I managed to spot Rena as she stepped out, but that's all I saw of her. I expected her to still be upset (we all did), so I decided to just let her go. I'd see her either in the assembly this morning, or in class, so chasing her would be useless and a waste of energy.
I slipped my hand into my backpack loop as I started heading out of the dorm. I tossed it onto my back as I stepped out of the door
Turning a corner, I barely stopped myself from bumping into someone, "Sorry-"
"You're fine." I recognized it to be Nick almost immediately after that.
"Oh, Hey Nick. Fancy seeing you here." I looked up at him and I could tell he seemed... off... but I chucked that up to him being worried about Lizzie.
"Whatsup?" He looked at me, the glossed-over look in his eyes still present.
"Not much." I shrugged, "you ok?"
"Yeah. Just... was hoping Lizzie was ok."
I internally congratulated myself for assuming correctly, "We... don't know yet. We haven't heard anything."
He nodded, his shoulders dropping slightly, "you ready for this assembly?" he asked. I assumed he was changing the topic, but I didn't want to talk about the Lizzie situation either, so I was glad.
"Not at all." I chuckled as I started walking, Nick falling in step next to me.
He smiled slightly, "it won't be bad. I'm sure it's just talking about the games."
I've never gotten a chance to talk one on one with him, and now that I was I realized he has a slight British accent. it's not too prominent, it's just certain words that it's pretty obvious.
My mind spun as I tried to decide if I wanted to bring it up, "Yeah, hopefully..."
We then fell into a silence, which I wouldn't quite describe as "comfortable". Instead of sitting in silence, I decided I'm just going to ask about the accent, "this... may seem random, but I realized you kinda... you kind of have an accent."
I noticed his muscles tense slightly, and his eyes shot forward. A couple minutes went by before he spoke again, "my grandma was British." He answered very... forcefully? Almost as if the words were hard for him to get out.
"Is... is she ok?"
"Yeah, she's fine." I noticed he was now hiding the accent.
"Ok...." I trailed off, it seemed that the topic upset him, so It'd probably be best to drop it, plus, we were arriving at the gym. "Guess I'll see you later?"
"Yup." He waved as he walked in, immediately going off to find his friends, and I did the same. I sat down next to Rena, hoping the mystery of Nick will distract her, "Nick is acting really weird."
She looked over at me, raising an eyebrow, "how so?"
I noticed her face lift a little, Mission slightly successful.
"I noticed he has a slight British accent, so I asked about it. then he just... went weird. He hesitated a lot with the answer."
"Strange... what was his answer?"
"He said his grandma was British."
"Is she..."
"he said she's fine. But as soon as I mentioned the accent, he tried to hide it."
"Weird..." her facial expression shifted to her thinking face, "maybe his grandma was a bad person, so he doesn't like talking about her?"
"That's possible." my eyes scan over the crowd, part of me wanted to spot Nick again, see if he was acting normal with his friends, but there was also a part of me that was looking for Vee
but... I saw neither, so I just looked back to Rena, and we talked till Mr. Nightmare walked out and cleared his throat.
Then he started his announcements...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I can't believe this! He can't do this!" Rena said, sitting down at her lunch table. we haven't gotten a chance to talk to each other after the assembly, and to be honest, we're all reeling.
"He can do whatever he wants" Ryder slammed down his food tray. I sighed, rubbing my face. I was sitting backward in my seat so that I was facing them.
My mind ran over his words over and over again, but I just couldn't figure out why he would do this.
I heard some people like to explore around during the night, despite my rules. Now from 12 am - 6 am, there will be men with... toys out on the campus, and trust me when I say they aim to kill.
Part of me thought The Black Night told him about my late-night walk, but part of me also thought that maybe...
Vee was the one who told him.
I knew it was a small chance, but Vee hasn't even looked my way all-day
I know he was yelled at by Mr. Nightmare once to stop talking to me but... a small smile would be appreciated.
I just shook off my thoughts as I start to say something, but I was cut off by Pandora running over, her face pale white, "Guys! It's... It's Lizzie! something happened!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My legs were starting to get tired, that's the only thing I could feel.
