The Centre of Wind Crest wasn’t located at the dead center of the whole town. Instead, it was stationed at the top left corner in that area, just a few blocks away from school. The Centre was of a spitting image of a castle in the medieval age. Even the architecture was impressive that no words could describe its beauty.
The building was so tall; the peak of the towers seemed to touch the sky. There were three magnificent doors with golden paint tracing an ornament-like design on them; one in the middle that was for competitors taking part, and two at the sides that allowed players who came by to watch the competitors struggle for victory.
Needless to say, Arma stood alone before the grand middle door, having second thoughts on the game at hand. Sure, he had already accepted the challenge but that doesn’t mean he can’t skip it right? The host, Zero, had always disregarded those who didn’t come as they have to commence whatever game they had in mind. There was also the fact that his guest might come earlier than he expected. Making a girl wait outside was not what he was raised as. He will just turn back before it’s too late to face the consequences.
Unfortunately, try as he might, he couldn’t find the strength to initiate his retreat plan as both of his feet was rooted on the concrete ground, refusing to flee. Fuming in rage, mostly at himself, Arma sighed in an irritated tone and pressed both hands on the gigantic door. He could simply just stand before the door and wait till it was too late to enter.
However, somewhere in the far corners of his mind; a small voice was urging him to go on. The tiny voice was convincing him that he would regret it if he didn’t take the chance. He might as well face it now, over never at all. Without another thought, he gently pushed the door inwards and let the glaring white light overwhelm his eyes.
Blinking against the light as he made his way through, he could hear the bustling sounds of excited players and the audience above him. The stadium was just like last night, only the cracked and ruined platform was renewed, as if nothing had happened the night before. Roughly thirty or so players were inside a transparent dome-shaped force field, separated from the audience that was seated in a circle; around the force field and above ground.
Nonetheless, soon the excited voices hushed to silence and several pairs of eyes stared at the tall lad. No matter how many times he had faced these eyes full of hostility; he could never get accustomed to it. Soon Arma was panicking once more inside, regretting the rash decision he had made. This was a bad idea, a very bad idea. He should have stayed back at home where everybody wished him to be. Not back here, creating havoc once again.
Despite how Arma was battling a world war three inside of him, his body’s defence mechanism kicked in and Arma found himself glaring back to those very pairs of eyes; unconcern glinting in his grey eyes. He looked cold and unfriendly, which was enough to set some of the audience and the competitors to hang back. It would be just sufficient enough to slay down the pressure emitting from the people around him.
“No way!” a sudden, much kinder voice cried out in disbelief. A bit surprised, Arma turned and glanced at the person who was walking towards him. It took him only a second to recognise who that person was.
“You came! You actually freaking came! Hell must have frozen over!” Zatch cried out, persistent to display his astounded expression to everyone else around them. Zatch had his ink black hair styled to the right and spiked which left the impression of porcupine needles. He wore a striped shirt of blue and green, casual jeans and red converse. He didn’t wear his usual dark rimmed glasses, but, Arma noticed the faint transparent contacts in those black orbs.
Even though his show of amazement didn’t make the pressure any lower, Arma’s glare softened a bit where a hint of sadness was revealed.
“I did say I would think about it.” Arma responded gently, sensing the people around him shift uncomfortably, keeping their distance from him as they tried to ignore his presence, which was almost impossible since he stood out like a sore thumb. When he didn’t add anything further, he felt a light pat at the back of his shoulder.
“Just ignore them. Haters gonna hate.” Arma turned back to catch sight of Stabs, short for BackStabber.
Stabs have dark navy blue hair that reached his shoulders. The hair above his right ear is shaved and placed at one side over his left eye. With the exception of Arma, he was extremely tall, just several inches shorter than the tall lad. His right ear had been pierced with an earring of a feather which he claimed to be from a hawk’s. He too, wore a striped shirt only he wore a black polished jacket over it. He also wore ripped jeans, black army boots and several rings on his left hand.
No one would expect from the way he dressed up, - which was occasionally regarded as a delinquent-, he was just as much socially impaired as Arma, probably even worse. For instance, his heart can be easily moved by clichéd movies and he can be captivated to things around him. He also had a very peculiar taste in women, a very weird taste in women, which can be elaborated for another day.
