprise, I didn’t dislike them. I had no one I was scared to lose, so it put me in a more favourable position from the start. I was just fighting for my life, and it seemed to be working until now.

The worst were spades games. I managed to survive all of them up until now, but every time I felt like it was a miracle.

This, unfortunately, could be a spades game.

Just before the entrance stood two tables – one with phones, and the other with electric collars. I’d played with them once before – and I hated them badly. The people blown up by this literal monster of invention were haunting my nightmares up until now. All I could hope for was not to die in this game.

“Please wait for the game to commence. Currently, there are 15 participants. Three minutes remaining until registration closes.”

I took some time to scan over the main hall of the station, where everyone was gathered. What caught my eye first was a large table, placed just in the middle of the room. To my horror, it contained all sorts of weapons – from knives, machetes and axes up to a whole mechanical chainsaw. This one sent chills down my spine.

And it wasn’t a good foretaste of the game’s type.

The players for this game were a standard mix – a bunch of scared, but determined people, who could have played once or twice at most. Two total newbies, judging from their lost gazes. Some girls sticking together. Three men who looked as if taken straight from military forces. I surely didn’t want to play against them.

Just when I thought that registration had ended, one more person entered the hall. My eyebrows rose in surprise at the sight of Chishiya calmly walking inside. He stopped at the other side of the hall, but I was sure he had noticed me.

It was surprising to meet him this early. It wasn’t strange when considering that he had got the same amount of days from our last game, so his visa was also expiring soon. He must have stayed close by and it was quite rational for him to play a game tonight. But to meet the same person in the arenas twice in a row? It had happened to me for the first time.

I turned my head to the side, feeling my cheeks turn pink. Why the hell was the memory of the last game’s kiss so vivid?

„Game: The Red Tag”

“Difficulty: Seven of Spades”

“Well, shit,” I cursed under my breath, hearing the category of the game. One with high difficulty, what’s more. I started to get a bad feeling about this game.

“Rules: One player is randomly chosen as tag. His collar will be marked red. To tag someone else they must wound them to blood. All weapons allowed. If the tag dies, the next tag is chosen randomly. The person left to be the tag at the end of the game will be eliminated.

Time limit: 120 minutes.”

Everyone froze in place, trying to process the rules, just as if at the beginning of any game. It took only a few seconds before one of the girls’ collars lit up in red.

And then the chaos erupted.

Suddenly, the whole room burst into sounds, from terrified screams to low roars. A lot of people started running, ones to the centre of the hall, the others in the opposite direction. People were bumping into each other, which resulted in more screams.

I lunged forward, noting a small clearance in the mass of people. I snapped the first thing that I managed to grab from the table and instantly turned, running as fast as I could towards the exit from the hall. I didn’t know where the tag was and if she had managed to find a weapon yet, so I just hoped I’d get away before she could try to wound me.

Just when I reached one of the corridors leading out of the hall, I heard a horrible scream. A short electronic beep could be heard not long after. “A change of the tag,” I realised, not stopping for a moment.

I decided to get away from the main hall as quickly as I could. I didn’t have any tactic besides getting far from the start point and then avoiding any person I’d stumble upon. Could there be any tactic for a game like this, really? Besides running around, trying not to meet the tag, the only other option was to hide somewhere. The arena didn’t offer many deserted places, not to mention that it was dangerous. If found, I’d be left without any options to flee, giving the tag an opportunity to wound me so badly I wouldn’t be able to run anymore.

And this would mean a certain game over.

I rapidly stopped, noticing a person standing at the bottom of the stairs I was about to take. Our gazes crossed at the exact same moment. A militant, machete held effortlessly in his hand. Thankfully, not the tag.

And then the beep of changing the tag played.

I watched his collar turn red.

And the next second, I was running. I didn’t think, my mind blank as I forced my body to move faster than I had ever before in my life. I took the first right turn I found and started to jump up the stairs.

But I didn’t stand a chance.

Before I could take a third step, his hand grabbed my wrist, steadying it in place with brutal strength. I almost tripped from the sudden force. My body reacted on its own, struggling chaotically and screaming, trying to break free from his grip.

But it was no use.

“You’re one pretty thing. It’s a pity I have to scar you,” he smiled, a creepy tone in his voice.

I tried to grab a knife from my pocket with my free hand, but he didn’t let me. He quickly grabbed both of my wrists and pinned them to the wall above my head. Our gazes crossed once more – my terrified, wide-open eyes with his, filled with something dark and thrilling. Then he moved a bit, scanning my body slowly. I watched his smile turn even wider with every second.

“I feel like a nice man today. I’ll give you a chance. Down on your knees and beg for your life. If you’ll be convincing enough, maybe I’ll look for someone else to tag.”

He was holding his machete against my neck, not cutting it yet, but keeping it close enough for me to feel pressured. I tried to relax and stop trembling; I didn’t want to touch the sharp blade by accident.

“Never,” I spat, locking my eyes with him, trying to give my voice a steady tone.

Hurting others when the game forced you to was one thing, but this man clearly had pleasure in torturing others. I’d rather die than beg for my life for someone like him. I had suffered enough humiliation from my ex, too scared to defend myself back then. I promised not to be that scared girl ever again.

Death wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a human, after all.

“What a pity.”

His hands moved quickly, shifting the machete from my neck to under my collar bones, cutting through them mercilessly. I started choking automatically, my hands grasping around the wound to stop the bleeding. I fell to my knees, terrified by how much red liquid was dripping onto the stairs.

For some reason, he decided not to kill me. Maybe he wanted me to suffer longer. Maybe he didn’t want to risk being tagged again. He left without a single word, not looking back even once.

“Attention, players! Time remaining: 90 minutes”.

This had to be some sick joke. Had it only been a quarter of the game? Judging from what happened, one person was already dead, slain by some other player. I was heavily wounded and on the verge of my endurance. And now I had to run around the area, trying to catch someone and then, if I succeeded, hiding from them for another one and a half hour? What a mad person had designed this game.

What a mad person had designed this whole world.

I sat down, leaning my back against the wall. I decided to rest for a while as I didn’t have any energy left to run. The wound was pulsating with pain, forcing me to take small breaths so as not to worsen the cut.

Being the tag wasn’t so bad, came to think of it. I wasn’t afraid of anyone trying to hurt me and I could take as much rest time as I needed. But I knew I’d have to eventually get up and try to tag someone, and it terrified me.

I decided to take off my hoodie. I didn’t want it to stick to my wound and make it impossible for me to clean it after the game. I took out a knife from my pocket. I looked at the hoodie, hesitating for a moment. My clothes were the only things I had left from the real world. I was wearing them since the first game, as I was too sentimental to change them for something new.

But I guessed this was their end. Comfort was more important than sentiment. With this in mind, I cut the hoodie into long strips, tying them around myself later. This way, I was able to move some of the material from my stomach to my upper chest. The clothes wouldn’t protect me from blades, so it was better to have my abdomen exposed and the wound stabilised than to have it the normal way around.

I tied three layers around my collarbone, hoping I’d be bearable for me to walk, and maybe even run. I made sure to wrap some parts above my shoulders to ensure the construction wouldn’t fall down with rapid movements.

I must had been looking really stupid, but I dismissed this thought as soon as it appeared in my head. I had much more important things to concern myself with right now. Like finding someone and tagging them with only a small knife as a weapon.

I decided to focus on finding a girl or a newbie. I felt bad about targeting the weakest players, but I wasn’t in a position to allow myself to be a good person. I couldn't risk a fight with a militant. I stood no chances against them, especially not with the knife only.

I got up, steadying myself with a hand on the wall. It was still unpleasant and I felt the wound throbbing with my every breath. But it was bearable. At least enough to walk, and this had to do for now.

I decided to head for the room where the game had started. It had been some time and the first wave of panic was slowly wearing off. I assumed that by this time people started thinking about a strategy, instead of just mindlessly running around the area. And some of them, hopefully, were thinking about changing their weapons. Or taking one if they hadn’t had a chance to.

I wasn’t quite sure which route to take to come back there, but I had plenty of time. If I met someone along the way, even better for me.

I walked down the staircase, entering an empty platform. And suddenly, a person crossed my path, walking calmly. I stopped in place, shocked. Chishiya spotted me in the very same second I’d spotted him. His eyes were as unaffected as always, although I swore I saw a glint of shock in them, too.

To my surprise, he didn’t run away, even though he must have clearly seen the red light on my collar. He just took some more steps, walking around a four-meter distance and then stopping. He turned around, his eyes scanning my face as if he was waiting for my reaction.

I ignored him, after the initial shock deciding to not change my plans and head in the other direction than he was standing on.

“Aren’t you going to tag me?” he asked, his voice rather intrigued than criticising.

“We both know that I wouldn’t catch you if you didn’t want me to,” I shrugged my arms, not looking back.

And theoretically, that was true. He could outrun me easily, especially considering my current condition. Deep inside I knew that I had another reason to ignore him like this – I simply didn’t want to tag him. I didn’t want to risk him dying and certainly didn’t want to be the one to wound him.

But I never allowed myself to acknowledge the second reason, as the first one was valid enough. I had to be smarter than to just chase after someone if I wanted to tag them with this wound. And that was precisely why I was heading for the main hall.

Chishiya didn’t stop me. I bet he just stood there, analysing my choice with those dark eyes of his. Sometimes I wondered how much he knew.

Getting to the main hall took me some time, but eventually I managed to find it. I hid behind one of the columns, keeping my eyes on the table with weapons. Right now the hall was empty, but I had an unpleasant feeling that there were more people around here, lurking in the shadows just like me and observing each other.

And then, luck smiled on me. One of the girls emerged from a corridor on the other side of the hall, her eyes focused solely on the table. She didn’t seem to have any weapons on her just yet.

It was my chance.

I trotted from my spot, trying to stay in her blind spot for as long as it was possible. I felt my wound tearing open, but I had enough adrenaline in my blood to numb the pain just fine.

She saw me when I was a few steps from her. I watched her mouth open to scream, but it was too late. My knife cut through her arm, marking her white shirt red. I turned on my heels, hearing the beep of the tag changing play in the background. I sprinted towards the columns, determined to get away from here before she processes what had just happened.

“Attention, players! Time remaining: 60 minutes”.

And then something flew just next to my cheek, echoing mechanically after landing on the floor. I risked a glance behind, surprised.

The girl was standing next to the table. Her eyes were flaming with pure madness. I watched as she grabbed another knife from the table and threw it in my direction. I jumped to the side, dodging it in the last second. It didn’t stop her.

She was grabbing whatever happened to appear under her hands, throwing it at me with fury. Some of them didn’t even make it near me, but others flew dangerously close to my legs. I turned away from her, focusing on the pillar.

I ran in a zig zag pattern, changing the direction of moving randomly. It seemed to work, as fewer and fewer weapons were flying next to me. I felt I could make it, the pillar just a few steps ahead of me.

Suddenly, a wave of pain erupted in my left arm. I fell to the floor, cursing, as I heard the tag being changed again.

I looked at the table, but the girl was just disappearing on the other side of the hall, her collar flashing white.

Shit.

Chapter Text

 The girl was gone and I had a feeling there was no use chasing after her anymore. 

I didn’t expect tagging someone to be this difficult. If it were to continue, I’d be stuck as a tag till the end. Or I’d just die from all of those wounds.

I looked at my arm, wanting to check it, and suddenly my head spun. I put my other hand on the floor, holding myself up so I wouldn’t fall down.

It wasn’t just a wound.

The knife was stuck in my arm.

I quickly looked away, focusing on taking deep breaths. It was going to be okay. I just had to get used to the thought of something sharp stuck in my body.

I looked at the knife. It wasn’t stuck deep. Actually, I thought I could take it out with barely any force. The problem was my other hand, shaking uncontrollably just at the sight of the weapon in my arm.

I decided to focus on something different for now. I unwrapped another strip from my abdomen, laying it down on the floor, the inner side up. Nothing here was really sterile or safe, but I wanted to keep the wounds as clean as possible.

I took three deep breaths, my eyes focused on the knife. Now or never.

With one sharp motion, I pulled the knife out.

A loud scream echoed through the hall. I dropped the weapon on the floor, feeling as if I were going to throw up. Blood spurted from the wounds, running down my arm and dripping on the floor. I quickly took the strip from the ground and wrapped it tightly around the cut, using my teeth to help.

I allowed myself to sit on the floor for a few minutes, until I was sure the black dots were gone from my vision and my breath was somehow even. This game was really hard, not only physically, but mentally as well. 

I wanted nothing more than just to lie here, fall asleep and make my dreams numb the pain. But I knew I had to get up and find someone to tag. My time was slowly running out and I couldn't allow myself to make many more mistakes.

I took the knife from the ground, holding it with my right hand. My first weapon was hidden in a pocket of my trousers. I decided to try my luck and wander around the corridors surrounding the main hall. To be honest, I didn’t have more chances to meet someone who’d be easy to tag here than in other parts of the arena, but I had to start with something.

Not to mention my body felt weaker with every passing minute and running pointlessly around the station was rather unfeasible.

“Attention, players! Time remaining: 30 minutes”.

Before the voice finished the sentence, I noticed him. One of the newbies, standing behind a pillar, with his eyes focused solely on the screen with the ticking time.

I didn’t hesitate.

I threw the knife, miraculously scratching the lower part of his arm. His shout of pain and surprise mixed with the sound of changing the tag, but I didn’t wait to see his reaction. I was already disappearing into the nearest corridor before he got a chance to even try to return the tag.

I ran for my life, taking stairs down and jumping over four steps at once. I almost tripped on the turn, but I didn’t slow down. I kept running until I was sure I didn’t hear any footsteps nearby. And until my lungs didn’t run out of oxygen.

Even now, they were throbbing painfully, refusing to fill up with air. I wandered into one of the platforms. I sat down on the floor, making sure I had stairs just next to me. I tried to breathe as quietly as possible, listening for every sign of another person walking by.

I didn’t have the energy to run any longer. If someone found me now, I could only try to crawl away. 

It wasn’t the worst place to rest for a while. Despite being in plain sight, I had a lot of escape routes. Stairs to take up or down just next to me, and another staircase on the other side of the platform. I just had to be alert, watching out for people entering and eventually run across the platform if I heard anybody.

“Attention, players! Time remaining: 10 minutes”.

I felt a small glint of hope after hearing the announcement. It wasn’t long until the end of the game and the tag was nowhere to be seen. If I were lucky, it was a newbie, running around the area chaotically, scared at the thought of coming death. I felt sorry for them – I was like this once, too. But I wasn’t crazy enough to risk my life to save them.

Another unexpected wave of pain washed through my body and I decided to focus on something to take my mind off my wounds. What difficulty was it? Six, seven? That’s another week of freedom. I could bring myself a whole cart of iced teas, together with some chocolate… after visiting a pharmacy first, of course.

Suddenly, I heard something. At first I thought it was just an illusion. But no, the sound was very much real. Footsteps. Heavy footsteps, to be exact. On the staircase just next to me. Getting closer.

I jumped to my feet, cursing in my mind. My body was protesting, both exhausted and heavily wounded. I gritted my teeth, trying my best to ignore the gross feeling of my wounds opening up. I had no time to concern myself with it right now.

I sprinted forward, not caring about my footsteps being perfectly hearable on the whole platform. If they were planning to come here, they would see me anyway, and my best shot was to be as far away as possible. If they weren’t, I had just told them my position, but it wouldn’t matter much if they wouldn’t be able to catch me.

There were chances that the footsteps didn’t even belong to the tag, but I couldn’t risk betting on something like this. Better to be safe than sorry. And dead.

I was far past the middle of the station, with my mind focused solely on running forward, leg after leg. I could make this. I was sure. Even if they had a knife, they wouldn’t be able to throw it this far away, let alone aim correctly. They could be faster than me, sure, but I was close enough to the other staircase to have a chance to lose them somewhere in the labyrinth of the corridors. There was a few minutes till the end of the game. I will-

A sharp pain tore through my right leg. I crashed on the floor, sliding several meters further because of the momentum. A splitting scream echoed through the platform, and only after a moment I realised it was me screaming. My ears were ringing loudly and I had problems catching a breath.

