So Live Your Life

Day 2

Entry Fees

I had had a hard time sleeping that night. I spent most of the night laying awake in my bed, visualizing the faces of those that had been erased the day before within the Game. They were gone, lost forever. Their right to exist had been forfeited, as had their entrance fees. What happened to their entry fees anyways? They too could have been erased, but that wasn’t fair.

School was hard for me the next day. I was running on roughly three hours of sleep and looked like a complete mess. Everyone shot questions at me. What’s wrong? Are you alright? Do you want to talk about it? Of course I wanted to talk about it, but there wasn’t a person in the entire school that I could tell these things too. Least of all Sara. If she knew that I was a Reaper now, the thought was difficult to bear. Not as difficult as the change in our relationship though. We’d become friends over that week, but now I found myself unable to talk to her at all. I constantly was in fear that she would ask the one question “how did you come back to life?”

Avoiding her was impossible. There I stood, in the hallway putting on my track shoes when she and Megan came across me. They were the giggly type and namely kept to themselves, but we were all friends on the team. I guess it was just the day to taunt me though, because they both put their backs against the locker and slid down on each side of me. Their white smiles were like the sun shining down on me, and I couldn’t help offering my own.

“Jared, it’s been so long,” Megan said.

“Yeah, why don’t you talk to us?” Sara asked. “We’ve been dying for a little attention. Couldn’t you tell?”

“Oh forgive me,” I said, playing along with their act. “I’ve just been busy with other things.”

“Too busy for us?” Megan asked. “I’m insulted, aren’t you?”

“Very insulted,” Sara agreed.

“You should run with us today.”

“What’s the run?”

“Five miles, easy day,” Sara said.

“Alright,” I said.

And so I followed them outside and we ran. Can I say there have never been two stranger girls? They’re loveable though, and they were fun. I was too tired to join in with any of their festivities, but they would trot around, singing songs loudly with their pretty voices. They brought smiles to everyone around. As I ran with them, I couldn’t help but think of how right the Composer had been in selecting the winner of the last Game. Sara had had this within her the entire time, but now she was really beginning to shine.

It was more than just the songs that made everyone was passed by a little happier, she just reached out to people. When we were stopped at a crosswalk she would turn and talk to anyone else that was around, asking their name and starting up a real conversation within the few seconds before we were off again. Watching her, it made me wonder if I was any further along than I had been.

So far, the only change I felt was a sickening feeling that constantly grew within my stomach. I wanted to know that my life was making a difference as well. As much as I hated to admit it, I envied Sara. When she came back to life she had more life in her than I had ever seen in any person. What was I contributing?

We had to stop at a park for Megan to go to the bathroom. While she was in there, I was left alone with Sara. We hung out by the side of the bathroom, refreshing ourselves at the drinking fountain. Then, we just stood there, silence falling. It didn’t fall long enough though.

“Are you alright?” Sara asked. “You look like someone tried to strangle you in your sleep.”

I shrugged. “I’ve been having a hard time sleeping.”

“It’s the Game, isn’t it?”

I turned to her, surprised. This was the first she had ever spoken of the Game since we had returned from it.

“I’ve had nightmares too,” Sara said. “Thinking about everyone that didn’t come back to life.”

“I can still see their faces… watching them as they are erased,” I said. “I just can’t get them out of my head.”

“I know what you mean,” she said. “But, you know, bad things happen. We’ve clashed with people, and though they may be gone we still have them. It’s like… we have to live more just for them.”

I nodded. “Would you say that I’ve been living more?”

“What do you mean?”

“You knew me before the Game, and after the Game. Has there been a change?”

Sara bit her lip. “You seem terrified.”

I listened.

“I… I mean, argh,” she shook her head. “I really don’t know how to say it but…”

She took a deep breath and turned to me. “You need to love life. Stop thinking things through and just do something! Remember when I kissed you?”

“Hard to forget.”

“You need to do something like that,” she said. “You know, grab the moment. Live it up?”

I laughed. “Right, go grab some random girl and kiss her.”

“Exactly!”

“Yeah… well,” I said. “I found out something after you had left that final day. It seems that I was wrong about your entry fee. Your memories of me, they were my entry fee.”

“I know,” Sara said. “I figured it out when I got my entry fee back.”

“Did that change the way you acted towards me at all during the Game?”

Sara nodded. “It did at first, but even after I realized the truth… I didn’t regret anything. You know, you wouldn’t be a bad entry fee. Whenever I saw you, you were just a nice guy. You just did the right thing by you, even if it wasn’t popular, and it made you look a little dorky, but it was nice to know that there was a good guy. Like I told you, I’ve had some bad experience… I wouldn’t have been surprised if they took my memories of you being a good guy for my fee.”

“What was your fee?”

“My dreams,” Sara said. “With nothing to fight for, it made the difficult very hard. But, that’s why they took what they did right? We had to find new reasons to live, new reasons to be ourselves.”

“Right.”

That was my problem. I had my entry fee back and it meant nothing more to me now than it had before. My reason for playing the Game was to get Sara back to life, and my mission had been accomplished. There, I had no mission anymore. Nothing to live for. I had to find something to live for, someone to live for.

“Hey, thanks Sara,” I said. “You totally helped me.”

Sara smiled. “Helped you how? Repealing your virgin lips status?”

Just like her. It was a shot to the pride, but I didn’t have the chance to react.

“You kissed Jared?”

We both turned in surprise as Megan reappeared. I just laughed while Sara immediately had to try to explain the situation. It must’ve been difficult lying to your best friend, but I doubt she would have believed the death Game we had played. Then again, maybe she would have believed it. If you watch the way those two talked to one another, they would stand by each other through anything. They would take each other’s side in an argument no matter what.

Once Megan had swallowed the story Sara had made up from her, to which I agreed with everything she said, we ran back to the school. Then, it was time for my job to begin. After showering, I took the trax downtown once again to begin my second day as a Reaper.

Again Jessica met me at the station, and again we passed into the RG. I was still unfamiliar with the run of things, but apparently Players weren’t the only ones to receive missions. Our missions weren’t the same as theirs were, but the Game Master apparently carried out his or her plans through us. The Officers weren’t the type to dirty their hands by participating directly in the Game, it was all done by proxy. It seemed as though they didn’t have to erase Players though, or did they? I didn’t even understand why we had to, so I asked.

“Why do we have to erase Players to stay alive?” I asked as we walked to the Gateway.

“It’s all about Soul,” Jessica replied. “You see, in the UG, you don’t have a real body. The you in the UG is merely your soul manifest. Players look like themselves, but some Reapers can change their appearance as they gain power over Soul. That’s how your GM took on a Noise form last week.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said. “So we erase Players and take their Soul? I guess that makes sense, we are Reapers after all.”

Jessica smiled. “It isn’t as morbid as it sounds. You see, when a Player is erased that person’s Soul is released all around. So yes, we do use that Soul to maintain ourselves, but Soul does a lot more than that too. It can become pins, such as the ones we use for psyches to fight with, or it can become Noise as well. It can influence the trends based on who was erased. So, even though that person doesn’t exist as a being anymore, their Soul lives on and becomes refined into other things. Rarely, that Soul can be collected and restored into a mortal body, but only the Composer can do that. Reapers are talented if they can collect Soul to forge pins, it really is very tricky to use properly.”

“So I see,” I said. “What’s the mission for today?”

“It’s a bit of an obstacle course,” Jessica said. “The GM threw a bunch of walls everywhere and Reapers aren’t supposed to let Players pass unless they collect certain pins from Noise. The Noise is also different in each area, it’s actually pretty clever. They have to run back and forth between each area to fight Noise, collect pins, then go to another area to open it. Pretty tough for the second day.”

“Is there a limit on how hard the missions have to be?”

“The first mission is always the fountain,” Jessica said. “We start off easy to give Players a fighting chance, and the first day is a lot to take in for most of them. That’s why the most are eliminated. If you manage to live past the first day, though, you’re chances of winning the game rise astronomically. Each day is supposed to get progressively harder, but it all depends on the GM and what the Conductor believes as appropriate. Your fifth day mission was considered to be incredibly hard, especially with how ambiguous the mission details were, and that’s why the Conductor ordered the GM to have no mission for the next day. We’re tough, but we’re not cruel.”

“Yeah, it would’ve been impossible for anyone but Sara,” I replied. “She just knew what to do.”

“You’re lucky to have had such a good partner.”

“I was.”

“Well, what do you want to do?” Jessica asked. “The GM told us to keep our hands off of the Players today, so the Harriers pretty much have the day off.”

“Does that happen often?”

“Rarely,” Jessica smiled. “So we can enjoy it while it lasts. What do you say?”

I smiled. “Dinner, movie?”

“It’s a start.”

We went back into the RG, we had never really needed to go into the UG at all, but it had been nice to talk privately. The more I thought about it, I could really enjoy this double life. Having the UG as a place to fall back to was a great bonus to being a Reaper, even if my job was to erase Players. That in itself didn’t appear to be evil though, and thankfully I had Jessica to tell me as much.

She linked her arm in mine and away we went, having a night on the town. Movie, dinner, dessert, we did anything we wanted. We popped in and out of the UG as we pleased to talk or to just freak some people out, it was one of the best nights of my life. I was finally doing it, I was really beginning to live my life, I wasn’t afraid to live. Sara had been right when she told me that I needed some spontaneity in my life, and I took her advice.

I kissed the girl.

It Begins Again

Week 2

Jim

Day 1

Duty

It was as though she didn’t remember a thing.

Sara never mentioned the Reapers’ Game or the UG to me, as though they had never happened. I’d expected her to be surprised to see me back in the RG, but she didn’t seem to be. It was as though she didn’t remember the Game or anything that we had gone through, but she was different. She was not the same girl I knew before the RG, but she was the girl I had met within it. The one that didn’t know me, the one that lived her life to the fullest. She truly did deserve that second chance at life, and she was taking it seriously.

Then there was me.