When the first time Zatch and Phoenix introduced their third teammate to Arma, he didn’t trust him one bit; especially with the name of ‘BackStabber’. Although, when time passed by, Arma had found him pretty loyal to his two childhood friends in game matches and in Blessed Combat. He wasn’t at all what Arma thought he would be. He was just as any other ordinary teenager who had a very unique way of showing it publicly.
“So...What happened to your lady friend?” Stabs asked suddenly, breaking away his thoughts. Arma blinked and rapidly glanced at Zatch, demanding an explanation. Zatch simply grinned brightly at him in return. It was obvious that he had told Stabs; chances are that he told Phoenix too. Well it was no secret to begin with.
“She had to go to an errand.” Arma answered dryly. For a while, he felt like he had forgotten something important. That’s when it hit him, literally.
The girl did it so fast, Arma didn’t see her coming. Phoenix had just arrived after a hair disaster, no thanks to Stabs and Zatch. She had to stay back and re-do it all over again. She, like Arma, came somewhat late. However, the moment she caught sight of Arma, was the moment she came raging in and piercing her fist straight to his ribs, which disappeared into his side.
Arma stepped back and clutched his injured side, wheezing severely as he devoted his best to breathe. The blow had knocked out every wisp of air out of his lungs. He stared at Phoenix, wide eyed, wondering why the hell would she go as far as to murder him in the stadium. To that, she simply glared back.
“How could you! What have I done to deserve this?! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” She wailed hysterically, flinging her arms everywhere as she attempted to punch him again. Arma, this time prepared, saw the fist coming and swiftly caught it in his hands.
“What did I do?” Arma asked. His voice was hoarse and weak from the pain and it took him a lot of effort to even squeeze his voice out. His question on the other hand, seemed like an invitation to her wrath as she kicked him brashly on his shins. Yelping in surprise, he fell back, clutching his shin while his side pain screamed for his attention.
“What the hell Phoenix?!” Arma asked, this time his voice slightly stronger despite the double pain he had to deal with.
“You! YOU! YOU! YOU!...you!....you?” At first, Phoenix started out with such ferocity Arma felt like he would be already dead long before the random game starts when, her voice faltered lightly and a look of confusion was sprawled on her face. Just by looking at her face, Arma felt confused as well. It felt like the whole situation became one sided all of a sudden.
“Hmm... I see!~” Zatch said out loud in a sing song voice.
“You purposely avoided Phoenix just long enough that she forgot what she was angry about!” Zatch pointed out cheekily, which if anything, made everything worse. Before Arma could deny, Phoenix got angry once more and bashed her fist openly on his head.
“Why you pathetic piece of ...!” Arma rubbed his head lightly, wincing at his fresh new bruises to deal with. Of all things how had Zatch deduced something to that?!
“Phoenix! Give me some slack already! I am not in the mood to fight today!” Arma snapped viciously, groggily standing as he said so. To normal people, he would look like the most terrifying thing looming over them. Phoenix, who was not normal like the other two guys, didn’t even blink. She stared back to his hard cold eyes without a hint of being scared, since the three of them had been too close to be frightened of each other.
“Oh whatever! Man up! Guys like you should handle one or two blows day after day.” Phoenix pointed out sternly while crossing her arms boldly over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.
“Not when I am about to get several other blows in a game that is going to happen in like two seconds!” Arma countered back, very close to strangling the girl before him.
“Guys, guys calm down. You are forgetting to breathe.” Stabs responded awkwardly, his hands rose up in surrender if any case they would lash out at him, which often happens since they were fond of making him their personal punching bag. Beside him, Zatch snickered lightly, the sadistic side of him already enjoying the catastrophe he had intentionally caused.
Before the quarrel could resume, the voice of Zero’s reverberated through the stadium.
“Ladies and gentleman! I introduce you! The....! Uh...Three ...Three hundred and something ...yada yada yada game!” Zero announced proudly to which almost the whole audience bellowed in laughter. It was a gentle rebuke. The AI had created so many games; everybody in the virtual world had lost count.
Zero was a nineteen year old lad who took the job of being a host. No one knew how but it seemed he had the AI somewhat in his control, or more accurately, the AI’s co operation. It was evident that he enjoyed the job so much that he would be present in the stadium twenty four hours a day. How he gets so much energy to do so was still in question.
