The Second Chance

The World Ends With You

Sara was the only one I recognized. Hard not to, after all of the time we’d spent together. Don’t get the wrong idea though, we never spent that much time together. Cross country, track and field. Casual acquaintances at best. We weren’t at best though. I knew her a bit more than I wanted, a bit less than I would have cared. Sounds confusing right? Well, confusion is about the best way to describe her.

She’s not too much shorter than me, about average height for a girl, but built in a way that looked as though a strong wind would carry her away. Runner girls aren’t built to the ideal of beauty according to most. Flat chest, flat butt, thin legs, her figure appeared more like a slender stick than that of an hourglass. Few curves, but her face was absolutely beautiful. Dark eyes, a white smile, and red luscious lips. Not the big full lips that you see, but enough to draw attention. Overall, incredibly beautiful girl. Just not one I would willingly associate with.

Sara’s got a smart mouth. Typically I respect that, though when it’s typically used at my expense I began to resent it. Even curved my own sharp tongue just so that I wouldn’t sound like her. Whether she meant it as playful joshing or to actually dive under your skin, it hurts. Not to mention it’s impossible to know what her intentions are. She has two faces, a smiling one and an emotionless one. Trying to draw any messages from either was a fool’s errand. A lot of guys have broken hearts for seeing something in her eyes that just wasn’t there. As for me, I don’t think there is actually anything in her eyes.

If she has a heart it’s only to pump blood, I don’t think she has true emotions. I’d gladly eat those words at any time, if anyone could show me proof otherwise. I feel bad thinking this way about someone, but I couldn’t help it. In white space she was nothing but a void, a vortex that all emotion drained into to never be heard from again. A black hole. Yet she’s pretty, you’d never suspect it. You shouldn’t, she looks completely innocent because she is innocent. Never leads a soul on, never promises and doesn’t deliver, but that doesn’t make her anymore terrible.

Enough about Sara. I recognized her, but that doesn’t mean that I was about to go talk to her, even if she was alone. Loneliness was better than her presence as far as I was concerned. It was just draining to be in her presence. Besides, there were other things to occupy my mind, such as where we all were.

First glance it looked as though there were about twelve kids in the room, all aged from fourteen to eighteen. High school age, still, I only knew the one. The room we were in was big and white, in fact I didn’t even know if it was a room or not. We were all compacted into a small area, giving it the illusion that there were walls. No exit though, we were trapped here. Even if there weren’t walls, where would we go? There was no end to the white. It was brilliant if you think about it. What better way to keep people better contained? Walls or nothingness? We were all too afraid to run to the expanses, afraid of losing each other. Sure, we were all strangers, no one was speaking to each other, but that didn’t mean we wanted to be alone.

“Greetings all Players!”

We all searched for the voice, but we could not find it. Strangely enough, we all pulled closer together. I was about five feet from Sara. We looked at one another, but we kept silent.

“Welcome to the Reapers’ Game.”

Reapers’ Game?

“For those of you that are here, you’re about to be given a wonderful opportunity,” says the mysterious voice. “A second chance at life. For the next seven days we shall be testing you. One mission will be issued to you each day, you must complete these missions in order to pass the test. Is that simple enough for all of you?”

Seven days? Missions? Did this make sense to anyone at all? No, of course it wasn’t simple. Why were we here to begin with?

It hit me then, why I was standing in pure white light. I had seen the light, walked towards it. Left my own body behind.

I was dead.

“Second chance at life,” I said aloud, although no one looked my way. “If we win, we get to come back?”

The voice obviously couldn’t hear me.

“Best of luck Players. One worthy note, in order to survive, you will have to forge a Pact with another Player. I’m sure this will become obvious to you soon enough. Oh, and before I forget. Entrance into the Reapers’ Game is not free. Each of you must offer up what you value most as your entry fee.”

I moaned. What did I value most?

“Don’t worry, we’ve already collected your fees. If you win the game, they will be returned to you. If you do not, well, you will forfeit your entrance fee… as well as your right to exist.”

