Let's Play A Game

Chapter 11 - Brianna

In the distance, she heard something scratching a glass surface.

The sound was so short and died within seconds but it was long enough to make her stop breathing. Straining her ears in the direction of the sound, she waited, holding her breath. Silence wrapped itself around her and slowly her heart began to calm down, convincing her that nothing had happened.

Brianna had just calmed down when the sound came again but this time, it didn't go away. At first the sound was soft but then it became harsher and harsher with each passing second. Covering her ears to block out the sound, she tried to figure out where it was coming from but it seemed to be coming from all around her.

Knowing that soon something was bound to approach her, she shut her eyes and silently began to pray to the god she had never believed in. However, her prayer was never answered but the sound finally died.

Tears slipped from her eyes as her hands fell to her side. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach and she wondered if she should even try to find a way out. Maybe if she prayed, she would be shown some mercy.

Who was she kidding?

God had never heard her prayers. He had never heard her cries and if he did, he didn't care.

Why else would she end up in such a horrible place?

Brianna was looking for people to blame for her demise, listing their names in her head and wondering what they could have done right. If the people around her were kinder when she was a child then maybe she wouldn't have grown up so twisted.

Her thoughts were, however, disrupted when she heard the sound of someone breathing right in her ear. She whipped her head to the right to see who it was but there was no one there.

Tears fell from her eyes as cries now escaped from her lips.

"Who's there?" she cried, pulling her legs to her body but no answer came.

She waited for the cycle to repeat again, for silence to comfort and trick her into believing that she was just imagining things. It seemed that the cycle refused to repeat as the sound of breathing was replaced by a new one.

The sound of feet being dragged across the floor echoed around her.

"Who is it?!" she demanded. "Who's there?! Stop this sick game!"

Brianna knew that there was no point in screaming. There was no point in demanding that the monsters stop. They would do what they thought was best.

By screaming at them and by making demands, she was only showing them how their tricks were messing with her head. She should have been smarter. She should have at least tried to trick the trickster but she was too weak. Her emotions were now clouding her judgment.

As anger mixed with her fear, she got to her feet, her fists balled up on her side.

"You don't scare me!" she screamed, trying to be brave.

Standing alone, she screamed insults and challenged the horrors that hid within the darkness. She asked them to come forward, to make her regret ever doubting their strength. Like a fool, she demanded that they come to end her if they were so strong.

Somehow, she always let her emotions get the best of her, to make decisions for her and those decisions always caused her trouble. This time fear was the emotion she had succumbed to but after realizing that she was being toyed with, anger pushed fear into the background.

Her limbs were trembling but she was still screaming wondering if her fake brave front would somehow save her. Then again, why would a demon be impressed by her actions?

She had played the game before and her lack of belief had led to her loss. Then she paid the price for it all.

Brianna was made to lure her friends in and convince them to play the game so that they could be claimed by the demon just the way she was, their souls tortured in the pits of hell for all eternity. Even though she didn't remember the demon or having played the game, she foolishly tricked her friends into playing against their will. She ignored their views on the matter, forgot that their consent was important, and had done all of it because she wanted to watch Ansyl break.

She was so jealous of the redhead that she would go to any length to make sure that the girl would end up just like Brianna, damaged and alone.

It would only be fair.

Now here Brianna was, alone in the never-ending darkness. She knew it was her price to pay for all her sins but she still wanted out.

She would rather the demon kill her than torture her the way it was.

For most people, hearing a few sounds would scare them but as long as it was just a sound it wouldn't matter. At least it wasn't anything painful. For Brianna, however, things were different.

While most people would learn to ignore sounds and voices eventually, she couldn't do the same.

Every time she heard the sound of something, her ears would perk up and her heart would start racing, not just because of fear but also because of hope.

Everyone thought that Brianna slept around just because she wanted to change but that wasn't true. She just couldn't stand being alone. Being alone reminded her of things she couldn't stand and so she found a new body to lay down beside, someone to hold her through the silent hours of the night.

Maybe Kyle knew why she did what she did. There were some nights when he wouldn't get sexual with her. Instead, he would just hold her close and let her fall asleep in his arms.

Now, Kyle wasn't there either. Brianna was all alone and every time her ears picked up a sound, it made her believe that there was someone else present in the darkness. It made her believe that somehow she wasn't alone.

But then the sound would die and she would be left to face her fears.

Brianna screamed, her words echoing as the sounds came and went. She screamed when they started and when they died down, anything to fill that haunting silence.

Soon her eyes became red from all the tears she had shed. Her feet throbbed with pain from standing for too long and her throat demanded rest that never came.

Soon the sounds died down for good, leaving Brianna on her own. She, however, never noticed. She was just too lost in her own fear.