I had been brought back to life in a way. As though someone had paved over the hole of those days I had spent dead, I entered life unhindered. Here I was, back in high school and back to running on the track team. I was hanging out with my friends, spending time with my family, everything that I had enjoyed before being killed. All had returned to normal, except for one thing: the Game.

The Game had never ended for me. I was no longer a Player, I was full blown Reaper. I could pass between the RG and UG at will, a privilege they said, but it was a responsibility nonetheless. It had been three weeks since my Game had ended, and the dreaded day was coming. The Monday that would begin the next Game in which I would become a Reaper and be forced to attack and erase Players.

I took the trax down to the Gateway, the starting point for the Game. I was nervous nonetheless. My existence was now constantly at stake. If I didn’t erase Players, I would be erased instead. I didn’t know what awaited me, but I at least knew one thing, or one person.

Jessica met me at the trax station. She was a very kind girl, offering to meet me and show me the ropes the first day. New Reapers would tend to partner up with each other, but she decided to take me under her wing. There she was in all of her beauty, smile and blue eyes waiting for me as I hopped off of the train. She was the girl I knew, except her wings were missing. They wouldn’t appear until we approached the UG.

“How are you?” she asked me, the way you would speak to your friend.

“Nervous,” I replied.

“That’s normal for your first time,” Jessica said. “Don’t worry though, you’re not in any danger. We’ll score you a lot of points today too, it’ll put your mind at ease.”

“I don’t know anything can put my mind at ease,” I said as we walked towards Gateway Mall.

“Once you get started, it’ll get easier,” she said patting my shoulder. “So come on, it’s time to head into the UG.”

She vanished into thin air, and then, so did I. I was still standing in the same place that I had been earlier, but now there were black two dimensional wings on my back. There was Jessica, standing beside me, nodding for me to follow her into the mall. I did so, but carefully. I was suddenly invisible to all eyes, and my actions would be invisible to people as well. Good. I didn’t want them to see what I was capable of. Erasing people. Killing them.

“Don’t look at it as killing them,” Jessica said to me. “These Players are already dead. The Game is nothing more than a way to decide whether or not any of them deserve a second shot at life. The Game is designed in such a way that the Composer is able to divine the true nature of their souls and be able to see their benefit to society.”

“That’s why only one of us was brought back to life then,” I said. “She was the only one that was worthy enough to enter society.”

“Yes, the Game is like a refinery. We refine the souls of Players here to be better,” Jessica said. “Those who prove truly worthy are given a full second chance at life. However, any who win the Game, although their soul may not have been nearly as purified, are rewarded as well. They may choose to become Reapers, such as us, and the refining is continued.”

“Continued? How? It’s not like we’re playing the Game again,” I replied.

“You’re existence depends on your scoring points during the Game,” Jessica said. “Although you’re survival isn’t based on the missions, you’re survival is at stake. Trust me, as you come to fulfill your role in the Game, you’ll become more refined and become a better person. And, as you do, you’ll be rewarded.

“Here’s how it goes,” she explained. “We’re grunt Reapers, and we’re not much. As you become stronger and more refined, you could be promoted to an Officer. Game Masters are chosen from the Officer ranked Reapers, and, as you saw by the GM you faced, they take on a hefty responsibility.”

I shrugged. “The last GM seemed horrific to me.”

“Some let the power get to their heads, and that is why they don’t progress,” she said. “From Officer class, you can reach the rank of the Conductor, the Reaper that is in charge of all of us. He runs the Game and make sure everything happens smoothly and according to the rules. He keeps rogue Reapers in check and makes certain that there is no abuse. I know our Conductor may seem intimidating, but he’s a very good man.”

“You said something about a Composer,” I said. “Where does he fit into all of this?”

A hush came over Jessica at the mention of the Composer. She turned to me, a grave look on her face.

“The Composer is above all of us. It’s through the Composer’s divine power that your friend was able to return to life, and it is only through the Composer’s will and love that the Game exists to give people these second chances,” Jessica said. “The only one that can converse with the Composer is the Conductor, and he carries out the Composer’s will without question, or else he would be erased. This entire Game, and all pawns within it, could be erased if it was so decided. This Game, that you seem to dislike, is an act of love on the Composer’s part. Some Composers have closed their Games because the people were considered too wild and untamable. There aren’t many zones left.”

“How many Composers are there?”

“Not many,” Jessica said. “Not many at all. Some of them merely gave up and rejoined society, there have been a few that progressed even above the Composer.”

“What do you become then?” I asked.

She smiled. “An Angel.”

Angels? That word alone sent me for a loop. This crazy Game was how Angels were born? Either she was lying or I had indeed been missing the point of the Game. There was a higher power at work here, and I was part of that work.

That helped me relax.

“So just through playing the Game, you can become an Angel?” I asked.

“No idea,” Jessica said. “Through the Game you can become refined, and from there you can become an Officer such as the Conductor. To obtain a higher rank, the rules change. I don’t know how one becomes an Angel.”

“But you do know how to become the Composer?” I asked.

She nodded.

“How does one become the Composer?”

“You kill the current one,” she replied.

I stared in shock. “These are the actions of refined Reapers, kill the man in charge?”

“The Composer’s love is boundless,” she said. “And this is only proof of it. The Composer stands on a position that all others envy, and many would hound the Composer like wolves if they knew who the Composer was. That’s why only the Conductor knows.”

I nodded. I had to admit, she was right. It would take a lot to put your neck on the line, knowing that if you were ever discovered that everyone would be out for your head. The Composer, by the sound of it, had power, and power corrupted people. I wondered if I would become like my past GM, crazed with my power and thinking myself to be a god by my actions. Would I come to hunger the Composer’s throne?

I shuddered at the thought.

“Would you ever want to be the Composer?” I asked.

Jessica shrugged. “It’s a lot of responsibility. It’s the chance to do a lot of good work, but… I don’t know. Being a Reaper in this Game took long enough to get used to. I faced the despair of knowing I wasn’t good enough for a full shot at life, the fear of having to erase players, and only now am I coming to realize my purpose. You really learn to clash with people, and you come to be better through it. Reaper you may be, but don’t look at it as a bad thing. Take it for the best it has to offer. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll get that second shot at life with no strings attached.”

I wished what she said was true. I hoped that I could prove myself so that I could leave the Game and go back to my life and never have to look back. That seems to be what Sara did, she completely put the Game and everything about it out of her mind, including me. Not that I could blame her. I had never meant anything to her. Her memories of me had been my entry fee, not hers. My self image. I hated myself, why would that be my entrance fee? Perhaps after a week of being a Reaper, I would see myself in a different light, although that didn’t mean a better one.

The Game had begun by the time we had arrived. The Players raced from all corners of the city, where they had been scattered, to come to their destination. The fountain, the same mission as my first day in the Game. There they were, trying to find people to partner up with. It would be easiest to erase them before they found that partner…

I was thinking like a Reaper now.

“Here, you’ll need these,” Jessica said, handing me a punch of pins.

I stared at the pins. They had the images of Noise upon them. So, this was how they did it. This was how Reapers summoned the Noise to attack us. The Noise weren’t their pawns, not willingly. Only through psyches could they be manipulated into doing the Reaper’s will. That is, when attacking a team. As for those without partners, the Noise would attack willingly.

“You need to attack before the Noise get them by themselves,” Jessica said.

“Lead on,” I replied.

“I have a ton of points stacked up,” Jessica said. “Today is the day to score the most points. You need to do this. Squeeze the pin, direct the Noise, or else you’re going to be erased.”

Kill or die, I had no choice.

I squeezed the pin and soon Noise descended from the sky, attacking the defenseless Players. I wanted to turn away, wait until it was over, but I couldn’t. I had to watch as the Noise attacked. Just as my first day in the Game, I was paralyzed as I watched that guy get erased. Again, here I was, watching someone else die as I stood by, helpless.

“There,” Jessica said. “are your points.”

I nodded as the Player vanished. I kept nodding as I went around the area, erasing more Players. There certainly were a lot of them, and there were lots of Reapers gunning for them. Some were ruthless like Derek, a cynic laughing at the plight of the Players as he harried them. Others seemed nervous, and a few were reserved. However, in the Players’ eyes, the Reapers all meant one thing: death.

They stared at me in terror, in fear. They cursed me as the Noise attacked them, as they were erased. A few managed to form quick pacts and they fought off the Noise. As they survived the initial onslaught, they ran in fear. Some were so terrified that they ran out of the mall and away from their destination. Was this how we had appeared during my Game? A bunch of scared rabbits, scurrying for our lives, never thinking. Someone had to think though, someone had to take charge or else they would all be dead.

They bore familiar faces.

“Yo listen up!”

I was far enough away that I couldn’t be seen, but I could see them. Jim and Rachel barged through the Noise, erasing them with ease. They had indeed been more refined by their first Game and the Noise fell to them much easier now then they had earlier. After erasing all of the Noise in the area, as well as giving a few of the newer Reapers a fright, they turned to address their fellow Players.

“My name’s Jim,” Jim said. “An’ this is Rachel. We’ve played the Game before and we know how to beat it. We all gotta work together to get outta this aight? Now, don’t lose your heads and we’ll all survive. Le’s finish the mission aight?”

The words had quite an effect on the Players. They had won, what were they still doing alive? The answer didn’t give them any comfort, knowing not all of them would come back to life. But they realized what their options were, and they chose to follow Jim and Rachel’s advice. As a large group, after forming their pacts, they moved towards the destination. More Reapers tried to assail them, but none prevailed. There wouldn’t be any more points scored this day, especially when we received the text to lay off.

“Those two are going to make this week hard for Reapers,” Jessica said of my former friends. “They’re quite the team, aren’t they?”

I nodded. “I want to go scope them out… you know, see if we can’t find some way to beat them.”

Jessica nodded as she followed me. We moved to the fountain area and there they were, all of the Players resting after the first day. The first day was the easiest, they were in for a long and exhausting week.

“I don’t see him,” I heard Rachel say.

I slipped closer to hear, but I made sure they couldn’t see me.

“Gah!” Jim growled. “We were too late! He probably got jumped by some Reapers before we could do anything… man, to win one Game only to get erased in another. Dude’s luck ran up.”