Exist? I wanted to open my mouth, to ask what the voice meant, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t hear, and I couldn’t speak. The white had swallowed everyone up. I couldn’t see a thing, not even myself. The oddest sensation that I was floating overcame me. It was relaxing, that much I could say. Then, the white opened up underneath me. Colors. Streets. Noise.

Oh yes, the Noise, if only I’d known…

The floating sensation abandoned me as I dropped from the sky and landed on the concrete. If I hadn’t already been dead, the fall would’ve killed me. Slowly I opened my eyes and glanced around. People, tons of people, walking around me, not even carrying that Icarus had just fallen from the sky (that’s not my name by the way). I sat up, body aching, taking in the scene. People, buildings… and a frog. A frog, as real as me, but there was something off. It was a three dimensional being, all save for its legs. They looked like paper cut outs, and they were blue, as though part of it was real and part of it wasn’t all there. It was weird, freaky even…

And not at all friendly.

Sara

Day 1

“Gahh!” I leapt at the movement.

The frog hadn’t moved yet, it was something else, something within me. I quickly searched my pockets, finding my phone. Well, it wasn’t really my phone, but I’m guessing it was issued to me for some purpose. There was a message on the phone. Perhaps this was part of the game. The Reapers’ Game. What could it be?

“Reach the Fountain. You have 60 minutes. Fail and face erasure—The Reapers,” I read.

I looked around. The Gateway Mall. Salt Lake City, Utah. My hometown. The fountain must refer to the one within the mall, but why give us so much time? Was it in consideration of new Players that might now know the area? After all, it was only a five minute walk. I could make it in one if I ran there. No one would care if I did, no one seemed to be paying any mind to me.

“I’ll just take my time,” I said as I walked past the frog.

This time, my scream was in pain.

“What the hell!” I yelled as the frog leapt back off of me. “It struck me with its legs and…”

Pain. Sheer pain had shot through my body. No, not just my body, it felt as though it had scratched the surface of my soul. The frog stared at me with its eyes, as though it had done nothing wrong. There it waited, probably for me to turn my back. I didn’t get it, what was with this frog, was I the only one…

There was someone else running away from a trio of these strange frogs. It was one of the people that had been in the white room/space. He yelled in pain as they kept jumping on him, clawing at him with their two dimensional legs. Fear swept over me, locking me into place, as he suddenly burst into light, vanishing.

Erased.

“What. The. Hell.”

The three frogs that had… that had erased him, turned towards me. They all began to hop towards me, along with my first friend. That first frog scratched me again, and the pain went from agonizing to blinding. I ran. I didn’t know if it was towards the fountain or not, but I knew that I wasn’t about to stick around. But as fast as I was, they were just as fast. Here and there, a nick and a scratch, each causing me to curse the one that had made me.

I opened my eyes after my dash. They were still behind me. I was just a street down from the fountain, but I already knew that I wasn’t going to make it. A few more scratches from these freaky frogs and I would be torn into oblivion. I could feel it, I knew the fate that awaited me. It was then that I wondered, had anyone ever beaten the Reapers’ Game? They said we had to survive seven days, I wasn’t about to last seven minutes. Could it be beaten?

I wouldn’t be around to find out.

“No!” I yelled. “It can’t end!”

I bumped into something. Someone. We both fell backwards, landing on our butts. I opened my eyes to see Sara staring back at me. Suddenly, the words from that mysterious voice echoed in my mind.

In order to survive, you will have to forge a Pact with another Player. I’m sure this will become obvious to you soon enough.

Could forging a pact let us live?

“Forge a pact with me!” I snapped at her.

It had to be her. The last person I would want to be tied down to for seven days, but I had no other choice. It was either this or else forfeiting my right to exist. Sara wasn’t that bad, she certainly beat ‘erasure.’ Hopefully she thought the same thing as me.

“Okay,” she said.

How did we do this? Did we just agree or what?

Then I felt it. We felt it. Both of us did, I knew it, because suddenly I could feel her. I wasn’t physically touching her, but somehow, our beings were melting into one. Light surrounded us, sealing the deal, and when we opened our eyes we were both the same. Two individuals, but we knew. There was something different here.

