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If anything, the death behind them motivated the players to move faster. They already had two injured and now one dead, they couldn't fuck around and wait for the grid to get them. The mirror trick tht Sora had was working as they made it through the rest of room three and into room four. Sora could see ahead of himself until one of the players got cocky – the guy that came with Yuumi. He wasn't sharing the mirror, and by the time Sora realized what was happening, he was nearly pushed into one of the laser beams.
His hand reached out, stopping himself from falling forward. "Watch it!" Sora shouted.
The guy looked at Sora, a smirk on his face. "Just because you think you're good doesn't actually mean you are." Sora didn't understand what he meant as he went into room five. But what they didn't know about room five was that the lasers...
They moved.
As he stepped through the doorway between the fourth and fifth vault, Sora had to block Aya from seeing what the rest of them were about to witness.
"Makoto!" Yuumi shouted, but it was already too late. The lasers hit Makoto from four different angles. Makoto didn't have the time to scream, all four lasers burned right through his clothes and skin. Sora closed his eyes instantly, not wanting to see the death of another player, even if he got cocky at the end. Yuumi stood frozen, staraing wide eyed at his "friend's" death.
Makoto was smoking as he fell to the ground.
"I-I think that's worse than a laser from the sky." The teenage girl whispered, placing a hand over her mouth. Sora's head turned to the young girl, realizing what she meant. The bodies he saw in the alley, they all had lasers shot down into their heads. He shuddered at the thought of it.
Yuumi swallowed hard. "What are we going to do? We can't all go in there." Yuumi said.
"Typically, Spades games only needed one winner to give us game cleared." The older man stated, peering behind him. "We all will have to get into that room to avoid the grid, however." He also pointed out.
One of the female players looked to the fifth room, "It looks like the lasers are motion activated." She said when she noticed that the lasers weren't moving. Makoto was dead, there was no need for the laser to move.
"Why not." A different player said sarcastically. "If we are all in there, the lasers won't stop moving."
"But we can't stay here." The older man said. "The grid hasn't stopped moving." He pointed out.
Sora looked at the mirror in his hand. An idea popped into his head, it was shit idea, but anything to get them through the lasers. "You!" Sora pointed to Yuumi. Yuumi's eyes widened, pointing to himself. "Get to the entry way. Everyone else, get to the corner of the fifth room." Sora tilted the mirror, getting himself and Aya through the rest of the lasers in the fourth room.
"What are you thinking?" Yuumi asked.
"Hand over your mirrors." Sora said as he turned to the other players who were making their way to the fifth room. The older man grabbed Yuumi and Sora before the lasers could hit them. Sora looked behind him, seeing the back of his shirt float down to the ground behind him. "Fuck." Sora hissed.
"Careful, boys."
"Thanks." Yuumi said, looking at the lasers that were moving behind him. Any time they hit Makoto, they could hear skin getting singed and the burning of his clothes. Yuumi gulped, looking back at Sora. "How the hell are we supposed to get through that?"
"5 minutes left."
Yuumi's face fell. "In five minutes?"
Sora honeslty had no idea without getting seriously injured – there was no possible way for them to get through those lasers with only five minutes to spare. Sora removed the phone from his pocket. "Sora," Aya tapped his arm, getting his attention. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Too late." Sora tossed the phone straight into the lasers. The phone was fried within seconds of going through the lasers, but what no one else realized was that, yes, the lasers were motion activated, but they also went after something that went through the lasers. Sora was the mirror slide across the floor, the other beams followed it, shooting themselves around the room.
No one noticed because they were too worried about Makoto.
When the phone crashed to the floor, Sora took off. Yuumi was right behind him, not knowing the plan, but he'd rather die in place of Sora in case the lasers went after them. Sora knew that Yuumi was behind him, which was the plan that he didn't get the chance to vocalize, but he seemed to understand Sora's thoughts. Sora could hear Aya screaming his name.
Yuumi grabbed the back of Sora's shirt, stopping one of the beams with the mirror. It shot across the room, bouncing off the wall. Sora looked behind him, "Thanks." Yuumi gave him a smile before they went back to what they were doing.
Sora nearly tripped when he got to the emergency exit. However, he pushed open the door as the front of his shirt was fried off. Sora looked down at the laser that was dangerously close to his stomach. Yuumi ducked under his arm, freeing himself. As soon as Yuumi was in the outside air, the lasers were instantly gone. Sora fell forward, straight to his knees. He panted, staring down at the floor.
"Game cleared. Congratulations!" Sora lifted his head up to look at Yuumi and his phone. The other players came running. Aya grabbed Sora, helping him up from the ground. Aya removed the phone from her pocket when it chimed at her.
Across the screen, it read: WE WILL SUPPLY ALL GAME SURVIVORS WITH A ONE-DAY VISA.
Aya didn't know what was happening or what a visa was. She just wanted to get the fuck out of there and back home. If she had to live like this, every night, going out and playing these stupid games, she didn't want to live.
Sora, on the other hand, felt a thrill. Not in the sense of he could die at any second, he watched two players lose their lives tonight, but in the sense, he felt excited, something he hadn't felt in months. He wasn't going to lie, the last few months, Sora was in hell, not caring about anything or even wanting to do his normal things that brought him joy.
He was diagnosed with depression when he was thirteen when his mother found the self-harm scars on his arms. His depression was something he was open about with everyone who wasn't his parents. They claimed he wasn't depressed, but that was another story.