They thought I was erased because they didn’t know about the third option. They didn’t know that winning Players could become Reapers. I wanted to jump out and let them know that I was alright. But then they would know that I was a Reaper, they’re enemy. I didn’t want to see the disappointment in their faces, or the anger. I didn’t want to see my own betrayal reflected back at me.

“Come on,” Jessica put a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go get some dinner. The first day is… well, tomorrow will be harder still, but it’s hard, I know.”

I nodded and followed her to a nearby café. We entered the RG and enjoyed a light dinner, and then we parted ways as I took the trax back home. Along the way, all I could do was think about Jim and Rachel. We were strangers to one another, and they were sad because they thought I was dead. I meant nothing to them… and yet, they cared. I didn’t understand it. That had always been the problem, I could never understand it. I could never understand what drove people to care and love for each other in such a way. My first day, one meant to help me become a better person. I walked away feeling like crap.

Thou Shalt Not Covet

Envy

There's that driving pain attached to attraction to a taken woman. Harrowing guilt accompanies it. The happiness you feel is burned away into nothing more than black, burning envy. In your mind you beg the fates to twist reality into a more favorable world for you. This plays through your mind as a heroic thought, but envy corrupts all. The heroic notion of saving the girl from an insufficient love is bent into plots of undermining her happiness all to serve your own. You never know until you meet that force head on, and at the flip of a coin you can crush all that was for all that could be, or you could lose yourself to oblivion. Is it worth the risk to you? Yes you say, but do you ever question if it would be right for her?

To answer at all is above your authority.

Say It Like You Mean It

Misery Business

I'm in the business of misery,
Let's take it from the top.
She's got a body like an hourglass it's ticking like a clock.
It's a matter of time before we all run out,
When I thought he was mine she caught him by the mouth.

I waited eight long months,
She finally set him free.
I told him I couldn't lie he was the only one for me.
Two weeks and we caught on fire,
She's got it out for me,
But I wear the biggest smile.

Whoa, I never meant to brag
But I got him where I want him now.
Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
just steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good,
Cause I got him where I want him now.
And if you could then you know you would.
Cause God it just feels so,
It just feels so good.

Second chances they don't ever matter, people never change.
Once a whore you're nothing more, I'm sorry, that'll never change.
And about forgiveness, we're both supposed to have exchanged.
I'm sorry honey, but I'm passin' up, now look this way.
Well there's a million other girls who do it just like you.
Looking as innocent as possible to get to who,
They want and what they like it's easy if you do it right.
Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!

Whoa, I never meant to brag
But I got him where I want him now.
Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
just steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good,
Cause I got him where I want him right now.
And if you could then you know you would.
Cause God it just feels so,
It just feels so good.

I watched his wildest dreams come true
Not one of them involving you
Just watch my wildest dreams come true
Not one of them involving.

Whoa, I never meant to brag,
But I got him where I want him now.

Whoa, I never meant to brag
But I got him where I want him now.
Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
just steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good,
Cause I got what I wanted now
And if you could then you know you would.
Cause God it just feels so,
It just feels so good.

Doing It Like Poe

Jack and Jill

Edgar Allan Poe Style

Once upon a sun licked mountain
Jack and Jill walked to a fountain
To take the water there from in a bucket
As they had before

But Jill clubbed Jack with the pail
Hard enough to stun a whale
And he landed on a nail
Leaving all his raiment street with gore

On the cold hard ground he rested
Feeling broken, bruised and sore

After her fierce blow had landed
Jill knew she must leave Jack stranded
Deep within the poisoned well
From which they’d often drawn before

So she seized him by the shoulder
And she dropped him like a boulder
Deep into the liquid cauldron
That ran at an Arctic shore

Freezing, flailing,

Weeping, wailing
Jack faced deep and breathed no more
Floating facedown evermore

Sunday Morning, Rain is Falling

Day 7

The Final Day

This was it, our final day, our final mission. All of us were together, all four of us. We were all that was left of the large group of people that had appeared at the beginning of this week to play the game, to fight for a second chance at life. Many had vanished even on that first day, and many more followed, picked off by the Reapers. Seven days I had spent in the company of a girl whom I thought to be indifferent and cold, only to realize she was suffering as much as I was through life. Seven days later and I now had a reason to keep on living, a purpose, and I was going to win this game.

We stood still, waiting for the mission mail to come, and for the Reapers to descend upon us. We only knew of two Reapers to this day, but there could be more. A LOT more. If that was the case, then we would have to finish this mission fast. Jessica showed us what the Reapers were capable of when on their leashes, let off their leashes, who knows what they were capable of? Sadly, Jim and Rachel were going to discover how strong they were. Sara and I would have to save them from as much pain as we could. Once the mission mail was sent it would all begin.

“It’s here,” I said, flipping open my phone.

We all went pale as I read it.

“Defeat the Game Master at the Gallivan Center, you have 300 minutes. Fail and face erasure—The Reapers,” I read.

“We have to fight the Game Master for our last mission?” Sara asked.

“She’s a higher ranking Reaper,” Jim said. “Maybe we ought to.”

“No, I still want a shot at her,” Sara said. “However strong she is, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to do this, we’re going to win.”

“The countdown has already begun!” Rachel said. “I suggest we get a move on. We’ll stick together at first. The first sign of Reapers and then Jim and I will hold them off. You’re going to need all of your strength to take her on. I…”

She shivered. “We’re so close, it’s weird… it ends today. Guys, no matter what happens… I’m glad I met you.”

Sara smiled. “One last hurrah,” she put her hand out.

I laid my hand on her, and then Rachel and Jim followed this manner. We all cheered as we swung our hands and then broke apart, and then we immediately began to make our way towards the Gallivan center. There were no wall Reapers blocking our paths. No, there didn’t seem to be any Reapers at all… until…

There he was, Derek, standing in the middle of the road, smiling at us.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite Players,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Jim cracked his knuckles. “Come on Rach, we’re up.”

Jim and Rachel immediately took off towards him, not hesitating to think that they might very well be charging towards their doom. Rachel vanished into the other plane, and I wondered if Reapers existed on two planes as well. I couldn’t stop to see, because Sara grabbed my arm and urged me towards the Gallivan Center. I made haste on my own the moment I saw Derek send Jim flying backwards. It seemed he used psychs, just like us, with pins to fight, but his seemed to be a lot more powerful than our psychs were. Still, Jim was hanging in there from what I could see. Even as his image began to fade into the distance, he had decked Derek so hard that the Reaper was sent toppling backwards.

I smiled. If anyone could outlast the Reapers, it was Jim. We kept moving, drawing closer and closer to our destination. As a matter of fact, we had almost made it there when suddenly two Reapers, dressed in black hoods, leapt out from the buildings and came charging at us.

“Time to score a few extra points,” I heard one say.

Sara growled. “We don’t have time for this.”

“We’ll make time,” I replied.

And so it happened. I found myself on one plane while Sara walked into the next. I thought it would be an even one on one deal with two Reapers, but I was wrong. There was one Reaper in solid form on my plane, but as for the other Reaper, only a shadowy image of him remained. Still, it was two on one, and no doubt Sara had the other real Reaper and my real Reaper’s doppelganger.

He came charging at me, using the same bullet psychs I knew too well. I managed to evade them, and immediately I fought back using my lightning pin. Reapers must not have known Players to show no fear because he seemed quite surprised that I actually attacked him. Lightning struck and he found himself stunned, and I made the effort to attack the doppelganger as well. As they slowed, I grabbed at a few of the psychs from the new pins we had been given just two days ago. The first one was an upgrade on the lightning pin. Streams of electricity ran through the streets, lines zigzagging towards my enemies. The pain they must have suffered made my cringe at my actions, but it had to be done. These guys were not terribly strong, but they did look more like grunts. The Reaper we were aiming for would be much stronger.

After a few minutes, Sara was back at my side and the doppelgangers had vanished. The Reapers took off, no longer willing to fight us, and we continued on our way. We were just about to reach the Gallivan Center when we were hindered again, this time by a more familiar Reaper.

Jessica.

“Well, well, well,” Jessica said. “I’m glad to see you two made it this far. The GM was hoping you would be the partnership to challenge here.”

We came skidding to a halt.

“Get out of our way, we just took out two of your Reaper pals and we’ll take you down next if we have to,” Sara threatened.

“So rude,” Jessica said.

“She’s being nice,” I said. “If you don’t leave, I’m going to get rude.”

Jessica grinned. “I would hand this to you, but seeing as I’d probably get attacked, here.”

She tossed a pin in my direction. It had no image on it, and it was translucent. I squeezed, but nothing happened.

“What is this?” I asked.

“A pin with a very unique psych,” she explained. “Its psych will only appear on the pin when you and your partner are completely in synch. It might be helpful.”

She turned to walk away, but I ran to stop her.

“Why help us?” I asked.

She grinned. “You’re charging to your death. The least I can do is give you a fighting chance. Though, another day like the fifth day, and you won’t last two seconds. I do hope you two are ready now.”

I turned to Sara, and we stared at each other for a moment. She had fallen apart two days ago, and we hadn’t fought Noise since. Even against those Reapers, we lacked the synergy we had the day before. That wouldn’t be enough to win this fight, and we knew it.

“We need to be in synch,” I said. “Sara, you need to want to live. I need to be able to trust you, can you promise…”

She walked up to me, leaned forward and planted her lips on mine. The kiss was a lot longer than I’d expected, and not terrible by any means. Awkward, strange, yes, but she was a girl of action.

“There,” she said. “Do you need any more convincing?”

I blinked. “I’m not entirely sure what it is you’re convincing me of.”

“I’m ready to live,” Sara grinned. “Live each moment to its fullest. What do you call what I just did?”

“You just gave me one heck of a kiss.”

“Don’t get too attached,” she crossed. “You have to earn the next one.”

I smiled. Then I turned to Jessica. “I think we’re ready for this.”

“I hope you are,” Jessica said. “Go on, she’s waiting for you.”