This morning, Lizzie was doing great. She was expected to be fine by the end of the day. but suddenly she stopped breathing, and her pulse almost went to nothing. They don't know why, and they haven't told us if they've got her back.
Once I heard what happened every emotion drained out of my body. I would have expected myself to be crying, but I felt nothing.
I felt numb.
Rena was sitting and crying into Pandora's shoulder. Viv and Maxie were sitting next to them, talking. Ryder also joined us, but he was just leaning against a wall, staring at Rena.
"How does that even happen? and how don't they know how it happened?" Viv said, tears prickling their eyes.
"I don't know..." I slowly stopped pacing, my arms falling limp next to me, "but... there's no way this was natural."
"It can't be." Pandora rubbed Rena's back, her crying was slowing down but she was still holding onto Pandora for dear life.
"But... who would do something like this??"
"..Mr. Nightmare...?" Viv offered, but even they seemed unsure of what they were saying.
"Why would he bother with that? If anything, he'd go for Rena." I said, "She's the one breaking rules, not Lizzie."
"Maybe... maybe to hurt Rena? Get to her in a way that's more emotional?"
"You... have a point..." I sat down, my leg bouncing more than it ever has.
"I mean... he did put a henchman into the game with her, I wouldn't put it past him," Ryder added.
"I... guess you're right ." I looked down at the ground. Everything felt heavy.
Everyone fell into a tense silence, Rena had stopped crying, but she was still very out of it.
Dread started to replace th feeling of being empty, and I felt like I could be sick.
It's been almost 2 hours, why haven't we heard anything yet??
Almost 20 minutes later, a nurse finally walked out.
"So," She held up a folder, "she's alive and doing well."
Rena let out an audible breath, and her body relaxed immensely.
"But, we think we found out what happened."
Rena got up, her eyes locked on the nurse's, "well?"
"The Black Night snuck in with another guard during the assembly."
Rena frowned, "who was the other guard."
"I'm still trying to identify him, but we do have security cam pictures." She handed a paper to Rena, and as soon as she looked at it, she went pale.
"Who was it?" I asked.
Rena slowly looked at me, her eyes filling with tears as she tried to stutter out the answer.
When she finally got it out, the dread feeling disappeared, and instead was replaced with pure anger.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My head seethed with disgust and anger as I spotted him. He was standing there like he did nothing.
"How dare you!" I yelled, storming over to Vee.
He looked at me, confusion on his face, "what?"
"I know what you did during the assembly!" people were starting to look over at us, but honestly, I didn't care.
"I didn't...." His face paled as he realized what I was talking about, "ok, listen, I had nothing to do with that. Ve-..." he cleared his throat, running his hand through his hair. I will admit, his hair looks soft, I wouldn't mind touching it...
No. He tried to kill your friend, I'm not going down that train of thought.
"...The Black Night told me that Mr. Nightmare asked us to do something, I wasn't told what." He shook his head, "as soon as I realized what it was, I told him we shouldn't, but he insisted."
I scoffed, rolling my eyes, "Oh sure, that's such an old excuse."
"Elana, I barely helped-" He glanced off to the side, a frown growing on his face, "But whatever. Believe what you want, it doesn't matter to me."
My jaw dropped slightly, "are you serious?! You're just going to switch like that??", He didn't answer me, he didn't even look at me. My fury grew even more, "you're so two-faced." I turned and stormed off.
I couldn't believe him.
I know he switched because another guard was around, but there was nothing to prove that he didn't do this on purpose or by his own will.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stood outside of the nurse's office as Rena was in visiting, I couldn't fully hear them, but I could tell some sort of apology was going on.
I told Rena about what Vee said, and she was really mad as well. I wasn't sure if she planned to tell Lizzie what happened because right after I told her, we learned that Lizzie was alright and able to take visitors, so we didn't get time to talk about it.
Part of me was sad that I wasn't in there with them, but I knew it just needed to be them two.
Rena told me to wait before going to class, but it was getting close to class time and they were still talking...
