Welcome to Crazytown

A Line of Dominos

It didn't take long, all I had to do was write to Mr. Dodt. It was a small piece of paper that said,

Wanna play a game?

It would eventually go into a pretty little envelope, a royal blue one with a gold floral design dancing around the edge. Then we'll send it on its pretty little way and up in the pretty hands that belong to the man I am supposed to kill.
"Who would say yes to this?"
It makes a lot of sense for me to accept every game I am challenged to, seeing as I can't afford to do otherwise. I'll die otherwise. Yet for everyone else, it makes no sense for them to even want to be a part of this. Especially those that have nothing to do with this game.
"That's the thing." Melodie starts. "No one is allowed to refuse because of rule forty-seven. The rule was made due to one game where the two competitors weren't able to win any rounds, which led them to break rule six. That's way Duchess Elsabeth always ended up with such high numbers, because no one in their right mind would accept."
"So innocent people have no choice but to walk to their deaths?" They don't even have to defend themselves. Yes, those hungry people are sick, but not everyone would be like that, besides not even sick people deserve their life taken without having the ability to defend themselves.
"No one is innocent here, Jane. It'll take a while but you'll see it." Why do I have to see it? How do the people here live like this? Knowing that every game that's played by the higher ups could end with the result of a dead son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father, or maybe the death of themselves. They can't do a thing about it.
"The more people that die, the more food to go around between them." Oh. So those people are literally hungry. What a horrid system. What a truly horrid system. Something needs to change, and I know I'll be the one to make it.
"No matter what happens, I believe in you Jane." She says, but there's someone else in her eyes, Macy. Maybe Melodie got tired or something. What did Marcie say about Macy? That she was very angry, yes, she did. I'm wondering why now, because she doesn't seem to have an ounce of anger in her.
"Okay." I say, but it doesn't sound confident enough, so I take a deep breath, straighten my posture and reattempt. "Okay."
It doesn't take long to figure out that this time is going to be different from all of the other times, turns out that the dance lessons from earlier are coming into fruition, because Mr. Mateo Dodt is big on parties. Masquerade parties to be more exact, which is exactly what this is. Macy had practically shoved me in an elegant dress, pulled my hair up in an intricate hairdo, puts something in it so that it holds, and sprayed me in a mix of glitter and perfume until I had breathed in enough glitter to breath it out for weeks. She also stuck on some rhinestones on me, making a pattern that trailed down my arm. She then gives me a feathery mask and... I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to look like.
"A flamingo." Macy said as if reading my mind. "Flamingos stand for strength and elegance, and are very sacred." I can see it now, and now that I do, I can see how beautiful it is. "We have to go now. C'mon."
Macy and I ride to Mr. Dodt's manor, it's still morning. Soon we pass by a ton of small houses. Well, to be more frank, they look more like shacks.
"Don't look out there." Macy says as she covers the window with a small curtain. "One thing that those people hate more than anything is the look of pity."
       "Pity? But I-"
       "It's all the same to them."
Right, of course it is. Because to them, I've always been put on a pedestal here. They don't know about the hospital. They don't know anything about me, to them I'm another rotten noble.
We get to the manor and it takes another 5-10 minutes to get to the mansion and, wow, this place is so fancy and looks like the definition of grand. I am escorted in. Macy said that she'll wait in the carriage. She said it was because it could be seen as 'help which breaks rule three. From the carriage, I'm brought to the ballroom. The doors are opened dramatically, so freaking dramatically. Everyone is looking, Oh god, oh god, oh god. When I look out into a sea of people, there is a mix of colors and covered faces. Yet there all share the same piercing gaze that makes you no more significant than a small bug. I hate that gaze. It reminds me of that Old Jester Man. So now instead of being nervous, I want to prove these people wrong. I will not let these people break me.
I do take note that a lot of people here have white hair. Very strange. I start down the stairs when I spot a man sitting alone in the chair at the far end. He has a smug look on his face as he has his chin sitting on his hand like he's observing. That must be him, that must be Mr. Dodt. I just go and make my way to the snack table. Two more people enter, I don't take much notice. I grab some snacks when I hear two men laughing. It doesn't take long to find out that they're laughing at me. I can't help but look them in the eye. They stop immediately. I know I got here not too long ago, but I don't want to be in here.
"Would you do me the honor of taking this dance?" I turned to find a man with his hand stretched out to me. No, the hell I would not.
"Sure." I shrugged. Kind of a disappointing response to someone who asked so formally. We went to where the other people were dancing, I wasn't really paying attention. I was looking for an escape route from the crowd.
"Are the people here perhaps not interesting?"
"Not really." I say before I am able to stop myself. I looked up it wasn't until I got a closer look that I was able to recognize him, he was Duchess Elsabeth's eldest son. I know it is because of his eyes, and the lower part of his face is covered in freckles.
"What are you doing here?" I ask. He shrugs.
