Flicker: The Game Of Chance

Chapter 15 | White Untruth

For the one month after I was born before I was abandoned by my parents, I remember a tune my mother used to hum to me every night, or even just every time I was about to fall asleep.

A soothing rhythm, a relaxing melody. It worked just as intended every time, I'd always be asleep within a minute or sometimes five. I... I wish I could've gone back to those times and just lived like that.

That was just a wish now.

My mother... she's already left this world. She left during the first killing game, all thanks to that shitty clan.

This house... My grandmother... This clan...

What is the truth behind it all? Couldn't there be some other way to decide the new head of the clan? Do the parents of Flavia and Delta feel nothing seeing their children die? Why was I saved from execution? Was... Ally, or perhaps the clan, being the one to kill Colleen allowed?

There were billions of unanswered mysteries, and there was only one thing in mind that I was certain of.

I'd be the one to find out all the answers, and I'd be the one to end the clan.

"VERONICA! I CAN'T HOLD ONTO YOU FOR MUCH LONGER, SNAP OUT OF IT!".

I suddenly came back to my senses just to be immediately put into an action-packed scene. Mateo had my hand held in his and he was running as fast as he could; I could hear rapid footsteps approaching us from behind, too.

As soon as Mateo noticed I was back to my senses, he let go of my hand and ran just the slightest bit slower so that he was behind me.

"Mateo! What's going on?!", I exclaimed. "Austin...", he replied. That one word was enough for me to understand what was really happening. Austin was the murderer, and he was currently chasing us to end the game, once and for all.

"Wait! But the lights aren't out yet! Austin can't kill us now!", I exclaimed as I continued to run, in case of any twists or changes in the rules - and just I'd expected, there was.

"The rules don't apply to the endgame, apparently", Mateo muttered. "Less talking, more running! This is literally a life-or-death situation, Veronica!", he suddenly boomed. "Dumbass... This whole game was a life-or-death situation", I muttered as I continued to run at my full speed, trying to avoid Austin as much as possible.

"DUCK!", Mateo suddenly screamed, holding the top of my head and pushing my body down. "HEY? OW!"

I watched as a sharp shiny dagger flew directly overhead, almost stabbing me right through the brain. "Looks like I missed again, huh?! What a shame!", I could hear Austin's screams from just a couple of centimetres behind us.

"God damn it...", I could hear Mateo whispering to himself. "I'd have rather died somewhere along the lines than this."

I shook my head and looked infront, as I continued to run at my maximum possible speed to get away from Austin. "It'll be alright, Mateo. We've been through worse...", I tried to reassure him, knowing full well that it probably wouldn't work. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever", that was his reply.

Eventually, the two of us were completely exhausted and unable to run anymore. I wasn't exactly sure about Austin, but myself and Mateo were. We felt that we could no longer run, and we felt that we could die at any second now.

Yet, the only thing we could do was run.

Run towards a fake victory, run towards a false light of hope. I don't know how long we were running for until we finally lost Austin, but it must've been at least an hour.

Mateo and I stood infront of a new fraction of the house while trying to catch our breaths. Mateo's legs were so out of energy that he just collapsed onto the ground; it made sense, since he was guiding me until I came back to my senses for some time. It made sense that he was more exhausted than I was.