A door creaked open, and my head shot up as I hoped it was Rena coming out, but it wasn't the door to Lizzie's room, instead, it was the door into the nurse's office.
In walked Nick, a stack of papers in his hand, "oh- El, Hi-" I noticed he was again hiding his accent, which made me even more curious...
"Hey, Nick. What're the papers for?"
"Forms for what happened with Lizzie. Not sure what's in them, but..." He shrugged, looking down at the papers, "I'm sorry for what happened, I wish I could have stopped it..."
"None of us knew, it's ok. She's ok now, and... that's all that matters."
His accent was slowly slipping back into his speech, but this time, I didn't comment on it. I didn't want him to feel like he needed to hide it, "Right... right. uhm. I should get this to the nurse-"
"Right, yeah.-"
He walked into the nurse's office, and a moment later, Rena walked out.
"How'd it go?"
"It went well."
"Do you want to talk about it..."
"Not really. let's head to class."
"Alright." I got up, I wasn't surprised by her answer, so pushing for information felt useless.
We then walked off to class in silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Black Night's eyes locked onto mine, the glare in them growing. Albeit, my glare grew too. I'm sure he was pissed that I wasn't dead, but he's going to have to deal with it; I'm not going out that easily.
"What did you do to get BN to hate you so much?" Rena asked, glancing between the two of us.
"BN?..." I questioned, but just decided it didnt matter, "whatever. Last night, he caught me out late. Beat me shitless." I just shrugged it off, as if I could care less about what happened, "but he left before killing me, and a bit later, Vee came and helped."
"... he helped you?? then the next day, tried to kill my sister?"
"Yup. It's.... strange."
"I can't believe that dude. One moment, he's nice to you, the next moment he's doing something like that. I can't tell what he wants..."
"I can't either." I glared at BN as he started to walk off, "I guess... he told me that he did some of the things he did because of Mr. N, or other guards... So... maybe he's doing it to save himself?"
"It's possible." Rena sat down at her table.
"What's possible?" Ryder asked, "us dating?"
Rena stared at him, confused and shocked.
I laughed and sat down.
"Wow, I broke y-"
"You did not break me." She cut him off, "you just surprised me. and no, there's no possibility there."
"Rude."
"You deserved it."
I chuckled and turned to my table, leaving them once again to their conversations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you think it's possible we could escape the building?" Pandora asked as she settled into her seat for the games.
"I mean.. it's possible? But the town is really far away, like... almost an hour drive."
"I'm sure there's something out there closer than that. But we won't know unless we try."
"I don't think it's a good idea..." I trailed off as I glanced at our friends, we already knew Rena was in the games due to her absence, but that doesn't mean we weren't worried.
"It may be our only chance to get help."
"Or we could die. I don't know... I... I'll think about it."
"It worth a shot." Pandora shrugged.
"it could also get us shot." Lizzie added.
"True true..." Pandora just turned forward as the game begun.
The first game wasn't eventful, I think the two were close friends, so they didn't want to kill each other. Eventually, Mr. N got fed up with it and had them leave the arena, which they didn't seem too upset about.
Then it came for Rena's turn. As she stepped out onto the field, she looked confident, more so than she was last time.
I guess what happened last time made her realize she's a lot more powerful than she thought.
However, that confidence faltered as soon as the other player stepped out into the arena.
He also seemed a bit shocked by his matchup, but he didn't seem too frazzled about it.
Rena quickly composed herself before she attacked, she shot a fireball at him, but he quickly dodged.
He retaliated by shooting a ball of water at Rena, which I could tell threw her off.
It's not easy to shoot fire when you're drenched in water.
Since she was soaked, she instead decided to attack physically. She started by trying to straight up tackle him, but he moved before she could, so instead she tried to sweep his legs out from under him.
This time she was successful.
He fell onto his back and tried to recover, but Rena put her foot on his chest before he could, "you're clumsier than usual."
He scoffed and grabbed her leg, he pulled her leg and caused her to land over him, her knees on each side of his torso. Her face turned bright pink before she flung herself off to the side, Ryder just smirked as he stood up, "what? flustered?"
