Nysan sits at his table, facing his bowl of rice and chicken. His face is stained with his tears and his food is getting colder by the minute; the boy just lost his brother, of course he's going to be distraught. "Nysan, please eat something. Just a bite, I beg of you. Not eating isn't going to bring Kynos back." He looks up at me from across the table, his chocolate eyes filled with tears as he remembers the way his brother was killed. That necklace was a strong device and I never expected it to have the power that it did.
It turns out that all of the necklaces were fitted with eight blades that formed a circle when they closed. The acceleration of the blades was swift, resulting in the top of the spinal cord breaking under the pressure of the metal blades fitted inside of the necklace. As soon as a second person was detected stepping over the line, the necklaces activated for the three unlucky competitors on the course still. Kynos was so close to making it; his bird even hit the pig after his head fell off of his bloody body. None of this is fair. It sounds horrible, but I almost wish that Keltain had fallen victim to the blades.
Either way though, one of them had to die at some point, and it's just unfortunate that Kynos, Keltain and myself were all thrown together to form a team. Those other two girls have no support; most people wished for them to die. The tears spilled were the tears for Kynos, not the other girls. They did nothing to help the team and they are partially the reason that we didn't make it to the end. Then again, if Tynoco's team had fallem victim to the individual courses, I think the mortification of the other people's deaths would've been higher; having my team up for elimination probably did a good thing. Or it did a totally bad thing by giving me more time to bond with the other kids.
Nysan finally places a forkful of rice into his mouth; he cries as if I'm force feeding the poor boy. The two of us went to the market together and just put the money into the bank, nothing much more. Usually, I browse and see if I can salvage any bargains, but today, all I bought was bread and Tynoco bought more potatoes. It's not like the two of us are eating much; we're sharing one bowl of rice and chicken between the two of us, and we're only halfway through the bowl. We've been here for a few days and I'm already struggling to finish half a bowl of rice.
Taking a forkful for myself, I let the smell of chicken overtake my nostrils for a few seconds before shoving the delicious food into my mouth. Just because I'm full, it doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the flavours of good food. The chicken and rice roll around on my tongue, enhancing my taste buds as I chew the food until it is small enough to be swallowed with ease. "Look, I'm so sorry about today." That's all I can say as Nysan silently cries; I almost wish that I had died so that Kynos and Nysan could be together.
"Kynos was a good guy," Nysan exclaims with a look of agony in his eyes and a look of pain on his face. "We used to play video games together as kids, and our mutual interest never died out. My first memory is us two playing that old Monster's Inc. game, y'know that one with the big slide: Scare Island? Yeah, the one based off of the first film." I let my mind wonder to when we watched the fourth one. Off of the top of my head, I can't remember the name of the film, but it wasn't as good as the original. "We played that game so many times that we decided to speed run it without knowing the definition of speed running."
His words hang in the air. I can just imagine the scenario: the two blondes sit there with their little digital watch and press the play button as the game starts. They make little mistakes that cost time; to them, it was trivial, but nowadays it would be considered a catastrophe to lose time on such a simple game. When I first played that old Mickey Mouse game, I was exactly the same; my timer would sit in front of me as I button mashed and made my way through the games with a terrible time. At the time, I remember how proud I was of my time. My parents didn't believe that I had actually played it that fast until I got them to time me with a watch. That's when the addiction really began.
"Kynos and I ended up with different game preferences; he liked shoot-em-up games and I liked horror games, such as Slenderman and Eyes. In fact, that's where my record is: I hold the record for the one hundred percentage completion of Eyes II, where you have to collect all fifty bags on extreme mode. I also used to hold the record for the third and most recent Eyes game, but some guy in Korea managed to take that title from me." Nysan continues to talk, reminiscing over the times he spent playing games and how his brother would always support him. "Kynos played the very original Grand Theft Auto game continuously - his record was for the all mission completion on the original GTA game."
"I played the seventh one, but I never really enjoyed eight or nine. Nine has amazing graphics, I'll give it that, but it isn't really my forte. Nostalgic games are my favourite by a long shot," I say, thinking of how long it's been since my hands have rested on a Nintendo console. "Did Kynos or you ever enjoy the old games for Nintendo consoles or the SEGA console or anything?" This isn't in any way about me, why did I even bring my own childhood up? Is this place turning me into a selfish person?