She walked away from us, leaving us alone. I knew it now, I could already feel that we were in synch. However powerful this GM was, she would have to watch herself.

We walked through the Gallivan Center until we found ourselves at the ice skating rink. There she was, the Game Master, Clarissa Reeves, sitting on a bench and reading through some romance novel. She looked up as we approached, and she grinned at the sight of us.

“So it would seem that our story has taken an unexpected turn,” she said as she closed her book and stood up. “Just days ago was the shocking revelation. The woman partnered to the young man’s secret was revealed. She had allowed herself to die, committing suicide by stepping in front of a car. Thus this crushed the heart of the young man, knowing the young woman he was fighting so hard for had no desire to live, and his own spark was dwindling.

“Yet, thanks to my endearing mission, the two managed to find a spark enough to keep them going. What is that spark? Why it’s love,” Clarissa sighed. “It almost depresses me, after such a tantalizing rise, the climax will be rather short and unimpressive. Two star crossed lovers about to die. At least you’ve had a moment to share your true feelings.”

I turned to Sara. “What world has she been living in?”

“I don’t know, but I think she believes she brought us two lovebirds together,” Sara rolled her eyes. “Sadly, she couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s give her the real story.”

I turned to Clarissa. “A guy and a girl entered the Reapers’ Game and were manacled together, each questioning their right to live, but fighting on behalf of their partner. Even after learning that their partner had no desire to live, they fought anyway, because we saw something in each other we couldn’t see in ourselves, we found reason to live. And this climax is going to be rather short and dull, it’s just unfortunate you won’t be here for the falling action or the conclusion. You’ll be erased.”

Clarissa’s grin went from condescending to nasty. “You stupid little boy. Allow me to show you why I was appointed Game Master of this week. If I were you, I’d steal a final kiss. Prepare to face erasure!”

And thus she became a Reaper. Two sets of wings sprouted from her back, much larger than that of the normal Reaper wings. Then her entire body took on a transformation. Those same two dimensional lines that made up pieces of Noise began to twist around her waist until her legs were completely erased. Now a large spider like abdomen protruded from her waist, as well as eight large spider legs. The rest of her body seemed to darken, and more lines formed around her arms and they became sharp and cutting with the Noise touch. She had literally become a Noise, except she was ten times larger than any we had faced thus far.

“Oh great,” I said. “We have to face that?”

The Noise-Clarissa cackled. “The Officers of the Reapers are allowed a few extra perks, not to mention a lot more powerful.”

I turned to Sara, looking to see if she was worried. Much to my surprise, she had a determined glint in those black eyes. That settled it. We were going to beat this bug and get our lives back.

“Good luck,” I said to Sara.

She nodded. “You too. I’ll see you on the other side.”

She vanished.

But I was not alone.

Spider Noise began to flock from Noise-Clarissa in the droves. They were freaky being as large as they were, but not as large as she was. Time for the flames. I spread the flames far and wide in order to cover as many spiders as I could, trying to erase as many of them as I could. Sara must have had the same idea because the spiders vanished quickly. Pop, pop, pop, one after the other. I grinned up at our Game Master.

“You don’t stand a chance,” I said.

She laughed. “I beg to differ. The pawns are pawns, the queen is the queen.”

Then it came, a wave of black energy, her own personal psych. I sprinted as fast as I could to avoid the wave, but I was unable to evade the shockwave. I was blown off of my feet and I hit a barrier. Yes, our GM kindly decided to lock us in with a barrier. Even worse, another shockwave was headed my way, and this time it landed directly.

Pain racked through my entire soul, and I felt as though I was being ripped apart. I prayed, oh did I pray for the strength to hold on just a little longer. I held on, but just barely. My soul felt as though it had been completely frayed and would tear apart at just another grazing. How could I fight back?

I clutched at one of my newer pins with a soda can on it. Strength flowed from the pin back into me, and boy did I need it, and Sara as well. We were one attack away from being erased and we hadn’t even hurt the enormous spider. Or at least I hadn’t. I could feel Sara coursing through me, her actions, I could almost see her in my plane, where she was moving. The GM was on both planes, and she was on each equally as opposed to the smaller Reapers having a doppelganger on the other one. Her mind had to exist on two planes at once, could we use that to our advantage?

I ran the opposite direction that I felt Sara. The GM followed me, but she flinched a little as she did so. Sara was on the other side of her other dimensional self attacking, and our two pronged assault seemed to work… slightly. Shockwaves came again, this time followed by a black sphere forming in her pinceresque hands and raining black spheres from the sky. I dodged each one as best as I could, but I got nailed by several. They stung, but not as bad as the shockwave. However, it blinded me to her real goal.

She lifted one of her enormous legs and brought it crashing down. I dodged the leg, knowing it would skewer me if I was beneath it, but it didn’t merely miss me. A ripple moved through the ground, knocking me from my feet, and spider Noise erupted from where her leg had landed. Again I was forced to use my fire to clear them out, and again she shot a shockwave as I attempted to do so. I dodged, and then dodged the next one, and the next one. I didn’t have a chance to touch her, and I had to do something. It had to be something big, and something that could keep me far enough away that I would be able to avoid her assault.

My lightning pin ought to do the trick.

I focused, and the lightning spark popped up near my feet. It was almost like a living creature. It darted across the ground and I directed it where I needed it to go. The streamline had been enormously effective, being very powerful against the other Reapers. One touch would hurt, but if I could hit her more that would hurt even more. She did have eight legs after all, it was time to make her dance.

The first leg I hit caused her to shriek in pain, and then I made it zing to the next leg, and then swing to the third leg. I went through all eight legs before giving up my spark. I was tired. The pin only allowed me to hold onto the spark for a few seconds, I had had to move quickly. Still, I could see that the damage was done, but she didn’t sit around to ache. She assaulted me once again.

I could feel Sara though, and she could feel my stratagem. She went for the legs, I knew it, somehow I knew. I could see the GM growing frustrated, but she was far from done with us. No, she still had a few tricks up her sleeves.

Like a little child pouting, she began to stomp each of her legs in succession, and droves of spider Noise emerged and assaulted us. I tried to burn them away as fast as I could, but there were too many. I was attacked, and each attack that landed distracted me to let another two attacks come through. Finally I managed to burn through them all, but not before another plan had unfolded. Black goo slid from her abdomen and slid across our caged field forming a spider web. I dodged it for as long as I could, even sending my spark to attack her legs in hopes of getting her to stop, but it got me. The goo touched me and I was paralyzed, paralyzed and feeling as though I was being ripped to shreds at the same time.

I could feel Sara’s own anguish, her pain as she was caught. I reached out my hand to help her, but she was on the other plane and too far away. I clutched the soda pin and my strength returned for a few moments, but the web immediately began to drain me again. This couldn’t be it, but I knew it was. She was preparing one of her devastating shockwaves.

“And so,” she said. “It comes to a swift end. Oh how the readers would love it. Perhaps the other two Players will fare better than you.”

If only I could warn them.

“Tragedy, it tastes even better than love,” she licked her lips.

I growled. It wasn’t going to end like this, I wouldn’t allow it.

“I’m not done!”

It was Sara.

“Jared!” she shouted. “Come on, we’re coming back to life and we’re going to do it together!”

How on earth could I hear her?

“I want to live!” Sara said. “And I know you want to also. Just think about it, think about what means the most to you. Don’t you want it back?”

“I don’t know what that is…” I said.

The words unsettled her.

“… but I’m going to find out!”

I grabbed the blank pin that Jessica had tossed to us, but it was no longer blank. It had pictures of flames upon it, and that was exactly what we needed. I squeezed, but it was both Sara and I that fed our mental strength into this pin. I was lifted up and away from the web, floating above it. Purple flames coursed from me along the web, and soon the entire web was engulfed by them. Unfortunately for the GM, her web was everywhere, and even she was touching it. And so, following its natural course, the flames found their way to her.

All she could do was scream as the flames took her. I stared at her as the psych took effect. It was powerful, incredibly powerful, and it had only worked because Sara and I were completely in synch. She had saved my life, and I had saved hers.

“Just give up,” I said weakly to the GM, but she couldn’t hear me.

I stopped clenching the pin, but the flames had taken hold, and they wouldn’t let go, not until the GM gave up the struggle. Soon enough, Sara was standing beside me, and we were staring at Clarissa in her regular human form along with her black wings. Her wings shattered to pieces and scattered in the wind, and then she looked up at us with her dark, piercing eyes. Hatred dwelled within those eyes, but then they lightened.

She laughed. “Oh… the irony of it all.”

“Should’ve seen it coming,” I said. “The good guys always win.”

This only made her laugh more. “Good guys, no… you’re not at all. If you only knew how vile you really were, and if you could only see the Composer… then you would know…”

Just like that boy I had seen with the frogs on the first day, she vanished into thin air.

I turned to Sara.

“We did it,” I said to her, smiling.

Happy moment, called for a happy celebration. Not being an emotional type, it was odd when I was the one that threw my arms around her and picked her up in a swinging hug. Our timers were gone, we had definitely done it. We had won the Reapers’ Game.

“So,” she said after I put her down, and she looked slightly dizzy. “What happens now?”

There was a flash of white, and it took us both by surprise.

“What was that?” I asked.

Sara smiled. “I think that’s our reward.”

We both sat there as the white flashes grew more frequent. Then it happened. We were taken from the Gallivan Center to another place. Where we were, I didn’t know, but whatever building we were in it was fancy. Like a hotel, yes, it looked a lot like a fancy hotel room in downtown Salt Lake City. Whichever one it was I did not know, but I didn’t care. It was a lot better than the streets we had been running through for the past week.

“You did it!”

Jim grabbed me in a headlock and gave me a noogie. “You little devil, you beat the GM yo! You did it man, we’s comin’ back to life now.”

Rachel and Sara were hugging as well, both crying. Girls always cried during emotionally times, but Jim and I took it stoically. Hi-five, fist pound, yeah, that’s how the guys handled it. But what were we doing in this room?

“Congratulations.”