"No!" Rena huffed as her blush slowly dissipates.
"Oh I think you are."
Rena shook her head and attempted to shoot another fireball at him, it was weaker since her hand was still a little wet, but it still shot out.
It hit his arm and he groaned in pain, so he once again shot her with a blast of water, but this time she was prepared.
She dodged out of the way and hit him with another fireball.
And another one
My mind flashed back to when she killed the other girl, this is how it started.
She shot one then didn't stop.
But this time, unlike the other girl, Ryder was not giving up.
A force field of sorts formed around him, and as soon as the fireball hit it, it disintegrated.
A force field of water... huh, I should learn that trick.
"Rule one of fighting, switch up your attacks." He took a step closer to her, the water shield disappearing.
"Don't teach me how to fight."
"What? scared of accepting some help, sweetie?"
She hit him with another fireball, but the shot barely missed him.
"Looks like someone can't handle flirts."
"Shut up." She growled before attempting to tackle him to the ground, which surprisingly worked.
She had him pinned down again, she summoned and fireball and was about to hit him, but she just... didn't.
She stared down at him, doing nothing.
There was no talking, just a stare between the two.
The minutes dragged on, but she didn't move.
Ryder whispered something, and Rena hesitated before nodding, then...
She shot the fireball.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walked over to Pandora, Viv, and Lizzie. All of them were stunned to silence, me included. Eventually, Pandora broke the silence, "did... that seriously happen? Did she seriously do that??"
"Yup, that... really happened." I leaned against the wall, running my hands over my face.
"I cannot..." Pandora glanced behind her, shaking her head, "I wonder what he whispered to her to get her to do that..."
"Guess we can ask her about it later."
"Yeah... yeah..." They turned back to me, sighing, "these games are just... so messed up."
"Everything about this is messed up." Lizzie pipped in, "Everything he has done has been messed up!"
"Guys, It's ok, just... it's ok." Viv put their hand on Lizzie's arm, smiling at her.
I sighed and looked off into the distance, barely spotting Rena as she walked over to us, "Hey guys."
"Hey Rena-"
"why the hell did you do that?" Pandora interrupted.
"My lord, I didn't think it was that big of a deal-"
"Rena-" She tried again, but this time I cut her off.
"Pandora, leave her alone. She just fought her crush, chillax."
"What?! Ryder is not my crush. not even close."
"uh-huh.
"I'm not? that's quite disappointing." Ryder's arm slinked around her shoulders, but she just shook him off.
"Buzz off." I noticed a slight blush on her face, which made me chuckle.
"Is anyone going to address the fact she shot the fireball at a guard to get them to stop the game?!"
"It worked." Rena noted.
"But why"
"Did you want me dead?" Ryder rose an eyebrow.
"No, just...- Rena isn't the type to do that, especially not for you. What did you whisper to her?"
"Just asked for a truce." His shoulders lifted into a slight shrug, but they quickly fell back, "Rena was just trying to save her crush."
"I'm starting to regret not killing you." Rena shoved an elbow into his side, he laughed a little and moved away.
"I'm going to go bother my friends, see you guys later!" He turned and walked off, everyone staring at his back.
"Rena, why did you accept the truce?" Pandora said after a bit of silence.
"Um... I'm not sure"
"He's been your enemy for as long as I can remember, and you had the chance to get rid of him-"
"Well, who am I supposed to hate if I don't have an enemy?"
"You do kinda have a point there, I guess?" Pandora just shook her head, "you guys took a huge risk shooting the fireball at a guard."
"it was planned well. It looked like an accident, and the guard is fine, so." She shoved her hands into her pockets before saying, "Anyways. I'm exhausted. Can we go back to the dorm?"
We all nodded and started to walk. Viv and Pandora walked ahead as Lizzie, Rena, and I walked behind.
~~~~~~~~~~~
We arrived at the dorm door, everyone was in silence still, but it was a comfortable silence.
That was until we spotted a figure by our door. I gritted my teeth once I recognized it to be The Black Night.