“Anyway! Jokes aside! I will be your host, obviously. I shall announce the birthdays of the competitors. First up! June twenty-
Arma simply tuned Zero’s voice out, for two reasons. One, it was a boring way to start, and two, it wasn’t all that important. Birthday after birthday, soon Arma’s birthday came up, August eleventh. As expected, there was no one who was cheering for him. No one had applauded, with the exception of three abnormal human beings. Although, three abnormal human beings was still something....right?
For the next birthday, he hadn’t mean to listen to Zero’s announcement at that time, but that particular birthday was so famous, he found himself glancing towards the owner of it.
“September thirteenth!” Zero announced and the whole crowd roared loudly. The reaction was almost instantaneous, that even the owner, Titania was surprised. Titania’s eyes were wide and her hand covered her opened mouth at the roars and cat whistles. A blush crept in on her face and in return, she gave a small smile at a whole lot of people out there, which won the whole audience over. Maybe it was his imagination but at one point, Arma caught Titania peeking to his way. She gave a brief smile at him in acknowledgement and the bet he made earlier started ringing in his ears.
“Ask Titania to be your partner,”
He will, just a long while after the game ends. After all, asking her that, with the crowd watching them was way too dangerous. It had too many risks. Damn him and his stupid pride to get into that sort of bet.
As he swore at himself for the umpteenth time that day, it only occurred to him that the whole stadium went quiet as a grave. He scanned around the stadium to find his competitor’s faces having a mixture of anxiety and excitement bared on them. They were looking around, as if expecting someone.
“What’s going on?” Arma whispered quietly at Stabs, desperate to know why everyone looked so...stiff and happy at the same time.
“Zero just announced February twenty nine!” Stabs explained, barely suppressing his own excitement.
“So? What about it?” Arma had a feeling that the owner of that particular birthday that only comes once in four years was something more than that. Surely meeting someone with the birthday of a rare and special day wouldn’t be that exciting, would it?
“Didn’t you hear the rumour? People are saying that the Phantom Dancer’s birthday is on February 29th” Stabs answered once more, not in the least minded of what Arma lacked knowing.
Phantom Dancer was a player who created a great taboo two years earlier. He had destroyed a large area of the game stage of Blessed Combat which, the AI took months to reconstruct. There were rumours that the rising star, a prodigy in Blessed Combat dealt with that player one on one but failed since she admitted openly that he was a better player than her. He was what the rising star called something of a legend, something that evolved from a wallflower to a name he had earned, Phantom Dancer.
No one knew how he looked like but there was a leaked information saying that his birthday was on a day that happened only once in four years. No wonder why everyone looked edgy. Who wouldn’t when they were about to meet the legend himself?
“Ahem...February twenty nine!...?” Zero’s questioning voice echoed throughout the stadium, looking for the rumoured player himself. A look of disappointment was soon evident on everyone’s faces. The special player was nowhere to be found. Even Phoenix, Zatch and Stabs seemed a bit upset that their favourite player was nowhere in sight. For Arma, he just felt calm.
Wait. Hold on a second there.
Arma felt his eyebrows creased together, unable to shake off a peculiar feeling he was having inside. He was feeling calm, yes, but something was afoot. He had felt this peaceful sensation before. It wasn’t like those vibrant calm that occurred in sunny days that makes people to have a stroll down the pavement. In fact, he had felt this sort of calm one times too many. It was the calm before the storm, no, the calm before a heart attack.
“Aww shucks. Looks like our competitor isn’t here yet. But rules are rules. We can’t hold the game longer than five minutes after the deadline. So if you don’t mind, look this way-
Zero turned around, something he usually did before starting the game. At that point, he was supposed to start with the introduction of the game but, he halted to a stop at the sight of someone right in front of him.
“I am February twenty nine...” A girl’s voice echoed around the silent stadium.
“UUuuuUUUGGHHHHHHHH-HEEeeeeeEEEE?!” Zero’s shocked voice, along with hundreds of others, vibrated around the whole room as he jumped back a few feet with surprise. He clutched the left side of his chest as if he got a cardiac arrest, which might be the case.
“When did you came in?!” Zero asked stupidly, the shock still not worn off him yet. To that question the girl simply pushed one hand to her jacket pocket and the other to adjust the headphones that were wrapped around her neck.