But Sora felt lost, and ultimately depressed after the end of filimg his last drama with Aya. He had two others lined up after that one, but they both fell through. And then he lost his dream role to somebody else... Sora was lonely, he was depressed. He felt himself slip into the dark corners of his mind. He never told Aya that he relapsed before that day.
However, the game, the thrill of the game... it was something Sora didn't realize he needed. Now, he knew this feeling would only last for so long, he was still depressed regardless. It was just the thrill that made him want to do another game – and another, and another.
And he had to.
He only had one day on his visa, whatever that meant.
He'd have to go back out tomorrow night with Aya to find another game. And it just sparked something inside him.
The walk back to the daycare was silent. Sora was walking behind Aya. She was still holding her arm close to her chest. That game... it really fucked Aya up, and it was just her first game. She'd have to go back out tomorrow night. "What the hell is this place, Sora?" Aya asked, not even looking at him.
She saw the look in his eyes when she finally looked at him. Sora had the look in his eyes every time he let himself get into a role. Aya knew that Sora knew this wasn't a role he was playing, he just enjoyed himself back there.
"I don't know," Sora felt like he was continuing to say that. Which he was. He had no idea what was going on. Whatever world they were in, they had to play games to survive. Sora pulled out of the playing card from his pocket, looking at the Ace of Spades.
A younger version of himself would be thrilled with this – he used to collect playing card decks. But right now, Sora wondered why they were playing games based on playing cards.
"Sora." Aya had stopped, looking up at the sky. Sora looked up to see what Aya was looking at. His arm fell to his side as he watched the laser beams just coming down from the sky. There had to be over 25 beams of light just streaming down. Sora turned his head, looking down a different alleyway, jumping when a body just fell after being shot with that beam.
His eyes bugged out of his skull. "What the fuck?!" He cried out.
"I should have known that was your first game." Sora whirled around, seeing Yuumi standing there. He peered into the alleyway. "Yeah," he looked back at Sora, "that's common." Yuumi passed over Sora's fried home. "If you decided to end the game, your visa expires, or lost that, you get the laser." Yuumi explained.
Aya looked behind her when she heard Yuumi speaking. She looked back at the lasers. "That's what happened to the bodies in the alley?" She asked.
Yuumi nodded. "Most of the time, it's the person who's decided to end the game who gets it." Yuumi said.
Sora looked at him up and down. "How long have you been here?" It was clear to Sora that tonight wasn't the first night these games had been going on for. The reaction of the players when they found out it was an Ace game said it all.
Yuumi chuckled awkwardly. "Four months." Aya was at Sora's side by the time Yuumi said that. Her mouth fell open, looking at Sora. Sora just stared blankly. "But it has been established that this place has been around for five months or so." Yuumi said.
"Five months?" Aya repeated. Sora looked down at her. "We just-"
Yuumi couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Yeah, everyone says the same. It feels like it was only a few hours ago?" Yuumi really didn't mean to laugh, but thinking back to what he said to Makoto, he knew what Sora and Aya were going through. Aya nodded, not bothering about the laugh Yuumi gave. "You'll get used to it."
"Tell me, what's a visa?"
"How many days you have of freedom before you have to play another game." Yuumi said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was really hoping for something other than an Ace. That would be the third Ace I've down in the past three days." Yuumi chuckled awkwardly again.
Sora nodded slowly. "So..."
"Every numbered card gives that many days on your Visa. One through ten." Yuumi shrugged.
"And the face cards?"
Yuumi shrugged again. "Nobody's seen one yet. No one has any idea if they even exist or not, but as of yesterday evening, no one's attended a face card game." Yuumi explained.
'Are the cards repeated?"
Yuumi nodded. "All the time. There are only forty cards, Sora, they'd have to repeat over the last five months." Yuumi stated. He looked between Sora and Aya, "If you don't mind me saying this, but... um... I love your work, Sora." Yuumi gushed. Sora bowed his head slightly, chuckling to himself. "I've been waiting for your next drama, counting down the days actually." Yuumi said.
Sora looked at Yuumi with a smile.
Yuumi looked at Sora. "How'd you know to do that back there? Spades games don't usually have tactics like that." Yuumi said.
Sora shrugged. "I found the mirrors earlier, I thought they'd be good for whatever was thrown at me. I honestly didn't think they'd literally be used my first night here." Sora said.
Aya took Sora's arm. "Sora's pretty quick witted."
"No, I'm not." Sora was bullshitting through that entire game. He had no fucking idea what he was doing. He actually had forgotten about the mirrors until his arm touched his pocket. He wasn't thinking, he was acting. Sora just needed to get the job done before the time ended. "I just wanted to get the fuck out of there." Sora said.
Yuumi placed his hands behind his back. "Do-do you mind if I come with you?" Before Aya could say anything, Yuumi confused. "Makoto was the only person I knew. And even then..." Yuumi fell silent, not wanting to talk about how sticking with Makoto was for him. He met up with him one night during a game and Makoto kept him along as a "die" buddy – a buddy that someone would use to save their own ass.
Yuumi didn't let that happen. And it was Makoto's own cockiness that got him killed.
Sora looked at Aya. "Why not." Sora honestly didn't mind if someone else stuck around, even if it was only for a few days. What was the harm of that?
Yuumi grinned.
Aya didn't like that idea, but Sora already made the decision.