"What are you doing here." Rena snapped, her glare on him.
"Mr. Nightmare was worried about Elana's little adventure last night and wanted me to make sure you didn't try again."
"Adventure?" Viv turned to me, a confused look on their face. However, it was quickly replaced with a shocked face, "Wait, are you who Mr. Nightmare was talking about at the assembly?
"I uhm... I'm at least one of the people." I slightly lifted my shoulders as I turned back to The Black Night.
"Just go away, BN." Rena hissed out, "No one is going on any adventures tonight."
"I cannot trust you guys."
"Leave us alone." Rena took a step closer to her, her glare on BN's mask.
"Oh hun, does it look like I care?" The Black Night didn't move, and I could tell he had no intention of doing so.
"Don't call me hun." Rena snapped.
"If you somehow haven't noticed yet, I can do what I want."
"No you can't."
"Oh sweetie, did you forget I'm right-hand man to Mr. Nightmare?" He took a step closer to her, "I could beat you up right now," he slowly kept creeping forward, "and when he asks why I'll tell him you were talking back to a higher-up, and he'd congratulate me." He smirked, "Even if I didn't beat you to a pulp, I could tell Mr. Nightmare that you've been breaking rules again, and trust me when I say he has a very very special place for people like you." Once he was right in front of Rena, he whispered into her ear, "you have no power in this. I am and always will be above you."
Rena's glare grew as she stared at him, "I have way more power than you. And like hell you could beat me up! you look like you'd lose a fight to a stick." Rena was getting mad, I could tell, but BN... he seemed... eerily relaxed.
"If I recall correctly, I already won in a fight against you. So... if I could lose to a stick, and I beat you, then... what does that make you?"
"That fight was unfair." Rena's hands balled into fists, and I realized if someone didn't stop her now, a physical fight was going to break loose.
"Oh hun, it was completely fair"
"No it-"
"Rena, leave him alone. Go inside." I cut her off, taking a step forward.
"No! He-"
"Rena please." Viv was the one to interject this time, "just go instead before something bad happens."
Rena hesitated, her glare stayed on BN as she analyzed what she should do, but eventually, she took a step back, "fine. but only because Viv asked." She turned and stormed into the dorm, Viv following after.
As she did that, I turned to BN, "Stay if you want, but it's going to be an uneventful night." and with that, I walked into the dorm, Pandora and Lizzie following behind me.
~~~~~~~~
As we stepped inside the room I spotted Rena pacing in front of the tv, mumbling about... something. I couldn't quite hear her, but if I had to guess from the little snippets I was getting, it was about The Black Night.
Viv sat on the couch, watching Rena pace, not sure what to do.
"Rena... He's kinda right." Pandora said, which stopped Rena in her tracks.
"Are you saying he could beat me in a fight?! Are you calling me weak?!?"
"No! not at all," Pandora stepped to her, "I'm saying he's right about the power thing. We may be able to beat his ass to a pulp, but Mr. Nightmare would have a blast torturing us for that."
"But he-" Rena trailed off as she realized Pandora was right, she slowly dragged her feet as she walked to the couch, dropping down to the cushions with a sigh, "I just wish there was something we could do..."
"Maybe... maybe there is." Pandora glanced around at our confused faces, "Let's try to run away."
~~~~~~~~~~~
My shoes tapped against the empty corridor floors as I tried to make it to class on time. I had maybe 2 minutes until the bell rang, or I was going to be beaten shitless, which was not on my list of objectives for today. I rounded the corner as I went into the corridor for my class, I almost bumped my shoulder into the wall, but luckily I didn't. My head was pounding, I wasn't even sure why I was running so late.
Well, that's a lie. Vee didn't wake us up this morning, BN did, and somehow he "accidentally" woke us up too late.
What I'm not sure about is how all the others got ready so fast, but here I am, alone and sprinting to make it to class.
I spotted the door in the distance, 1 minute left, I can do it.
I know I can
I'm a fast runner, and I have some stamina left.
I can make it.
Oh, I'm now being tugged into a doorway.
