Welcome to Crazytown

Painting White Roses

He looks down at the chessboard, then back at me before he slumps. I check his pulse, he's gone. In my heart, I feel like I've avenged someone. But as I see him, I can also see the blood on my hands. It's red and it feels horrible. His eyes are still wide open, I close them. I also take the liberty of fixing his body into a more peaceful position. He's lived a long life, a horrid dastardly life, but a life. I stand up and walk out of the room. When I do, I alert the people working outside the room. When they see me standing there they know. I worry for these people. How many of them will be put out of a job? When I leave, Melodie is out there waiting for me. I can see a wave of relief surround her as she sees me walk out.
She wraps me into a hug, "Thank goodness." She whispers, which is quickly followed by, "There's good news and bad news. Good news is, you have won your first round, bad news is that your next round is in 30 minutes."
Before I know it, we're already on our way.
"You might know of her, she's a cruel woman. A duchess. Her name is Elsabeth." Oh, I remember her, she's not any duchess, and she was much more than cruel. "Duchess Elsabeth has won many rounds, she is infamous for that. Some of the highest numbers in history. Her last game she ended with a score of 600, while others usually have a 20. It's a wonder how Crazytown is still overpopulated at times. Even the Madman's highest is 50. That's why they've never played against each other."
"How are her numbers so high?"
"Well, as many rules as there are, there are no rules against challenging multiple people at the same time. She has a little labyrinth of her own. Not like the official one surrounding Crazytown, it's a smaller one filled with traps and doodads, and stuff like that. By that, I mean, it's dangerous as all hell but if you manage to kill her. You get all of her kills. Which will put you ahead by quite a bit. Not a lot, considering that it's only the beginning, but still, it'll take a while for the Madman to catch up."
"Speaking of which, how long do these last?"
"The Game will last for a month."
"I have to do this for a month?"
"For most people, you will be given one week."
"Why is that?"
"Believe it or not but after the Madman man adopted us, he made a law saying the children weren't even allowed to be challenged. Before that, anyone could challenge anyone and it didn't matter. Duchess Elsabeth even challenged her own eight year old son. The youngest person to ever win a game was only six."
"And what happened to them?"
"She tied herself to the Rabbit Tree when she turned 19."
"The Rabbit Tree?" There was something in her eyes, a sadness.
"You don't need to know about that just yet, Jane. I will tell you when the time comes. Both of our parents hated the games, but after that... They were done serving under the Madman. You can probably guess what happened next, the war, the death of our parents, and the law was formed. But as you can see, you are playing. He made an exception for you because he absolutely hates your dad. More than he likes your mom."
"What does that mean?"
"Another story for another time." The carriage comes to a sudden halt. "We're here." She says. "Look at me, Jane." she says, grabbing my hand. "Your wits will help you survive. Use them."
"I will."
I exit the carriage and there is a big house sitting in front of me, not a mansion like the last one, just a house. I can tell it's a two story. I am escorted by a man, he doesn't say a word as he walks me into the house. I've seen him somewhere, I make note of his eyes, they're big and filled with acceptance and solitude. By far he is the most normal. That scares me a little, how could anyone be normal here? I make note of how young he is, about my age. Ah! He must be the Frog Footm- No, his son!
"Is there something on my face, Miss?"
Oh, shoot, I've been caught. I've probably been caught for like 5 minutes to be honest. "Oh, my apologies, sir, you just reminded me of someone."
"I see, uh, please don't call me sir. Galen is just fine."
"Hm, Galen means calm." I know that because I knew a boy in the asylum also named Galen. He told me what it meant because he found it to be a big joke. That 'If only my mother knew what I would end up doing, she would've named me Lucifer, or maybe even Satan'. He killed his father, that's what he was in there for, although he had said it was for no reason, everyone had known there was something he wasn't telling anyone. So he got put there instead.
"Hm, I suppose it does." This Galen said.
When we pass by the flight of stairs, I can hear the playful yelling of other children. I watch to see two boys and two girls.
"Don't pay them any mind." Galen says. When he speaks the children freeze.
They look at me, they all look copy and pasted of one another. All have matching sets of blond hair, deep brown eyes, and freckles.
"Are you the girl who's going to kill our mother?" The oldest boy asked.
"Well..." What the hell do I say to that? "Something will certainly happen, won't it?"
"Good, do what you must, we will not make a single complaint or noise about it."
I nodded, they have resentment, it could be about their brother. The one who died at 8 years old. In their eyes, I'm avenging his death. So I'll do just that.
Galen continues leading me outside in the backyard. He told me to wait, yet after a while, there was still no one here. I didn't move. In front of it was a labyrinth just like Melodie said, and when I listened carefully, I could hear distant screams that belonged to both men and women. To the right of me, there was a board with the numbers changing after every scream. It's the kill count. It's currently at 18. There's a loud noise coming from above me. I look up to see a drone-like object holding a screen. There's a woman on it, she must be Duchess Elsabeth. She and the kids from earlier look a lot alike. Blond hair, and freckles. The difference was her scornful, blue eyes.
"Welcome to my humble home." She said her voice was smooth and singsongy, however you could hear a slight roughness.
Humble my ass. I bowed the way that Melodie showed me, simple yet elegant. "How do you do, Duchess?"
"Swell, my dear. Very swell indeed." Don't call me that. "Now, let's cut to the chase, I'm willing to make a deal with you. I'm sure you've noticed my labyrinth, if you are able to make it to the end of it before the time ends. I will let you kill me. If you don't... I will kill you."
Immediately I know that everything is set up against me. There's no telling what's in there, and there's no telling that even if I got through it, that it'd be within whatever time I would be given.