We all turned to see a man dressed in a black suit standing on the other side of the room. He was smiling, but that didn’t make him look the least bit friendly. It appeared to be almost a deviant grin, but he applauded us nonetheless. He didn’t seem to be threatening us, and so I just relaxed. We’d won after all, right?

“You four Players have won the Reapers’ Game,” he said as he approached us. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Giovanni Martin, the Conductor of the Games and I hereby award you all with your entry fees.”

In a flash, we had them. I think. I still had no idea what my entry fee was, I didn’t feel any different. Sara looked at me though, smiling as the memories came rushing back. Then she laughed.

“I can’t believe I kissed you,” she said, embarrassed. “You better not mention that to anyone on the team or I swear I’ll ki… you know, make your life miserable,” she winked.

I smiled, but half heartedly. I still didn’t understand, what was my entry fee?

“And now,” he said. “As per the contract of the Reapers’ Game, I have spoken with the Composer, and the Composer has decided that the number of people that shall come back to life after this game is… one.”

All smiles faded.

“What.” Sara said. It was not a question.

“We all won, don’t we all get to come back to life?” asked Rachel.

“The Reapers’ Game is more than giving people a second chance,” Giovanni said. “You must pay and earn that second chance. To truly win the Reapers’ Game, you must become more than you are. You must become refined, you must have something to offer society in order to rejoin it. As such, only the person that scored the most throughout the challenges will be brought back to life. This Game’s winner is: Sara Evans.”

Her eyes widened. “Me, but no!”

She turned to me. “You’re the one that figured out most of the challenges, you gave me the strength to keep going, if anyone ought to go back it’s…”

“You are the winner,” Giovanni said. “You may forfeit this right and be erased, but no other will be walking in the RG this week. Either you go forward, or else none of you do.”

“I can’t leave,” Sara said.

I put a hand on her shoulder. “Sara, you have to. We’ll be fine, he can’t erase us, not after all we’ve been through,” I turned to him. “What happens to the rest of us?”

“If you still cling to life, you may enter the Game again,” he said. “Otherwise, you will be erased.”

Lovely choices.

“We still have a chance at this,” I said to Sara. “So go. I promise, I’ll be seeing you soon.”

Sara turned to Jim and Rachel.

“You earned it,” Rachel smiled. “Like Jared said, we won’t be far behind.”

She nodded, then she turned to me.

“I’ll make sure to wait for you, you better not let me down,” she playfully punched me in the shoulder. “See you around?”

I smiled. “Count on it.”

“And so,” Giovanni stretched forth his hand. “The decision has been made. Enjoy your victory, Sara, and may your life be better than it was before.”

In a flash of light, she was gone, and even though Jim and Rachel were in the room, I felt alone. My partner hadn’t just been my teammate, she had been my friend, and our souls had met during this week. I had seen a good person, and I knew that I had learned something. He thought I wasn’t worthy to reenter the world, I’d show him. I was worthy enough to be Sara’s entry fee after all, I would not be constrained.

“So, we reenter your game?” Jim asked.

“Is that what you desire?” Giovanni asked. “You will pay another entry fee, are you so willing to give it up again?”

“I’d rather live without it than die with it,” Jim said. “So yeah, take it.”

A flash.

Giovanni, addressing only Jim and Rachel. “You’re entry fee has been collected, prepare for the next Game.”

They vanished in a burst of light, and then I was left alone.

“And you?” he asked.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Giovanni nodded.

“What was my entry fee?” I asked. “I don’t remember it, did you even…”

“I thought you knew your entry fee all along, it was staring you right in the face,” he replied. “Your entry fee was what other people thought of you, your image. That was why your friend Sara could not remember who you were. Her memories, they were your entry fee.”

I should’ve never asked my question. It was a blow, an enormous blow, and I felt sick to my stomach. I sank to the floor as the thought settled in. Everything, all of it, this entire week had been a lie. I wasn’t fighting for what I thought I had been, I hadn’t known anything to begin with. My entry fee was pure selfishness, because that’s what I was, and no doubt if I entered the game that’s what it would be again. I didn’t deserve a second shot at life, but I didn’t want to die. I should die, I didn’t deserve life like the others, but what could I do?

This week had been almost paradise to me. A struggle yes, but it had been fun nonetheless. I enjoyed being able to mold people, to have a real difference in people’s life. If I rejoined the land of the living, what would I possibly do?

“What is your decision?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “I… I don’t know what I want. I can’t come back to life… I don’t want to die but to live scares me… agh!” I growled. “I just don’t bloody know!”

Giovanni smiled. “You show remarkable talent. Perhaps, I should mention the third option.”

I looked up to him. “What?”

“I can erase you, I can enter you into the next Game, or…” he smiled.

“I can make you a Reaper.”

The Calm Before the Storm

Day 6

Reprieve

“There is no mission today. Take a few hours rest Players—The Reapers.”

We didn’t believe it at first.

“Is it a trick?” Sara asked.

“I don’t think they’re allowed to do that,” I said.

“YO!”

We turned to see Jim and Rachel running towards us. They came skidding to a halt. It was good to see them. Their absence yesterday made me wonder if they were still in the game or not. As much as I would’ve liked less competition, I would’ve hated seeing them go.

“What happened to you two?” I asked.

Jim turned to me. “Yo, we got cornered by some Reapers and they wouldn’t let us go. Noise after Noise got tossed at us and we was fighting them for the entire five hours. If we hadn’t been erased by the Noise I’da thought that we’d been erased for not having enough time for the mission. It was whack.”

“I don’t think they wanted us interfering with the mission,” Rachel said. “I think the Game Master has taken a particular interest in you.”

“Speakin’ a which, why she ain’t givin’ us a mission?” Jim asked. “I can’t complain man, but if we gettin’ scored for performance on missions and all it kinda bums me out.”

“We’ll be fine,” Rachel said. “We’ve given this week our best, and whatever happens, it happens. There’s nothing we can do to change it.”

Jim nodded. “Guess so. I oughta score a buncha points for all of the Noise I put down yesterday. Bet they don’t have enough Noise left to use for the day and that’s why we don’t have a mission.”

We all laughed at this. Jim had an infectious personality. I think we all felt as though we were going to win just by being around him. He was arrogant, but in a funny way, and one that gave us all hope.

“I think we should eat and kick back today,” Rachel said. “We all deserve a break. Especially you two. You must have completed that mission all by yourselves.”

“Yeah, we didn’t see anyone else around,” I said.

That’s because there’s no one left.

We all turned to see our favorite two Reapers standing nearby: Jessica and her partner whose name we still did not know, nor did we care to. They walked towards us, but not in a threatening matter. Maybe it was the GM’s orders to keep their mitts off of us for the day.

“Congratulations,” Jessica applauded. “Here stand our final Players.”

Those words hit us all pretty hard. This was it. There had been over twenty people to play the game, and we were the only ones remaining.

“They’ve done pretty well, haven’t they, Derek?” Jessica asked.

He grinned at us. “Yeah. You know, I used to hate it when the GM’s would tie our hands for a day, but I think it’s going to be much sweeter to take them down tomorrow.”

“Bring on all of the Noise you want!” Jim said. “We can handle them.”

He cocked his head and laughed. “You newbies just don’t get it. Tomorrow is day seven. End of the week. The final day. The day we Reapers get to go hands on.”

That was a powerful threat.

“We have to fight you?” Sara asked.

“If that’s what the GM wants, but even if she doesn’t force you to fight us, which I doubt she will,” Jessica said. “The moments we get our hands on you, you’re ours.”

“Bring it on!” Jim shouted. “I’ve got a score to settle with you Reapers. You can just name the place and we’ll be there, ready to meet you.”

Jim was an absolute idiot. He was actually going to take on the Reapers? I could see that Rachel didn’t agree with this plan. Her face was pale at the mention of fighting the Reapers, and I couldn’t blame her. Jim obviously didn’t remember that Jessica had tossed him aside like a rag doll on the second day when he had tried to attack her, and that was when she wasn’t allowed to do anything more. Though she had been kind, I doubted she was merciful, and I knew her partner wouldn’t be. Fighting the Reapers was suicide, we’d have to avoid them at all costs come tomorrow.

“So, any other questions?” Jessica asked. “We’re very generous when it comes to the seventh day, especially since hardly anyone lives past it.”

These words were meant to discourage us.

“Piss off,” I scowled at them. “We’re not going to get cold feet now. We’ve survived through five of your days and one more isn’t going to make a difference. We’re winning this game, and we’ll do it together.”

Derek grinned. “Right, because if you win you all obviously get to come back to life. It makes sense to work together.”

Sara glared at him. “You’re mocking us, aren’t you?”

“Congratulations!” he clapped his hand. “If you die, at least you can die knowing that you’ve got an astute observation of the obvious.”

Sara ran at him, but I held her back. If they were allowed to defend themselves, I wasn’t going to let her get close enough to give them an excuse. I needed her, and I wasn’t about to let my partner get erased because she couldn’t keep her anger in check.

“Oh come, Derek, we know when we’re not wanted,” Jessica smiled. Then she turned to me. “So, here we have the partnership that has caught the GM’s eyes. I heard you passed what appears to be her most difficult mission she’s ever assigned. You wouldn’t believe all of the hassle she had to go through to get that approved, as her standards were near impossible to meet, and yet… here you two are.”

“She had to get a mission approved, you guys have quite a few rules don’t you?” I asked.

Both Jessica and Derek moaned.

“You have no idea,” Jessica said. “Tons of meetings and a load of rules. Our work as Reapers is very serious.”

“Yeah, killing people can be such a pain,” Jim muttered.

“You have no understanding of our work,” Jessica rolled her eyes. “You might want to learn to open your horizons a bit more. Just because you win the game doesn’t give you the right to live, it just gives you the right to have the opportunity to live. But… if you win, you’ll find that out for yourselves.”

“And if we lose, don’t you want to taunt us with what we might’ve missed out on?” I asked.

“We’d love to,” Derek said. “But it’s against the rules.”

