"huh, you're people really thought we were that naive? We've spent our entire lives -as far as you let us remember, obviously- here. We notice everything." Rafael laughs.
"Wha-what are y-you ta-talking a-a-about?" I ask. The new guy snorts, looking up. "Bunny, stop beating around the bush. You're going to tells us, everything. After William comes, of course,"
"I- uh-" I stop, as the three of them turn to leave. After a couple of minutes, I see no sight of them, they've just left me here.
That's when the sobs, the realization, everything strikes me. Tears flow freely down my face, my sobs echoing through the forest. I heave loudly, bringing my knees up to my chest, hugging my knees, the only comfortable position. And I silence my thoughts, my mind, I suppress them. I will them to shut down, I will my body to shut down. Shut everything out. And I drift off. Not to sleep, positive, but a state where I have no awareness of my surroundings, of whatever's just happened.
***
"Aria, baby, wake up," somebody shakes my shoulder, jerking me awake. I turn to see my mother with a frantic look on her face. I turn over to face her, as she glances behind her and then back at me.
"Monsters aren't real. The tattoo I did yesterday?" She places a hand on my left side, hitching my top to brush over the sore skin she'd inked the day before. Ink she forbid me to look at yesterday. "That will remind you. Monsters aren't real. I love you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for all the lies in your skin. All the lies you've been fed. It was only for the best, honey," she finishes, pulling out a syringe. With a kiss on my forehead, she plunges it into my neck, after which all goes black.
***
"Aria," somebody jerks me awake. I rub my eyes, sore from crying, and look up to a girl's face, framed by a black bob. She looks a couple of years elder than me, Hair hair tied up in a messy bun. She looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I find myself on the ground, the net under me. I scoot a step away from her, but then I stop as I see Sandra.
"Hey, relax, I'm Rita, leader," she says, giving me a hand, since I don't accept it, she continues, "You've only been up for a couple of hours, and the others will be back in the next couple, so you need to come with us, fast."
I stand up, saying nothing, in reply. She nods to me, the jerks her head towards her right, and then she starts sprinting. Sandra follows, and I take after them, whizzing past the branches and tree roots. I keep a pace closely behind Sandra, who I'm positive can run much faster. I'm pretty sure they're both running slower than their potentials, but I welcome the consideration. After we reach a dead end, Rita stops, and so does Sandra and I.
"Catch your breaths, then listen," Rita says, as I strain to hear over our loud heaving. I hear the faint sound of running water. Something flutters inside me, but I don't know what. I obviously expected water, but still, I felt like I was going insane. I had no idea what was going on, but I also didn't act like I wanted to know anything. I think I didn't want to hear the truth. Hopes form beautiful things, you know.
"You don't know anything, Aria. Nothing. No tyro is put through this, and I'm set on not having that changed," With that, Rita walks into the moss-covered stone in front of us. My eyes widen in shock as I realize that there was a hole in the stone, that was camouflaged by the moss on top of the opening. Sandra places an arm on my shoulder, motioning me to follow Rita.
I step through, amazed at the sight in front of me. The waterfall is to the left, while there are rocky steps that lead downward, into the pool of water. I follow Rita down, Sandra keeping close behind me, and after I land on the ground below, I turn to Rita. "Come on," she says, walking around the pool, choosing a large rock to sit down on, submerging her feet in the water. I sit down next to her, pulling my knees to my chest, as Sandra sits down beside me, doing what Rita did.
"I- uh, it's nice putting your feet in the water, try it," Sandra tells me, and Rita agrees. My feet skim the top of the water, and it relaxes me, making me want to put my feet in the water, the water lapping at them.
"So, Uh, I'll start I guess," Rita says uncomfortably. I realize it's the first time she'd been nervous, she was so confident the whole time, unlike how Sandra looked unsure most of the time. But then again, I've only known them for a couple of hours. I nod in reply, my nerves itching to hear and to run away, unable to make a decision.
"Every two weeks, a new person, always teenagers, are brought in that crate you woke up in," She begins. "It's always been a girl and a boy a month. Always as in for two years. That's how long we've all been here, 2 years. William, —I take you've met him before?— He was the first one to be put here, and he's the eldest of us all; 21" She takes a breath, gazing up and then back to her feet. "William is our leader, he decides all the rules we follow here, the systems we put up, everything. I came second, and William used to hate me. Another guy came up after two weeks, who quickly befriended William. I still felt like an odd egg, but the new guy helped me out as much as he could, but you know, he's a guy," She shrugged. "But then soon another girl came, and we slowly started noticing these patterns, of how supplies would come through the box once a month, how a girl and a boy would be put here every month. William soon took lead, thinking of ways that we can all survive together. The rules were unfair, but it was also reliable in a sort of way. They were hierarchical, William at the top, then me, because I was the second person to be put here. Then the Elders, which are what you'd call sub-leaders or something, and then the trainers, who train newbies like you," She stops for a moment, gazing at the water.
"Umm-" I begin before she cuts me off again,
"No, let me finish," she requests, to which I stay silent, before she continues again. "After a couple of days after our 7th arrival, William said our supplies weren't increasing, but our numbers were. Till then none of us had travelled far away, alone, for the fear of getting lost. But William suggested we divide ourselves into three groups, and we look around the island. That evening we made a map of how the place looked like, from what we knew. We learnt it was an isle, and we found there was a long wall that ran across the isle. We decided to go explore the next day" She sighs, before continuing, "We ran the length of the wall from one end to the other — Well from one end of the isle to the other, the wall extends beyond the island's width"
"When we reached about halfway, we saw a large break in the wall. Obviously curious, we decided three of should enter it. Me, William and the boy that arrived third went through, telling two others to wait behind, and the other two to check for any other openings on the rest of the wall. We walked into the long narrow path, with brick walls towering on either side. Our surroundings started to rumble, and we saw the walls moving -literally. The walls closed, leaving us with no way out,"
"We were scared and had no idea what to do. But then a sort of small drone appeared out of nowhere. It flew overhead, positioning itself in front of us, a couple of feet above our reaches. A man's image appeared under it, and he started speaking about something, I couldn't make out what, I was so scared, I wasn't paying attention. William was, though, and told us to look beside us. There were iron bars, out of nowhere, and behind them was a hideous monster, like a cross between a gorilla, sabre-toothed tiger, and absolutely scary. We we-were supposed to ru-run away from it. That's what William told us to do, just follow him. The three of us started running frantically, and soon after we heard screeches and soon after, a loud wail; the creature had been released. The path wound left and right a lot, but the creature was catching up. The other boy with us turned his head behind to check on it, and lost his footing, falling flat on his face. I screamed, told William to stop. William told me to run, just follow the path, and don't stop. William went to help the boy, while I ran away. As soon as I'd seen the end -which was the opening through which we'd entered- I heard an ear-shattering scream. The creature had gotten the other boy, William said he'd done everything he could, but the creature caught up too fast. As soon as William and I were outside, the opening started to close again, trapping the dreadful memory in. The drone came back and said we'd gotten a good 'score', but we had to do better." She paused again, looking at me, evidently expecting some sort of reaction from me, but I haven't gotten a single answer yet, just more questions added to my lot.
"Don't you see it! This whole thing?! The whole fucking place? It's a game! We're like real characters, we need to score fucking 'high scores'. That's how we survive, playing this sick game!" Rita exclaims.
"The supplies we get, everything, is all according to how we play. If we play well, we get more supplies. But when we lose people inside, sometimes the supplies don't even show up"
"But what does any of this have to do with me?" I question them, still unable to put the pieces together. "I don't know any more than you do,"
"For starters, you were supposed to be a guy..."
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