“I’ve been here since the start.”
“Zessica?!” Arma cried out, his voice barely above a whisper. Even though her name was uttered out of his mouth in question, in his mind the words ‘I KNEW IT!’ continued to chant unstoppably.
“Do you know her?” Phoenix asked suddenly, her eyes narrowed down in slits with distrust towards the tall lad. Arma felt his right eyebrow twitching in irritation. Oh how he hated when she used that tone of her so on him in such a suspicious way.
“Obviously you met her. She sits right next to me in school...”
“Is she a friend of yours?” Zatch asked curiously, the shock of the sudden appearance worn off from him almost immediately. It was a gift Zatch had that Arma was often fascinated about. Whenever he sees something absolutely beyond ridiculous, he would shrug it off as if it was something normal. Zatch smiled somewhat sinisterly at Arma as he waited for his answer, to which Arma gulped.
Was she really his friend? Have it gone to that level yet? Are they still strangers? No, they went past by strangers at this point. Then what were they?
“She’s ......my guest...” Arma replied as his voice trailed off awkwardly. That was the only answer he could come up with and he was certain the three idiots beside him would demand for an explanation. They always did.
“ And she wasn’t at all scared of you?” Phoenix asked suddenly, though in a softer tone which wasn’t like her at all. There was usually some hint of sarcasm in her voice but that time Arma couldn’t sense any. He glanced at her, briefly registering a mixture of concern and – could it possibly be? - a smile. He then, glanced away, avoiding her gaze.
“Uh...Yea...We even played video games. She made me look like an amateur though.” Arma answered awkwardly, not making eye contact with Phoenix as he said this.
“Ha! Serves you right!” Phoenix bellowed loudly, pointing an elegant finger at him mockingly with a big grin pasted on her face. Arma couldn’t help but feel a bit weird at what happened just a while ago. A few seconds ago she had the look of a kind hearted calm person, not that he mind the hot headed one she was just then but something still felt odd about it.
“Hey Phoenix, how exactly, did she dismissed you?” Arma asked, feeling the answer to why she acted so peculiarly was related to what happened in lunch.
Phoenix blinked. She stared at him, either she was confused at the question or Arma grew another eye in the middle of his forehead.
“She simply politely told me not to disturb you.”
“....That’s it? You didn’t lash out at her? Didn’t burn he-
Arma felt a huge amount of weight being forced down on his right foot then, enough to make him wince. Phoenix had stepped on his foot purely by instinctive reflex for any offence that was thrown towards her way.
“Don’t you dare put me down in your level. Why would I punch the lights out of a poor innocent girl?” Phoenix growled. Before the quarrel could end badly with Arma deciding that he is in the mood for a brawl, Stabs stepped in, his arms rose up just in case again.
“Anyway, looks like a lot of people are disappointed that this poor innocent girl is not the Phantom Dancer.” Only then did Arma look around to observe the expression of the people around him. There were looks of disappointment, yes, but there was looks of disbelief as well. Not one of them seemed to be prepared, to accept that the rumour of February 29, this girl, to be the legendary Phantom Dancer.
“Who knows?” Zatch spoke suddenly. “The rising star didn’t officially say that the Phantom Dancer was a guy. She might be stronger than you think”
When he said that Arma recalled the perfect score she managed to get in one go. Just by recalling about the moment he tasted defeat made him shudder. If Zatch meant ‘she has more to it than what meets the eye’ then he was dead on the target there.
“So Arma...Mind if I...check her out?” Zatch asked Arma almost eagerly.
When Zatch meant by ‘checking her out’ it isn’t with sleazy intentions. It was his minor power of accumulating limited information of a person with one glance, also known as Clairvoyance in which he called himself as the ‘human database’ due to it. It is one of the features of what Blessed Combat had to offer. Each player has given two powers, one Minor, one Major, which is completely random. The players can’t choose their powers, the AI does.
For instance, Phoenix’s major is known as Pyromania, the ability to conjure up fire and control it at will. Her minor is night vision, the ability to see through low light conditions. This enables to let her see in the dark with ease which is effective within several hundred meters. She can strike out anyone in the dark with lightning speed; no one would know what hit them.
