I looked intently at Slinca for the first time in a while, her eyes still filled with burning hatred towards me. Though with all of that hatred, after the door closed in the metal room, she yet to charge me or even make any sort of move. A little panel came down from the roof that displayed like a projector, a red clock that had a ten minute countdown, probably the ten minutes we have to kill each other. After a few seconds of its display, the timer started to go down.
Slinca, without hesitation, started charging towards me. Her footsteps clamping down on the ground making a huge sound as she swung the sword high up in the air. I responded by drawing my sword out, blocking the blow she tried to deal to me. We were pressing our swords against each other, seeing who would get through first. I lifted my foot and kicked her in the stomach, making her stumble back and land flat on her bottom. I had the chance to charge right back at her and try striking her down, but I didn’t. I just stood there with my sword still drawn.
She quickly got up on her feet and was ready to do another charge, but I was already ahead of her. As I myself waited until she had a fair chance of defending against me, I started my charge at her as well. My sword was already in motion to swing, she held up her sword to block and our swords clashed once again. The swords create a spark and bounce off each other, creating a sort of recoil sending my arm back into my shoulder.
We started clashing away at each other, the swords sparking as they collided. Every new blow sent at least one of us stumbling back from the force of it. We went at this for a good minute or two with none of us getting anywhere close to even getting a single hit. Slinca made a clever move by swiping up when I went to go and strike, slashing a little bit on my chin similar to a paper cut. She then grabbed the handle of the sword and thrusted right into my chest, making me drop my guard and stumble back. Slinca, with her free hand, punches me in the face, sending me flying back even more.
She took her sword and swung it down on me, but I was quick on my feet, being able to swing upwards and hitting the sword stopping it. Slinca pretty much expected that, so she controlled the recoil of the sword and got under mine, lifting it up out of my hands and sending it flying across the small room, and pushing me directly into the ground. My back was completely slammed into the ground, and I groaned in pain as Slinca got on top of me, with that fierce look in her eyes.
At that moment, I realized I lost, this is it. It’s over for me. Slinca has already shown that she doesn’t like me at all anymore and that she is completely determined to kill me. I’m gonna die, heh, that’s funny. Sometimes it’s funny to say that in your own head out loud. I’ve already come close to death with Runasi, now I'm facing death again at the hands of my own friend. I guess this is better than having that monster kill me, out of all the people in the world to kill me, Slinca would be best suited for the job. Come to think of it, as I lay my head down on the cold hard ground, looking up into Slinca’s eyes, I feel more at ease than ever before. To be honest, I don’t deserve to live. The person that I’ve become is terrible, Slinca said it herself, I’m not who I was, I probably never come back to my roots. I would like to say it’s not my fault, but it is, I let everything get to my head and now I’ve fucked everything up. Slinca, I know that recently it’s been tough on you and everything, but if you can even hear my thoughts, or just know what I’m thinking. Take care of Alice for me, please. Get her to a place where she can feel comfortable for the rest of her life, protect her at all costs even at the expense of others, she’s the only living Pulpis left, don’t let her be the end of our family. I let my body go limp and my mind relaxed as Slinca began to swing down on me, I closed my eyes, and I gave out a little smile, expecting for the pitch black darkness of death to consume me. Instead, Slinca slammed the sword into the ground right next to head, almost cutting my right ear off. I opened my eyes and saw Slinca crying, her tear droplets falling on top of me, splashing on my cheeks making them moist.
“This shouldn’t be happening.” Slinca muttered out in a little cry. “You shouldn’t be letting yourself die like this so easily.” My mind went blank, I was so sure she was gonna kill me, she had that fierce look in her eyes. “Why are you giving up so easily!” Slinca’s face was covered by her hair and the shadow from the light above helped cover her face. “Tell me Lee, are you even still in there?”
“I-” I uttered back before getting immediately cut off.
“Because it sure doesn’t seem like it!” Slinca yelled out, lifting her face so I could see the tear strikes and pieces of snot coming down her nose. “Are you really going to accept your death like this! You still have that little girl to take care of!” My eyes widened pretty open, my pupils enlarging. “I want whoever has taken over your body Lee, to die when they’ve run out of options! No holding back! No matter what, I won’t let your death be in vain!” Slinca got off of me and stood up, reaching her hands out to lift me up. “Get up and go again. Come on! We don’t have that much time left!” I looked up at the clock that was still ticking, five minutes left.