What the hell?!
I was surprised by the situation which was in front of me, aka... the inside of a janitor's closet?
"Black Night, I swear to god, I'm done with your shenanigans for today." I spun around, ready to punch BN in the face, but instead I saw...
"Vee... I'm kinda wishing it was BN Now."
"That's... rude."
"Oh that's not rude. you know what is rude?? Saving one friend then going to go kill the other the next morning." I snapped at him.
"Well.. that's why I dragged you in here."
"you are aware I'm late to class now, right?"
"Yes, but I'll tell the guards or Mr. Nightmare that I already beat you up for it."
"I..." I shook my head, "I don't understand you! One day you're all nice and smiling at me, the next you're trying to kill my friend! What do you want from me?!"
"I wasn't lying when I said I didn't want to do it. Every bad thing I've done to you guys I... It was Mr. Nightmare. I think you guys are cool, and I wish we could be friends, I just... I can't. I'll get killed if I keep doing these risky things."
"and I will be too"
"Exactly. that... that's why I'm going to be taking myself out of the equation. I'm not being your wake-up call anymore, and I'm not going to be in your lunch bell. I can't risk our lives like that, and it's just-"
"No."
"What?"
"You're letting Mr. Nightmare win by doing that."
He rose an eyebrow, "how so?"
"If you avoid us and stop trying to break free from him, you're giving him what he wants. Power and control."
"You make a good point."
"I know. So don't cut us off, keep being our friend in secret, show him he has no power."
"you're sounding like you're going to be starting a rampage"
"Maybe I will."
He chuckled and shook his head, but his face was quickly overtaken by a frown, "that's... not the safest idea though."
"I'm done with being safe. I'm done with playing by his rules. Let's get out of this prison."
A small smile forced its way into his frown, "this new you is a riot."
"And she's about to start one too."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Are you even sure this is going to work?" I kept my voice as low as it could go as we crept through the halls. Everyone was in classes and we used the excuse of the bathroom to have a chance to sneak out.
"No idea, but stop talking, I don't know if guards are patrolling." Pandora glanced around the corner before waving us on.
I wasn't sure why we thought all 6 of us walking through the halls at the same time was a good idea, but we kept going anyways.
The exit was within eyesight
There's no way we're going to do this, there's no way they're just going to let us leave this easily.
Despite my many concerns, I kept silent, and we kept walking.
We were about to reach the door when my fears were confirmed by voices down the hall we came, "I cannot believe we were put on door duty again. Like, come on! no one is going to try to escape. No one would be dumb enough for that. I just want to have a fun job! I want to go into rooms and scream into the morning, and I want to attack the rule bre-" His voice stopped as we turned around, spotting him and another guard at the end of the hallway.
One, I assume the one who was talking, has blue spikey hair with two small black horns poking out of it. He was tallish, maybe 6'2, if I had to guess.
The guy next to him had straight black hair, which was a bit longer -- If he wanted to, he could comb it to have it completely cover both of his eyes. He was taller than the other guy, if I had to guess he was maybe 6'4.
Both stood, staring at us, until the black-haired guy spoke up, "well? you want action, go get some action-"
With that, Blue haired guy sprinted towards us, drawing his sword.
All of us quickly scattered, putting our "escape the escape plan" into action.
Our plan was pretty simple, to say the least.
Just... run
In every direction.
We hoped there would be only one guard that caught us, but there are still more of us than there are of them.
I was chosen to run towards the door, so that's exactly what I did.
My job? Open it and run. I wasn't too confident about leaving them behind, but because I was "new" they decided I should leave first, which was annoying, but whatever.
My running felt like a repeat of this morning, but now I heard the sounds of my friends running in the other direction, and two men yelling at us to get back.
I reached the door and went to grab the door handle
I felt the cold metal on my fingers before a body smashed into mine.
The punches that ensued brought me back to last night
Back to laying on the ground
Alone.
I barely felt a punch again, all I could hear was the yelling of my friends.
But then I realized...
that's the difference between last night and now
I'm not alone anymore.