Arma was fine with his Minor; however, he wouldn’t say the same with his Major. In fact, pretty much everyone in the stadium – with the exception of the abnormal three and maybe Zessica – despised it. They were either green with envy or would set out to destroy it, which so far wasn’t proved yet. Back to the present, Arma simply shrugged at Zatch’s question.
“Go ahead.”
“Thanks bud.” Zatch slapped his shoulder lightly. Closing his eyes, he took one deep breathe, and opened them up again. His black eyes turned blazing red as he ‘read’ Zessica.
The other three stood beside him, waiting patiently for the results. Arma was stilled surprise their host, Zero was still shaken up with Zessica’s peculiar entrance. Looks like they won’t start the game soon till Zero calmed down. Anyway, the three of them observed Zatch’s expression as the time ticked by.
At first, he had his signature slight smirk with his eyes glinting mischievously. Though a few seconds later, his smirk grew broader and more awkward; his red eyes widened in either surprise or impress. It was hard to tell since he was still ‘reading’. Soon, his smirk dropped and a look of a terrified victim in a horror movie sprung into life by possessing Zatch’s body. His jaw dropped ajar, his eyes widened in fear, his shoulders tensed.
Phoenix, Stabs and Arma forgot to breathe by then. Just by watching Zatch’s reaction made their heart beat roughly against their chest. It was like the suspense before the climax. Arma could not help but wonder whether Zessica was just as a strong player when she is inside a game?
Finally, Zatch managed to force his voice out, but what he said was definitely not what they were expecting.
“She is super WEAK!” That single statement; was enough to grind not only Phoenix, but Arma’s nerves the wrong way. Zatch received a one punch treatment on the head by the honour of those two short tempered duo. Stabs grinned, a distant away from poor Zatch. For once, he was happy he wasn’t the punching bag for the day.
“Ow! Let me explain! Let me explain!” Zatch cried out, one hand rose in surrender.
“You got five seconds” Phoenix declared, cracking her knuckles which were engulfed with electric blue flames. Zatch didn’t waste a second for even taking a deep breath to start.
“Okay I only read three S and two M. Speed, stamina, strength, Minor and Major. I wasn’t able to read her control on Minor and Major though. If I have to give points for each one I’ll say from point one to ten her speed is three. Her stamina is four and her strength is three again. She is below an average player. Her Minor is illusion and her Major is telekinesis but she can’t lift anything heavier than a chair with her mind.”
With all said and done Zatch dared to breathe. He panted and wheezed for several minutes while the other three took time to process it all.
“So...in short she is weak...?” Stabs asked idiotically to which Zatch rolled his eyes at.
“How very observant of you.” Zatch remarked sarcastically. Arma could not help but recall the odd little conversation he had with that particular girl before. She had said she wanted a partner and from what he could understand from her little speech of poetry, she was more on the supporting role. If what Zatch’s processed was true, how will she fulfil the role of being her partner’s shadow?
Maybe he was dipping his head too much into it. After all, she was a strange one. First she defied everything he claimed was true, then she looked down on him. Now she was here. He couldn’t understand her which is comprehendible since they haven’t as much passed three words to each other till today. Well he had one less thing to worry about.
Looks like by the time he won’t make a girl wait outside his home.
“Well! There you have it folks!” Zero’s voice boomed throughout the stadium once more, his shock not quite fully gone but enough to commence forward the game plan.
“All the competitors are present! Now, without further ado! Please look at the screen above you!”
As if on cue, thousands of slim screens materialized above them. They were neatly arranged in a ring, hovering above them, each of them filled with different types of pictures. Each screen had the game option on them, each option represented different themes which varied from light entertainment, to something that can make people wonder ‘what the heck?’
For a moment they stood still, hovering above them. Then, after a simple nod from Zero, the screens started moving. Each screen started moving in a manner that didn’t break the ring they were in at clockwise rotation. Soon it started gaining momentum, spinning faster and faster with each turn that a white glow began to nurture within them. The white glow grew bigger by the second and as if it reached its limit, burst, leaving only one screen which didn’t meet the fate of several others.
“Oh dear...” Zatch spoke, clearly a bit distressed. Arma narrowed his eyes, zooming in his focus at the one and only screen which had the game’s name they were supposed to play. The moment his eyes saw the name, Arma felt sweat pouring down from his temples.