I would’ve thought she was lying, but she had no reason to. She had plain and simply told us that they were going to try and kill us tomorrow, why lie?

“Look, I don’t care whatcha have to say,” Jim said. “We’re gonna win and that’s that. So, if you’re done messin’ with us, then get lost!”

“As you wish, enjoy your last day,” Derek grinned.

Jessica and Derek vanished, and we were left alone. Sara suggested we all get food and rest up as well as we could for the day to come. We did so, but not with the same cheery spirit as earlier. We tried to hold onto it, but the fact was tomorrow as judgment day. All of our hard work could be for naught if we didn’t complete the mission tomorrow, and that was a scary thought to all of us. We shouldn’t be resting, we should be planning.

Much to our surprise, Jim was the one who had been planning all along.

“We’re gonna hunt down the Reapers and draw their fire,” Jim said. “Then you two do whatever you can to finish that mission. If you finish it, we all win. That’s what matters here.”

We were all shocked by his words.

“If you challenge the Reapers, they could erase you with ease,” I said.

“We gotta take that risk,” Jim said. “If they’re attackin’ us from every direction, ain’t no way we’re gonna beat the mission. If Rach and I can draw them out, you might have a clear shot at the mission and a better chance of us winning. Brute force ain’t the way to do this last mission.”

I blinked. I would have never imagined those words coming out of his mouth.

“Why you two though?” Sara asked.

Jim smiled. “Cause I’m the toughest.”

We all smiled.

“I’m good with that plan,” said Rachel.

“Me too,” Sara said. “I want to personally show that Game Master just what I’m made of.”

“So we’re all agreed to the plan right?” Jim asked.

We all nodded.

“Good,” Jim said. “So, le’s do this right? Le’s win this shit!”

Focus

Day 5

Cause of Death

The fourth day had ended before Sara could run out of the city, which seemed to be exactly what she wanted to do. Today, however, she took on a different countenance. The sadness she had expressed over the loss of Mark and Evan was nothing compared to the expression on her face at that moment. She was sitting on the side of the road, turned away from me, and with no intention to look at me. I felt horrible, namely because all I could think of is what our Game Master hadn’t said about Sara. I’d wanted to hear it, which was terrible of me. She was distressed, and I had no idea how to help her. I wasn’t meant for this, to be the helpful type, I had never been cut out for it. What was I supposed to do?

“Umm…” I said as I approached her. “Are you alright?”

Sara shrugged it off. “I’m fine.”

Okay, now what?

I suddenly realized just then why I wasn’t as freaked out as I was supposed to be. This Sara, collected and quiet, was the same Sara I had seen at practice each day. This was the Sara that I was used to. I’d always been fine with her then, I should just be fine with her now. I wasn’t though. I’d seen a change in her over the past few days, and to see her sink into that girl I knew… it was painful.

I clenched my fists, I wanted to scream in the air. What was I supposed to do? Couldn’t someone just tell me how in the world I was supposed to get her out of this rut? Our lives were on the line here, she couldn’t be like this, but I was being no help at all.

Fortunately, the mission mail distracted me.

“Ignite love at the Gateway. You have 300 minutes, fail and face erasure—The Reapers,” I read.

We both winced as the timer appeared.

“Ignite love at the Gateway?” I asked. “What sort of mission is that?”

“A stupid one,” Sara muttered, still sitting on the curb.

“Right,” I said. “So… should we…”

She got up without a word, and still I didn’t get the chance to see her face. Wordlessly I followed behind her, but there was something strange about this day. First of all, it was late in the evening. Perhaps this was to help us with our mission. Most young couples came to the Gateway at night, it was a good date scene. So… what exactly were we supposed to do? Ignite love. The thought was beginning to stir into my mind. This mission, this was unethical if it consisted of what I thought.

“Want past this wall?”

Sara had gotten a hundred feet ahead of me, she was already at one of those wall Reapers and demanding passage. I quickly ran to catch up to her. I still couldn’t see her face though, she was positioned in the perfect angle as to avoid my eye contact.

“Erase these Noise,” said the Reaper.

He called down a few symbols, and before I could get the chance to look at Sara we were engaged and she was on the other plane. I looked to see the shark Noise and a few wolf Noises. Great. Still, I wasn’t about to get bested by these things again. No Jim around to save us, this was entirely on me.

But then it hit me.

I could barely feel Sara. If we had been in perfect synch the other afternoon, we had made a complete turnaround today. The feeling was incredible, I felt totally helpless without that feeling of intimacy. She had been a part of my soul in each fight up until now, and now I felt completely alone. Could I fight like this?

I didn’t have a choice. I had to fight, but it was more difficult than any other fight up to this point. Sure the shark Noise were frightening with one bite spelling erasure, but I kept fighting. It looked as though I was tossing paperclips at them. I don’t know how long the fight took, but much longer than it should have. I was about ready to give up the ghost when the Noise vanished into thin air at my hand. I looked at the timer to see it had taken almost ten minutes. Far too long to erase a few Noise.

“Wall clear,” said the wall Reaper as he walked away. “Here, take a few of these for completing the challenge.”

He tossed us some more pins. They each had different images, and no doubt different psychs. I wasn’t going to complain about upgrading our repertoire, but it wasn’t the pins that were on my mind. Sara was already taking off through the Gateway. This was it, we couldn’t do this anymore.

“What’s your deal!” I yelled at her as I ran to catch up with her.

I grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, expecting to see tears. There was nothing on her face. It was that same placid expression that she had always wore at practice. The expression said she was perfectly fine, just normal, but now I knew that face was a lie. How many months had there been something there that we hadn’t seen? She could have been suffering and no one would have been the wiser.

“What?” she asked, annoyed.

“There’s something wrong with you, you’ve been acting weird since yesterday,” I said.

“I’m fine,” she replied as she turned away.

I stopped her again. “No you’re not! Don’t do this, why are you always doing this?”

“Always doing what?” Sara turned to me. “How the hell am I supposed to know how I act when I don’t have all of my memory? How am I supposed to feel, why am I supposed to fight when I can’t even remember who I am?”

Her anger startled me, but to tell the truth, I was pissed. “You are infuriating! You always have been. Each day you come to practice and act like you’re above everything, like nothing in the world can touch you, but you’re a liar! You put up this face and push the rest of the world out just because you feel a little down? Damn it Sara, I want to help you. You’re my partner, and I trust you, but how am I supposed to trust you when you’re keeping all of these things from me? I can’t do this, you have to help me help you.”

“Well, you can’t,” Sara turned away. “So let’s just go do this mission and get this week over with.”

I stopped her again, and this time, angry, she slapped me for it. There we stood, her in shock at her own action and me stunned by the stinging pain in my now red cheek. I shrugged, waved my hands and turned away. I was done. So I didn’t get a shot at life, to be honest, I didn’t even think we would make it until day five, but that isn’t what irritated me the most. I had seen a new side of Sara, and it was like she had just died. The GM had killed her yesterday, and I was left with the same sour girl I had always known, and that killed me. If she was lost, then I had nothing left to fight for, no reason to keep up this struggle.

Good grief, I was actually starting to care about her.

“Jared,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

Sara walked around me and looked at my face. She slapped me, it was nothing serious, and yet girls always had to do this. Examine the injury, that motherly instinct. I didn’t think Sara had that in her. She touched my cheek, and I could then see a change in her. Eyes swollen with tears, and she blinked hard to fight them back, but they fought through.

“I’m sorry too,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said those things. It’s just that I don’t know what my entry fee is, I don’t know if I have anything worth fighting for, but seeing you here… Sara, you’re so different than in the RG. I want you to have that second chance.”

I guess it was the wrong thing to say, she immediately started bawling.

“I don’t deserve that second chance,” Sara said as she turned away, and she started walking in circles as she spoke. “Jared, I don’t know what you meant to me, and… oh what does it matter? You shouldn’t be fighting for me to get that second chance because I don’t deserve it. I died in a car accident…”

“I think you mentioned it,” I said.

“I walked out in front of the car.”

My eyes widened. “You what?”

“I hated myself!” Sara said. “Not just that, I hated the world. I hated everything… I didn’t want to be in the world anymore. Yesterday with that guy… I tell you, if he hadn’t been in the RG and me in the UG I would’ve erased him myself! His mind, he was completely playing that girl. She did something sort of dumb, thinking he was cheating, which he was, but he managed to cover it and make her think she was wrong. Then he toyed with her to get her to plead to take him back for sex. It was utterly disgusting!”

I could feel it. There was hate just emanating from her. Hate and pain and rage, but underneath it all was sadness and heartache.

“Someone treated you like that?” I asked.

She nodded. “Some guy, some idiot, but he made me think he was more than that. I believed him, until I caught him making out with another girl. Ever since that day, my eyes have been opened. I saw men as callous beings… I hated them. I just could never bring myself to ever fall into that same trap again, but everyone was trying to push me into it. I just couldn’t handle the stress anymore, the demands made on me because I’m a girl.

“I felt trapped,” she sat down. “All of my friends telling me to get into a relationship, but every fiber of my being telling me to avoid people. Then, coming here, realizing my most valuable possession… was you.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what to think. I was done. I wanted to die, and now here you are risking your existence to save someone that doesn’t want to be saved. I’m sorry… I just don’t want to go back!”

Sara sat down on the street, trying to brush the tears from her eyes. She cursed as they kept coming, and I took a seat next to her. I didn’t know what to think. Neither of us really wanted to live, should we try?

We should, or she should. She had a made a change here, and her life in the RG could be better because of it.

“Look at us,” I said, putting an arm around her shoulders, trying my best to be comforting and not aggravating. “Both a couple of morons thinking that dying would be better than living. I think I know the purpose of this game though. They toy with us, they make us think that life isn’t worth living to divide the weak from the strong. There is a victory for those that win, but I doubt anyone ever wins due to the fact that they are just like us. They question themselves, and then they give up.”

I stood up. “Sara, you’ve changed here, and maybe I have too. We just gotta keep going. When we come back to life, we can change it all. We have the power to do it, and we can’t give up just yet. Come on. I want to find out what was important to me, will you help me, Sara?”