“You got it, Slinca.” I said, slapping her hand away from me, lunging up out of the ground and punching her in the face as I got to my feet. Her feet slid on the ground, she looked tripped up as she gained her attention towards me. “You should also go all out, since you’re so willing to give me a second chance!” I heard Slinca chuckle to herself. “Remember, don’t leave your guard down, or else you end up like everyone else.” Slinca looked up at me with a huge shocked expression all over her face. “You’re the one that said that to me, surprised you even forgot to mention that.” Slinca started to tear up again. “Thank you Slinca, even if I don’t win and you beat me. I won’t be mad nor sad. I’ll be the happiest person in the world.” She stood there with the shocked expression burned onto her face. “I won’t let this go to waste! I, Lee Pulpis, will give it all I got to beat you!”
“Don’t you dare disappoint me Lee.” Slinca said.
“I won't.” I smiled.
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“Lee!” Slinca screamed out down the hallway of the school corridor, students turning their heads towards the bright smiling blonde haired girl. She came running down the hall towards me, raising her arms up in the air. Even though everyone was staring at her, I felt this sort of embarrassment, but just from seeing her face, I quickly rubbed off those feelings. She approached me, almost ramming into me like a truck.
“Lee.” She was out of breath. I remember we were just in the second semester of our freshman year, so we were about like fourteen or fifteen.
“What is it?” I asked her, waiting for her to catch her breath.
“Want to hang out with me after school?”
“Huh?”
“Come on you big goofball, just say yes! Please!”
“Why would we hang out?”
“Isn’t it obvious, to have fun.”
“Is that even possible around here?”
“Of course it is.” She grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me closer to her, she leaned directly into my year. “I found this abandoned building if you want to check it out.”
“Are you sure that it's safe?” I said out loud. Slinca covered my mouth, my voice now being muffled.
“Who cares?” She says with a smile, though i couldn;t see it, I definitely can hear it in her voice. “Come on, it'll be fun.”
“I don’t know if my parents would be-”
“Just tell them you stayed after school. That’s what I’m gonna tell my dad.”
“My brother could rat me out.”
“Oh my god just come with me ok? I don’t want to go alone.”
I stood there thinking about the consequences if I said yes. After a few good seconds, I decided to comply. “Fine.”
Slinca cheered out loud and people kept staring at her. “Thanks Lee, meet me outside of school.” She jogged off and went around the corner out of sight.
I remember that the rest of the day I was waiting in unremarkable patience throughout the rest of my classes. Getting excited to do something I’ve never done before, stay out after my curfew.
The school day ended and I ran out into the hallways and out of the front doors of the school, sitting down on a bench outside of the grassy null that led up to the school. Cars coming by filled with parents coming to pick up their children. I waited for a good five minutes before I saw Slinca at all. She came running out of the front doors of the school and scanned the front for me. I got up and waved at her, her head perked up and rushed over to me.
“There you are!” She was halfway towards me.
“Well you said to meet out front of the school so-” My sentence was cut off short as Slinca grabbed my hand and started leading me out of the school’s front yard. “Hey!” I yelled out as she kept tugging me.
“We don’t have much time Lee! So let’s hurry up!” She let go of me and started sprinting towards the street. “You better keep up!”
“Hey, Slinca!” I said as I started up my sprint. Slinca turned up the street and I followed, barely being able to keep up with her swift and paced movements. We sprinted for a good five minutes, swerving in between side streets and sometimes alleyways. The decelant road made the whole way there have a stinging creepy vibe. After weaving through the streets, Slinca stopped in front of an almost burned down apartment building.
“Is this the place?” I asked her in a wheeze as I was catching my breath. My legs were shaking, that was the first time I’ve ran like that.
“Yep.” She said unaffected by how much she ran, like it was a light breeze passing by.
I looked the building up and down after cooling down. The building looked like it was going to crumble apart. The burnt marks from the fire are still stained onto the stone and brick, little pieces of ash littered the ground around the building’s entrance.
“Are you sure this is even safe to enter?” I asked Slinca.