“So there it is! Your game for tonight is... Hallway of Horrors!!!” Zero announced gleefully, almost as if he was glad he won’t be taking part inside of it.
Arma gulped. Of all the games that were there, it had to be that! He didn’t mind horror games, let alone he had just played Corpse Bullet 777 with someone else earlier. It was just that this game in particular, Hallway of Horrors, had been put forth several times before. He had witnessed the competitor’s reaction from them as a part of the audience and had seen grown men cry out for their moms. It was so terrifying, that even the audience would be gripping their hands at the edge of their seats with their knuckles turning white; waiting ever so eagerly for the moment it to be all over.
“Now now! We all know the rules of this game. Simply try and find your way out of the mansion, alive that is. However, this time, that rule has been modified.” Zero started, a huge grin exposed on his face with an evil glint in his eyes. There were murmurs of confusion between everyone and the bar of the tension was set higher than before.
“What does he mean modified?” Phoenix asked quietly, not liking the suspense in the stadium all of a sudden. She felt some sort of danger approaching to which the other three guys have to admire her for that natural born ability she had.
“It means we won’t just be trying to get out of that mansion this time.” Zatch answered, not at all pleased with the turn of events. His lips were pursed to a thin line as he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to keep his anxiety down. Arma noticed that Stabs had been quiet this whole time. Turning to him, he was surprised to find him quivering uncontrollably with a huge smile. It was hard to tell whether he was shivering in fright, or in excitement. It could be both for all he knew.
“I know what you are thinking. ‘What modifications?’ Let me have the honour of answering.” Zero started once more. He took his time clearing his throat, obviously loving the tension and then explained away.
“This time you won’t try to escape the hands of terrifying, eye scorning, monsters, you’ll be given a task to perform. Each player must find a piece of paper in a room which has the list of things they have to do. The things to do written in it varies from person to person. To make this even more challenging...you will have a time limit.”
The moment he uttered ‘time limit’, there were several groans escaping from different competitors who did not approve. The original game had no time limit. In that version it was those who died will lose while, those who survived and escaped wins, which was pretty slim. However it was too late for them to turn back now. Once they were in the stadium, there was no escape. They either have to go through with it and win, or go through with it and lose. It was that simple.
“The time limit is three hours. Alright with it! Let the game of Hallway of Horrors begin!” Zero gestured his hand up as he said this and five white doors appeared behind him, an inch above the ground. Unlike duels that Arma had to go through last night, these types of games take place in a different dimension, not in the stadium. In fact, as ironic as it sounds, they have to enter right into the game.
Arma’s heart has long since lost its rational rhythm. The recollection of all those other players screaming in fright and getting themselves in a short term coma did not help calm things down. He placed his fist on his mouth, reminding himself to breathe.
In his anxiety, he had often overlooked the simple act of inhaling and would make himself having faint spells because of that. It did no good to expire at that time. He needed to breathe, and get through with it all. But he needed something to distract himself, something to keep his mind away from all the thoughts of horror that would appear in the game. He would not let his imagination get the better of him.
He glanced at Titania, who was very much focused at the game at hand. No doubt she was already building up several complex strategies in her impressive keen mind of hers. Her playing style was always what everyone called it perfect. It was smooth and barely had flaws in her planning. It was as if the games, even Blessed Combat was built for her. Though, glancing at her didn’t really help much as he hoped. It didn’t give him a plan to distract himself.
It was when he turned to find Zessica staring at him, stunning him in the process. Her hands were stuffed in her jacket pocket and the headphones were now on her ears. Had she gone home to fetch those? If so why? Why did she fetch headphones? That would only distract her at-
“....It couldn’t be...”
Arma felt his eyes widened at the sudden realisation. Had she brought them to distract herself from the gore sound effects that can send shiver down a tiger’s spine? Was she scared as him to be in a horror game with the survival rate now so very low? No, that couldn’t be possible or that would be like she had predicted the theme horror to be the game that night.
Even so, this had given him a plan. It was silly, very ridiculous but it was a silver bullet to start with.
Before Arma witnessed her disappearing through the door, he saw a brief thumbs up from her. With the staring green cat like eyes and an impassive straight face that can read him like an open book, it looked funny, and at the same time wrong again. However it was enough to make him smile.