What had just happened?!

I glanced at the other side of the platform. A man, one of the militants, was standing with his legs wide apart and had both of his arms weirdly extended forward. It took me only a second to realise that he was holding a gun in his hands.

“Fuck it,” I cursed, feeling helpless rage.

Nobody stood a chance against a gun. I had no idea one could have such a weapon. He must have got to the start point much earlier and take the weapon before the rules were even announced. 

He was well-trained and knew how to shoot, but what was even worse, he wasn’t stupid. He must’ve also deliberately aimed for the leg.

The man’s collar flashed white, and he didn’t waste more time. I watched as he turned around, disappearing down the staircase with the walk of someone who knew that the game was already over. Because it indeed was.

“Attention, players! Time remaining: 5 minutes”.

With the last glints of helpless determination, I tried to move my leg. I gave up on the idea in the exact same second. Even the slight shift in it caused me so much pain I thought I would pass out. There was no way I could stand up, let alone chase anyone to tag them in the last minutes.

I would die.

I slowly lied on my back, making sure not to move the injured leg. My eyes were wandering around the ceiling mindlessly. At least I didn’t have to look at the pond of blood which was surely forming around me.

What an ironic monster life was. I really didn’t mind dying. I was ready for it from the moment I saw others die in the first game. But if there was one thing I was scared of – that would surely be the explosive collars. I had no idea if they were as painful as they looked, but I didn’t want to check it. To die, knowing that my neck would explode and tear my body apart with brutal force, then the pieces of my flesh would fly around and scatter on the ground… I’d give a lot right now to switch it for the laser. It gave at least an illusion of some dignity in the last moments.

“Give me the tag.” A sudden voice just near my ear startled me to death. I turned rapidly, causing a new wave of pain to spread through my body.

Chishiya was crouched on my left side, with his face as unreadable as always. His eyes, however, were set on me with unusual intensity and gravity. His hoodie had stains of blood on the abdomen area and his cheek was bleeding.

He rolled up the sleeve on his left arm, extending it above my hands. I turned my head to look at him with a puzzled expression.

“Chishiya? What do you-“

“Hurry up. We don’t have much time.”

For a second, I just looked at him, not understanding anything. When I realised what he was talking about, my brows pulled down in an even greater confusion. I tried to read anything from his dark gaze, but I soon realised it was no use.

“Chishiya, I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but the game is already over. I can’t run.”

He didn’t respond, instead glaring at me with a steel-cold gaze. I started to think that he had finally come to his senses and would just leave me alone. 

But Chishiya rapidly grabbed my hands, moving them up so he could get the knife out of my pocket. I gasped in surprise, but he didn’t hesitate, instead forcing the knife into my hand and sliding it across his skin in a smooth motion. 

My eyes widened in shock as I looked at the wound slowly opening on his forearm. It wasn’t deep, but the blood already started forming there, as if in slow motion rolling down his wrist and dripping to the ground, mixing with my own.

Chishiya seemed to be unfazed by all of this. He easily took the knife from my loose fingers, storing it in his pocket. He stood up and turned away, not looking at me even once. Just before disappearing on the staircase, he suddenly stopped, as if he had made up his made about something.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not sacrificing myself. It’s not like I’m a goddamn hero.”

And with that, he simply disappeared on the staircase, the red light from his collar shining visibly in the dark long after he had vanished in the shadows.

---

Chishiya made sure to pull up the hood, covering the red light on the collar as much as possible. He was walking calmly, appearing as if he didn’t really care where he was heading, but under the hood his eyes were alert and focused.

He took the stairs down and then turned left, well knowing where he would head from the start. His lips formed a slight smirk when he saw what he was searching for – the militant with the gun, standing next to a wall in a relaxed stance.

Chishiya walked towards him without haste. The militant noticed him where there was about a three meter’s distance between them. His body tensed up, and he pulled the gun from the holster, instead holding it in his hand to make it possible to aim and shoot within seconds. Chishiya stopped, raising his hands up to show that he was unarmed. He waved uncertainly, forming his lips into something that was supposed to be a polite smile.

“Smart move. With the aim,” he praised with a silky smooth voice. “Now we don’t have to worry about the tag anymore.”

The militant eyed him with suspicion. Approaching other people in a game like this was strange enough, and considering that he must have heard the beep of changing the tag, he knew better than to recklessly trust strangers.

But Chishiya’s assumptions were correct. The man was so sure of himself that he would rather think that the sound was an error on the game’s side than that the girl had tagged someone in this state. That’s why, even though he was cautious, he didn’t shoot or run. He was also visibly pleased by the praise and was up to hear more.

This was his final mistake.

“Thanks,” the militant nodded. He couldn’t stop his gaze from wandering to Chishiya’s hood, and it looked like something started to fall in place in his mind. “Could you pull this down?”

“Hm? Sure.” Chishiya made sure to look surprised at the man’s command.

He watched closely as the militant’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of the red light. And in this exact moment he lunged forward. A shrilling sound of a gunshot echoed loudly in the room, and Chishiya felt sudden piercing pain in his left arm. He ignored it, pulling out a taser from his pocket with the other hand and pressing it firmly into the man’s chest.

A moment later the militant was lying on the ground, cursing badly.

Chishiya took a moment to check the gun wound. He had been lucky, the bullet had only scraped him. It would bleed a lot, but it wasn’t lethal. And he wouldn’t have to worry about the bullet being stuck in his flesh. 

His eyes moved to the man. The militant’s fingers were trembling, desperately trying to reach for the gun lying just outside of his range.

“W-why..?” he managed to utter.

“Nothing personal. I just thought you’d like to experience your patent first-hand.” 

Chishiya crouched down, pulling the knife out from his pocket. The militant started to scream, but he paid it no mind. The blonde man carefully studied his leg, toying with the knife in his hand to feel it better.

He grabbed firmly on the man’s right leg, steadying it in place even though it wasn’t very likely for him to move after the electric shock. Chishiya pushed the knife deep into the front side of the militant’s leg, and the man groaned in pain. He tried to get up, but the paralysis from the taser was still holding him down.

Chishiya dragged the knife further, cutting through almost all of the leg’s width. The militant was screaming agonisingly, trembling in hopeless attempts to stop it. The beep of the change of the tag played just when Chishiya finished his job and pulled the knife out in a precise motion.

“Your femoral muscle has been cut, so don’t bother trying to lift up this leg. Although the pain should stop you regardless,” Chishiya explained, standing up and wiping the knife on the man’s shirt. “I’ll also borrow this.”

He took the gun from the ground, storing it in his pocket. He didn’t look back when he walked away, followed by the man’s horrifying screams.

Soon after, the artificial voice declared the end of the game, followed by a single boom sound. After that the station fell into a creepy silence, agonisingly loud after all of the chaos unfolding at the station for the last hours.

---

The minutes were stretching into hours. I felt the urge to shift my body every few seconds, and the only reason why I wasn’t rolling around like a maniac was the pain related to every little move. For some reason, I felt much worse now than back when I was lying here as a tag, waiting for the certain death to come for me.

Despite being perfectly aware of how intelligent Chishiya was, I was still worrying. What if he had overestimated his abilities? What if he was lying somewhere right now, without anyone to help him, counting the seconds to his death?

I knew I would never forgive myself.

It was me who was supposed to die. I knew that, and I had almost accepted that. Why did he decide to take the tag? This was haunting me for the last few minutes, and I still couldn't find any logical answer.

In the last two games we’d played together he had saved me, but it was strongly related to his survival as well. He simply needed me to win the game, and it meant I had to stay alive.

But now?

He could have easily won by just keeping his distance. That’s what I had expected him to do. But for some reason, he was risking his life right now somewhere for my sake.

I started to wonder if this was some part of a bigger plan, or if I was wrong about his character from the beginning.

“Congratulations, survivors! You have earned a visa.”

I froze in place. My ears were buzzing from the exhaustion, and the artificial voice barely made it to my consciousness. End of the game?

My heart started beating nervously in my chest. Had there been a beep before the announcement? Could it be that I just hadn’t heard it? Or had the tag never changed?

I wasn’t sure if my mind wasn’t imagining things, but I thought I heard the sound of an explosion.

My breath shuddered. It couldn’t have been him, could it?

I turned to my side, sliding on the blood I’ve left on the floor. My eyes were scanning the staircase he’d disappeared into, much more desperately than I’d ever admit to. I’d never thought I’d get attached to someone this quickly. 

But here I was, praying for the life of a man I had met twice.

I felt tears start to well up in the corners of my eyes. It had been some time since the announcement. I just realised I would never know if he was dead. I wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye to him. To look at him ever again.

I’d just lie here until I bleed out to death, unable to move anywhere. I realised that it didn’t matter that I won the game. If I don’t have the strength to get away from here, I would die soon anyway. What a pitiful end.

My eyes started to close, and my body was getting weaker with every minute. I was tired, and the vision of falling asleep and letting my lack of consciousness numb all of the pain was getting very appealing.

Suddenly, I saw it.

A faint trace of light in the dark staircase.

I forced myself to open my eyes, even if this was just an illusion made by my half-conscious brain. Even though I was almost sure that was the case, my heart started to bump loudly again, and suddenly I was wide awake.

My eyes widened when I realised I wasn’t imagining anything. My body got weak from the wave of relief at the sight of Chishiya walking out of the staircase with this calm and composed pace of his. His right hand was wrapped around the other arm and he was slightly limping, but he was very much alive.

He stopped next to me, looking at me with the same unreadable gaze as always, being in stark contrast to the relief painted all over my face.

“You didn’t die,” I muttered weakly, still not quite believing that I wasn’t dreaming.

“Told you I wouldn’t.”

One corner of his mouth twitched slightly. It was barely visible and I would have missed it if I blinked. But it was there. A fraction of a smile. I grinned widely, feeling the weight that had been dragging me down for quite a while vanishing.

To think I would care this much about some smart ass bastard coming back alive.

Chapter Text

After the initial shock of seeing him again, I slowly started returning to reality. I felt my body was getting weaker and if I didn’t want to get stuck in this hell of a place, I should start searching for a better spot to rest.

“We should get out of here,” Chishiya suggested, as if he was reading my thoughts. He crouched near me, scanning my body to take note of injuries.

My heart skipped a bit.

“Right,” I nodded, turning my head away to hide my reaction. I curled my leg a bit, but this only made me hiss in pain. It seemed to be even worse than before. “Could you… help me out a bit? I’m not sure if I can walk by myself.”

I felt a bit embarrassed to ask him for something like this after he had already saved my life. But Chishiya didn’t say anything, just wrapping his arm under my shoulders and supporting me up. The pain in my leg was excruciating, and I was sure I would fall down if not for his steady grip.

“The nearest hospital is about a half-hour walk from here, so you have to bear with it for a while.” Chishiya’s voice wasn’t empathetic, but his matter-of-fact tone was the best thing I could imagine right now.

I felt relieved I could count on someone to lead the way. I was dizzy from the blood loss and didn’t know this area very well. If not for him, I would probably be mindlessly wandering around in the hope of finding a pharmacy.

Every step was a challenge and at some point I gave up on my pride, hissing in pain whenever I felt worse. I started to realise just how much adrenaline had been keeping me going previously – right now it was slowly wearing off, and suddenly all of my wounds started to hurt as if they had just been cut open. Every step triggered a new wave of pain and I couldn’t tell if this time it was the cut on my chest, arm or leg. I knew I also had some bruises on my wrist from the militant’s grip and all over my upper body from the last fall.

It would take ages to heal. I just hoped it could get bearable enough for me to play just fine in the next game. I knew I had to take care of the open wounds first, and it scared me a bit, as I had never had any medical education. But I decided to concern myself with it later, after getting to the hospital.

Chishiya kept quiet during the whole walk, and so did I. Neither of us was in the mood for a friendly chat, both of us heavily wounded and exhausted. He tried his best not to show it, but I knew his wounds were bothering him as well. The cut on the cheek was bleeding like crazy, forcing him to wipe the blood every few minutes. The other ones on the arm and abdomen were hidden, so I couldn’t tell how deep they were, but the blood stains on his white hoodie weren’t optimistic. And of course, the one on the forearm. One I did with my knife. Even though he kept quietly holding me up through the whole walk and I was beyond grateful for this.

When the pinkish building of St. Luke’s International Hospital appeared before my eyes, I sighed with relief. The walk had been a torture to my nervous system, so I was waiting impatiently for a moment when I could just lie down and let it rest.

Chishiya walked into the hospital without hesitation, leading the way through endless corridors and staircases with confidence. I started to wonder if he had been here before.

The atmosphere was strange and I would lie if I said I liked it. I had never been in a hospital before, but during my appointments with doctors the medical buildings were bustling with life – people were in a hurry, striding from door to door at a fast pace, as if they didn’t have a second to lose. Right now, it was all silent. Chishiya and I were the only people in the huge building, reminding me of a scene in some kind of apocalyptic movie. I couldn’t help but smile faintly at the memory of watching those shows in my bed, cursing at how stupid some of those characters were, wandering to the abandoned buildings all by themselves. I would have never guessed I could be met with the same fate.

“Come here,” Chishiya guided me to one of the rooms, which turned out to be an operating room. It was dark and gloomy, just as the rest of the hospital, but when I saw the operation table in the middle, I felt as if I had won a lottery. 

Chishiya helped me to get up on the table and lie down and I instantly felt better. The wound on the leg, no longer holding the weight of my body, felt so much better that I could almost forget I had an open cut there. I knew I had to get up and actually take care of my injuries in a moment, but the table felt so comfortable I decided to delay this moment as long as possible.

“Thank you. For saving me, and for taking me here. I think I can handle my wounds from now on, so you don’t have to concern yourself with me any longer,” I said, giving Chishiya a thankful gaze. He wasn’t half as cold and indifferent as he wanted to appear to be and he had already done more for me than any other person in the Borderland. I didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness more than I had to.

“You can handle your wounds? You mean you can take out that bullet?” he asked with a spark of interest in his eyes.

I felt colours instantly draining from my face.

“Bullet…?” I repeated as my gaze involuntarily shifted to my leg.

I yanked at the material of my trousers slightly, trying to widen the cut and see the wound for myself. I couldn’t believe I could have had the bullet there for the whole time. Sure, it hurt badly, but I was sure it was only because it had been under the pressure of my body weight…

“Try not to touch it. I’ll look at it in a moment. We should take it out, or else there’s a chance it may corrode and cause an infection, and that’s basically a death sentence here,” Chishiya said calmly, as if he was used to situations like this.

I turned my attention to him, trying to keep my head off the injured leg. He had tied his hair into a low ponytail somewhere in the middle of the conversation and was now looking through the cabinets, collecting all the medical tools I could think of. The sight of a scalpel and tweezers made me dizzy, and I turned my head away.

“Shouldn’t you take care of your injuries before that? I can wait,” I suggested, trying to delay the moment of an operation. 

Chishiya didn’t take a second to check his wounds, instead storing all of the tools in the nearest cabinet to the operation table I was lying on. He gestured to my leg with a meaningful expression. “I can handle them later, they’re nothing serious. On the contrary to this.”

After he had gathered everything he needed, Chishiya walked closer, stopping just next to the operation table. His fingers gently brushed next to the wound, checking how wide the hole in my clothing was. Despite the stress, my heart fluttered and I hoped he wouldn’t notice the slight red tint on my cheeks.

“I’ll have to cut your trousers. It should be more comfortable than taking them off,” Chishiya informed and somehow my body relaxed slightly. He kept his voice flat and professional, which was very calming to my shaky nerves. “And they’ll match your top.”

I huffed with surprise, trying to mask a chuckle. I wasn’t prepared to hear something that resembled a joke from Chishiya in a moment like this.

He didn’t say anything more, focusing on his work. He cut the trousers with scissors as high as he could, getting rid of almost all of the material from the injured side. He slid it down carefully, trying to move my leg as little as possible. His fingers were gentle when he placed them around the wound and it made me even more flustered. He seemed to pay it no mind and I tried my best to do so as well, but having him this close, with his hands on my bare thigh didn’t make my mind free of weird thoughts.