"As kids, we loved old web browser games. Nothing that really gets sped run, but we enjoyed the simple flash games that the internet provided for us," Nysan replies. His eyes have dried slightly and his head is listed now, revealing his face to me. "My favourite one had this penguin and you had to feed all of the customers before closing time. It was just so addictive! You could buy upgrades and collect amazing roller skates and a television and stuff. There wasn't a save file though so we'd have to start fresh every single time we wanted to play."
Nysan finally swallows a whole forkful of chicken and rice, looking as if he mildly enjoyed the tastes and textures of the food inside of his mouth. Seeing anyone eat something after they've been sad gives me this feeling of satisfaction because they've finally found the will power to lift their hands to their mouths and take a bite of whatever is in front of them. Nysan looks content as he chews the forkful; I do the same with the load currently on my fork. It enters my mouth and I close my lips around the metal, pulling the rice and chicken off with my lips.
"Did I ever tell you that Kynos had a fear of clowns?" Nysan says, starting back up again after swallowing his food. "Ever since we played this horror game and this really realistic clown kills you - extremely brutally and graphically - he's had this fear of clowns. That was a fun game, but I didn't dare to play it more than once or twice. I like it when my games can be sped run." He looks up at the ceiling of his house and sighs. "The only fear I ever had was the fear of losing my mind, and I think that's slowly happening. Sometimes, the world forces you to lose your sanity and you end up submitting yourself to the darkness, succumbing to the unknown that compels you to want to die."
He looks at me with a hurt look on his face, as if to suggest that I'm losing my mind, even if I don't really know it yet. He's certainly going to lose his mind soon, and he knows it. He also knows that only one person can escape this hell - and Kynos is already gone. "Ryota, I'm going to help you." His voice is monotonous, robotic-like as his eyes are ridden of their tears. "I can't go home. I'm going to help you get home so that you can see everyone back there. I'm fighting to help you. However, if it's between me and someone you love - like Tynoco - I shall let myself die to allow you the chance to live."
Looking into his eyes is harder than ever. Yes, it's true that I love Tynoco and that I don't want him to die, but I also don't wish death to take Nysan. If anything, I want Baiyou to escape this place alive. Baiyou has people to look after and his life is just about to really start - at the age of eighteen, he could study gaming procedures at a university of some sorts. That, or one of the younger kids escape, because they have forever to live their lives and some cruel games has no right to take their lives away from them at such a young age. I also want Tynoco to live, but we all know that he'd die to give me the chance to live.
"Look, Ryota, thanks for listening and caring about my problems, my brother, everything. Not many people on this planet exist that are as kind-hearted and motivating as you. When you get home, I want you to tell the world what they really did to you. They will omit half of the stuff shown, such as these words - I'm sure of it. Tell the world what they've left unseen over here, they all deserve to know." Nysan looks up at me, almost sobbing again, before he shoves a load of rice into his mouth and sympathetically smiles at me. "I'm gonna finish this and get to bed, if you don't mind."
I take one last forkful of the food and decide that I'm going to use the last of that turkey tonight, whether I feel hungry enough to eat it or not. Just nodding at the kind boy, I swallow the food and slide out of the doorway, wishing him a safe and peaceful night. Even I'm going to have nightmares tonight, and I'm not exactly close to Kynos like that. Kynos is a background figure compared to Tynoco and Baiyou and Dexio. Well, now he's nothing but a deceased character, only to be remembered in the name of video games.
Slipping into the elevator, I type in my number and swiftly arrive back at my farm. As I step out of the lift, I resist the urge to break down and cry. If we had actual sharp objects, I'd attempt some kind of suicide right now - only if it was guaranteed to work though. Kynos' headless body flashes in my mind; the image of his head rolling along the floor is like a GIF, replaying over and over again without any sound to support the sight I see. Finally, I let out a massive roar and collapse onto the floor, not wanting to see anyone or anything again.
Screw Tynoco and the other guys, screw the games, and screw my life. This isn't even going to be the worst death; I'm going to be affected in worse ways further down the line. My mind is saying to end it all now though; maybe it is warning me to die before things become too unbearable and things aren't in my control any longer. Staring down at the ground and my sodden hands from where my tears have splashed them, I can only imagine the horrific and agonising deaths planned for everyone I love.
Either I die first and never think about any of this again, or I have to pray that none of my friends are killed so slowly that I can hear their screams.