The Cheshire Cat's Smile [ENG]

Chapter 1

A prision.

20 inmates. And lots of lies and conspiracies.

A mind game of horror.

Only one of them was the wanted jack of hearts. And until he was found, the game would continue without mercy.

Round after round.

I had seen a lot of terrible things since I was here in Borderland, but this game was one of the worst ways to make people continuously insane in turn. Until now, heart games were the games I was best at. You didn't need any special talents or skills to have the upper hand in these games. A good knowledge of human nature and the ability to read emotions were often enough to succeed. Sometimes, however, even that was of little help to emerge as a survivor. It also took a healthy dose of luck. Luck was what had kept me alive until now. My luck, however, was also the misfortune of others. Every time I survived, another life was irrevocably extinguished for it. You'd think that after a certain number of games you'd get used to it. But no...it was something I would never get used to. Looking people in the eye one moment and watching them die the next. The few friends I had made in the Borderland. They were all victims of the games. They all did not deserve to die.

The real prison, was not this building where the Jack of Hearts game took place. It was this world. Borderland. The world from which there was no escape. Here one had to choose: Live or die? There was nothing in between. It made you realise the finiteness of your own life. And suddenly you thought about things that had never occurred to you before. Was I actually happy? Had I achieved what I wanted? If I were to die today, was there anything I deeply regretted? And yes, of course I regretted a few things in my still young existence. But I came to the conclusion that my life was still worth fighting for. Because there was one thing I had not lost, no matter how hopeless the situation seemed: the hope that everything would get better one day. And I would cling to that until I drew my last breath. That was exactly what I had sworn to myself.

I smiled as I stared at the unfinished sketch in front of me. If I made it out of here alive, I would finally finish my webtoon and publish it. That thought had kept me going for the last few weeks. If I died in Borderland, there would be no end for my webtoon. Only if I got out of here alive I would learn the solution to the great riddle. The reason why we were here in the first place, why I was here. Was the resolution something I had thought of before or something else entirely? Was there possibly a surprising plot twist that changed everything? None of us really knew what happened when all the games were played and all the cards collected. But that was exactly what I wanted to know.

I continued to sketch my layout for a while, completely concentrated. Then the computer-generated voice again told me that another round would soon be over. I sighed and reluctantly got up. The players of this game had already dwindled to less than half and every damn time we were supposed to enter our cell to name our symbol, I felt a little queasy. In the end, you never knew if you were being lied to. It helped at least a little that I had been learning about psychology and human behaviour for some time. Still, it was never a guarantee. People were far too unpredictable to be able to judge them one hundred percent. Anyone who claimed otherwise was simply lying. If there was one thing I had learned in Borderland, it was that even the friendliest of people could stab you in the back at any time.

"Clubs," I said as I stood alone in my holding cell, hoping not to get a death penalty.

I closed my eyes and waited in silence for my sentence while my pulse raced noticeably. Nothing happened. I exhaled a little in relief. Another grace period, then. Another round of trembling and trepidation. As I entered the long corridor, I again heard the muffled sound that told us someone had been eliminated. I looked around and quickly realised that it was Ippei, the unassuming but sincere-looking guy who had been Chishiya's team partner. And apparently there was also no trace of Ayumi, the woman who had last helped me find out my symbol. I had no idea why she was dead now, because I had definitely told her the right symbol. For a brief moment I stared impassively at the screen with the photos of all the participants and looked at the extinguished image of her. There was no indication that any of them had been the jack of hearts, which meant the game was still not over.