One minute remained ticking of Kassy’s time. She thrashed and tore through her bed sheets, throwing them every which way. Tears streamed down her face like a rock falling to the ground. She felt like she couldn’t control them anymore, but it was the hair that stuck to her face from all the salty tears that really bugged her the most. There was no time to worry about such things, though. Finding nothing on her bed, her feet wobbled and finally gave out, letting her body float to the ground in defeat.
“There’s nowhere left,” she mumbled, her voice breaking. “I should have known. I should have known this house was too big for me to search on my own.” There was a particular doll on the ground that caught her attention. She rolled her eyes over to it, her eyebrows twitching. For no particular reason, she picked up the doll and held it in her hands. Kassy could feel the hate rising in her while her glare harshened, then, in a spurt of anger, she hurled it back to the ground. Her eyes grew wide with a stroke of realization. Kassy crawled on her legs over to the doll. Picking it back up, she ripped its head off. She found some difficulty in tearing it off from the beige strings that connected the head to the body. The inside of the body was filled with stuffing, a large contrast from the hardened exterior on the outside. She stuck her hand and searched around inside of the doll. Deep inside Kassy could feel something cold and hard, something metallic. From inside the doll, what she found was a small, black key with a clover decorated bow. The sight made her smile, victory wasn’t too far away now.
A static, screeching noise boomed throughout the house. It died down in a couple seconds and a voice appeared in its place. “The time limit is up. All are free to hunt. I repeat: the time limit is up; all are free to hunt.”
“Dammit!” Kassy muttered softly under her breath. Without a moment dely, she hopped off her her legs and onto her feet and bolted to the door. She wasn’t sure how many servants were in this place; she wasn’t bothered to find out when she came and she didn’t want to find out now. Out the door, she made her way quickly to the stairs.
Kassy stopped dead in her tracks at the stairs, one foot already placed on the first step down.The sight she saw straight in front of her left her motionless. The two butlers were squished together on the middle of the stairs, each pushing against the other to make way. Neither moved and it seemed to be a battle of the wits as they hadn’t noticed Kassy yet at all.
It was the skinny butler that finally pushed the heavyset butler off of him. He glared back at the man. “Move, you fucking niger! And stay out of my way.”
Quicker than he could account for, the bulky man grabbed his arm and pulled him back down and let him fall. The skinny butler rolled down the stairs. His head hit first—the corner of the steps—then his back—a couple steps—then his legs fell onto his body which kept him in a repeat as he tumbled down. He landed on the ground with a crack, laying back down on the tiled floor. There was blood that poured from the back of his head, oozing out like a full bottle of paint. The impact ejected blood from his mouth as well, causing him to spit it out with a loud hacking noise, the excess blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.
The black butler lowered his gaze one last time at his colleague. “Stupid, white trash.” He tore his gaze away from the man and continued up the stairs. It only lasted for two steps. The skinny butler had gotten up from the ground and raced up the stairs after him. He grabbed a knife from inside of his jacket and jabbed the knife into the man’s lower back, the impact of pulling the knife out almost caused him to lose his balance. The bulky butler turned around and grabbed the skinny butler by the neck. His feet rose off the step he was barely balancing on and dangled in mid-air. When the bulky butler began to squeeze at his neck, he grabbed at his gorilla hands and latched onto them. Using the man’s hands as support, he swung his legs up and kicked at his chest. The impact caused the bulky butler to release his companion, sending him spiraling back down the stairs, while he was pushed backwards against the stairs, clawing the walls for support.
The skinny butler coughed up more blood from his second fall to the floor. He wiped his face, smearing some of the blood on his face rather than cleaning it. He glared at his co-worker. “You fucking niger!”
He charged forward, up the stairs, to the man, his claws bearing. The other butler didn’t flinch but he seemed as if he were waiting for him to come. He grabbed the man’s hands as they came at him and twisted them. The skinny butler howled in pain.
Kassy, who was petrified the whole time, took one step back in terror and alarm. If they did such things to each other, she didn’t want to know what they would do to her if they caught her. She wanted to scream, and it was such an intense urge, like a newborn baby who knows nothing but to cry for whatever it needs, hopping in some way to get attention or perhaps cry for the sake of crying. Instead, she bit her lip to suppress the desire. The thought that the men would become aware again of her presence and chase her sent shivers down her back, scared her to such extent that she was fine with anything as long as she could escape with some relief that they wouldn’t chase her. She turned back once she thought she was far enough away and ran down the hall as silently as she could. The only place she knew she could hide for now was her mother’s room, so she ran there. Once she was inside, she silently closed the door with a small creak and locked the door. It had a bolt lock, like the ones used for the front doors of houses. Then, after one or two quick breaths, she walked to the vase and pushed it down. The trap door opened like it had previously for her. This time she had no problem descending down the stairs.
Barbara stood by her brother, a small knife in hand she tapped on her palm with impatience. She smiled at Kassy. “My dear, sweet daughter, what a pleasant surprise it is to see you here in one piece. And all by yourself at that. I’ll be honest with you and say it flat out: I didn’t expect you to win.” Her voice darkened with displeasure, even though her words said opposite. “I’m so proud of you, my dear, so very proud. It was to be expected, though. You are my daughter, after all, and as being such, you and I share the same blood.”