“I’ll have to make another cut. The bullet is too deep to use the shot wound,” Chishiya explained and it snapped me back to reality in the blink of an eye.

“It’ll hurt, won’t it?” I asked hopelessly. My eyes darted to the wound for a second, but after seeing the dried blood stuck to my skin, I immediately turned away, deciding not to look at it until it would all be over.

“Normally something like this would be performed under local anaesthesia, but we can’t do this without electricity.” Chishiya wiped the blood from the wound with an antiseptic wipe and I frowned slightly, feeling the pinching near the wound.

I lay quietly for a moment, in my mind cursing the militant who had shot me with words nobody would expect of me. The upcoming procedure scared me and the fact that it usually required partial narcosis wasn’t optimistic either. At the same time, I trusted Chishiya blindly, and I was sure it was much better for him to do something like this than for me to try taking it out on my own, probably making everything worse in the process.

“Are you a doctor?” I didn’t doubt him, but I just couldn’t help my curiosity. The fact that he knew the hospital’s layout, his knowledge of the medical procedures… it was all coming together all too well.

“Do you think I am?” he replied with a question, but there was a fade of amusement in his tone. 

“I’d be funny if you were; it was my second guess of your job when I first saw you.”

“Second? What was the first?”

“A policeman.”

This time, I was sure that I heard a quiet chuckle escaping his lips. I would have never guessed I would get a chance to hear something like this from him. But I could get used to hearing it more often, though.

“I need you to stay as still as possible. You can talk or scream, just don’t move this leg, okay?” His voice returned to its usual indifference as his fingers tensed a bit on my thigh. He grabbed the scalpel with one of his hands and I closed my eyes, trying to steady my breath.

When he cut through my skin, I couldn’t hold back a scream. It hurt, but the pain wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to. The worst thing turned out to be the inexpressible urge to snap my leg away. I clenched my hands around the frame of the operating table, trying my best to move as little as possible. I couldn’t imagine Chishiya messing up the cut because of my reckless reaction.

I hoped I had the worst behind me, but when he switched to the tweezers and I felt the cold metal under my skin, my head felt like it was on a rollercoaster.

“If you feel like losing consciousness, don’t fight it. It’ll act like a natural anaesthesia,” Chishiya’s voice barely made it to my mind.

I didn’t know if he had amazing intuition or if his words triggered something in me, but soon after he had said it, the darkness started to deepen. The pain numbed, and I subconsciously relaxed, grateful for the short break in my suffering. I had been in pain for so long that I had almost forgotten how it felt to not constantly feel it in the back of my mind.

---

Chishiya cut the thread of the last stitch and sighed tiredly. He scanned the girl’s body for the last time, making sure he hadn’t overlooked any major injury. The wounds on the leg and chest were both stitched and he hoped they would heal fast enough to take the threads out before the next game. The wound on the arm wasn’t deep, so he sanitized and bandaged it tightly. He also applied anaesthetic ointment on the worst bruises, making sure he had done everything he could to make sure they would heal as fast as possible.

After everything was done, Chishiya covered her with a blanket taken from another room, making sure she would be warm during the night. He checked her breath, ensuring her state was still stable. He didn’t have any monitoring devices, so he had no choice but to keep checking her condition regularly by himself.

Being unconscious was lessening her pain, but at the same time, her state might suddenly worsen and he would have no idea about it.

For now she was stable, so he decided to take care of his own wounds. He took off his hoodie, frowning a bit at the sight of the injuries. The wounds weren’t deep, but exacerbated by overall exhaustion, they were hurting like hell.

To make everything worse, after he had finished treating the girl’s wounds, his mind once again had space to start dwelling on things he very much didn’t want to think about.

Why did he do this? Never once had he cared for anyone in the games before. It took him one glance to judge one’s personality and one game to forget about them. It was always the game versus him and he couldn’t care less about the survival of other players. 

Then why did he run the moment he heard the gunshot?

Why did his heart clench so painfully at the sight of her lying in the pool of her own blood, calm and still as if she was already dead?

Why was he so scared of messing up the cut on her leg, even though he had done this procedure flawlessly hundreds of times before?

He wasn’t one to care about life, not even his own. He was alive solely thanks to his intelligence, not the will to live. Every game was more of a test to him; he was intrigued to find out if he could outsmart the master of it. If he were to die, the only thing he would feel would be disappointment in himself.

But somehow, her case was different.

He couldn’t pinpoint the single moment when everything started to change. Was it the first game? He wouldn’t say so. She was intriguing, that’s for sure, but no one special. He didn’t give her more than a few days back then.

So when she walked into the diamonds game, he caught himself being curious. About her. She didn’t panic in stressful situations, making her a quite reliable partner. But there was something more to it. The way she joked with that half-smirk, the way she let her cheeks turn pink when she thought he wasn’t looking, the way she could always find the right words to make people feel better… and this strangely captivating spark in her bright eyes.

The simple joy of being alive.

And somewhere there he caught himself staring at her from under his hood. Smirking when he caught her gaze. Chuckling at her jokes, something he hadn’t done in so long he had forgotten how good it felt.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew she felt something too. Sometimes he felt her gaze on him – not for too long, not too obvious, but he noticed. He had always been observant of other people, and when it came to her, it was on a whole another level. He remembered exactly when her lips twitched in amusement or when her eyes squinted slightly from stress. Barely noticeable. But obvious to him.

One could call it a miracle – two people attracted to each other at the same time. But for Chishiya, it was more of a tragedy, what’s more, an unexpected one. The Borderland wasn’t a place for feelings – every attachment meant inevitable pain. The games were designed to shatter the ideals, to hurt the ones you would trade your life for. To survive, the only way was to care for nobody.

He never thought it could be a problem for him. He was sure he was incapable of loving anyone. Up until now he was sure attraction was out of the question as well, but it seemed he had been wrong. Either way, he had to put an end to it.

The most logical way would be to leave her in the hospital; with her wounds treated, she had every means to survive the next game. But for some reason, the thought of abandoning her right now, forever not sure if she was alive or not, terrified him in a way nothing had ever before.

That’s why he decided to just let it be. He was sure he was capable of not showing his own feelings, keeping things the way they were until now. He was sure her attraction would fade over time and she would find someone else she would want to be close to, solving the issue peacefully.

And until then, he’d just make sure she stays alive.

---

I groaned, feeling the pain slowly making its way to my body alongside my consciousness. It was better than before; they were aching uncomfortably instead of tearing my body apart. I pulled the blanket up, feeling a warm feeling in my heart at the thought of Chishiya laying it over me. A gentle gesture like this wouldn’t match his unaffected face at all, and it must’ve looked entertaining.

I blinked slowly, surprised. It was only now that I realised the imitation of my hoodie was gone. It was probably the only way to take care of the wound below the collarbones, but it still made me slightly embarrassed.

I couldn’t see much of the wounds, as all of them were wrapped in bandages and it seemed like Chishiya had really known what he had been doing. It was comforting; to know that at least my wounds were treated properly and I wouldn’t have to worry about getting an infection.

I looked around the room as I couldn’t see much back when I arrived here at night. It was a rather small room, with the operation table I was lying on in the middle. My heart ached in disappointment at the realisation that there was no trace of Chishiya’s presence. He must have left before I woke up.

I guessed it was only fair.

Practically, he had saved me twice. It was more than enough in the Borderland. He had his own life to take care of and it was perfectly rational. I just hoped to meet him somewhere later, so I could have a chance to thank him properly. To think that his last memory of me would be my scream when he was taking out the bullet… it would be awkward.

“You’re finally awake?”

My attention immediately shifted to the doors and I scanned the person standing there in disbelief. Chishiya was leaning on the wall, holding three packed shopping bags in his hands. His face was just as unemotional as always, but it made me smile nonetheless. To think he came back for me.

“We’ll move you to somewhere more comfortable, but you should eat breakfast first.”

Chishiya walked towards me, placing the bags on the counter and unpacking some of them. He tossed some of the packages onto my bed, and I took them curiously. Some granola bars and dried apricots. I unpacked the food in a second, almost swallowing it whole. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in ages.

“Didn’t you see any chocolate when in the shop?” I asked with my mouth still full of dried fruits. I glanced at him with hope in my eyes. “Or ice tea?”

“No chocolate for a while. It’d be bad for you after so much blood loss,” Chishiya explained, sitting down on the chair and taking a bite from a granola bar himself.

“And ice tea?” I asked, my eyes almost sparkling from hope. I swore I saw him rolling his eyes.

“It has more sugar than water.”

“But it’s good! Not to mention it’s the closest thing I could get to tea here.”

“I’m pretty sure you can get tea here.”

“What?” I almost dropped the bar from excitement. It wore off after a second as I realised he was most likely joking. “You are making fun of me. That’s just cruel. You have no idea how much I’d give to drink normal tea again.”

“It wasn’t a joke,” he replied calmly and I squinted my eyes in disbelief. I couldn’t read anything from his poker face.

“But there’s no electricity here. And I need hot water. You know that tea is made with hot water and not the regular temperature one, don’t you?”

“You’re acting like I’m the dumb one here.” I opened my mouth to riposte, but his next words successfully made me forget what I was about to say. “There’s a place with electricity in the Borderland, apart from the game arenas.”

“Are you being for real?”

“Yes.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Chishiya glared meaningfully at my leg and suddenly I remembered about my injuries. The thought of drinking hot tea was so tempting that I had forgotten about everything else. But he was right, I could barely walk and I had no idea how far from here the place was.

“I’ll take you there after you recover,” he promised with the most genuine tone I had ever heard from him.

“What would you get from this? I mean, I’d be forever grateful, but it’s not like it means anything here. You had saved me twice and I would really understand if you just walked your way. You don’t have to take responsibility for my state. I can manage quite well on my own.”

He didn’t reply in an instant, instead taking his time to finish the granola bar in his hands. He scanned my face carefully, stopping at my eyes for a second. His gaze was calm and calculating, but I had an uneasy feeling there was something hidden underneath that mask of indifference.

“It’s not like I don’t have any benefits. You just can’t see them,” Chishiya replied, and the short moment was gone. His tone went back to the usual, self-confident one, one he used when he had a plan. “I’ve been observing you for some time now. You’re not stupid and can work under pressure. We are looking for people like you.”

“We?”

“Someone will explain everything to you once we get there.”

I scoffed in disappointment, but he paid it no mind. I knew I couldn’t get anything from him if he didn’t want to tell it himself, so I just had to control my curiosity for the time being. Despite the total lack of information, I knew I would trust him. In my whole life, my intuition was the only thing that had never betrayed me. I decided to follow it once again.

“When will I be able to walk by myself?” I asked, pretending the vision of warm tea wasn’t all that tempting.

“It depends, really. I’d say three to four days, but it could take a few weeks before you’d return to full fitness. Try not to pressure it too much for now.”

“And what about the games? I’ve got about seven days left on my visa.”

“You don’t have any spare days on it?” When I shook my head, his expression darkened a bit. He sighed, looking at me with something that almost resembled worry. “Then we’ll have to play and hope it won’t be a spades game.”

“Are you playing with me?”

“I’m not used to abandoning my patients.”

I couldn’t stop my lips from forming a relieved smile. I knew I should be only counting on myself during the games, but there was something in his presence that was making them much more bearable. I felt irrationally safe with him.

---

Later the same day Chishiya helped me to move to the room on the opposite side of the hall, which had real beds in it. My leg still hurt after being put under pressure, so he had to support me while walking. I didn’t mind it; conversely, I was sure I’d miss his touch after I’d recover.

He had also brought me a bag full of different clothes, from pyjamas to wear daily to normal clothes for the later games, and I couldn’t stop smiling at the thought of him choosing all of this from the women’s section in a shop. I decided to take a black tank top and cargo pants for later and I was surprised by how much they resembled the style of the clothes I had had initially on.

Chishiya wasn’t one to talk much, but I took every opportunity I could to strike up a conversation, and sometimes I was granted a response of more than one word. One day, he brought me a bag full of books and placed them near my bed without a single word. I didn’t know if it was a subtle sign for me to shut up, or if he was worried I was getting bored. Either way, he happened to guess my taste in books so perfectly that I couldn’t miss the opportunity to read them. I was still talking to him in the evenings, when it got too dark to see anything, and he didn’t seem to dislike it.

My wounds got better, and finally I could walk without Chishiya’s arm wrapped around me. He had taken out the stitches, but I was still prohibited from running or making any rapid movements in order not to reopen the cuts again. With a spades game being an exception, of course.

I knew the time I would have to play again was going to come sooner rather than later, so when Chishiya walked into the room with a serious expression, I wasn’t surprised. I watched as he stored a taser and a knife in the pockets of his hoodie and couldn’t help but feel a bit of sorrow. This week was the most peaceful time I had spent in the Borderland and I had almost forgotten what reality we were trapped in. 

But I knew that if I wanted to even have chances for another peaceful time like this, I had to fight for it.

“We’re playing tonight,” I more stated than asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes. One of the arenas is close enough for us to walk there.”

My heart started beating nervously from anticipation. It was going to be the first game I’d enter together with Chishiya. It was making me even more stressed about the game’s rules. I hoped it wouldn’t be hearts. That would be ironic.

We left the hospital without saying a single word. I was sure Chishiya was focused on leading the way and I didn’t want to distract him, so when he handed me a bottle with his eyes still fixed on the horizon, I gasped in shock.

“Is it ice tea…?” I looked at the bottle as if it were a ghost.

Chishiya didn’t reply, not bothering to answer my question, but even though my lips spread into a wide smile. I greedily emptied half of the bottle with a single sip, feeling like a little child who was given a lollipop.

I felt easier. About the upcoming game. About this whole reality. Even though Chishiya was trying to look unbothered, I knew he cared. He wasn’t one to say sweet words and big declarations. But he was here, close and attentive. I knew I could count on him with everything.

And it meant more than any words ever could.

Chapter Text

Even though the lit-up arena wasn’t very far away from the hospital, it took us a while to get there. I could walk without assistance, but my leg still hurt if I stepped incorrectly, so I had to maintain a slower pace to avoid overstraining it. Chishiya was silently walking beside me, not going faster than I could. He didn’t say a word, but I didn’t mind it. He must have been stressed as well, after all.

“What is this building?” I asked when we finally stopped in front of the arena.

It was a tall structure, mostly made of brownish bricks. It had while columns on the sides and some decorations made of the same material. It looked posh, and even though I had been in this neighbourhood a few times in the past, I had always walked past it without paying it much attention.

“An auction house,” Chishiya replied flatly.

He was standing just as relaxed as usual, but there was a slight hint of anxiety in his voice. It certainly didn’t ease the stress I was already feeling.

“At least it doesn’t look like a spades game,” I said, trying to keep a positive tone, but it didn’t turn out convincing.

Chishiya didn’t reply, but I felt his gaze lingering on me for a moment. We walked into the auction house side by side and I kept glancing to the sides curiously.

There was an enormous hall just near the entrance, with the walls painted white and gold. Tall monuments with statues on top shone in the light from high-hung crystal chandeliers and I had to admit that if it wasn’t supposed to be a game arena, I would be astonished by the luxury gathered in this one room.

I was quickly snapped back to reality by two tables placed in the middle of the hall. One of them, as always, had a variety of phones on it. The second held three bracelets, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of curiosity. I had seen collars and weapons in games, but never bracelets.

Chishiya walked towards the tables without hesitation, taking two pairs of each item. He handed me a phone and a bracelet, and I thanked him with a nod. We walked towards the wall together, taking one of the bigger free surfaces.

“Please wait for the game to commence.

Currently, there are 9 participants.

One player needed before registration closes.”

The players already gathered in the hall weren’t anything special. To my surprise, I wouldn’t say that any of them was a complete newbie, but maybe they were just masking well. The most attention-drawing group was four men dressed in suits, just as if they had just got out of an office. I didn’t know if they had worked together or if it was just a coincidence.

I had also noticed two girls besides me; this made me slightly uneasy. The game might turn out to be physical-related, and the men would be more useful, but even though the visible disproportion wasn’t very comfortable. I felt relieved that at least I had Chishiya with me.