"Now normally, I would give you about 2 hours, but you wasted an hour and a half lollygagging." Oh, this bit- "Now hurry along, my dear. Hurry along."
I start into the Labyrinth, I have only 30 minutes, and I don't know if I'm going the right way. I don't know where the wrong way leads, and although it looks normal, I know that there is something hiding in the bushes. Hidden traps or maybe wild animals. I stand and I listen. I hear a slight ticking of a timer, probably mine. I wonder, and I let my thoughts leave me. The walls here are pretty small, they're so close together that if I were to lift my arms, my elbows would touch both sides. This is nothing like the official Labyrinth surrounding Crazytown. This one is suffocating and it has a heavier sense that someone was watching. When I listen I hear a small beep, followed by the sound of something unlatching. I step back just in time to miss a dart, I take a look at it. It's poisoned. What a stereotype, I grab it. It could be useful. I continue forward, hearing the clicks and unlatching, I am able to successfully dodge whatever is thrown at me. I still haven't got a clue where I'm going though. I figure that if the traps are becoming more frequent that probably means something.
I don't know how long I've been here. When I look up for the first time. I see the drone thing again, there's a timer and when I see it, I start to worry. I have five minutes left. I don't have much time, and I don't know how much of this labyrinth is left. I have to play these next moves right. While I'm standing, I hear a growling, one that seems to be getting louder. I have to run. She literally sent wild animals after me! She actually did! That crazy old bat! And of course, as I run from whatever animals she sent after me, there's still the threat of her unlatching things, and just as I'd imagined there's another click and an unlatching. This time the wall in front of me was closing in, there was no way I was going to make it in time. Now my options are to get smooshed or get mauled. She's probably smiling right now, a big, toothy grin. I have to think fast. I think of Michael- not like that- we met at the official labyrinth, and he was on top of it, there's my plan. I start climbing, and I find it surprisingly easy. She's never thought of this, has she? I start running. I imagine her face now contorting.
"NO!" I hear her scream. "CHEATER! CHEATER! THAT LITTLE WITCH IS CHEATING!"
I wouldn't be talking about cheating if I were you, Duchess Elsabeth. I can see what animals were chasing me now. They were boars, huge wild boars. I would've died in a minute. I am now able to see that I wasn't too far from the end at all, and then I see there was no opening for the end. There was no way for anyone to win this, was there? I hop off. Completing my end of the deal, now it's time for her to complete hers.
Galen is there waiting at the end, when he sees me, I can tell he's more than shocked.
"You actually made it to the end." He said.
"Are you disappointed?" I ask, to which he shakes his head.
"No, just shocked. This Labyrinth was designed so that no one ever won."
"Yeah I figured."
He smiles, "Well, then. Follow me."
He brings me back into the house, and up to the second floor. Her kids are there, standing in a single file line, they try to seem emotionless, but when I make eye contact with the oldest daughter, she looks down. When I follow her eyes, it leads me down to her hand, which is giving me a thumbs up. I give one back. Galen is still taking me to an isolated room far in the back. He opens the door.
"I am not allowed in there." He says.
I have to go in alone, it's dark. Extremely dark, the type of dark that swallows you whole. I'm almost hesitant to walk in, but I do. I can see a balcony, giving the only light in here. With that I can see the subtle outline of a light switch. I turn it on to see Duchess Elsabeth, she's sitting slumped in a chair, I know what she tried to do. She wasn't fast enough, I can still hear her breathing. More like wheezing.
"My, my, Duchess. Trying to cut your end of the deal, are we?" I don't have any remorse for her at all.
"You cheated. You're a cheater." She manages to say. Her voice was hoarse and got fainter as she spoke.
"We both know that you wouldn't have resorted to this if you truly believed that."
She doesn't like when I say this, she grits her teeth, and clenches her fist. I remember the dart, I might not like her, but I'm not going to torture her. I push it into her neck, the same way they did in the asylum when a patient became uncontrollable. I watch life leave her. I feel not an ounce of guilt, only relief. There's a certain feeling that is washing over me. I took two lives that were not mine to take, but at the same time. It was them or me. Yet I don't feel guilty, that's a problem. I should feel guilty yet I don't feel anything. Why don't I feel anything? There's something wrong with me, though I belong here, I do not want to become like them. Like those hungry people when this Game started.
I don't know how long I had been standing there, but eventually I walked out, but not before taking a shaker still filled halfway with pepper. Melodie would probably want this. I had dropped it into the pocket of my dress. Galen was still waiting outside the door, when he saw me he sighed, then smiled.
"She's really gone, you did it, Jane. You got rid of that horrible woman."
He walks me back out of the house, and when I see Melodie I go in for a hug. She completely welcomes it.
"Alright, that's enough for today, isn't it?" She asks me.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so."
"Luckily for you, you have no more challengers right now, and if you're lucky. By the time we get back, if you still have no more challenges, that means you're done. You can't be challenged during the night."
"That's good to know. Oh! I managed to snatch this." I say pulling out the pepper shaker.
"You got her pepper shaker?!" That's like one of her most prized possessions, she put it on everything she ate, thank you. Which, speaking of eating, we have enough time to have dinner too."
Right, eating. I have to do that too. While I am very hungry, for some reason I have no appetite. That was until I saw the table full of food in the dining room. Michael is sitting at the end of the table. When he saw me, he smiled. He didn't smirk, he smiled, genuinely. It was the first time we had seen each other all day, I almost forgot what he looked like.
"I see you'll live to see another morning. I knew you would make it through." For some reason my nerves are calmed. A tenseness is my shoulder, I didn't even know I had suddenly disappeared. Because he's right. I've made it this far without having to paint any roses red.