Relieved to be able to say she survived another game, Takara found herself trying to dry her clothes as best she could, wringing out her black vest and hoodie.
Too invested in drying her clothes, she felt a stabbing pain in her arm she had been repressing, reminding her of the injury she sustained in the game. She rolled up the sleeve of her vest to reveal her bloodied arm. The bleeding had slowed from the pressure she applied in the game but still, it looked deep.
While inspecting her wound, Takara hadn't noticed the blonde boy walk over to where she stood, a first aid box in his left hand.
"For your arm"
Takara blinked up at the voice, she had thought everyone had left already.
"Where did y-"
"Behind the reception desk" he stated before she could finish, a slight smile on his face.
"Thank you, did you see where the other two went?"
"They took off pretty quick, doubt they'll live much longer" he smirked as he spoke, amused by the thought of their teammates' oncoming demise. After not helping them in the game, he thought it was what they deserved.
Takara took the box from him, giving him a grateful smile as she did so, not wanting to linger on his last comment too long. She went to sit down in the waiting area, placing the box down next to her and rifling through its contents to find what she needed.
Thankfully, during her time in education, Takara took a few extra classes in first aid. It wasn't a requirement but she always had the desire to learn how to take care of herself and others in hard situations, and knowing basic first aid was one way of doing that.
"I didn't catch your name," Takara spoke, lifting her head from the box, hoping to have some sort of normal conversation for the first time in days.
To her disappointment, the blonde had already left. Why had he just got up and left so quickly after helping her?
"We survived death together and he couldn't even hold a decent conversation with me afterwards. Charming." She spoke to herself, slightly annoyed by the blonde haired male.
Bringing her attention back to her arm, she knew that she would have to give herself stitches. It was too deep of a cut not to. The box had nothing inside it that could be used for stitches so for now she settled on cleaning the wound first and then using some clean bandages to cover it so it wouldn't get infected. She would just have to wait until she was back in her makeshift home to take care of her wound properly.
She picked up the first aid box, deciding on taking it with her back home. It still had a lot of useful items inside it that she could use in the future. Making her way towards the main door, she spied a card laying on the reception desk, it was the two of clubs.
"Out of everyone in that game I think I deserve this the most" she mused to herself, still in disbelief at what she pulled off in that game.
Before she left the building, she checked the phone she had in her pocket one last time to read its final message;
Congratulations on winning!
You have been granted two days on your visa.
Play more games before your visa expires to avoid being eliminated :)
"Only two days" she said in defeat. How could she face another game in only two days.
With this in mind, she wanted to get back home as soon as possible. The sooner she was back the sooner she could rest.
Walking back the way she came, she found it harder and harder to see the way that she was walking. It was almost pitch black. She made a mental note that she should try to find a battery powered torch on her next hunt for supplies.
She had now reached the road where she saw the game sign for that day. She was about to cross the main road when she heard a lot of commotion coming from her left. A part of the commotion she could hear the sound of an engine, a car engine, and it was getting louder and louder.
She turned to her left, seeing the dots of headlights coming towards her. The cars worked? How was that even possible?
She could hear yelling and laughing coming from the cars, seeing limbs and heads poking out of the windows. Takara was firmly standing at the side of the road in complete confusion as to how and why there were people driving.
The car was getting closer and closer to where she stood, now being able to make out the figures hanging out of the windows. There were three guys hanging out of the car, two in the front and one on the right hand side of the car.
They were chanting all together along with yells and screams of triumph. They were obviously thrilled to have won tonight.
The car quickly zoomed past Takara making her almost fall over from the whoosh of air the car caused from speeding past.
In a state of shock, Takara realised that this was the first time she had seen people outside of the game. And it wasn't just one person, but a group of people all going to the same place.
Starting to walk back to her home again it made Takara think, maybe there's a place where loads of players stay together.
Or maybe it was a fluke and it was only one group of people who found each other. They didn't seem like the type of people Takara would want to associate with, so she put the thoughts of trying to follow them to rest.
The car left as quickly as it came, its red taillights getting smaller and smaller into the distance, leaving Takara alone once again.