“What suit do you think we’re playing?” I asked, glancing at him quickly. He looked as unbothered as always, and I couldn’t read anymore if he was stressed or not.

“I’d say hearts,” he replied without thinking and I sighed with disappointment.

“Hearts? That would be cruel,” I murmured, despite my dissatisfaction feeling he could be right. He usually was. “I’ll say clubs.”

“You can’t guess based on what you want the outcome to be,” Chishiya rolled his eyes, but his voice was almost soft and I smiled at him.

“Why not? It’s a form of manifesting. If I believe in something hard enough, it will happen.”

Chishiya shook his head with resignation at my argumentation, but I caught a glimpse of a smirk playing on his lips. For a moment I felt so normal; as if we were just friends, going somewhere after work, experiencing the simple joy of playfully arguing with each other.

The artificial voice snapped me back to reality.

“Registration closed. The game will now commence.”

My attention quickly shifted to the entrance as I scanned the room in search of a new player. I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed at the sight of another man. He didn’t stand out a bit, so I focused on the screen, waiting for the rules of the game to be announced.

„Game: Human Auction”

“Difficulty: Nine of Hearts”

“Oh shit,” I sighed, feeling my heart drop in anxiety. Nine?! I had never played anything higher than seven, let alone hearts one. I had no idea what to expect of them.

Chishiya seemed unfazed by the game’s difficulty at first glance, but I noticed his jaw was tensed as well, and his eyes were focused on the screen with an intensity that could burn it in an instant. It appeared that the game’s card was a surprise to him too.

“Rules: Every hour, one player is randomly chosen to be auctioned, with the exception of a player with the most points. The selected person’s bracelet will turn red, and by the time the timer shows 0:00, they need to appear in the designated room. The rest of the players will gather in the auction hall, acting as bidders.”

I squinted my eyes in focus. It seemed that it was going to be a real-life human auction. I couldn’t say I liked the idea of it.

“The bid number must end in 0. Bidders cannot auction more points than they have. The person to win the bid will decide what to do with the auctioned person by pressing the desired button. The three choices are to: trade with the auctioned, which will result in switching of their points; kill the auctioned and steal their points or buy the auctioned, in which they gain control over the auctioned for the next hour. If the auctioned fails to complete any order of the bidder, they will be killed by an electric shock from the bracelet.”

“What-“

My eyes widened in shock when I quickly re-read the rules. I couldn’t believe the game had a mechanism of forcing people to follow another person’s order. For some reason, it made my stomach twist in dismay. I had a bad feeling about that.

“All bidders who don’t win the bid will lose half of the auctioned points. If any player’s points drop below 10, they will die. If no one bids during an auction, the auctioned person will die. The game will end after 10 rounds and the three people with the most points will survive. The game will also end if only three players remain. All players start with the initial number of 1,000 points.”

The artificial voice announced the rest of the rules, but I could barely register them. I was still stuck on the previous statements and my palms started sweating nervously.

The game’s rules were complicated, and forced players to play against each other in order to win. The strategy also depended on the other people's choices and I couldn’t think of anything that would ensure winning the game.

My gaze automatically shifted to Chishiya, looking for some kind of assurance in his calm demeanour. This time, however, his fists were clenched, and even though he said nothing, I could feel he was stressed.

Come to think of it, it was the first time I had ever seen him feeling uneasy about a game. And it was making everything even worse. If even Chishiya had never played a game with this difficulty, what chances did I have?

A quiet beep announced the start of the timer. We had one hour before the auction. It didn’t take me long to notice the person who was going to be auctioned; it was one of the men whom I hadn't given much attention to. He was looking at his bracelet with a puzzled expression, which made me assume he didn’t have much experience in games.

“Try to stay close,” Chishiya whispered so quietly I was sure I misheard.

His eyes were scanning the room with focus and I looked around as well, trying to figure out what he could mean. I didn’t notice anything suspicious or dangerous, but I knew better than not to follow his instructions. He had an amazing intuition, after all.

There wasn’t much to do in the main hall, so soon enough other players started to hesitantly leave it, exploring the corridors linked to the room. One of them discovered a cafeteria and before I knew it, almost all of the players were headed in that direction.

I looked at Chishiya askingly and he just nodded. With that, we followed the mass of the players through the corridors. I was walking next to the wall and Chishiya took my left, in a way guarding me from other people. I couldn’t help but smile at that realisation. It was cute in a way.

The cafeteria turned out to resemble a storage room more than a restaurant – there were canned food stored on shelves, and lots of alcohol on the side. Some of the players were already exploring this part of the room, and I rolled my eyes. I’d never allow myself to drink during a game that would decide my survival or death. But maybe it was for the better; a drunken opponent was easier to win against.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, taking a pack of cookies from the shelf and taking a table at the farthest corner of the room. Chishiya followed, also with cookies in his hands, sitting across me with an unreadable expression.

He didn’t reply in an instant, instead taking his time to slowly open the bag of sweets and taste them.

“They’re not bad,” he noted neutrally. He was acting as if he hadn’t heard my question, but I well knew he had.

Chishiya was trying to pretend that everything was normal, either to calm his nerves or mine. I knew there was no use pressuring him into talking, so despite my stress, I tried to focus on the food and not the upcoming game.

Chishiya’s brows furrowed in disappointment after finishing his pack of cookies, but it made him finally meet my gaze. He had a serious expression on his face, and I leaned closer, curious to listen to what he was about to tell. “We’ll be bidding in turns. This way we won’t pointlessly lose points. You need to feel the other players, and that’s the trickiest part of this game. You have to win the bidding, but at the lowest price possible.”

I was nodding through his instructions, agreeing to them. They were logical, reducing the risk of losing our point to a minimum. Of course, we couldn’t predict other people’s choices, but it was the safest option.

“We’re killing the auctioned, aren’t we?” Something between appreciation and worry flicked in Chishiya’s eyes at my question.

“Yes.”

I nodded once again. It was the only way to ensure one’s win. Killing others with cold blood, without the need of self-defence… I’d lie if I said I was comfortable with that thought. But I knew I wouldn’t survive otherwise, and I was ready for it.

I looked up, feeling Chishiya’s gaze still on mine. It was serious, but I felt something resembling care underneath the wall of usual indifference. I tried to smile, even though it couldn’t reach my eyes. “Don’t worry. I can do this. It’s not like I have never killed anyone.”

“Have you?” he asked with a voice free of usual irony.

My gaze dropped to the table and I nodded, unable to respond. Chishiya’s voice wasn’t judging, if anything, I would say it was understanding. He well knew what reality we were living in and so did I.

Even though unwanted memories flashed in front of my eyes, as vivid as if I were experiencing them right now. Five of spades. A shooting range. No escape route. Two people. Two guns.

And I didn’t miss.

“And what do we do if one of us is auctioned?” I shook my head, trying to get rid of unwanted thoughts. I should focus on the game we were playing right now, and not reminisce about old times.

For a moment Chishiya was silent, and the quiet tapping of his fingers on the table was the only sign he had heard my question. “Follow your intuition. It all depends on the distribution of the points and the players.”

My fists clenched involuntarily. This wasn’t anything I’d expected. I was prepared to hear some kind of a genius plan, a cold calculation on how to get out of a problematic situation; and yet it turned out to be fully dependent on other players.

Not to mention Chishiya’s voice, usually emotionless, this time held something dark to it. I didn’t know what it was caused by, and I was too scared to ask. I felt like I didn’t want to know the answer.

We spend the rest of our time in the cafeteria, sitting silently and occasionally eating cookies. I was busy studying the rest of the players in order to take my mind off worrying about the game.

The four businessmen were sticking together in the middle of the room, chatting about something heatedly. Two girls were sitting at one table, glancing around anxiously. If I were in their place, I would probably be doing the same. The two men who were first to discover the shelf with bottles of alcohol were laughing loudly, having already emptied a bottle of beer each.

Chishiya nudged me on the arm slightly, signalling that it was time we headed to the bidding hall. I stood up, feeling a knot of worry tightening in my stomach. The first round was always the worst, so I tried to console myself with the thought that it would get easier over time.

It wasn’t helping a bit.

“Do you want to bid first?” Chishiya asked while we were walking towards the bidding hall, which the path with signs led to.

“I can pass that honour to you.” A corner of his lips twitched slightly from amusement.

“Alright.”

The bidding hall was enormous, even bigger than the hall we had been gathered in at the beginning. There was a big, wooden platform in the middle. Normally, it would probably be meant for the presenter, but now there was a huge screen placed just above it. The platform was surrounded by rows of red velvet chairs, but only the ones closest to the middle had numbers on them, going from one to ten. I checked my bracelet and to my surprise I noticed it was marked as number nine.

“Are you eight?” I asked, noticing Chishiya had checked his bracelet just a second before me. Still as observant as ever, I noted.

“Yeah. Seems like they go in order.”

We walked towards our seats, and I couldn’t control a slight spark of happiness when I realised we were seated next to each other. It was giving me a sense of safety.

Chishiya sat next to me wordlessly, and I was somewhat glad for it. My nerves were tense and I doubted I could hold a proper conversation, let alone have pleasure in talking. I started to get used to his silent way of just being near and I appreciated it a lot.

As the time passed, other players were slowly making their way to the hall. They seemed surprised at the numbered seats at first, but with us already seated in our places, they were able to figure out the rules pretty quickly. I watched with sympathy as two girls got the seats far from each other. So they hadn’t entered the game together. The group of businessmen, however, got seats in order. Either it was a really rare coincidence, or they had really worked together before.

The seat on my right was taken by the last man who had entered the hall at the beginning. He smiled when he noticed my gaze, but somehow it made me uncomfortable. There was something strange to it. I slightly shifted on my chair, moving closer to Chishiya sitting on my other side.

“Attention, players! The auction is about to start.”

The familiar artificial voice declared, and it successfully brought all players’ attention to the screen displayed on the platform. I heard sighs of surprise when it suddenly changed from a timer to a live camera, showing the man with the red bracelet. He was seated on a chair in an empty room, with his wrists and ankles tied to the chair. He also had his mouth gagged. He didn’t seem to notice the camera just yet, as he was just looking around in anxiety.

“The initial price: 9 points.”

The number appeared on the screen above the camera, written in light red colour. The four men in the middle started whispering to each other, seemingly discussing strategy.

“100,” Chishiya declared, making his tone even more unbothered than usual. I couldn’t hold back a smile at the sight of him.

Hell, why did something so insignificant make me smile?

I watched as the number on the screen changed. A timer appeared on the right side of the screen, counting down from ten seconds. For a while, the room was silent, everyone trying to figure out the best strategy.

When the timer was at two seconds, the man to my right spoke. His voice was unusually high for a man and had some unpleasant, sharp edge to it. “120.”

“240” Chishiya didn’t miss a beat, turning his head to look at him.

The man nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact. I leaned back on my chair a bit, not wanting to get in the way of the battle of stares.

“990,” the man grinned, licking his lips in a disgusting manner.

I pulled my eyebrows down in confusion. Was this man using some kind of strange strategy or was he just trying to anger everyone?

“That’s not very nice. Bidding the highest right off the bat? Where’s the fun in that?” Chishiya asked, keeping a light tone, but I could tell from the slight squint of his eyes that he was annoyed.

If gaze could kill, the two of them would fall dead on the spot. I felt really uncomfortable, trapped in the middle of a silent battle. They were glaring at each other and even though both of their tones were light and civil, their hateful gazes were saying the opposite.

“Joy is in the victory, not the winding paths that lead to it.”

The smile on the man’s face didn’t falter even for a moment and for some reason it made me even more uncomfortable than his words. His gaze was focused on Chishiya, but I had a strange feeling he was partially talking to me.

“End of the auction. The winner is number 10. Please press the appropriate button to determine the fate of the auctioned”

A centre of the platform lit up, and it was only now that I noticed a table with three colourful buttons on top. Blue, red and green. I couldn’t see it from where I was sitting, but I assumed they were somehow labelled. It was easy to guess what the red one would do, though.

The man stood from his chair slowly, taking his time to walk to the centre. He knew all of the gazes were fixed on him, and he revelled in this feeling. He adjusted his blazer, trying to act like a real businessman. He stopped right in front of the box, looking at the screen for the last time.

The man strapped to a chair had noticed the camera until now, and was beggingly staring at it. He probably couldn’t see who had won the bidding, but had guessed that we could see him. I felt some pity towards him, but at the same time, I couldn’t help a glint of distaste. To beg for your life despite the certainty of death. I promised myself I would never end like this.

To be honest, this game had only an illusion of choice. If one wanted to win, the only rational option was to kill all the auctioned. It was the most secure way to survive, and the only one that didn’t make you depend entirely on other players’ choices.

The man’s choice wasn’t a surprise. He pressed the red button confidently. After that, he took a step back, looking at the screen. My gaze also went that way, probably just as all of the other players. The room the man was tied in lit up in red colour and he stopped struggling, frozen in shock. He seemed to realise what was about to happen, and it paralysed him.

It took a second for his body to start shaking violently in convulsions. His eyes went so wide it looked as if his eyeballs were to fall out. The gag in his mouth was moving, indicating that he was screaming. It was a strange feeling – to watch him like this, in absolute silence.

I felt uncomfortable, but I couldn't turn my gaze away. There was something darkly hypnotising in a way he struggled against the unforgiving force, not standing a chance from the beginning.

His torture didn’t last long. After a few seconds his lifeless body slumped on the chair, and the screen turned black, the previous counter of an hour reappearing on it.

“Worse than the laser, isn’t it?” I asked, not taking my eyes from the screen where just a moment the electrocution of a man was shown.

When Chishiya didn’t reply, I glanced at him, and my brows furrowed in confusion. His body was tensed and he held his gaze down, looking as if he had just seen a ghost. I followed his gaze and the smile died on my lips.

My bracelet was marked red.

Chapter Text

This time, we barely talked while waiting for the auction. During the whole time I felt as if I was high – all of the sounds were muffled and distant and I had problems with standing straight. I couldn’t believe what was happening.

“This is a sick joke,” I murmured, more to myself than to anyone else.

I was sitting next to a wall in the auction hall. I had to keep track of the time even more than in the previous round; not to mention I had no energy to go anywhere else right now.

Chishiya was keeping me company, even more silently than usual. He was sitting right next to me, but his eyes were wandering somewhere distant. He didn’t have to say anything – I could tell from the stiffness of his body that he was anxious. The situation was bad, if not the worst possible – and he didn’t seem to have a plan to deal with it.

I doubted there could be any plan.

If anyone besides Chishiya would win the auction, I would die. This was the only rational choice for them. Then, my only option to survive was for Chishiya to win the auction. It wouldn’t be anywhere near good in the long run, though. He would be left with almost no points, which meant he would most likely be auctioned; saving him, I would lose most of my points as well. This would make us both good as dead.

I wouldn’t blame him if he decided not to bid in this round. After the first round he had the least points of all players, so he couldn’t afford to risk wasting any more of them if he wanted to survive.

“Is this our goodbye?” I asked quietly.

With the corner of my eye, I noticed Chishiya’s gaze shifted to me, for the first time since my bracelet had turned red. He turned it away just a moment after, but it was enough to make my heart clench in pain. To think I could never see the pretty dark eyes of his ever again.

“Don’t say that. I’ll figure something out,” he replied and I could tell he was trying his best to make his voice as emotionless as always.

But I heard it anyway. The anger of helplessness.

He wasn’t able to do anything.

Hesitantly, I leaned to the side. My heart was beating chaotically when I lay my head on his shoulder. I felt he stiffened, surprised by my action, but he didn’t pull away. My body slowly relaxed and it helped me steady my breath for the first time in the past hour. His presence, even if he wasn’t as calm as always, was soothing.

I cursed myself in my mind for being this timid up until now. Hell, I could have died during every game, and I was still hesitating to tell him what I was feeling. Would it really matter if he had told me he didn’t feel the same? We would just sort things out and move on. And now I might die without even giving it a chance. How cowardly of me.

I couldn’t tell him now.

We had five minutes left until the auction and I didn’t want to burden him with unnecessary feelings. I knew Chishiya was aware of what he had to do and I didn’t intend to make it any harder for him. Despite the cold mask, I knew he cared, even if just slightly.

He had risked his life for me once. I didn’t want him to do it for the second time.

“We should go,” Chishiya remarked quietly, and I nodded.

He had left the way, and if not for this, I doubted I could find the right doors. My legs were limp from anxiety and all I could focus on was the loud beating of my heart. I thought I had got used to being under stress while being in the Borderland; but no game ever could be compared to the feeling of walking toward certain death.

My gaze crossed with Chishiya’s just once before the doors closed shut and I was left alone in the execution room. I smiled faintly, making sure to remember the dark colour of his irises. If I were to die in a few minutes, I wanted them to be my last sight.

I walked towards the chair hesitantly; every time my gaze landed on it, I couldn’t shake off the trembling body of the man from before my eyes. I couldn't imagine what feelings it was to be electrocuted, but I could guess nothing pleasant. Though it was probably better than explosive collars at least.

My wrists and ankles were automatically tied to the chair with mechanical straps the moment I sat down. Soon after, a cloth wrapped around my lips, pressing hard and forcing me to part them for the gag to go in. I clenched my teeth around the cloth. It tasted horrible.

I had noticed the camera even before sitting down, but I decided not to look at it. I hated the idea of other people being able to see me when I couldn’t see them. And I certainly didn’t want to beg for my life; if I had to die, then let it be. But I refused to humiliate myself before it.

The time drew on mercilessly. I had nothing; no screen, no timer. Hell, I even started missing the artificial voice. The only thing that was making the waiting anyhow bearable was the awareness that I would see the light before death; I didn’t have to worry about suddenly shivering in convulsions in the middle of my internal monologue.

I looked around, trying to imagine what would normally take place in this room if not for the game. It was a small space, now empty of everything except a single chair in the middle. It had a camera installed, so I started thinking that maybe they would store the valuable auctioned things here? Ones that they would be too precious to take on stage? Or maybe it was just a storage area where the items were kept before the auctions? Ironical in a way, that now it was storing a person.

“Feels like history has come full circle.” I realised that I was basically in a situation in which slaves had been in ancient times. I started to wonder if this was what they felt before being sold out. Horrifying loneliness. Disdain of bidders. Fear for what was about to come. A desire to at least die with dignity.

Suddenly, I felt that something had changed. It wasn’t anything I could specify. But I felt the aura was different. I froze in place, allowing only my eyes to dart to the sides. And then the light flicked. My eyes widened in surprise.

Green.

I didn’t dare to move, not quite sure what this meant. Green? What were the other two options besides dying? They seemed so unreasonable to use I had almost forgotten they existed. One to trade with an auctioned person, and the other one to buy them. Which of them did the green light mean?

I twisted my head backwards to the point it started to hurt. My eyes were fixed on the doors and I almost didn’t blink. My heartbeat was increasing so fast I felt like I would get a heart attack soon if it was to continue.

It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible.

Even though my mind was sure it was unreasonable, deep down in my heart I hoped I would see Chishiya walking through the doors. I hoped he managed to win the bid in some way. That it was some part of a bigger plan that would allow us to escape this place safe and sound. That his intelligence was enough to beat this game.

I didn’t even notice when the straps on my wrists and ankles loosened. I stayed in the exact same position, tense with anticipation. I heard the slight creak of the doors even before I saw them opening. I held my breath.

And suddenly, all of the air escaped my lungs.

My heart stopped beating, leaving me in a ringing silence. My fingers clenched on the armpits so hard the knuckles turned white.

It wasn’t Chishiya.

It was the man with the number 10.

The one with the disgusting smile. Licking his lips and rubbing his hands together, with his gaze not leaving my body even for a second.

And he was slowly getting closer.

​

---

​

Chishiya sat down in his chair in the auction hall. The empty place on his right was bothering him much more than he thought it would, so he kept his eyes fixed on the timer shown on the screen. He tried not to think about where the girl was.

Chishiya was making his best to act composed, but he couldn’t help the constant tapping of his fingers on the armpit. He had never had problems with keeping his mask up, but this time, something was different. The pressure seemed to be eating him alive, taking control of every nerve in his body and stretching it to the breaking points.

He didn’t have to look to know the guy on his right was staring at him. Observing. Calculating.

Chishiya had a bad feeling about him from the beginning. He had noticed how the man’s eyes would drift to every girl in the room. But what was concerning him the most was that from all of them, he was most frequently staring at her.

He tried not to think much about it; he was here as well, after all. He assumed that even if the man had some disturbing intentions, it would be impossible for him to do anything as long as the game was played right.

He certainly didn’t foresee this.

This was the worst scenario possible, so he had never considered it actually happening. He should have bid the highest in the first round. This way, he would have an advantage in points and would be able to at least ensure the girl’s safety. He knew he had made a mistake the moment he lost the auction, but back then he had no idea just how grave it was.

“Attention, players! The auction is about to start.”’

Chishiya’s gaze moved to the screen almost on its own, despite the fact that it was the last thing he wanted to do right now. The sight of the girl strapped to a chair, stubbornly objecting to look into the camera, made his heart clench. The situation was strangely similar to the game with the guillotine. Except this time, he couldn’t save her this easily.

“The initial price: 9 points.”

This time, the bid went higher much faster.

“100,” one of the businessmen declared right in the beginning in a confident voice.

“120,” Chishiya raised the stakes without hesitation. This seemed to make the man back off a bit.

There was a moment of silence, but just as the timer was about to end the auction, another man spoke up. “160.”

“300,” Chishiya didn’t miss a beat, giving him a gaze so cold the man turned his head away.

He was bidding to win, which combined with the unwavering gaze of his dagger-sharp eyes, was enough to make all of the other players withdraw. Except for one.

“870,” the man to his right declared with visible pleasure, just when the timer was to get to zero.

Chishiya slowly turned to him, with his gaze unwaveringly staring into the man’s sly eyes. It was the maximum he could offer without getting to zero points, and he was sure the man must have counted the points and had said this number intently.

Chishiya knew the man was toying with him. And he could do nothing but play his twisted game, even though deep down he already knew he was bound to lose. He had lost it the moment he got attached.

“880.”

The man’s eyebrows rose in surprise at Chishiya’s unemotional statement. For a brief second his eyes widened in pure shock, but it took them only a few seconds to return to ones filled with their unusual self-assured mockery.

“Are you planning to kill her? Or are you sacrificing yourself?” he asked, leaning closer with interest.

Chishiya responded with a dead gaze, not a single nerve moving in his face. For a moment they were staring at each other in silence and time seemed to freeze in place.

Suddenly, the man’s lips twitched slightly.

Chishiya’s heart dropped. He didn’t have to hear the man’s next words; he already knew. “Ah, as much as I wouldn’t mind seeing you dying… I can’t risk watching such a beautiful lady losing her life in such a horrible way…” he licked his lips again, clearly enjoying the role he gave himself in his own little play. “890.”

Chishiya’s hands clenched around the chair, almost tearing the soft velvet. His insides were burning in flames, and he was fighting the urge to stand up and rip the man’s throat with his bare hands.

This wasn’t right.

This was very far from right.

The man had a displeasing aura to him from the beginning, and now it became even more evident. His lips turned up in a twisted grin when he looked at Chishiya with a dark glint in his eyes; one of power and control, which he could abuse to his content.

For the first time since he remembered, Chishiya felt scared. The situation was slipping from his control fast and he could do nothing about it. What was worse, it didn’t regard him. There wasn’t a single thing in this world that could hurt him directly anymore. But his heart was clenching in a primary fear for her – he knew she could be hurt in a way he never could. And he did nothing to prevent it.

He turned his head to the side, unable to look at the screen or the man anymore. He well knew what was going to happen.

Fuck.

​

---

​

I couldn’t do anything besides looking at the man with eyes wide from shock. My body felt like it was frozen, and the only thing that was moving was my rapidly beating heart. He seemed to be enjoying himself, taking slow, deliberate steps towards me, clearly enjoying the terror he was driving me into. The man smiled, and I couldn’t shake off the feeling he looked just like a wolf who had cornered a rabbit.

“From up close you’re even prettier,” he licked his lips, not moving his gaze from my body even for a second.

I shivered, turning my head away in a pitiful attempt to escape the creepy situation, but I knew I couldn’t.

His hand grabbed my chin harshly, leaving red marks on my skin. He turned my head his way, looking straight at me with half-lidded eyes. My blood ran cold, as if the fear itself was running in my veins. His gaze was dark and empty, just like a black void with no end.

“Why didn’t you kill me?” I asked, trying to control my voice, but it was cracked from fear.

The man chuckled and his eyes squinted even more. “Isn’t it obvious? It’d be a pity to waste such a beauty.”

I grit my teeth at the lust dripping from his voice. The man’s gaze darted lower to my body, and he didn’t even try to hide it. My stomach clenched painfully from repulsion, and something in me snapped. I threw my hand up, slapping him hard across the face.

A loud smack echoed through the room, unnaturally loud in its silence. The man froze in shock; he couldn’t believe a woman could have the audacity to do something like this.

His eyes slowly turned back to me, but this time, they looked different. He seemed as if he had seen me for the first time. His lips were tightly pressed together and I could tell he was furious.

Without a warning, he slapped me back, hitting so hard I slammed onto the floor with a loud thud. I grit my teeth from pain, almost sure the wound on my chest had opened from the impact. I instinctively brought my hand to it, and to my horror, I saw the smears of red liquid marking my fingers.

“Do not ever slap me again,” the man ordered in a grave voice, not caring about the blood marking my clothes.

I took a shuddering breath, too afraid to make even the slightest move. The artificial voice was loud in my head; reminding that every disobedience would send my body into deadly convulsions.

My mind felt like it was drowning in a black void; trying to find any way out, but getting more stressed with every second. I thought about angering him even more, so he would beat me up, but stop looking at me with this disgusting look of his, acting overly obedient or trying to talk him into something…

But every option repelled me in a way. I doubted any of them would work.

And maybe nothing would.

“I always knew pretty girls were bitches,” the man nodded to himself slowly, deliberately saying every word, as if he was stating some lifelong wisdom. He crouched down, getting dangerously close to my face and I closed my eyes, feeling my heart start to beat anxiously in my chest again. “I have no choice but to treat you like you deserve.”

He grabbed my hair harshly, pulling my head up and I shouted in pain. I opened my eyes, looking at him with animalistic fear when he moved my face close to his. His breath was stinky on my lips and only the brutal grip of his hand was restraining me from turning my head away.

The man’s eyes were fixed on mine and the previous fury seemed to be long gone; replaced by a lasciviousness and pride. His lips were constantly curled up in a grin, and he had visible pleasure in seeing my face contorted in pain. “No teeth.”

He held my head in place for a moment longer, either to make sure I had heard him clearly or just enjoying the feeling of control. Then, he leaned forward, digging his teeth deep into the soft skin on the side of my neck.

I shrieked in pain, trying to grasp his neck and push him away. He didn’t care about it, pulling away only when he felt like it. He looked at the blood slowly dripping from the bite with satisfaction. “Un-uh. No touching me without permission.”

“Please…” I begged in a weak voice, already feeling tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. I moved my hands to the floor, pushing them into it hardly to the point my wrists started to hurt; I had to remind myself not to move them back. “Don’t do this…”

“Do what?” The man grinned widely. I could feel I was giving him a lot of satisfaction by letting him toy with me like this, but even though I couldn’t stop myself from begging. Even the faintest chance of convincing him to back down from his intentions was enough for me to give up my pride.

“Don’t touch me…”

“Oh, it’s far too late for that.”

Even though I had expected his response, my lungs suddenly ran out of air. The man gestured to the growing bulge in his crotch and I closed my eyes in disgust. I felt the overwhelming urge to throw up.

The man grabbed my shoulders, forcefully pulling me up to sit on the floor. His hands brushed my hair to the back, not forgetting to graze against my breasts accidentally. I kept my eyes closed when I felt he stood up, already breathing heavier than usually.

“You’re quite my type when you’re silent like this,” the man sighed with content.

I heard the clicking sound of his belt being unbuttoned and soon after a silent rustling of his trousers being slid down. I shut my eyes to the point they hurt, trying to ignore the man’s ragged sighs of pleasure when he stroked himself just over me.

“Look at me.”

I moved my head up slowly, trying to postpone the moment for as long as I could. But I had to look at him at some point; his eyes were squinted from content and he was holding his length with one hand just next to my face. My cheeks flushed with humiliation. “And where did your previous bravery go, bitch?”

I held back the urge to snap back at him, the fear of opening my mouth next to him far greater than my impulse to retort. The man frowned, visibly disappointed in my lack of reaction. He waited for another second, hoping to get something out of me, but when he realised it was no use, he grazed my cheek with a free hand before grabbing my chin harshly.

“Open your mouth.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks when I obeyed. I closed my eyes, but it didn’t help much. I still heard the man’s shuddered chuckles and felt his brutal hand grasping around my face.

When he touched my lips with his tip, I fought the unbearable need to pull away. My body was trembling from fear and disgust. I tried to keep my mind blank, but the sight of his face twisted in a creepy pleasure kept reappearing on its own, so vivid I didn’t know what was real and what was my imagination anymore.

“Don’t pretend to be a prude.” The man’s voice was ragged and he had to take pauses to take a breath before continuing. “I know bitches like you don’t wait long to get dirty.”

He pushed in brutally and I started choking, not being able to take a breath with him inside my mouth. My hands went up, but I immediately slammed them down to the floor; a wave of sharp pain snapping me back to my senses. I tried to move my head back to take a breath, but the man’s hand was quick to grab the back of my hair, forcing me to stay still. He moaned loudly, unbothered by my desperation.

When I finally managed to take a single breath, he thrusted forward, roughly forcing himself even deeper down my throat. I cried out, trying to beg for a break, but everything was muffled by his cock inside my mouth. My body was stiff, objecting against the man’s rough moves, but it didn’t make a difference to him. He was moving harshly, going deeper with every thrust and keeping an inhuman pace; his hand was painfully tangled in my hair, shifting my head whenever he wanted it to be.

I stopped feeling anything; my mind started to drift off, blacking out from the limited amount of air. All I could hear was the painfully loud beating of my heart, mixed with the man’s moans of pleasure. It was almost unbearable to stand.

My body was limp; I stopped even trying to fight back. I allowed the man to just do whatever he wanted to; having a silent hope he would either finish fast or my mind would give up, blessing me with the loss of consciousness.

The man’s fingers clenched in my hair and he pulled back my head, painfully snapping me from the haze. His cock stiffened and throbbed in my mouth, and suddenly I felt it was full of disgustingly warm liquid. I started choking again, but he didn’t pull out, pleased from the sight of me struggling against my own body instincts.

“Swallow.” His voice was almost breathless, but still unwavering.

I followed his order, clenching my fists on the floor hardly. I had never felt this humiliated. His seed was bitter, leaving an awful taste on my tongue. When the man saw that I had obeyed, he finally pulled out, soon after untangling his hand from my hair. I collapsed onto the floor, coughing in a desperate search for oxygen.

“Fuck… you feel so good. I don’t know where this boy got you from,” -he breathed out, buttoning his pants and smoothing his blazer- “but he’s got some luck.”

I curled up on the floor, covering my face with my arms. The tears wouldn’t stop falling down my face and the mention of Chishiya made me feel even worse. My heart clenched painfully at the thought that he would have to see me like this. Humiliated. Broken. Dirty.

“Till the next time, babygirl.”

I heard a quiet click of the doors being closed and only then did I allow myself to take a deeper breath. It didn’t help at all. My body was trembling uncontrollably and I struggled to breathe normally. My jaw was throbbing in pain and my chest was wet from blood soaking through my top. Not to mention the awful taste in my mind. I tried spatting on the ground, but it didn’t get rid of it; I only dirtied my top more and eventually gave up.

My body felt like it didn’t belong to me; so limp it was closer to a wooden log than to a living being. All I wished for was to disappear. To vanish into thin air, without any trace or memory… without the need to see this man even again, without the need to see Chishiya, without the need to explain to him what had happened… I hated the fact that he would know the second he would see me. That everyone would know. I didn’t even have a choice when it came to deciding whom I would tell.

But first of all, I hated myself.

For being this scared to die. For not standing up and objecting, even if it meant death. For being the same pathetic person I had sworn I would never be again. I hadn’t changed a bit, even though I told myself I did. I was still as helpless as then. Pathetic.

Dirty.

​

---

​

Chishiya was leaning against a wall in a corridor just next to the doors leading to the room for the auctioned. He tried to stay still, but his body was shifting constantly, unable to find peace. He had pulled up his hood, trying to mask the fact that his eyes were anxiously fixed on the doors, but it couldn’t hide the tenseness of his posture.

All of the other players had gone to the cafeteria, leaving him alone in this place. It was making the waiting even worse; he was sensitive to every creak, every faintest trace of a muffled voice. The screen had gone blank the moment the man had entered the room and the doors to the room were locked, so he couldn’t see anything. Maybe it was for the better. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to watch what was happening inside.

What felt like an eternity had in reality been only a bit longer than half an hour. Chishiya kept track of the timer, checking it every few seconds. His fingers were tapping nervously on his arms and he felt the pressure getting heavier with every moment.

When the doors let out a silent creak, Chishiya’s attention shifted to it within the blink of an eye. To his disappointment, the one to leave the room was the man, and even though he had predicted the girl would be the last to leave, the knot in his stomach tightened.

The man was relaxed, taking his time to walk out of the room. When he noticed Chishiya, his eyes widened in surprise, but he was quick to recover; his lips curled into a self-assured grin when he locked eyes with the man standing in the corridor. Chishiya’s jaw clenched at the sight, but he turned his head up, holding the man’s brash gaze with steel-cold eyes. A frown of doubt ran through the man’s face, but it didn’t ease Chishiya’s anxiety. It only meant the man had a reason to be scared of him.

“Pretty girl you have. I’d be a waste to gatekeep her, wouldn’t it?” The man’s voice was probing, but even though it had some prideful edge to it. Chishiya’s veins burned from fury.

“Shut up before I make you,” he snapped back, leaning forward, but not letting go of the wall. He was barely holding himself from jumping at the man and he didn’t know if he could control himself if he had gotten closer to him.

“Hey, easy man… there’s no need to be this serious. We can die any moment here, we should seize opportunities when they practically fall into our laps, shouldn’t we?”

The man tried to sound composed, but his hands were brushing against each other anxiously. He didn’t wait for an answer, leaving the room at a fast pace soon after. For a moment, Chishiya felt the urge to follow him, but he quickly dropped this idea. His priority was to see the girl, not to chase his revenge.

When he looked at the door, his stomach tightened again. He started to wonder what he should do, and for the first time, he had no idea what would be better. To walk inside? What if she didn’t want to see him and preferred to stay alone for a moment? To wait here? What if she didn’t have the strength to walk and was hoping for him to come for her?

Chishiya took one step towards the doors; the latter one would be worse. And then he stopped, feeling doubt again. He closed his eyes, trying to put himself in her situation and feel what would be better, but he couldn't.

When the doors creaked again, his head raised so quickly his hood slipped to his back. The sight of her, breathing and alive, allowed him to take a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. At the same moment his heart clenched to the point he could as well have a hole in his chest.

She was walking anxiously, with a gaze turned to the floor. Her hair was tangled and the blood was seeping through her top. Her hands had visible bruises that hadn’t been there before, and were barely visibly trembling.

She didn’t have to say anything. He already knew.

Chishiya’s fists clenched painfully, leaving bloody marks on the palms. He couldn’t take his gaze off her, even though it was hurting him more than anything ever did. She didn’t say a single word when she walked towards him, silently wrapping her hands around his waist and burying her face in the crook of his neck. Chishiya embraced her tightly, a mere illusion of comfort he wished he could give her.

He gently brushed his fingers through her hair, but yanked them away the moment he felt her body tensing under his touch. He wrapped his arms around her again, clenching his jaw hardly from the silent fury and grief.

He would give up everything he had to ease her pain right now. And he well knew it was all worthless.

He could do nothing.

Chapter Text

From this moment, Chishiya felt like something had snapped in him. He was never used to caring about people, but in the last few weeks, he almost unnoticeably changed – it felt like the girl’s soft heart started to change his, making him a bit more cautious and sympathetic towards other players.

Now it was gone.

His heart was empty and hollow, and there was nothing left beside the venomous snake of guilt. Chishiya wanted revenge, but at the same time, all of the fates of other players stopped mattering to him. He had to take her out of here. And he would stop at nothing to achieve this.

The next auction was planned to be one of the four businessmen. At the beginning, Chishiya noticed that the rest of the group was nervous and unsure of what to do. They weren’t ready to risk their own lives for their friend, but at the same time they didn’t want to be the ones sentencing him to certain death.

This was a situation that gave him the most chances.

“20,” one of the men from the group offered after the auction had started, but his voice was almost begging for someone to bid higher.

“40”.

“100”.

“120,” Chishiya declared, deciding it was a good moment to step in.

He had to stake everything on one card. If his plan didn’t succeed, he would have to play with the girl’s points, and he wanted to do everything to avoid dragging her into the auction.

The men leaned toward each other, whispering about something heatedly. The two girls were terrified, and they hadn’t bidden even once, so Chishiya at least didn’t need to worry about them. When it came to the number ten, he had the fewest points of all. He well knew there was no use wasting his points like this.

“130,” one of the men finally offered, but he was far from being sure about this move. His eyes were fixed on Chishiya, waiting for his next move in anticipation.

“140,” Chishiya didn’t wait even a second.

There was a stark contrast between his calm determination and the anxiety of the other men. They seemed to feel it, and it only made them resign faster. It looked like every one of them had dropped the idea of further bidding by now. Chishiya was sure the auction had already ended when the man with the number ten suddenly spoke, making his lips clench involuntarily.

“You need to bid! Can’t you see that if you let him win, he’ll kill you all?! Win the auction when you still have an advantage!” the man yelled, leaning forward in his chair.

Chishiya chuckled, but this sound made all of the people in the room feel a flicker of uneasy fear. His eyes scanned the room, stopping at every person until they turned their gaze away. When he spoke, his voice was no louder than a whisper, and even though held the power greater than the man’s yelling. “Go ahead, try to bid. But I’ll make sure that whoever dares to raise the stake, surviving the game or not, will not make it out of this place alive.”

No one dared.

Not a single nerve twitched on Chishiya’s face when he walked to the centre of the hall and pressed the red button. He didn’t stop to look at the screen. The rest of the people didn’t concern him in the slightest.

He walked to the side of the platform, heading to the side the man with the number ten was sitting. The businessman’s eyes glinted with surprise when he noticed Chishiya was walking towards him, but he didn’t move from his seat.

Chishiya slowed down, making sure the man would hear every word of his. He didn’t spare a single glance at a businessman, and even though his next words made the man’s blood cool in fear.

“You better pray that you get auctioned, because if not, I’ll make sure you die the most painful death known to mankind.”

And without missing a single step, Chishiya continued to walk forward, taking his seat next to the girl just as if nothing had happened. The businessman’s gasp of shock was the only hint that he had even said anything.

“Do you want something to eat?” Chishiya asked quietly.

The girl shook her head, and his heart clenched painfully once again. Every time he looked at her, he couldn’t help but notice her slumped forward shoulders and uncertain gaze. The worst feeling was that he was completely lost, with no guidance on how he should act not to worsen her state. He had never cared for anyone and he never learned how to comfort someone, let alone after something like that. Was there even anything that would be comforting in this situation?

Chishiya didn’t leave her side even for a second. Every time he had a chance, he wrapped his hand around the girl’s shoulders, noticing it made her relax even if just slightly. He decided the best he could do was to finish the game as quickly as possible and leave this god forsaken hell for the best.

The next auctions were just a formality. Chishiya, with the most points of all players, was winning them easily, sending player after player to certain death without as much as a single twitch of an eye. His gaze was dark and hollow, and every time someone carelessly crossed stares with him, they turned their head away with a light’s speed.

Chishiya didn’t pay attention to the game. He was winning automatically, with his mind focused solely on something else.

The man with number ten.

He was imagining his death in every possible way, from drowning deep in the ocean to being burned alive, with his flesh slowly turning into searing ash… but nothing seemed sufficiently painful. Nothing felt like enough.

This was one of the last auctions. Most of the players were already dead, leaving only Chishiya, the girl, the man with the number ten and two businessmen still alive, even though one of them was being auctioned.

The survival of the game turned completely random – with Chishiya bidding the highest price over and over again, no one could win and the auction to get more points than they already had. The only certainty was that the auctioned person would die, so survival depended solely on the order of the auctions.

“Do you really have no doubts?!” The last of the businessmen in the hall asked in a fearful voice, watching as Chishiya made his way towards the centre of the platform.

“Not a single one,” he turned around for a moment, but his gaze didn’t fall onto the man asking the question. It burned straight into the number ten’s face. “Your lives are no more than a vestige I’ll forget by tomorrow.”

Chishiya pressed the red button without hesitation, not sparing a single glance to the screen showing the man contorted in convulsions. He stopped looking at it after the girl’s auction.

With the four players left, it was very possible for the next auction to be the last one. The number ten’s bracelet lit up and Chishiya couldn’t help but feel a bit of disappointment. If he killed the man now, would it really be okay? He had been imagining every possible end of the man for so long, the electroconduction seemed too generous.

The thoughts were haunting him when he was sitting in the hall, under one of the walls. The girl’s head was rested against his shoulder, and he was tracing gentle circles around the girl’s back, almost mindlessly.

That’s when her body suddenly tensed up, and Chishiya’s gaze immediately went up. His eyes widened at the sight of the number ten, standing at the entrance of the hall. The man took a step closer and Chishiya immediately stood up, taking a place between the girl and the man.

Number ten raised his hands in a peaceful manner, stopping as if not to anger the blonde. He couldn’t meet Chishiya’s gaze and even though he didn’t retreat, after a few seconds deciding to speak his mind. “Hey, um… you couldn’t still be mad about the previous situation, could you…?”

Chishiya felt his nerves tensing and he crossed his arms on his chest, trying to keep his composure. He didn’t reply, but his furious gaze was speaking for itself. Despite that, number ten, visibly uncomfortable, didn’t retreat.

“I admit, it was quite… arrogant of me, but who wouldn’t take the opportunity? Listen, I can make it up to you, and to her… two times more, no three times more even! I mean, you have a lot of points, and it would change nothing to spare me and kill the other one…”

Chishiya felt as something snapped in him. He closed the distance between the man in two long strides. “What part of my warning did you not understand? Do you think I was joking?”

The man took a step back, but Chishiya followed, stopping only when number ten’s back was pressed against the wall and he had nowhere to run. Chishiya’s voice was dripping in cold fury. “If I spared you this time, it would be only so I could track you down later, when you’d least expect it. To make you suffer in ways you’d never imagined; to make you beg for your own death, just the way you deserve.”

The man’s breath hitched from fear and his body started trembling uncontrollably. Chishiya stood there for a moment, not moving his gaze from the man’s frightened face. After that, he took half a step back, giving the man just enough space to flee from the room in panic.

When Chishiya turned back, he noticed the girl’s gaze was on him, with tears falling down her face. Before he could think, he rushed forward, catching her in an embrace and pulling her face to his chest. His fingers trembled even so slightly, giving away just how much his whole body clenched in pain.

“I do-don’t want to see him ever again,” she sobbed so quietly it was almost fully muffled by the material of Chishiya’s hoodie. But he heard every word. “Shit, Chishiya… I’m sorry… could you… could you kill him..? Please…”

His grip around her waist tightened. It was the first time she had spoken since getting out of the room and god, it was heartbreaking. To hear her voice this shuddered and quiet. Chishiya had long given up on pretending he didn’t care about her. He cared about her more than about anything else, including his own life. Even if he didn’t want to show it, deep inside he could do nothing to change that.

“Of course,” he promised, despite his best efforts feeling his voice cracking.

But after seeing this, Chishiya couldn’t just let the man die painlessly. During his auction, he pressed the green button even more confidently than all the red buttons before. He walked into the room with his right hand wrapped tightly around a knife, giving the girl one last glance before disappearing behind the doors.

When Chishiya walked back, his hoodie was soaked in dark red.

Number ten didn’t show during the next auction. Chishiya killed the one remaining man, and just after that, a cheerful voice announced that due to the fact that only three players were alive, the game was cleared.

The girl glanced at Chishiya. He was lost deep in his thoughts, but the moment he sensed her attention, his gaze went to hers. His features softened, leaving only his eyes dark in poorly hidden sorrow. He gestured to the doors of the room where the auctioned had been kept. “Do you want to kill him yourself?”

“No… no. I just want to be sure he’s dead,” the girl shook her head. The thought of even seeing the man again was sending chills down her spine, no matter what poor state he was in.

Chishiya nodded, simply accepting her choice. He walked into the room with already bloodied knife in his hand. The last thing heard before the doors closed was the terrified scream of the number ten.

Chishiya came back a few minutes later, storing the now cleared knife in his pocket. He glanced at the girl, and even though her expression didn’t change a bit, he noticed her fists relaxed a bit. Chishiya felt part of the heavy weight pining down his heart suddenly disappearing.

He gently took the girl’s hand, guiding her to the exit from the hall. She followed him quietly, keeping close. When they walked outside of the auction house, Chishiya didn’t look back, and neither did she.

There were no witnesses left after the game. If the girl wanted to forget about what happened here, not a single soul could remind her of that. If she didn’t want anyone to know about what she had gone through, no one would know. She had all the control about the memories of this place.

It was all Chishiya could offer her.

His hand tightened slightly around hers, and she glanced at him. Chishiya’s gaze was fixed on the ground, and if she hadn’t looked at him, she would have missed the fact that he said anything.

“I’m sorry.”

Chapter Text

Our way to the Beach was nothing more than an unconnected mix of sensations. I remembered the glimpses of a navy blue car, the smell of chlorine in the water and muffled music playing somewhere in the background, but my mind struggled to connect them all to create a whole image. It felt like the weird state between being conscious and falling asleep; when the most surreal things feel more normal than reality itself.

“You must be tired, so I’ll introduce you to the Hatter in the morning. For now you can stay the rest of the night here.”

Chishiya was walking around the room, taking a blanket and a pillow from a wardrobe. He was avoiding my gaze, but his tone had a soft undertone to it. 

“Is this your room?” I asked, hesitantly looking around.

The lamp wasn’t turned on, letting the rays of moonlight streaming into the room through the large window be the only form of illumination. It made the space look almost unreal, with all edges blurring smoothly into dark shadows. I managed to spot a large bed in the middle of the room, along with some outlines of smaller nightstands on each side, but with no details. 

On my left side the wall was parted by slightly open doors, which led to a simple private bathroom. It also wasn’t lit up, so I couldn’t really make out what was placed inside.

The thing that stood out the most was the cleanliness of the room; all of the blankets were neatly folded, and there were no unnecessary trinkets scattered around. In fact, the room seemed almost unused, and if not for the fact that Chishiya had led me here, I wouldn’t believe if anybody told me somebody was living here.

“Yes. You’ll probably be assigned yours tomorrow.”

Chishiya stopped for a moment, crossing gazes with me before quickly shifting it somewhere to the side again, as if scared of a longer eye contact. My fists clenched involuntarily. Even though I knew he meant nothing wrong, I was upset about the sudden change in his demeanour. There was some kind of tension between us that neither of us knew how to resolve.

“If you wanted to change, I could give you some of my pyjamas for the night.” 

I nodded with almost no hesitation; I didn’t need to even look at myself to know I was soaked in blood, dust and some other substances I preferred not to remember about. Chishiya took a white shirt and matching shorts from the wardrobe, handing them to me. I tried to catch his gaze, but his eyes were stubbornly trailing somewhere to my left.

“I’ll also give you some bandages for the cut.”

It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer. I felt a flicker of disappointment at the fact he didn’t propose to treat the wound for me, but I tried to convince myself it wasn’t a big deal; he must be tired as well, and the cut didn’t need any professional care. I felt there was something more to it, but it was easier to pretend it was just his tiredness.