“What are you smiling at?” Zatch asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
“Nothing” Arma instantly answered, which earned a long hard look from Phoenix. No doubt she had her suspicions but Arma won’t deal with them just yet. He was blissful that soon it was their turn to step in.
“Good luck” Zatch said, though, not in a tone that seemed sincere. Arma simply rolled his eyes and raised his fist. In return, Stabs and Zatch fist-bumped theirs on him while Phoenix stood by the door, tapping her foot impatiently for them to arrive. Arma watched as three of his alien yet humble friends leave. When it was his turn, he stood before the door, taking a deep breath before engulfing himself in the darkness that was at the other side of the opened door.
Even though Arma had stepped inside of the game several times, he could never get used to it. It was extremely dark everywhere and it terrified him since there was no source of light. Every player had a thing for closing their eyes and waiting for the sensation to halt to a stop. It was easy to tell because the moment they stepped in, it was like floating in the middle of the dark space with no gravity to fix them in place. The AI had specifically constructed it to be that way for unknown reasons.
Arma held his breathe for as long as he could try. It didn’t matter to him whether he was in a real space or not since he was feeling the sensation of being at space instead. He only cracked open one eye when he was most certainly sure that he didn’t feel he was floating and that his feet was firmly touching the ground.
He was in a hallway, a dimly lit hallway. He looked up to see a small floating orb. Closer inspection revealed it was a surveillance mini camera. Each player had one to follow wherever they go. These mini cameras capture the competitor’s actions and reveal it to the audience while using the force field as a medium. No doubt it’s capturing his movements live right now. In a way, he wasn’t completely alone and helpless.
When he looked down at his hand, he noticed he had a firm gripped on an old fashion lantern, the source of the dim light. Fortunately for him this light source is infinite so the whole task wasn’t going to be too hard. It was the creatures that lurked around the hallways making it complex.
Right then did he hear a loud bass-tone growl that shook the floor above him. Dust and small chunks of stone came littering down much to his dismay. Fortunately he wasn’t too terrified just yet so it was too early to use his silver bullet for now. He started advancing through the hallway as he tried to recall what Zero, the host had said as the rules. Find a piece of paper in a room. He was supposed to find a room right? If he continued going forwards, he was bound to bump into one room sooner or later, there was no doubt about that.
After several minutes of walking through the endless hallway, the journey seemed pleasant enough. He hadn’t run right into a horrifying sight for sore eyes yet. Just when he thought all was going well, he almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a hysterical voice of Zero announcing through the halls.
“We have lost sight of February 29! I repeat! We have lost sight of February 29! February 29! If you can hear me show yourself!” At first Arma tried to remember who the owner of that particular birthday was for a second. In the next second however, disbelief settled in. He grabbed his mini camera and glared right into it.
“How can you just lose sight of one player so easily?! The game hasn’t as much started yet! Come on! She is just a short tiny girl! She isn’t that easy to miss!” Although he had declared all of this to the camera with thousands of people watching him, he started to reconsider his last statement. Sure she is easy to miss but not that much now was she?
Another loud growl drifted through the hallway. This time, it was so surprisingly close; Arma gasped lightly and instinctively looked back with the help of the lantern. He knew from watching a lot of people playing Hallway of Horrors that light attracts the creature’s attention, but the tall lad was too pre occupied with his own thoughts to care. The hallway behind him gave an eerie atmosphere and all of a sudden, fear rose up in his throat. It was time to use his silver bullet.
He took one shaky breathe and started singing softly, just barely above a whisper and hopefully, not loud enough for the audience to hear.
“All around the Mulberry bush,
The monkey chased the weasel,
The monkey stopped to scratch its nose
Pop! Goes the weasel”
It was mentioned earlier that he knew that it was silly and ridiculous, even now he felt a bit pathetic and lame for it. However, it was the only mean of distraction he could come up with seconds. The song of choice was not only because it was a nostalgic memory; it was simply because someone had been generous enough to link herself with the song.
“A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle,
That’s the way the money goes-
Another gruffly low growl interrupted him singing. Arma froze in fear, his body growing cold. Not because the growl was closer than ever now, he could feel something. It made the back of his head’s hair move and the hair at the back of his neck to rise. It was as if something, even taller than the lad, was breathing right behind him.