It took Takara what felt like an hour to get back to her apartment, pushing the complex door open and making her way to the third door on the ground floor. When she first chose this apartment, she had to do a bit of lockpicking to even get inside. Thanks to her more rebellious phase during school, she didn't find it too hard picking the lock just like how she used to as a teenager. But after the lock had first been picked, the door had been unable to lock since then, meaning Takara could just step inside from now on.
Closing the door behind her, she put a chair underneath the handle which would slow down anyone who tried to break in. She doubted this would ever happen, but better to be safe than sorry.
She made her way straight to the wardrobe and picked out something to sleep in for the night, quickly ridding herself of her still damp clothes and setting them near the window to dry.
Now in some dry, comfier clothes, she made her way to her stash of food, choosing which can of tinned goods she'd be treating herself to tonight.
It was weird for Takara, living in an apartment that used to be someone else's home. All of their furniture and belongings were still in the place when she first arrived, which made Takara make up ideas of who's home this was, creating a life story for the previous inhabitants.
Takara imagined a young couple calling the place home, there was only one bedroom but had a large double bed in it, two bedside tables were on either side. The bathroom had two sets of toiletries littered around the sink, with two different coloured sets of towels laid out in the cupboard.
The apartment resided in the very center of the city, which would've made the place very expensive. She imagined they both had well paid jobs, meaning they barely spent any time at home, which explained why the apartment looked like it was barely lived in. She envisioned the couple would be young due to how sparse the place was, only essentials and minimal decorations, they definitely spent most of their money on rent with barely any left over to decorate. But still, Takara still thought they made the place look like a home, and now it belonged to Takara.
After choosing her dinner for tonight, she made her way onto the sofa, eating directly out of the tin with a fork. Now back in the peace of her apartment, Takara had some time to think and reflect over the last few days.
The loneliness of being in this strange world was slowly chipping away at Takara. Normally, she loved being in the solitude of her own home, in her own company. But now, it's different.
She so desperately wanted the joy of companionship, of friendship. To be able to sit with close friends, enjoying eachothers company, laughing until their cheeks were sore. She missed it. Of course she wouldn't be able to have something like that in this world, but anything close to that would suffice her need for company.
In some sick way she enjoyed the games, they were her only opportunity to see another person, to speak to another person. For Takara she felt that the shadow of death that lingered over the games made everyone reveal their true selves. There was no time for masks, no time to pretend to be somebody you weren't , that was another thing she found intriguing about the games, it revealed the harsh truth of a person's nature.
Takara felt she had been quite lucky with the games she had been given. Sure they had been a bit taxing to her brain, but she hadn't had to do anything that made her make hard choices, or that challenged her humanity. She knew that day would eventually come, but for now, she would just take it a day at a time.
Finishing her food, she walked into the bathroom and opened up a cupboard she had been using to store all her medical supplies. She couldn't fall asleep without treating her arm with better equipment than what had been in the first aid box.
Wincing slightly as she took off the bandages from earlier, she gave her arm a closer inspection. The bleeding had slowed a lot more since she was at the game now with only a slight trickle escaping it. She cleaned the area with a cloth and water leaving only the wound to be stitched up. She took a needle she had dipped in sanitiser and pushed the thread through the needle. She braced herself for what she was about to do.
Taking a deep breath in, she pushed the needle through her skin, grimacing as she did so, and pushed the needle again through her skin on the other side of the cut. She continued to do this several times, finding it harder and harder to do so from the pain. She started to feel light headed towards the last few stitches but pushed on, how else would the wound heal if she didn't get the stitches finished?
With a sigh of relief, she finished her last stitch, feeling a wave of tiredness sweep over her. She needed to rest. Covering up her stitches with a bandage, she put all her supplies back into the cupboard and made her way to the bedroom.
Settling herself into bed, she pulled the duvet and blanket over her, it was quite cold now and there wasn't any electricity for heating so a few layers would be all she had to keep herself warm.
Turning onto her side, her head was empty from fatigue. She felt heavy with exhaustion, like waves of sleep kept hitting her softly, and with that she felt herself quickly fall into a dreamless slumber.