She brushed the tears from her face. “I guess I can,” she stood up and laughed. “I guess if you were my entry fee, I should be willing to put forth the effort for you. I just… lost sight, and if you hadn’t helped me find out what my entry fee was, I may never have found it.”

Yet another awkward moment.

“Well, these young couples aren’t going to ignite with love themselves,” Sara said. “Time to play matchmaker.”

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“First of all, I think we need some phrases for imprinting,” Sara said. “Come on, let’s scan as many people as we can and see if we can’t pick up anything that will get saved to our phones.”

This change in Sara took me by surprise. She was really ready to take charge, and I was more than willing to follow. Certainly enough, we found our phone nearly exploding with all of the messages we were able to save by picking them from people’s minds. Now we just had to use these messages to make people fall in love, which was just wrong. Still, what else could we do?

“So, we just start matching up our words to people’s thoughts?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Sara said. “There’s music playing all around the Gateway, we need to make the appropriate mood music. I think we have a few messages that we can use to change the music. That way, when we imprint, the message is more likely to stick if the mood is right. Otherwise they just might ignore it.”

She certainly had this all figured out. For a girl that despised men, she seemed to be in quite the romantic mood. So, we did exactly what she said. Found the guys in charge of the music, got it changed to something more moody. Next on the list, change the trends. We could keep track of the trends on our phones, and we needed to change them to some more mood appropriate threads.

There was nothing more amazing than watching our work unfold. People flocked to stores, changed their clothes, suddenly the air was filled with romantic tunes. The scene was set up and all we had to do now was due the fine tuning. Really, it was all a matter of mix and match. Some girl has a thought of what she wants her guy to do, and then we pop that thought into his head, BAM. Instantaneous romance. It was almost how sickening some of these people acted. Scenes cut straight from a movie, and we were the ones making them.

The couples began to pair up, but was it working? We had yet to lose our timers, so there had to be more. Just how many couples did we have to set up in order to beat this mission?

“What more?” I asked. “We’ve got love bursting out of every single teenage couple here.”

“There’s one we haven’t.”

I looked around and noticed one girl we had yet to touch, and no doubt for good reason. It was Megan Ririe, Sara’s friend. This was terrible. Did we actually have to influence our friends in order to complete this mission?

“We have to do it,” I said. “That guy she’s with, that’s the one she likes?”

Sara nodded.

“Let’s get to work.”

“No.”

“What?” I turned to her. “We have to… I mean, it’s just one.”

“I just mean not that guy,” Sara said. “I read his mind… she wouldn’t like him if she knew what I had seen.”

“You want us to get her to fall in love with some guy from scratch?” I asked.

“Yup, I got him picked out,” Sara pointed to a guy. “I think that guy will do her nicely,” she turned to me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I was just staring at her. “That’s disgusting. Totally manipulating your friend’s feelings.”

“You have a better idea?”

I shrugged. “I just know we don’t have a lot of time, working with a guy she doesn’t even know. We have thirty minutes left. We can’t really afford to take unnecessary risks.”

Sara smiled. “You’ll help me right?”

Trust your partner.

I sighed. “I’m with you.”

First mission of the night: break Megan away from the guy she is with. I felt totally sadistic popping things into both Megan and the guy’s mind to try and coerce them to part ways, at least until I read his mind. I was slightly more cooperative after that. When you’re on the cross country team, your fellow teammates are like your family. No one messes with your teammates or else they mess with all of them, no matter if you hang out or only see each other at practice.

I’ll tell you, it was entertaining. The moment he began to “accidentally” pop out these rather suggestive thoughts, Megan’s face took on an entirely new look. I doubted we would get to keep our game phones when we came back to life, but that didn’t stop me from taking a picture of it. I’m telling you, priceless. Like the veil had been pulled from her eyes and she was seeing this despicable creature for the first time. And so, we managed to split Megan apart from her man, but this brought up a problem. Girls that have their hearts crush typically do not want to go running into another man’s arms… usually, but we had to make it happen. We didn’t need to make them fall in love, we just needed them to ignite love within the Gateway.

Sara was already working on the guy. Taking a quick glance of his mind, he had already noticed Megan, but he had also noticed she was with someone. He had some rather complex thought processes, and I pitied Sara for her process. It was interesting to see her work though. He noticed that Megan had drawn away from the guy, a little disgusted, and she was brooding as she walked around. The only reason she wasn’t on the phone calling for a ride was due to my imprinting, but the guy, man, he had the thought to go talk to her but felt as though he would come off wrong by talking to her right after that blowup. And thus, Sara began to persuade him otherwise. Stroke a person’s ego just enough and you can get them to do anything, and certainly Sara armed him with the words to win over her friend, even if just for a moment.

“Now we just enjoy the show,” Sara said as we stood back and watched. There was a grin on her face.

“So what’s going to happen here? He gets her number, they walk away, and we die because they didn’t ‘ignite’?” I asked.

“I wasn’t aiming for a phone number situation,” Sara grinned. “Just watch.”

I did, and it shocked me probably as much as Megan or this other guy. A spontaneous kiss, and yet you could see Megan’s face light up as well as the excitement in his eyes. Another movie scene, Sara had done it. Literally. My timer was gone at that kiss, and I wouldn’t be surprised if all of our work prior to this point had been useless compared to this moment. This time, as Megan was leaving the mall and calling for a ride, you could see she was walking on air as though she was floating on cloud nine. He looked as though he had just won the Kentucky derby.

“That definitely beat just getting a number,” I said.

Sara smiled. “I’ve seen enough chick flicks to know what works.”

“So, a girl that doesn’t care about love has spent her life investigating it?” I asked.

Her smile dropped a bit, but then it came back stronger. “If something such as love does exist, I want to know it when I see it.”

“You gotta live to do that.”

She nodded. “I know. I still feel like crap, throwing away my life on a whim, but maybe I needed it. I needed to lose what I value most in order to know what to do with my life.”

I smiled. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“Are you ready to live again?” Sara asked.

“Ready? No, but since when have I been ready for anything in my life,” I replied. “I doubt I’ll be ready in two days time, but I’m going to do it.”

“Me too,” Sara said. “If nothing more than to see the expression on our Game Master’s face when she no doubt set these missions up to break us.”

I smiled, and then we just watched the evening unfold around us. Everyone was in a dazed mood, romance floating in the air. The GM had certainly made us turn this into a romance novel. In a way it was sickening, but in a way it was enjoyable to see. Our mission involved doing something good for people, or at least Sara had made it into doing something good for someone. There were good sides to this game, and maybe more than we were seeing.

“Day hasn’t ended,” Sara said. “I guess the Game Master is going to bask in our masterpiece a little longer.”

“Yeah, it’s nice.”

She turned to me. “Come on, dance with me.”

I shot her a dark look. “Don’t get cute.”

“Can’t help it,” she smiled. “Come on, one dance isn’t going to kill you.”

“Ha. Ha,” I rolled my eyes. Then I held out a hand. “you better not be expecting me to be a good dancer.”

“You’re a runner, you’re just worried about keeping on your feet right?” she said. “I don’t expect anything more.”

And so we shared a dance to the music. We were in the middle of a crowd and yet completely alone, no one could see us. It wasn’t horrid, not unpleasant, and I actually had a little fun. We had made it this far, we might as well enjoy our victory for now. The GM would no doubt try to steal that from us later, but we were ready. Our minds were set, and we were in synch. Nothing was going to stop us from winning this game.

Truly Mysterious People Are

Day 4

In Synch

We had to eat. Apparently being dead didn’t mean we were free from mortal hunger. Jim and Rachel hadn’t been with us when we had woken up, and we should have been helping them, but the mission mail had yet to come. So we went into Applebee’s and ate our fill. The other customers were probably disgusted with our eating habits, but it had been three full days since we had last eaten. We needed fuel if we were going to survive.

Sara seemed much happier now that we were working together with Jim and Rachel. She talked the entire time, telling me stories about her and her friends and all of their adventures. She even opened up about all of the troubles she had endured in her life. Depression, weight issues (though they had all just been in her head, how could a toothpick sized girl ever think she was too heavy?) and many other problems that she usually faced. I would have never suspected a thing. She held it all in so well, if she hadn’t found people and told them I doubt anyone would have been the wiser. I enjoyed seeing her like this, and I hoped I would get to see this side of her when we came back to life. Assuming we won, that is.

“Mmm,” Sara sighed as she sipped her drink. “Food has never tasted so good. I’m pretty sure I can take all of the Noise floating around the Gateway right now,” she looked out the window. “Does it ever freak you out to see them all up there, knowing how dangerous they are?”

“They don’t scare me as much as the Reapers,” I replied.

Sara nodded. “Totally agree. I still remember Jim getting tossed aside by that Reaper, Jessica. I’m glad we don’t have to face them.”

“At least not yet,” I muttered.

“Would they really make us fight them?”

“They might,” I said. “This game is messed up. I don’t think they want any winners.”

Sara shrugged. “I don’t like them, but that Jessica at least seems to want to help us, unlike her other Reaper friend. I think there is a reason they challenge us.”

I didn’t reply. A chance to come back to life, there had to be something expected of us. The entry fee was one, but if they gave it back to us then what did it matter? It was mysterious. They demanded us to fight for our existence after taking away the item that would make us want to fight, but they promised to return it if we won. Sara was right, there was method to their madness. I just needed to figure out what it was before it was too late.

“I hate it when you do that.”

I glanced up, Sara’s voice drawing me from my thoughts. “Umm, what?”
Sara lowered her gaze, looking embarrassed at her comment. “During the middle of conversations, you just… go silent. If we’re going to be partners and survive this week, don’t you think that we need to trust each other with our thoughts?”

“I… um…” I sighed. “You’re right. During the missions, when fighting Noise, it’s easier when I feel more in synch with you. Expressing my feelings though… it’s just personal. How I feel, how I think, all these things make up who I am. When you talk to people, you give them a part of yourself, and you have no idea what to expect. They might screw it all up, break you apart… I know who I am, and I like who I am. I value my individuality, and that’s why I keep to myself.”