The words made Kassy cringe. “You keep going on and on and on about ‘blood this’ and ‘blood that.’ To be honest, it’s getting old. I mean, what do you really want with me? You were really ready to let those people out there kill me just like that, and yet you dare to have the nerve to call me your daughter!”
A small head tilt, eyes that feign innocence, hurt. “It’s not like I’d let them kill you. I wouldn’t want to hurt you. I need you, Kassy. You will be the next one to inherit my position as leader of this little place... our ‘club.’ That is why I need you—the heir. These people here, they’re no good. Only someone like you—with your blood, my blood—could possibly inherit this place. I couldn’t think to hand it over to all those vulgar things out there who’re probably off killing each other as we speak.” She wrinkled up her face in disgust, shaking her head back and forth.
“I refuse.”
The answer took Barbara by surprise. She frowned in discontent, unhappy with her daughter’s decision. Clutching the knife in her hand, she threw it at Kassy. It hit the floor in the middle between the two and twirled across the floor until it hit her feet.
“Pick it up, Kassy,” Barbara ordered. Her voice was harsh. She was done with the games. “PIck it up right now! Pick it up and fight me because that is the only choice you have left, you little bitch. And you know what? I never thought about letting you go in the first place. If I can’t have you, Kassy, then no one will.”
Kassy’s words choked in her mouth, her stomach doing flips in disgust at what her mother was saying. How could she say such a thing to her own child? Did this woman not know what love was? “What about our promise?!” she finally screamed. “What happened to keeping those? What happened to the importance of a promise? You gave your damn word and now you’re fucking taking it back!”
“You don’t listen very well, do you? Nor do you take hints, I guess. In a situation like this, you’re still clinging onto hope, onto some purity that’s left in you. I didn’t even know that was possible to be so stupid as you are.” Kassy growled, clenching her teeth. Barbara waved her hand, dismissing her impatience. “I never gave you my word, child, or promised anything. I said what might happen if you win with the intention of lying. I made you play that game so you’d lose. I honestly never expected you to win, however, I don’t plan to ever give you up, so, Kassy, if you won’t join me, then it’s kill me. Join me or kill me, which will you chose?”
The response Kassy gave her mother was to bow her head and let her tears fall to little puddles on the ground that they began to form. Her words were a weight on her shoulders, too much to bear for one, little girl like herself. Then her waterfall eyes locked onto the knife at her feet. She picked it up and with shaking hands pointed it at her mother. Her main concern then was James. Kassy could clearly see through the heavy darkness that his eyes were closed. She could barely make out any breathing, if he was breathing at all. A panic spread through her body, clearly emitted through her voice. “What’s wrong with James?!” she screamed, frantically, motioning with the knife. “What’d you do to him?”
“Don’t get your panties all a knot now. He’s fine. All I did was drug with with a small dose of chloroform, if you must know. By now, he should be awake at any given moment.”
“Then... what do you plan to do with James?”
Barbara laughed amusingly. “Are you stupid, my sweet?” Her tone was harsh but her face was welcoming. “How many times must I tell you? I gave my everything and I am giving my everything. If you, my own flesh and blood, my own creation, will not join, I will kill you. And as for him.” She gave a small pantomime toward James. “He is the finest material that I have ever found, for no one should be more honored than my own very son.”
“That’s just sick! It’s wrong. No one would do that to their own child. Are you even our mother, for God’s sake? You’re crazy!” Kassy trashed her arm to her side. “I want nothing to do with this—or with you—anymore. Take your crazy thinking and crazy ways and shove it up your ass, for all I care, just get it away from me and my brother.”
Barbara, with her deadpanned expression, walked with a consecutive pace until she was dead center in front of her daughter. Her fingers rubbed the edge of the blade in Kassy’s hand. She smiled sweetly to her daughter. Her eyes shone as her mouth curled. “Or what?” Barbara slammed her hand on the knife, flipping it out of Kassy’s hand, she grabbed it, snatching it away from her in only seconds. A dark glare was the only red flag before she slashed.
Just barely dodging the lethal strike to her throat, she tripped back on her feet. Her butt slammed against the cold cement. She shivered. Fear gripped her entire body from the tips of her hair to the tops of her feet. “Stop it, already!” she cried out. “Please, mom, just stop it, already! This is enough of this game. Please!”
“This is no game.” Barbara kept going forward toward Kassy, slashing at nothing in the air with rugged movements as if she were slicing through something thick and meaty. “It’s game over, the end of the line. You have no other choice now but to die.”