The frogs weren’t attacking.

“Huh,” I rose to my feet, watching as the frogs went from half 3D and 2D into full two dimensional characters. They turned into strange symbols, and they went floating into the air. As I looked up, I noticed that there were a lot of these symbols floating through the air of all different shapes and sizes.

“I guess they don’t bother us if we make a pact,” I observed.

“Thankfully,” Sara said. “Those things were chasing me forever. Oh, where are my manners. Hi, my name is Sara Evans,” she extended a hand out to me.

I rolled my eyes. “Cut the crap, I know who you are, Sara.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “I’m sorry… I guess I don’t remember you.”

“Are you kidding, we were just…” I began, but I caught myself.

Our entry fees. Could it be that Sara had lost her memory as her entry fee? Perhaps she wasn’t yanking my chain after all, she really didn’t remember me.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “My mistake. Ah, my name is Jared Anderson,” I accepted her hand.

She smiled. “Pleasure to meet you, Jared.”

Maybe they took my memory too. Wasn’t this girl supposed to be sharp tongued and aloof? This was nothing like the Sara I remembered. Something was seriously strange here.

“Likewise,” I said. “So um, I guess you got the mail too right? The one telling us to go to the fountain.”

“I sure did,” Sara said. “And, I also have these.”

From her pocket she drew a bunch of pins. Not the huge ones you see people wearing, like those voter pins, these ones were smaller. Almost fashionable, I guess. Not that I knew much about fashion, but I could at least picture someone wearing them. Each had a different image on it. They were interesting, and no doubt a part of this game. If she had them, I must…

“I guess I do too,” I said pulling my own set out. “Though, mine are different from yours, except for this one.”
I held up a small black pin with a white skull on it.


“I think all of the Players have this one,” she held up her own. “The rest of these, as far as I know, are just pins. This one though, well, just hold it tightly in your hand. It does something interesting.”

She was my partner, there was no reason for her to lead me astray. We were in this game together now, stuck with each other for the next seven days. Anyway she could help me would help her, and vice-versa. So, with nothing but her word to go on, I squeezed the pin.

The noise in the area was amplified. At first I thought the pin had given me super hearing, which was definitely interesting, but once I stopped to listen to the noise around me it all made sense. There was noise coming from everyone, whether they were speaking or not. Most of them weren’t speaking.

This pin let me read minds.

“Now that’s useful,” I said, letting go of the pin, the noise dying as my clench loosened.

Sara smiled. “I thought so too.”

I stared at her. Her smile, it was different. I’d only ever seen it and thought it was fake, but there was no denying that this one was genuine. I smiled back, I couldn’t help it, she was infectious. It was then that I had the craziest idea. For once in my life, I would get to see if Sara indeed had a soul.

I clenched the pin.

Nothing.

No noise was emanating from Sara. Either she had no thoughts, or the pin didn’t let us scan other players. Disappointed, I let go of the pin and slid the mess of them into my pocket.

“We better head to the fountain, we don’t want to run out of time,” she lifted her palm.

There were numbers imprinted upon her palm, counting down. Her hand read forty two minutes and seven seconds, and then six seconds, and then five. Each of us had experienced the same thing, and so when I looked at my hand I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the timer imprinted on my palm as well. Somewhat considerate, helping us to keep on track, but at the same time it reminded us of our most precious item. Time. If those frogs didn’t get us, the ‘reapers’ would if we didn’t get to the fountain in time.

She motioned for her to lead the way, which I did. We walked down the street, we had plenty of time left anyways, the fountain was just right there. So we walked for the next minute, me leading, her following. Thank goodness she wasn’t truly following, otherwise she would have followed me right into a…

“Ouch!” I yelled as a force threw me backwards.

Wall.

It wasn’t visible, but it was there. I had hit it hard enough to know. Sara was smart enough to keep a good distance away from where I had been repelled, but she dropped by my side and offered me a hand to help me stand. This definitely wasn’t the Sara that I knew.

“This is why they gave us so much time,” I said. “I guess we have to go around it.”

“That could take more than the time we have, especially if there are more walls,” