The Kairos Games

Chapter 26

    The banging and screaming has ceased. Paige sits quietly in the sketchy Nora lobby, playing with her hair.

    “The cannon went off twice,” she says aloud to herself, “and they just got really quiet, so Andrea is probably dead. Then someone else must’ve died because there’s no way Andrea and Dani are both dead…” She holds up her fingers and makes a mental check. “That means four people are left.” She gulps. It’s so close. Could she actually win this?

    As she ponders this, it occurs to her that Dani is now on the loose, probably looking for her next victim. Paige jumps up, grabs President Melton and heads outside. It’s time to get lost.

    The second she walks outside, a swarm of spotted orange bugs attack her face. She swats them away and examines one of them as it crawls across her finger. Ladybugs? Really? What the heck, Tennessee? It’s November. After successfully fighting her way past the orange cloud, she makes her way up the path to the ped mall. The campus is unusually quiet, even for the Kairos Games. Up until this point, the quiet has merely been a symptom of everyone hiding from each other. Now, so close to the end, it takes on a new meaning. Paige realizes she is alone. Anyone that is left is killing or an inch from death. She pulls out the bobblehead and strokes its head. He is her only friend, now.

    Paige steps into the ped mall and gasps. The trees are covered in bright-colored paper, and strings of kites and strewn about between them. A ladybug flies past her and rests on a nearby chair. The sun is shining and the tables are covered in dew. It smells like morning and flowers. Under any other circumstances, it would be a beautiful day, but now, even the cheeriness of it all seems morbid.

    Over the sound of the wind, Paige hears a soft melody. It sounds like the tune of “Happy Together.” The irony is absurd. She spins around, looking for the source, clenching the bobblehead with all of her strength. As she waits, the humming grows louder. Now there’s an echo. Where would there be an echo? She turns around and jumps.

    There he is, standing in front of the glass doors at the end of the less-sketchy alley. Aaron.

    “Me and you… and you and me. No matter how they tossed the dice, it had to be. The only one to kill is you, or you kill me…”

    “So happy together…” Paige whispers. She lifts the bobblehead above her head and holds both arms up in the air, the universal sign of surrender. Aaron smiles and sets his guitar on the ground. He pulls the gun from his pocket and aims it at Paige.

    A cloud passes over the sun, and for one moment, the world is as dark as it should be.

    “Are you really just going to shoot me?” Paige asks. “I was expecting something a lot more drawn out.”

    Aaron shakes his head. “Oh, I could never do that to you, Paige.” He steps forward. “I would hate to watch you suffer.”

    Paige shivers and takes a step back. “W-why?”

    Aaron lowers the gun a tad and walks forward. He’s almost to the stairs. “I’ve always admired you, Paige. The way you’ve navigated the games these last few weeks… It’s as if you were always unstoppable. You refuse to be defeated.”

    “What are you talking about? You’ve been in the Music building the entire time! You don’t know my life! And regardless, I shouldn’t even be alive. I just got lucky…”

    “Oh, but I do know your life,” he replies as he steps onto the bottom stair. “I’ve actually been watching you for quite some time, now.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the iphone. He plays back the footage of Jared’s final goodbye, then the video of the bobblehead’s attack. Paige is getting nervous.

    “H-how did you--”

    “Get this? Easy. I had a sponsor who believed in me. You know, it’s funny how easily we forget that we’re being watched… You seem caught off guard by the video, but you knew it was being filmed. The only surprise here is that I have it.”

    “You’ve been watching us all along… You knew what was going on… You weren’t hiding out to stay safe, you were waiting--”

    “For the opportune moment. Exactly.” He jumps up the last few steps and stops two feet in front of Paige. He laughs at the shock on her face. “You know, what’s really funny, is that everyone seems to think I’m going crazy. What with the creepy singing, and the creative murders, et cetera. They think I’m killing people because I’m insane. But you know that’s not true, don’t you? You know I’m not crazy… because if I’m crazy for killing people, then well, that means you’re crazy, too. And you can’t believe that, right?    

“You’re not crazy. I’m not crazy. None of us are crazy. We just want to win. Because if you’re going to go through all of this, if you’re going to live this life for any extended period of time, you might as well make the most of it. Why bother to live at all if you don’t want to win?”

    Paige blinks, but cannot force any other muscles to move. He’s crazy, she thinks. He’s totally crazy… And yet…

    He’s right.

    “Dani’s dead, you know,” he whispers. “I heard Andrea screaming in the bathroom upstairs when I walked by. She’s in some sort of pain, but she’s alive. Dani is gone. Andrea is trapped. Brad is still in the chapel. You’re really my only threat, Paige.”

    “Kill me, then,” says Paige. OMG, did I really just say that out loud? She runs her finger over the tiny button. This had better count as an opportune moment…

    Aaron nods. He points the gun at her head. “Goodbye, Paige.”

    Aaron pulls the trigger.

    Paige pushes the button.

    A moment later, the cannon booms. One lone body remains on the concrete, but the other is gone.

    The bobblehead rolls down the stairs and into the grass.