“It must not be your most valuable item, or else the Reapers would have taken it from you,” Sara smiled.

It was a joke, but I found it hard to think it funny. As though I wasn’t already being driven mad by what my entry fee had possibly been. How could I have no inkling as to what I valued the most? I felt the same as I always had, like nothing was missing at all. Maybe I didn’t care enough about anything for them to take it. As such, did I deserve to play? People like Sara, she had a life, and where I had one too, my life just felt meaningless. She deserved the second chance, even if I didn’t, and I wouldn’t let her down.

“You’re doing it again,” she sighed.

“Sorry,” I muttered, somewhat frustrated by her probing. “I just wish I knew what my entry fee was. I feel as though I’ve lost nothing, but maybe I had nothing to lose.”

“They took something,” she assured me. “Maybe it won’t make sense at first, but we’ll find out what it was in the end. It does help though, knowing what you’re fighting for.”

I could tell she immediately regretted saying those words. We now knew that her entry fee had been memories of me. Knowing that actually inspired her to fight? Yes, definitely an awkward moment for the two of us. It was ironic though. Suddenly she was the one shutting away and keeping her thoughts to herself.

I just laughed.

“What’s so funny?” she said, a little annoyed.

“Now who’s the one keeping to herself?” I winked.

Sara smiled. “Ha, ha, real funny. I guess you’re right though, it’s a little hypocritical of me. It’s just blown my mind to meet someone that I know, that I run on a team with, and have no memories about them. No good times, no thoughts, no feelings, all I have of you are the past three days. I want to know why you were so important to me… but I’m also afraid to find out. Like… it’s just… argh!”

She put her head on the table, and then looked up at me ever so slightly. “Do you think we can be in synch without talking about this?”

I smiled. “Sure. Besides,” I flipped open my phone. “Mission. ‘Free Rice Eccles from the Noise that inhabit it. You have 120 minutes. Fail and face erasure—The Reapers.”

We both flinched as the timers appeared on our hands. Then we stood up from the table.

“I guess you’ll get to take those Noise on after all,” I said to her.

“Let’s go.”

We took off, but not before finding a few more walls and support Reapers. I was getting sick of the phrase “want past this wall?” but we didn’t have a choice. They had gotten a bit more creative though. We had to do some shopping for one, some guy told Sara she had to be decked in a certain brand of clothing before he’d let us through. Much to his dismay she changed a good distance away so he never saw anything. Still, he let us past the wall.

The next guy gave us a few words on our phones that we had to imprint upon people. I couldn’t lie, I found imprinting to be incredibly fun. The fact that we were able to influence the thoughts of others was just mindboggling to me. It also freaked me out a little. To think of all of the times some random thought had burst into my mind, had that been the work of the Reaper’s Game? I decided it was best not to think about it too much and we went on with our mission, taking the trax up to Rice Eccles Stadium, the football field belonging to the University of Utah. I’d been there a few times, and I was excited to see the place again. The memories of it were rich… which caused a sudden welling of guilt to well up in me for Sara’s sake. How many memories was I depriving her of simply because I was nearby at the time? She was missing a part of her identity, her soul, how did she manage to keep fighting? If they had taken my memories, I probably would have rolled over and died to those frogs. If it weren’t for the fact that death terrified me, I still might have. To be honest, if I didn’t have such a gung ho partner, I would have had little reason to even try at the game. This only made me regret my thoughts about Sara in life even more. I had been so wrong, totally misjudged her. Would she remember me as aloof and cold when her memories returned? I didn’t want her to think that of me. Perhaps, I could change her mind during this game.

We finally arrived at the stadium, and were weren’t the least bit surprised to see Jim and Rachel were already there. They were doubled over on the side of the field, panting, and I almost wondered if they had finished the mission already. The timer was still on my hand though. There must have been a lot of Noise in the area.

“What took ya so long?” Jim huffed as we approached. “We been fightin’ these Noise til we’re blue, and we ain’t even denting them.”

“We could really use a hand,” Rachel smiled weakly.

Sara put a hand on Rachel’s shoulder, offering her a warm smile. “You look beat. Let us handle this.”

“Yeah, we’ve got it,” I said as I walked onto the field.

“Pssh, like you any better at bustin’ Noise than me!” Jim shouted at me.

I turned and winked. “Much better.”

He cracked a grin as he leaned back. “Aight, give us a show bro.”

I nodded as I scanned the area. They had been right. There was a lot of Noise. A LOT of Noise. They had flooded the entire stadium. Still, we were undaunted. Hell, we were more than undaunted, we weren’t afraid of these buggers at all. Immediately we drew a few towards us and began to take them down. The opening up must have worked, I’d never felt so in synch with Sara. Our strength was one, making it even easier to beat the Noise into a pulp. One after they another they continued to fall, and I almost got too caught up in erasing them to realize that we too were getting nowhere.

“Sara, stop,” I said. “Stop scanning.”

Sara appeared beside me. “There’re still a lot of Noise here, and we don’t have much time. We have to keep fighting.”

“They’re being drawn here,” I said as I scouted the area. “There has to be something that’s making them congregate like this.”

I continued to search the area, but all I could see were two people standing a short distance away from us, other than Jim and Rachel. A boy and a girl, They were probably boyfriend/girlfriend by the way they were arguing. There was nothing else though, I had to investigate.

“Come on,” I said, and Sara followed.

We came closer to them, and then I scanned again, reading their thoughts. They were definitely in a relationship, and both were very angry about certain issues. Nothing out of the usual, but it seemed to have an unusual effect on the Noise. Their negativity was drawing the Noise to them. It was like a swarm of bees, all of them trying to get close to drink up the negative energy. Then, there were even a few Noise symbols directly on the people, marking them.

“It’s like they’re possessed,” I said.

“Jared!” Sara said excitedly. “Do you remember those words that Reaper gave us for imprinting at that wall? I think we can use them to settle their problems, and if they’re happy then maybe the Noise will leave.”

I stared at our phones and the list of words in it. “These are just random words, they won’t solve anyone’s problems.”

Sara winked at me. “Just watch and learn.”

She went at it, playing with her phone while time began to get dangerously low. Several times I was tempted to stop her and try a different approach, but I didn’t. She was my partner, I had to give her my trust, our success depended on it. Sure enough, the conversation of the two began to take a different flow. One moment they were arguing, the next moment their lips were locked together as they made out. Sara and I both turned away as they began to get carried away.

“Looks like you did it, nice job,” I said.

She shrugged. “Yeah…”

“You don’t seem too thrilled.”

Sara shivered. “Guys have very dirty minds.”

“We do not!” I snapped, but she laughed.

“Okay, just that guy,” she said, but whatever she saw in his mind had an effect on her. I would’ve asked, but our time was low.

“The Noise are thinning,” I said. “Come on, let’s finish this.”

And so we did, but not quite as well as we had earlier. I really began to wonder what thoughts were flowing through that man’s mind to have upset my partner in such a way. Still, we managed to erase the last Noise before Jim and Rachel had made it back onto the field. Rachel looked relieved, but Jim was a little irritated. I would have been too I guess. If completing the missions put us in higher standing, we had just completed this one almost by ourselves. As happy as we were to all be together and safe, reality stole a bit of that moment from us.

“Mission complete,” I said holding up my hand, the timer was gone.

“Good,” Sara said as she began to walk away. “I’m already hungry. What do you say we try to get some food before the day finishes out?”

As she walked I noticed something on the ground. My eyes widened in fear as I noticed the shark Noise symbol. Without thought, I just ran. I ran straight at Sara, pushing her away as the shark emerged from its symbol. Those jaws were right on top of me, I had no way of escaping. Saving Sara had meant nothing, she would only have seven minutes once those jaws clamped shut. I… I’d failed!

Just as the jaws were about to snap shut, the jaws vanished. The shark was erased.

I looked to Jim and Rachel, but they were still a ways away. They couldn’t have defeated it that easily, could they?

“Oh, that was touching.”

The new female voice answered my question.

I turned to see a peculiar young woman. She had long wavy crimson read hair and dark red lips, and her skin was almost translucent. She wore a black dress which was tight but not overly revealing. No wings, was she a Player? No, I knew she wasn’t. There was something too eerie about her. She was all alone, but she just emanated with a twisted power, not to mention her pale glow made her look like a bloody vampire.

“That was so sweet,” she said to me. “You were willing to risk your right to live just to save your partner. I do love a good, bad romance.”

I scowled. “I don’t like her!” I snapped.

She didn’t seem to hear me. “I’m a sucker for romance, you know. That’s why I arranged today’s mission to be what it was. Aren’t they just a disgusting sight?” she turned to the pair on the opposite side of the field. “They think they’re so in love, if only they had the insight we had into their reality.”

Sara walked over to me and helped me up. Then she glared at the woman. “You’re a Reaper!”

“Duh,” the woman rolled her eyes. “Not just any Reaper, an executive… well, not just any executive either. The GM, or Game Master for those of you that don’t know our Reaper lingo. I’m Clarissa Reeves, lover of love and tragedy.”

“I’m guessing that’s why you love this game, right?” Sara scowled at her.

Clarissa laughed. “Oh silly little girl. We’re not so different, you and I. I saw the way you stalked away from that pair, thoroughly disgusted with them. I sent my little Noise friend to offer you an easy way out.”

“I don’t want to be erased!” she snapped, but I could see that Sara’s soul wasn’t in those words.

“Right, right,” Clarissa said. “You do realize what you’ll have to face when you come back to life, won’t you? All of the questions that will follow you, all of the people that will try to use you. Life is probably the most tragic novel of all, do you really want to keep pretending like you cling to it?”

“I do,” Sara said, almost in a whisper.

“Then why did you…”

“Stop!” Sara screamed as she turned and ran. “Just leave me alone!”

“Sara!” I yelled, and immediately I stood up to chase her. If she got away, if one Noise got to her, we were both finished.

As we ran, I could hear our Game Master laughing behind us.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she promised. “I’ll have a special mission just for you.”