When I closed the doors to the bathroom and finally shrugged all of my previous clothes to the floor, I felt unexplainable relief. They were like a weight dragging me down, and seeing them lying pitifully on the cold tiles of Chishiya’s bathroom was giving me a mix of satisfaction and comfort. 

I took my time to wash up, making the water as cold as I could manage to bear. I could sense as the stream washes the blood and dirt from my body and makes it disappear in the drain, and it felt almost like it was washing something inside of me as well.

When I walked out of the shower, I glanced at the mirror placed above the sink, and I couldn’t stop my lips from frowning. I looked horrible. My hair was a mess, all tangled and wet. The skin around my eyes was tinted red from the recently shed tears and the pupils I once adored now seemed dull and colourless. 

I snapped my head away in a second. I had no energy to take care of myself, and looking in the mirror any longer would only drain me more. I promised myself I would take care of it in the morning, when I would feel better.

Bandaging the cut was quite easy, especially that thanks to the stiches Chishiya had used before, the wound was almost healed. Now it was only slightly open and I was sure it would heal within the next few days.

Putting on Chishiya’s clothes felt strangely nice. They were soft and comfy; I had to tie the strings in the shorts tightly so they wouldn’t slip from my waist, but the shirt was perfect for a slightly oversized one. 

When I walked outside of the bathroom, Chishiya was already in his pyjamas, and was busy placing the blanket and the pillow on the floor, just under the window. I stopped in place, confused at his actions. 

Chishiya must have sensed my gaze, so he explained himself without glancing at me. “You can take the bed. I’ll sleep over here.”

“That’s a bit unfair. It’s your room,” I argued, hesitantly getting a step closer. The idea of a soft bed was really appealing, but the fact that I would kick Chishiya out of it in his own room felt wrong. “We can at least share it. It’s big enough for both of us.”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing.”

Chishiya’s voice left no place for further discussion and I gave up on trying to convince him. I knew he was probably just being respectful, but my mind couldn’t stop tormenting me with thoughts that he simply didn’t want to share a bed with me.

I got onto the bed, feeling as the soft mattress sinks under my weight. I lay down, covering myself with the blanket up to my chin. It felt extremely nice; to lie in a comfortable bed for the first time in weeks. I closed my eyes, trying to focus solely on my breathing and forcing my mind to imagine something good – my time before Borderland; peaceful mornings in a café, where I would take my time to wake up with a cup of a flavoured coffee, trips with my friends where we’d do the dumbest things and somehow still come out alive, silent rainy nights spent on reading silly romance novels… 

My mind smoothly moved to my memories from the Borderland, much more vivid than the previous ones. The scary run on the top of a stone wall in my first game, the softness of Chishiya’s lips during the guillotine one, his uncompromising gaze when he sliced the knife through his arm to take the tag from me… but for some reason, every time, my line of thoughts ended the same way.

Each time I started thinking about the games, the Human Auction would appear. Not immediately, no. It was lingering in the shadows of my mind, waiting as a wolf hidden in the dark; pressing into my skull until I lost focus enough for it to strike in full strength and take all of my vision forcefully, impossible to be changed for another memory.

I could see the creepy smile on the man’s face, feel his stinky breath close on my cheeks and suddenly my lungs were out of air again; I was back in that room, struggling on the floor for an ounce of oxygen…

I sat up rapidly, looking around the room in panic. My breath was ragged and I needed a moment to calm it down. I couldn’t sleep tonight. Hell, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to sleep again.

It wasn’t the first time I had been raped. Back in the real world, with my ex, the situation had been much worse. I was trapped in an abusive relationship, not yet seeing it as something damaging. Back then, it was only thanks to my family and friends that I managed to get out of the relationship. It took me weeks to be able to sleep, months to function somewhat normally, and even though I never forgot, the nightmares were happening significantly less often.

Right here, I was alone.

My gaze went to where Chishiya was supposed to be lying; I could barely recognize his form in the darkness. I really wanted to see his dark, calm eyes. To hear his forever unaffected voice. To feel his gentle but precise touch. But it felt unfair to wake him up in the middle of the night after he had already allowed me to sleep in his room.

I moved my gaze to the ceiling again, trying to push away the scenes from my memory.

„It’s okay. I’m not sleeping,” a muffled, certainly sleepy voice echoed from the floor.

I glanced at Chishiya, suddenly more awake. “You’re not?”

„I’m waiting for you to fall asleep first.”

I was expecting some kind of ironic response, but it was the most genuine thing I’ve heard in a while. Chishiya tried to shush down a yawn, but I heard it nonetheless; it made me chuckle, even though my voice had some subconscious sadness to it.

The room fell silent for a moment. „I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”

Chishiya didn’t respond for a while, and I thought he had given up to his tiredness. His quiet, a bit raspy voice surprised me. „Then I guess I won’t sleep either.”

My chest warmed from his words.

„Chishiya?”

„Hm?”

„Could you hold me? Please.”

Chishiya was silent and I was sure he was going to object again. I heard a quiet rustle of the blanket, followed by a shift of the mattress on the bed. My heart skipped a bit when I saw him a bit hesitantly sitting on the side. I couldn’t see his face in the dim light of the moon, but somehow I knew that this time, his gaze was on me.

Chishiya lay down, making sure not to take up more than half of the bed. I wasn’t this considerate, moving closer to him almost instantly, as if drawn by an invisible force. I wrapped one of my hands over his chest and rested my head on his shoulder. My heart was beating nervously and I had no idea if he wasn’t going to push me away.

But Chishiya’s arm wrapped around me, pulling the blanket over my back. He rested his hand on my waist, not pulling me closer, but not allowing me to move away easily either. I smiled faintly. I could hear the steady beat of his heart loudly in my ears, and even when I closed my eyes, it was the only thing my mind could focus on. My body relaxed on its own, and before I knew, my mind was drifting away, sung to sleep by the very same rhythm that was keeping Chishiya alive.

---

The morning came much too quickly for my liking. It was one of the most peaceful nights during Borderland, one which was not filled with images of bloodied corpses or the merciless laser shining through the darkness. It was simply blackness – calming and secure. 

I didn’t quite like the idea of getting up right now, still hoping I could sleep for a little longer. I rolled to my other side, trying to escape the rays of sunlight making their way into the room, straight into my face.

It was only then I realised I was lying alone.

My eyes opened instantly and I sat up, looking around the room in panic. For some reason, the thought of Chishiya going somewhere and leaving me here alone terrified me more than I’d care to admit. When I spotted him standing in the room, slowly zipping up his hoodie, I felt a bit embarrassed I could think he would actually abandon me.

Chishiya must have felt my gaze on him, because he turned to look at me. Something flicked in his eyes, resembling guilt and relief at the same time. I didn’t have time to figure out what it meant, as he quickly returned to his typical unreadable face. Chishiya calmly turned around, walking towards the nightstand. My gaze followed him, and I noticed a metal tray lying on the furniture. “What’s this?”

“I figured you could be hungry in the morning,” Chishiya replied. His voice was flat, but even though I felt some tension in it I hadn’t heard ever before. I wondered if it was because of me. “I wasn’t sure what you like, so just choose whatever you want.”

Chishiya passed me the tray and after a second of hesitation I took it. I couldn’t quite believe that it was the reality and not the illusion made by my sleeping mind. Sure, I knew Chishiya could be caring when he wanted to be, but right now he was acting like a whole new person. I felt the urge to ask him about it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I decided to just eat for now, especially because my stomach growled quietly in reminder that I hadn’t eaten for almost a whole day. I hoped I would find a good opportunity for the conversation later.

“Is this… tea?” I asked in disbelief, picking up a cup from the corner of the tray. Besides the hot liquid that smelled just like the drink I was starving for, there were also some sandwiches, toasts, and a fruit salad in a bowl.

“I promised, hadn’t I?”

Chishiya’s response was quiet and my heart felt like torn with a blade after hearing his voice. There was something hidden underneath his words, and it felt extremely sorrowful. I glanced at him, but his eyes were fixed on the floor, despite the fact that he must have sensed my gaze. I took a sip of the tea silently, deciding it wasn’t the right time to ask him about this.

The taste of the green tea warmed my stomach, and I smiled mindlessly. I wrapped my fingers tighter around the cup as if the drink was my lifeline in this harsh reality. If I had to choose only one thing I would be drinking for the rest of my life, it would definitely be tea.

“I’ll introduce you to the Hatter today. He’s the leader of the Beach.” Chishiya’s voice sounded as usual, as he was trying to ignore the tension hanging in the air as well.

“The Beach?”

“That’s how this whole place it’s called. Hatter should explain everything to you and after that I’ll show you around.”

I nodded in acceptance. Even though I wanted nothing more than to lock myself up in this room and stay here forever, Chishiya would fall into trouble if anyone found me here. Not to mention I should know the layout of the place I was staying in for my own safety, after all.

“What should I wear?” I asked, realising that going to the meeting in Chishiya’s pyjamas might not make the best first impression. At the same time, the thought of putting on my previous clothes, now lying chaotically scattered on the bathroom’s tiles, was making my stomach twist uncomfortably.

“There’s actually a dress code here. It’s one of the Hatter’s weird rules,” Chishiya replied, running his hand through his hair with visible discomfort.

“Hm?” I hummed, waiting for him to explain it more. “What dress code?”

“Beachwear,” Chishiya’s voice was almost dismayed. I was so surprised I thought I had misheard for a moment. “But it’s not very strict. You can pull a hoodie over it and it still counts.”

“Alright..” I tried to hide how relieved I felt upon hearing this. Maybe wearing beachwear in a place where everyone wore it wouldn’t be awkward, but I doubted I could feel comfortable with being this exposed. “For what was this rule even created?”

“God only knows.”

Chishiya rolled his eyes, and my lips twitched slightly. He looked so annoyed by the rule it was endearing. 

While I was finishing my breakfast, Chishiya went out to find some clothes for me that would follow the dress code; he came back not long after, with hands full of various swimsuits and zip-up hoodies. He placed them on the bed and waited for me to finish eating so he could take the tray back.

I decided for a black set of bikini and shorts, alongside with a hoodie in the same colour. Walking to the bathroom to put them on, I noticed my previous clothes were nowhere to be found. I could swear I left them on the floor, so it meant Chishiya had taken them somewhere.

I was grateful for that.

Changing into a swimsuit was a bit embarrassing, but after I had zipped up the hoodie fully, I decided it could have been worse. I brushed my hair with my hands, deciding to ask Chishiya about hair ties the next occasion I get. I still couldn't bring myself to look in the mirror, but even without that I could tell I didn’t look very well. My hair must have been greasy, not washed properly since the beginning of Borderland.

Up until now, it didn’t bother me much and I focused solely on survival; but after arriving here, I started to notice that Chishiya’s hair was actually cared about, and probably so was the other people’s. The last thing I wanted was to stand out because of that.

When I walked out of the bathroom, Chishiya was already waiting in the corridor. He led me through the halls in silence, which I didn’t feel the need to break. I focused on looking around, trying to make out what kind of place I was in; it was giving off the vibes of a typical hotel, with corridors looking aesthetic, but not too luxurious. I had to admit, it was much bigger than I would have guessed – the halls felt like they could go on forever. As for me, every one of them looked exactly the same and I wondered how long Chishiya had been here to be able to navigate through them this confidently.

“I’ll be hanging around here, so just wait for me when you’re finished.”

Without giving me much time to respond, Chishiya knocked on the doors loudly and soon after a muffled “come in” was hearable from the room. I glanced at him, trying to take some of this everlasting confidence with me, and I opened the doors in one motion.

I didn’t know what I expected to see, but it certainly wasn’t this.

A luxuriously decorated room with a big red sofa placed just in the middle of it. It was taken by a man with black sunglasses placed on his head and two girls sitting on both of his sides. The man was drinking something that looked like whiskey and chatting freely with both of the girls, turning his head from side to side to make sure both of them received enough attention. He had just cracked a joke, and both of the women laughed loudly. When the man spotted me, his smile widened and he gestured for me to get closer.

“You must be the new girl Chishiya brought!” he neither asked nor stated, watching me carefully as I made my way across the room. I decided to sit on one of the chairs placed opposite to the sofa, and he seemed to be pleased with my action. “Do you want a drink?”

“No, thank you,” I shook my head, trying to sound polite. The situation felt a bit bizarre, and I wasn’t sure how to act; not to mention I felt a bit curious about the man and I was still trying to figure out his character.

He must have sensed my curiosity, because he winked playfully. “I’m not quite meeting your expectations, am I?”

“That’s not exactly-“

“Don’t try to be polite. Just speak your mind,” the man interrupted, this time smiling to the woman on his left, who giggled at his words.

The man then waved his free hand, and the two women stood up immediately as if on command, leaving the room without any questions. My gaze trailed after them in surprise. The man must have really had quite an authority here.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything to drink? We have a lot of skilled bartenders,” the man renewed his proposition, and my head turned back to him.

“Thank you, but I don’t really drink.” The man shrugged his arms in a gesture that screamed that it was my loss. He took another sip from his glass, visibly pleased by the taste of alcohol. “Are you… the Hatter?”

“Yeah.” The man nodded and tilted his head with interest. “Chishiya told you about me?”

“Just your name. And your rule about the dress code,” I added, involuntarily checking that my zipper was fully zipped up. I felt painfully aware of the fact that I had only a bikini top underneath it.

Hatter laughed, shaking his head in amusement. “Right. He was the one who complained the most about it.”

The expression on Hatter’s face turned to a more serious one and he placed the glass on the table, leaning forward; he caught my gaze, ensuring I was listening. I focused, feeling he was going to say something significant. “But first things first, there are more important rules about this place.”

Then, he started to explain more about the Beach; the hotel’s objective to be a safe place for people to rest between the games and the freedom it guaranteed. He mentioned that the executives collected all of the cards acquired from the games and that it would someday allow players to leave the Borderland. When he mentioned the “death to all traitors” rule his voice sounded so serious I started to wonder if he was still the same man I saw when entering the room.

“But don’t forget the most important rule of this place.” Hatter’s voice came back to normal carelessness and he winked at me.

“The most important rule?” I asked, as I had been sure he had already finished explaining them.

“Have fun.”

My lips twitched slightly at the sight of a wide smile on the Hatter’s face. Even though my mood was far from being joyful, the kid like personality of the leader of the Beach was somehow warming. I started to get the idea of how he had managed to get people to enjoy themselves in such a depressing reality.

When I was leaving the room, I passed the two girls who had been in the room previously. They gave me an unreadable look before walking inside just after I had left. I smiled faintly, thinking that the Hatter’s worst weakness was his attraction to pretty women.

I looked around the corridor, but Chishiya was nowhere to be seen. He had promised to keep somewhere near, but I wasn’t sure what exactly it meant. I doubted he would just stay right under the leader’s doors, so if I didn’t want to hopelessly wait for him to walk through here, I had to look for him.

I decided to take the left corridor, as it was the direction we had previously walked from. The corridor felt even more endless than back when I was walking with Chishiya, so I held a fast pace, hoping that I wasn’t mistaken and he wasn’t waiting for me on the other side of the Hatter’s room. At least I was lucky the halls didn’t have any forks, so I could easily come back if I wanted to.

Eventually, I walked outside the hotel. I ended up on the side of a big pool, which was packed with people despite the early morning hour. They were everywhere – swimming in the water, resting on deckchairs, chatting on the pavements… to make the noise worse, the whole place was surrounded by loud, club music, which was barely allowing me to hear my own thoughts. I felt the unfathomable urge to escape this place.

Just when I wanted to turn around and walk back to the Hatter’s room, I noticed the familiar fade of white in the corner of my eyes. Not long after I recognised Chishiya’s hoodie and his usual relaxed manner of standing with his hands tucked into pockets.

I already took a step towards him before I noticed he wasn’t alone.

Chishiya was talking with a girl standing just next to him. I didn’t recognise her, but I could tell she was pretty; with long, braided hair and a matching blue bikini set. She was standing just as confidently as Chishiya, and it could be seen they had known each other for a while.