“Sure it is.” She said cheerfully, breaking into a little prance.
“This building looks like it’s gonna fall apart at any minute.”
“That’s the best part.”
“What!?”
“Let’s go Lee! You only live once.”
“I’d rather live to at least see my graduation.”
“Stop being a pussy and come over here!” Slinca yelled at me. Taken back at the sudden aggression, I reluctantly started walking over to the building’s entrance. Slinca entered the building, being engulfed by the darkness and basically disappearing right in front of my eyes. I entered the building, coughing as some dust got kicked up off the wood floor, rubbing my eyes, I saw a peak of Slinca walking into a room on the right of this badly burned hallway. Each step I took across the room made a loud creak, even a little plank from the floor above fell down a long way down the hallway. The plank made a huge boom that echoed throughout the whole building.
“Slinca!” I called out. “I don’t really think it’s safe to be here.” No response came through from Slinca’s end. “Slinca?” I started tiptoeing in the building, slowly heading towards the room she stepped into. “Is this some kind of prank?” I turned the corner into the room and looked around, Slinca was nowhere to be seen. “Slinca!” I cried out once more. I took a hard look around the room, I saw Slinca’s backpack on the floor, the zipper being opened almost fully. I ran over there, kneeling down and holding the backpack in my arms. My mind was racing, I thought to myself that Slinca was hurt in some kind of way. Maybe someone had snatched her, or she got hit by falling debris of some kind. Though, what happened next zapped all of those thoughts out of me. I got hit by a hard piece of plank wood in the back of my head, the impact made me fall to the floor, my head resting on Slinca’s backpack.
“Goddammit Lee!” I heard a familiar voice say. “You can’t be caught like that!” I rubbed my head and looked behind me. Slinca was standing there with a piece of floor board. “Have you learned anything at school at all?”
“What the fuck was that all about.” I said in anger, looking up at Slinca’s eyes. “Why’d you hit me?”
Slinca laughed. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“No!”
“To teach you a lesson.”
I looked up in a shocked expression of that sort. “Are you serious right now? That was all for me to learn a lesson!?”
“Yep.”
“A lesson for what? Not going into abandoned buildings.”
Slinca yanked the backpack from under me and put it on her. “Tell me Lee, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
“Um, I don’t know.” I said. I’ve never really thought about that question before, my whole life has just been learned about how to survive. Nothing else really popped into my head.
“Whatever it is you want to be. Forget about it.” Slinca’s tone completely shifted from earlier.
“Huh?” I say in confusion, getting to my feet.
“This world doesn’t care about your dreams or feelings. They only see you as a number on a chart.” She turned her back to me. “So having dreams is like a fantasy, it’s something that’ll never happen. Instead of focusing all of your energy on your passion. It’ll be better to just put your full attention on getting better at fighting. Something you're not able to do.”
Her words stabbed through me like a dagger, though it’s tough to hear them, it’s the truth. In our physical activities class is where I do my worst performance. Unlike my other classes like literature, I’m like a god there. I’ve thought about how I need to get better, just never taken the action I needed.
“Especially you Lee.” Slinca turned her head to face me, her glaring eyes staring down at me, making me feel inferior to her. “Everytime during our physical class you always falter behind. It’s something that you’re especially weak at. Doesn’t that worry you?”
“I mean, a little bit but-”
“Then why haven’t you done anything about it.”
“When did this become a lecture!?”
“I’m asking you a question, answer it!”
“Because I don’t know how to alright! I just don’t know how to.”
“Well let me teach you.” Slinca patted me on the back. “I’m really surprised your brother hasn’t helped you at all.”
“He says he doesn’t have the time.” I shrug my shoulders. “But I don’t buy it.”
“Here, let me give you a starting point.” Slinca opened up her backpack and pulled out a beaten up notebook and gave it to me. On the front cover it said. ‘Fighting Handbook 101’
“Did you make this?” I asked, holding the notebook in my hands.
“You betcha!” She exclaimed, zipping back up her backpack.
“Thanks, I’ll read this when I get home.”
“Let me get you started on a tip that I really like.”
“What is it?”
“Never let your guard down ever, or else you end up like everyone else.”