Arma dared to turn back, his right hand clutching the lantern so tightly that its handle almost sliced through the flesh of his damp palms. He had expected to find the most hideous creature to stand right behind him and he was right, he just didn’t know how hideous it would be.
The creature was tall, even taller than him like he had thought. It represented the figure of what once used to be a man, maybe a butler in the mansion judging by the dusty butler clothes he was wearing that was worn through. Arma could even see the ribs of the man and beetles coming out of it which didn’t disgust him so far. One hand had rotting flesh while the other had rotting bones.
And his face! It was a massacre. There were several parts of greenish withering flesh here and there and Arma could see the bones of his jaw and teeth. There were no eyes in those sockets but a huge centipede ran over it from one eye to another. Only a few hairs were left standing on the scalp of rotting flesh.
Usually in situations like this, Arma would have screamed out in fright and lash out at the corpse before him but he had dealt with sudden appearances thanks to someone for so long, he had mastered the arts at screaming inside in fright. Unbeknownst to him, he had impressed not only Zero, but the audience as well no matter how much they despised him. Most of the audience had screamed and whimpered in fear the second they saw the corpse of the butler and looked away.
They were also impressed at how long Arma was able to stand before the corpse without even lifting a finger. He just stood there and stared at the dead person before him; giving the impression he was merely bored than scared. It wasn’t because he was trying to test his bravery; he was paralysed to the core. He was too scared to even move that he forgot to breathe once more.
However, when the dead corpse opened his mouth, revealing a foul stench and several insects crawling out, it somehow broke the spell of paralysis. Arma instantly whacked the corpse square on the head with his lantern and sent it seeing stars.
He took that opportunity and turned back to the opposite direction; the mini camera trailing after him. He activated his Minor, the ability of flight, only, not so much that he would just fly out of there. He had always preferred to jump in exceptional distances with the sensation of flying instead. Jumping had no time limit. Flying did, for twenty minutes. For now, he wasn’t at in real danger. He would only fly when it was absolutely necessary.
Arma jumped through the hallway with the lantern in hand while sweating bullets. Due to hysteria from the shock of the corpse appearance, his breakaway from paralysis by butting the lantern on the dead man’s head, Arma yelled out loud enough for the camera, that struggled to keep up to hear.
“AND POP GOES THE WEASEL!”
Of course, everyone in the audience along with Zero heard his hysterical scream, but sadly nobody knew what he meant. They could only give a moment of silence for the poor, pushed to hysteria lad.
***
It took roughly fifteen minutes to Arma to collect his wits together and find a room. He had already wasted too much time running like a wild gazelle through the mansion and getting lost.
He was in a room, no doubt but which room was this? He looked around and found despite how grand it looked with the carpeted floor and several paintings of who knows what staring down on him, he needed to get out of there soon as he can. Who knows when another creature would come crashing through the door and catch him?
And where was the damn paper? Zero had said there would be a paper in every room for each player. Had someone already found this room before him and took the task already?
Arma decided not to conclude that just yet. He looked around, carefully hunting down the paper by looking under the tables and chairs and even in the cupboards of a desk. Although, soon, he was tossing things around and frantically searching through every nook and corner for that cursed piece of paper. Where was it? The AI won’t truly make it that difficult to find now would it?
Slumping on a nearby sofa, with one hand wrapped around a fist, he placed them under his nose as he sort his thoughts out. He wasn’t an incredible problem solver like Zatch or Titania. He just needed a few minutes of peace to align all the puzzle pieces together but what could he do when there wasn’t even a single puzzle piece for him to do so?
It took him quite a while of thinking deeply and furrowing his eyebrows, till three books in a shelf caught his eyes.
There was something afoot about them. They didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the books in the shelf. It was almost like they were screaming out at him to take them. Not wasting a second further, he quickly took them out and to his amazement, he had found the paper! It was stuck on the wall of the shelf. The books had covered it up which didn’t stop him from finding it though.
Quickly he grabbed the paper and scan through its contents. There wasn’t much. In fact, there were only several words.
Find the Archives to find the keys and uncover the secret door with the broken key.
It was easy to understand and simple enough. Though now Arma had found himself in another tight situation.
What the hell is an Archive? How will he know when he finds it? And how the hell does he uncover a secret door with a broken key?