My heart felt like stung, even though I knew it was wrong. 

I didn’t know why I assumed Chishiya would have only me here, just as I had only him. He had been to the Beach before and must have made some acquaintances, even if he wasn’t the most outgoing person. It would be selfish for me to expect him to only talk to me.

I turned around, holding back tears that for some reason welled up in my eyes. I decided to try and find Chishitya’s room; I could just stay there and calm myself down. The fact that I had been assigned my own room didn’t help at all, making it painfully obvious that my relationship with Chishiya was to loosen.

Just when I was about to walk away, I heard someone calling my name. I turned around, noticing the girl who was previously talking to Chishiya running in my direction and waving her hand.

“Hey,” she breathed out after getting close enough for me to hear her. She rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath after the strain. “I can’t believe we almost missed you.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” I smiled faintly, but it left a bitter taste on my tongue.

“No no, don’t worry! We were waiting for you,” the girl immediately denied, smiling reassuringly.

“Waiting for me?”

“I really wanted to meet you.”

The girls seemed really nice and genuinely happy, and I started to feel bad about my previous behaviour. Who was I, an immature teenager? Even if Chishiya liked her, what would be wrong with that? I could tell she was a good person. I had no reason to dislike her just because she was close to the boy I had a crush on.

The girl must have noticed my eyes were instinctively snapping to the place she had been standing before, because she explained even before I got a chance to ask about anything. “Chishiya had to go to the executive’s meeting; he said he would find us later. I promise I can be twice as interesting as him, though, so you won’t be bored!”

The girl winked at me, and I smiled faintly. I was a bit disappointed that Chishiya hadn’t said anything, but maybe he had had his reasons. I really wanted to talk to him, but if he had an important meeting to attend, the best thing I could do was to patiently wait.

I also felt a subconscious need to get to know the girl better, so I agreed to her proposition.

Chapter Text

Kuina, as I learned the girl’s name was, suggested we get some drinks from the bar and then find a quieter place to talk. I gladly agreed to the idea, already feeling overwhelmed with the party’s loud music and the crowd.

I had been in bars some times in the real world, but I had never seen a menu as broad as this one. The list of drinks being served seemed like it could go on forever, and I doubted my lifetime would be enough to test every one of them. 

Kuina was quick to catch on to my hesitation, and she offered to help me with the decision, which I quickly agreed to. She answered every question about the drinks I had, and it left me wondering how much she was drinking to be able to discern the taste of every single one I pointed to.

In the end, I decided on a galaxy mocktail; I wasn’t in the mood to drink anything alcoholic today, and the drink was supposed to be half sweet and half sour, which suited my taste very well. Kuina took a mojito for herself, and just after the bartender served our drinks, she led me to a deserted terrace placed on the opposite side of the hotel from the pool.

It was a small space, surrounded by sand-coloured brick walls with dark green hedges growing up on them. In the middle stood three wooden tables with benches, but besides us, there wasn’t a living soul here. I was surprised by that, given that, thanks to the fact that the music was barely audible here, the place had a soft, calming vibe to it.

“Not many people know about this place,” Kuina explained when we sat at one of the tables.

I nodded, taking a spot opposite her. I had lots of questions piling up in my head, but at the same time I wasn’t quite ready to ask any of them. My body still felt a little numb from the shock of seeing her and Chishiya standing together closely, and I wasn’t sure how to act – I had never prepared myself for a scenario like this.

Kuina seemed to have sensed my uncertainty, because she kept quiet, only looking at me with waiting, but understanding eyes. It was her quiet way of not pressuring me into anything that made me actually ask the most nurturing question. I doubted I could hold any conversation without getting an answer to it. “Kuina, are you… are you close to Chishiya?”

“Close?” She seemed a bit surprised by the question. Kuina leaned back on her chair, thinking about an answer. “We’ve known each other for some time, and I think we trust each other, but I wouldn’t call that being necessarily close.”

I hummed in response, taking a sip of my mocktail to not give up I was a bit disappointed at the short answer. Kuina mirrored my move, and a second later her brows furrowed as if she had just thought about something. “Wait, do you like Chishiya?”

“What? No!” I immediately denied, despite my best efforts feeling as my cheeks burn at the assumption. I turned my head away, toying with the straw in my drink. “Well, maybe a little…”

“Ah, you should’ve told me sooner! Oh gosh. We’re nothing like this. He’s totally not my type, and me… he’d never once gotten closer to me than a meter’s distance, so I don’t think I could be even close to his.”

I smiled at her words, mostly because of the honesty that looked out from her eyes. She wasn’t denying out of courtesy or to make me feel better – she was simply saying what she felt was true. It actually eased my uneasiness, and it seemed like my smile relieved her – Kuina’s lips also curled up in a warm beam. 

I slowly sipped my drink, remembering the last days spent with Chishiya. Well, he certainly was closer to me than a meter. Much closer, I noted, feeling a warmth spreading in my chest. I almost forgot how he used to be in the first game – cold and distant, almost unreachable. I realised that my vision of him changed to the caring and protective side of Chishiya, one that, thinking about that, couldn’t be usual.

I hated that every memory of him led me to the Human Auction.

The smile died on my lips, and I took another sip of my mocktail to cover up the sudden tenseness in my jaw. I didn’t know if Kuina had noticed it, but her smile also faltered a bit. She must have sensed something was wrong and assumed I was still uncertain about Chishiya’s relationship with her.

“Listen, um… I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I feel like it would mean much more than my words. What I want to say is, Chishiya cares about you. A whole lot. It was actually him who asked me to talk to you; he mentioned that the last game was pretty rough and he had no idea if he could help anyhow after it,” Kuina said, a bit hesitantly. She was toying with the straw in her drink, carefully choosing her words. Suddenly, her head rose up and she met my gaze. “It’s not that I didn’t want to meet you, of course. I hoped I would get a chance to talk to you since I first heard about you. But he has never asked me, or anyone, for anything, and now he had given up on his so-called pride to do that.”

“Wait, you… you know what happened in the last game?” My lungs clenched and felt out of air; my hand grasped around my chest when I tried to take a shaken breath.

Kuina’s eyes widened in shock and she stood up rapidly, almost tripping over her mojito off the table. “No! Oh god, I’m so sorry. He only mentioned it was hard, and rumours say it was nine of hearts; this couldn’t have been easy. I don’t know anything more than that.”

I took a shaky breath and looked at Kuina apologetically, which made her sigh in relief. I had never asked Chishiya to keep what happened in the game a secret, but for some reason, the thought of him telling someone about it made my head dizzy. I felt bad about assuming he would do that, but after hearing confirmation that he hadn’t, I subconsciously relaxed.

Kuina’s smile made its way back onto her face when she saw my expression calming down. She sat down, moving the glass of mojito further from the edge of the table. “You don’t need to tell me anything, of course. Nine of hearts sounds like a true nightmare. I just want you to feel comfortable, so if you wanted to stay alone for a bit, or you needed anything else, I’m here for it.”

“Thank you,” my lips curled up into a faint smile. “It’s actually really nice to talk normally like this. The game, I… I’m actually handling it. I think I’ll just draw a line between then and now, and try to forget.”

“You sound fucking strong, you know that?” Kuina asked with genuine respect in her voice, and I laughed, shaking my head. I never considered myself strong, and even though I didn’t believe the compliment, it warmed my heart.

After that, the conversation flowed naturally and I got the feeling like we were two colleague friends who met again after graduating. Kuina told me a lot about the Beach, answering every question I could come up with; she also added some interesting facts about the most unique executives, mentioned the tension between militants and Hatter’s followers and ranked all of the most intriguing boys from the hotel.

It didn’t take me long to start laughing loudly alongside her while playfully arguing about the number of Last Boss’s tattoos. When she mentioned Niragi, I felt an unpleasant ache and wanted to ask her further about him, but I immediately dropped the idea. It had to be the coincidence of surnames after all.

Kuina asked me about my first meeting with Chishiya, and I gladly told her about it. She laughed at my description of his poker face, adding that she had never seen him with any expression except for the I-knew-this-would-happen-all-along face. When I said that I actually had, and that Chishiya isn’t as cold as he appears to be, she moved her brows significantly, making me chuckle again. I would have never thought that gossiping about the guy I liked with a genuine friend could be this heartwarming.

“Having fun?” A well-known half-amused voice cut through our conversation. 

I glanced at the entrance to the terrace, still with a wide smile on my face. Chishiya was standing there, leaning against the wall in a pose I knew all too well. His eyes weren’t on me, but I knew he had been looking in my direction just a moment ago, and it only made me smile more. 

“I was hoping you didn’t know about this place and I could have her all to myself,” Kuina rolled her eyes, acting a bit disappointed about Chishiya’s arrival. She winked at me with a half-smile. “We had a really nice chat, you could’ve pretended you didn’t see us.”

“I would, but I felt I should join a conversation that’s about me.”

Kuina scoffed, but a smile was tugging on the three of our faces. Chishiya eventually decided to leave his perfect spot against the wall, joining the two of us at the table – he stood behind my back, nonchalantly resting his hands against the back of my chair. I tried to act unaffected, but I couldn’t deny my heartbeat increased a bit. Kuina gave me a suggestive smile, and I rolled my eyes at her.

“Anything interesting at the meeting?” I asked, turning my head back slightly to glance at Chishiya.

“Not really,” he shrugged his arms. “Mainly Hatter’s talking. But the rumours say they’ll bring someone new today.”

“Oh, that’s certainly interesting.” Kuina’s eyes sparkled with interest when she leaned forward in investment. “I could dress up a bit. Who knows, maybe it will be someone captivating?”

“Oh, right, Kuina,” I suddenly remembered about the thing I wanted to ask her. “Do you have any spare hair ties?”

“Of course,” she smiled immediately, pointing at her hair. “A whole lot of spare hair ties. You know what, if you wanted to, I could tie your hair myself.”

“Oh, I’d love that.”

I smiled at the excitement that flashed in her eyes. Initially, I planned to borrow a tie or two and tie my hair into simple braids, just enough not to make it obvious it hadn’t been washed for a while. But after Kuina suggested she could do it for me, I didn’t hesitate for a second, well knowing she was much more skilled in that than me.

Chishiya was never asked for an opinion, but he silently followed us to Kuina’s room, so I assumed he didn’t have anything against waiting for a while. Kuina ordered him to sit on her bed and forbade him from moving from there until we were ready; Chishiya rolled his eyes at the command, but obeyed without opposition.

I quickly realised that Kuina’s room was in stark contrast to Chishiya’s. If his room seemed not lived in, her room looked like it was home for at least four people. All free space was taken by everyday use objects like toothbrush and deodorant, the shelved were filled with aesthetic, but useless objects and the floor was basically flooded with clothes.

But, I didn’t dislike it. It matched Kuina’s joyful personality, and it was heart-warming in a way. It reminded me of my room from when I was a little girl.

I didn’t have any preferences about the way my hair would be tied, and Kuina seemed to be very happy about that fact. She covered the mirror with a towel, telling me I was only allowed to see the finished version. Kuina then started to take out hair ties, combs, small make-up brushes and lipsticks from various cabinets and store them all on the sink. I smiled faintly. She reminded me a lot of Chishiya when he was getting ready to remove the bullet from my leg.

For most of the process, I kept my eyes closed, so when Kuina uncovered the mirror, I couldn’t believe it was me in the reflection. My hair was tied into a bun, with little strands of hair left in the front, framing my face perfectly. She had put some shadow and mascara on my eyes, making them look more vivid. My lips were tinted in a faint pink, which matched the colour of my pupils. I touched my cheek, not believing that in barely half an hour my appearance could change this much.

“Do you like it?” Kuina asked, tilting her head to take a better look at my face. I could tell she felt proud of her work, but at the same time, she was worried if I was happy with the result as well.

I turned around, hugging her tightly out of excitement. “It’s amazing!”

I hadn’t felt this pretty in a long time. Not only after Human Auction, but before the whole Borderland. Back when I still didn’t know my now-ex. I think it was the moment when my self-esteem started to collapse. 

And somehow, Kuina managed to make me so similar to the prettiest version of myself, one that didn’t yet know about all of the cruelty of this world. The version I missed every single day since then.

When we walked outside of the bathroom, I noticed the slight rise of Chishiya’s brows at my appearance, and my lips curled up from satisfaction. It didn’t last long, and the change of his expression could easily be missed, but I had caught it.

“Pretty, isn’t she?” Kuina grinned, gesturing at me as if I were her gifted child.

“We should get going if we don’t want to stumble onto a mass of drunken idiots.” Chishiya ignored the question, but there was a long enough moment of silence between Kuina’s question and his answer for her to grin winningly.

Soon after, we went on our little tour around the Beach – Chishiya was leading the way, and Kuina and I were following him, occasionally commenting about something. He showed me where the executive’s rooms were located, with special advice on which to stay away from, as well as the main hall and some well-hidden medical rooms. 

The time went on quickly, and before I knew it, the sun was already setting. We had walked through the whole hotel and we were currently standing at the pool, watching as the area was slowly filling up with more and more people craving a party. We were silent, but it was almost as if we had formed such a solid connection we didn’t even have to talk to understand each other. It was amazing how well Kuina matched my energy despite the fact we had first met a few hours ago.

“I’ll go grab something from the bar,” she suddenly stated and before any of us had any opportunity to reply, she was already on her way, waving goodbye. “You don’t have to wait for me, I’ll catch you tomorrow!”

And with that, she was gone. I had a feeling it was her plan to leave me alone with Chishiya, and I couldn’t say I didn’t appreciate it. I turned my head slightly to look at him with the corner of my eye, but not make it too obvious I was observing him.

“Kuina’s a good person,” I commented lightly.

“Hm?” Chishiya hummed, taking a while to think before nodding slightly. “Yeah, I guess she’s okay.”

I looked around, noticing how more and more people were coming near the pool, and more specifically, to the bar. It looked like partying through all day was popular, but the nights were even more busy. “Do you know many people here?”

“Not really,” Chishiya denied, and I could feel his gaze trailing after mine. “Only the interesting ones.”

He shifted in his place and before I knew, he had got closer, standing right behind my back. His lips were just next to my ear, and when he spoke, my hair moved and tingled at the skin on the side of my neck. “Those two are new.”

I tried to focus on the sense of his words, despite the fact that the loud beating of my heart was drowning them out quite successfully. I noticed the newcomers only after Chishiya had pointed at them – a boy and a girl, both of them still wearing normal clothes. They were sitting quite awkwardly, but I could tell they were close to each other.

I wondered how Chishiya and I looked in the eyes of other people.

Suddenly, I noticed a move next to the new players. Thanks to Kuina’s earlier description, I could easily tell the large group making their way through the crowd was the militants. My eyes scanned through them quickly, taking notice of various weapons carried by them, the guns being the most popular choice. I had almost turned my head away to look at the newcomers again when I noticed something which made my veins run cold. It wasn’t anything certain, but I started to get a very bad feeling.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said in a flat voice. Chishiya seemed surprised by my sudden decision to leave, but he didn’t struggle when I grabbed his wrist and dragged him far from the pool, to one of the more secluded places.

I stopped only when the music was almost inaudible, and the anxious feeling in my heart got too harsh to be ignored like this. I had to know. Right now.

“What happened?” Chishiya asked, scanning my face with a worried expression. Lately, he became worse at hiding his emotions near me. Or maybe he stopped trying to do so.

I turned to face him, scanning his face with urgency. “Who was that?”

“Who?”

“The tall guy, black hair, riffle on the shoulder,” I described the person the best I could, hoping it was one of the people Chishiya knew.

“You mean Niragi?” he asked, and his eyebrows pulled down in an involuntary dismay.

“What’s his full name?”

“Suguru Niragi, from what I recall.”

“Shit,” I cursed, feeling as if I was kicked straight in the stomach. I curled up, wrapping my hands around my body in an attempt to regain control over my body. Chishiya took a step closer, but he stopped, unsure of how to help me.

“Do you know him?” he asked, poorly trying to hide the concern in his voice. I shook my head, hating every detail of this situation.

“He’s my ex.”