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Slinca and I had a standoff, though I realized that I didn’t have my sword anymore, it was flung all the way in the corner of the room, right next to Slinca. My immediate thought was to get it while Slinca will charge at me, but I knew she wouldn’t allow me to do that. I know she’s pretty smart, so she won’t even risk me getting that sword back. My only shot at getting close is that I have to charge at her myself. The clock was getting really close to four minutes, I need to make a move now. I took the courage and directly charged at her, she took a hardy defensive stance as I came toward her. She was basically the gatekeeper of my sword as she stood there menacingly. She got ready to swing as I came close enough, my whole plan relies on her swinging to either side of me and dodging that, getting past her and getting my sword. I just need to see the look on her face and the direction of the sword to determine where she’s going to swing at. I looked deep into her soul as we were almost in arm's reach. If I know Slinca, I’ll know that she’s going to swing…In the middle. I can tell by how she’s looking, she is going to sideswipe me. She most likely saw through my plan and is planning to swing at the torso of my body, making sure I can’t dodge to the left or right, giving me no option but to take the hit. No! I’m sorry Slinca, this is really gonna hurt. She took her swing at me and I slid under the hit by kicking my leading leg in my stride while I was running, forcing my body to go under the swing and slide into Slinca’s leg, lifting them up in the air making her fall to the ground.
Her sword dropped from her hands and across the room like mine did. I was laying flat on my back with my legs stretched out touching my sword. I got up and so did Slinca, we both rushed over to our swords, mine was closer so I got to it first. I turned around and saw Slinca still running over, this is my chance. I started up my sprint towards Slinca with my arms bracing itself for the swing. As soon as Slinca got her sword, I took my swing at her back. She was fast enough to swat it away, our swords colliding together.
We were now positioned where none of us could hit each other with our swords, but we could kick with our legs. Slinca most likely had the same idea, but I’d beat her to it. I took my left leg and put it behind hers, lifting my leg and sweeping hers off the ground and flinging her back onto the ground. Her back crashing into the metal floor, with a little grunt of pain coming from her mouth.
I was looming above her with my sword ready to go at her again. Slinca took her sword and tried to jab me in the arm. I was quick to move it up out of the way, barely dodging her attack. I took this opportunity to do something pretty painful, but it would allow me to stop her from using her sword. I took my right hand and grabbed the sword by the blade, cutting up my palm. Slinca tried to pull it back, the blade kinda sliding across my palm, cutting it up even more. It hurt like a bitch but it was worth it for me to get this free opportunity to get a hit in. I took the sword from my left hand and swung the sword on her arm that was holding the sword. I struck her and made a huge gash in her arm, blood spraying out and dripping down her arm. She screamed and pulled the sword back with such force that it made a huge cut along my palm, blood squirting out of it and I yelped in pain as I stepped back.
Slinca switched the sword to her other arm as the injured one dangled, blood still seeping out of it and onto the floor. Slinca clenched her teeth ready to go again, holding the sword in front of her as she breathed heavily. It’s hard to see her like this, but I need to keep a promise to her. I charged at her again, clashing our swords together, this time she was way slower which made me able to get through to her easier. I got a few little cuts on her torso, slicing some of her clothing off. I hated every second of this fight, Slinca shouldn’t be put in a situation like this, and she should already be the winner. No, she had to go out of her way to save my ass. I’m grateful as hell she gave me a second chance, but she should’ve just let me die. I feel like giving up and letting loose, but at the same time I need to grant her wish, it’ll be a disservice to her if I just give up now.
Three minutes left said the clock above us, as I got another cut into Slinca’s body. She stumbled a bit, her leg almost giving out on her. She surprised me with a swing to my legs, getting a small cut on them as she bent over in exhaustion. A little bit of blood trickled out from my pant leg, and I stepped back, making sure she couldn’t take another cheap swing at me. Then, in a blink of an eye, Slinca jumped off the ground and flung her body towards me, her sword in a position where she can swing down clear through my skull. I jumped back, but it wasn’t fast enough. Slinca fell to the ground, stabbing right through my right foot. I screamed in pain as I limped back, my right foot completely fucked up and covered in blood. Slinca got back up and lunged at me, that’s when it happened. I don’t know if it was my fight or flight ticking off, or just another natural instinct, but I did this without thinking. I took my sword and stabbed Slinca straight in the stomach, reaching all the way through her, basically impaling her. She spit out blood and gasped. I slid the sword out of her stomach and she faltered to the ground, landing flat on her face, the blood pooling around her.