Barbara kept walking forward, still cutting at the air until her feet hit Kassy’s feet. It was then at the moment their feet touched that Kassy lashed her foot out, kicking Barbara on the knee. She tumbled to the floor, falling like a tower of Jenga blocks. Kassy grabbed for the knife that spun in circles on the floor by the woman’s side. The woman lifted her self up, her eyes burning in anger, but Kassy was quicker to action; taking the knife in her hand, she lunged forward, stabbing her mother in the side. She screamed and clawed in pain at her fresh wound. Kassy jumped on her, sending her body hurling to the ground. Like an eagle’s deadly accuracy to it’s prey, she thrust the knife deep into Barbara’s throat. The blood in her veins exploded with the pressure from the knife, cutting the solid tube that held the gushing liquid safely inside the body. It sprayed from her throat like the moments after you open a well shaken soda can. Kassy jumped off of the body, fleeing in terror from the sudden shooting of blood. She crawled on her ripped jeans and scratched palms to her brother’s side. Her hands shook like the rest of her body as she grabbed her brother. She held onto his clothing like he was an illusion that would disappear any moment if she even so much as looked away. His clothing, the feeling of him against her was something of a standing support for her. Was he real? Was he fake?
“James,” she wailed, with the last strand of sanity she had left in her. “Dear God, James, please answer me. James. James. James.” She continued to wail and wail his name like a lost child who only know how to cry for their mother. During her crying, her nails scraped across the metal chains that bound James. Her eyes, damp and reddened, squinting just to see centimeters in front of her, fell over them. A whispered hush came out as her voice. “The key.” Her head dropped, hung in despair. She could feel her body shake, like hollow bones in a storm, and the blood, she could feel, it crawled up and down her skin like a rabid army of parasitic, nasty bugs. She shivered, clutching her shaking arms.
James groaned, his face tensed up, a displeased noise escaping his mouth. His face scrunched together more when Kassy jumped and clawed at his arm in disbelieve he was awake, alive, there and not an illusion her mind conjured up.
“Stop,” he mumbled. “It hurts.”
Kassy dropped to her knees, releasing his arm from her talons, and mumbled a word of apology James couldn’t understand, only faint mumbling of words he assumed were an apology from her. Kassy’s energy was completely drained from her, she could feel, when she hit the floor. Whatever had driven her, pushed her forward, kept her alive and thinking, was gone. She was a grain in the sand, ready to be taken wherever the wind would take her.
Turning his head away from Kassy, James gagged, desperately trying to hold whatever it was he was puking up in his mouth. He swallowed, then shivered. His eyes fell over Kassy. “What the hell? What’s with that—all that blood... I-It’s fresh...?”
Kassy grabbed her arms and held herself tight. She bit her lip in an attempt to hold her tears. Was all her work for nothing? To whom was she driving herself to the brink of insanity for? Was it not enough to gain his praise? Nothing she would do would please him; nothing she had ever done had pleased him. Ever.
“Yes.” She rose to her feet and stepped three spaces to her left. James’ eyes widened in terror, fear, hatred, bitterness, and remorse. All he could look at was the knife driven into his mother’s bleeding neck.
He lunged forward but the chains stopped him, pulling him back to the poll he was stuck to. He screamed in frustration. “What have you done now, you rotten, little bitch! I swear, if I ever get out of these chains, I’ll rip your heart out with my own hands, tear open your throat, and gouge your eyes out!
“I didn’t have any other choice!” she screamed. Her voice was strained. “It was either I kill her or she’d kill me. Which would you rather have seen dead—me or mother? Which would you have saved, James?”
James stopped thrashing about, the murderous intent gone. He lowered all of his body. “Mother, of course.”
Kassy collapsed back to her knees. Her palms slammed against the cement floor. It left a sting that shot up her hands and arm. Her words were slow and breathy, the pain in them obvious. “You have always been my brother who I’ve loved so much. I wanted to protect you, dammit!” She flung her head up to James, tears pouring down her face. “What the hell did you want me to do? Die? Did you want me to fucking die, James?! Did you?!”
“I don’t know! I don’t fucking know what I want. Okay, Kassy? I don’t know! I have no goddamned, fucking clue. Get over yourself, you rotten bitch.”
Her eyes flashed with hurt and betrayal. These were words she never thought she’d hear from her own brother. And they hurt. They hurt so much more than anything she had endured so far. The person closest to her, her other half, to say such a thing to her, she couldn’t imagine what she’d done. She lowered her head, unable to keep looking at the face that had betrayed her so. “I thought—always—, at the very least, that you cared about me, even if just a little of how much I care for you, but I guessed wrong. How completely wrong I guessed.”
There was a look of pain in his worn eyes. “Kass, it’s not—it’s not like that.” He strained to keep his voice calm, the only way he knew how was to keep it low and soft. “You know that I’m... I’m chained to a wall... err, pole thing.” He lowered his head in shame, as if begging silently for her forgiveness. “You know I’ve never been able to control my emotions well in the first place, especially under stress. It’s not that I wanted you to die, it’s that I’m scared.” He looked back to her like a child who knew he had done wrong when faced to a parent. “How about we go home?”
The key was in her pocket. She shoved her hand in, searching around until she felt the familiar feeling of that metal. She pulled it out of her pocket and held it up. Her face was a blank slate. James couldn’t tell what she was thinking, only she was still hurt by his words as her tears still fell from her face.
She pretended she didn’t notice. “I don’t feel as if I’ve won.”
“It’s a scar that we all must bear.”