"My sister wanted to come." He points to the Duchess's eldest daughter. She looks so beautiful, she looks a lot older here but back the last time I saw her, she looked thirteen. And him, he looks a year or two older than me. "I just wanted her to feel free at least once in her life. Our mother never let us go anywhere."
He's a sweet brother. "Where are the other two?"
"Oh, they're too young to come so I left them with the nanny." Okay, so, here's what I've gathered about the siblings. There's the eldest son who's about 17-18, the eldest daughter who's about 13, then the youngest daughter who looked about 11 and the youngest son who looked 10. Then there was the technically oldest son but he will forever be 8 unfortunately.  "So how have you been, Jane?" He asks.
"Wait, you recognize me?" I only talked with him once and that was before I killed his mom.
"Well, yeah, I don't share those details with just anyone." That makes sense. "You're really hard to miss. Well, at least for me. You're not like anyone here." What is he trying to say? You're not like other girls, you wear shoes, you can read, you can breathe. I used to know a girl like that and she was so annoying. I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that.
"Oh really?" I ask. "Do I have two extra arms I wasn't aware of?"
"Oh, yeah and big sharp teeth and scales." I can't help but laugh a little at that. I don't even know why, it wasn't even that funny. "But seriously, you don't look at anyone with ulterior motives." Well first of all you don't know me, and second of all, I literally killed your mom. He's nice and all, but I still don't feel like talking to anyone. I think there is a room for you to take a break and all that if you need to." He tells me, he points to a door at the other side of the room.
"Thank you." I say and I start going there. Except I'm not going there. Because on my way there, I'm stopped by a man. He was very tall and kind of pudgy. His eyes remind me of a snake or any reptile of the sort but that's mostly because of the shape. He has a gentle smile, one that gives me a sense of deja vu. I know this man, I don't know where he's from but I've seen him somewhere. I can tell it's the same for him too, but I can also tell he's not going to tell me. I start to say something but what do I even say? He then brings a finger to his mouth and then points to another door at the far end, when I take a look he swiftly pushes something into my hand and is gone the following second. A key, the same key that I collected before the game even started or at least one that is very similar. I do a quick maneuver and start going another way. I don't know why but I trust him, then I remember. I'm not here for the party as nice or unnice as it is. Technically I'm not here for what I'm supposed to be here for. I can't go to rest, I need to find wherever Mr. Dodt is holding his maps. Before I could leave though, I heard a voice booming over the room.
"Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen." I look to see that Mr. Dodt is now standing. His arms open which seems friendly and open but it really means, look how many open vulnerable spots I can afford. "I am so happy you could all come here tonight, and while I'm sure you are having the time of your lives right now it is time for the real fun. This year I have some pretty tough competition, and tonight she is in the crowd. And to this I tell her, wherever you are, I had to get pretty creative too."
What is he blabbing on about? Just get to the freaking point, I have somewhere to be.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, I have one question for you." Wait... something is wrong... terribly, sickeningly wrong. "Wanna play a game?" THIS BASTARD! This wasn't just a party, it's a mass murder! The room is suddenly filled with fear and shrieking. "Now don't worry, it is just a simple game of hide and seek, those on the left will be the hiders and those on the right will be the seekers. The last ones standing will report to me and who knows, you might just be let out. Oh! And don't worry about the children, they will be escorted off the premises. Now, let us begin."
The guards started going through the crowds and taking out the children, and thank god Duchess Elsabeth's daughter was escorted out, as for her brother, he tries to leave but can't. Mothers and fathers are getting their sons and daughters ripped from them. I am not escorted out for some reason. It could be because I was huddled, crouched in the corner.
"Now that that's handled, you may begin." I was expecting it to be silent, these people are privileged but they are not fighters. They don't know how to fight nor would they want to, some of these people are really close friends with one another. How exactly did he expect this to work, these people... they aren't like that, they wouldn't- BANG!
I turn to see a noble woman, fallen over, dead. I look up to the right side of the room to see who pulled the trigger first, I don't know why. Amidst all of the screaming of the noble women, there, who I expected to be an old man of sorts. Or anyone with the dead look in their eye, someone with no conscious or moral compass, but instead I saw someone with so much life left, and eyes filled to the brim with despair, a virtually unlucky man who just lost his mother and might lose his life at this rate, leaving behind the only family he has left. I saw Duchess Elsabeth's son with the pistol still in his hand, his arm still extending and the look in his eye asking himself what he had just done. Then there was something else there, there was the justification. He made eye contact with me, the life was depleting from him at a rapid rate becoming a little less human with each second. I reach over for the door knob I had been so close to and touch it, the cold metal in my hand, and there is only one thought going through my mind. I have to get out of here.