I stood there over her body before I could really process what happened. “Slinca!” I yelled as I got to my knees, ignoring my injured foot. I picked her up by her stomach and turned her over so her head was facing me, she layed in my arms as the blood soaked into my clothing. “No! Dammit what was I thinking!? I shouldn’t have done that to you.” I was rambling to myself, the regret building up and fostering inside my mind. Slinca coughed up blood on my face as she struggled to breathe, her body gone limp due to the stabbing.
“Sshhhh.” Slinca mustered out. “It’s ok Lee.” She put her bloody finger to my lips. “You did the right thing. I was careless and caught on to my mistake.” She began coughing again, with a little pause in between where she wheezed in pain, her stomach pulsating blood.
“God why is this happening?” I started to cry. “You should’ve just killed me when you had the chance! Why didn't you!” I started to blame Slinca instead of myself, but asking the question why she did it doesn’t matter, because I already knew the answer. I just don’t know what else to say.
“Heh, maybe I should’ve.” She said, “But for some reason, I wanted to save you.”
“I’m not worth saving, I’m not! You deserve to live more than me, especially now. You deserve to live more than me!” Tears came streaking across my face, the first time I’ve cried in a long time.
“You’re wrong Lee.”
“Huh?” My eyes widened.
“You do deserve to live, more than me.”
“Don’t say that. What have I done to deserve this?”
“It’s not about what you’ve done. It’s about what you have.”
“That doesn’t make-” I was cut off by Slinca coughing up blood.
“Listen Lee, you’ve had so much shit happen to you, and that shaped you into the person you are right now. But, not only do you have that little sister, but many other people like Jesse and the rest of them. I saw the way you guys talk to each other, they really look up to you. Me on the other hand, I don’t have that. My dad is basically going off into the deep end, and I have no one else in my life that actually cares about me. Well, except for you obviously.”
“Slinca, I-” I was getting choked up on my words. I want to say she’s wrong, I want to believe or even say anything that would contradict her. But I couldn’t, all I did was continue crying.
“If you were gone.” Slinca coughed once more. “I’d have nothing.”
“Goddammit.” I whimpered out as Slinca was now breathing faster, probably getting harder to breathe.
One minute left, read the hologram clock above us. I still held Slinca in my arms, I’d given her a big hug. The adrenaline cooled down from my wound, and the pain shocked through my body. I played a tough exterior, but inside I was screaming.
“Lee.” Slinca says as she sounded like she was on the brink of death. “You need to stab me through the head.”
“Why?” I said.
“I won’t be able to bleed out in time, and you know he’ll shoot you if none of us are dead by the time the fight is over. You’ll die alongside me.”
Fifty seconds left
“You gotta do it Lee.” Slinca was now struggling to talk, sometimes gurgling. “For my sake.”
“No! We still need time to talk.” I begged her not to go, but there’s nothing else to do.
“Lee.”
“We have so much more we need to do together!”
Forty seconds left.
“You gotta let go of me.”
“I’m not ready to!”
“Goddammit listen to me! My body is getting cold, and I'm in complete agony! Just put me out of my misery.”
“I can’t.”
Thirty seconds left.
“Please, this’ll be the last thing I’ll ask of you.”
“I’d rather die together than keep living like this!”
“You can’t leave Alice by herself!”
Twenty seconds left.
“I ca-” I started to lift the sword, I was gonna put it down, but Slinca grabbed my arm and pulled the sword to her head.
“You can do it Lee.”
Ten seconds left.
“I-I love you, Slinca.”
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Five seconds left.
My hand took control and Slinca closed her eyes, as I stuck the sword right through her skull, killing her instantly. The clock above me reached zero and the room turned to a crimson red, matching the blood that was already stained on the floor. The door opened, and a couple of guards came in pointing their guns at me. The strangest thing throughout all of that, was not only Slinca’s dead body in my mind. It’s the fact that, as soon as I killed her. I stopped crying, I felt…
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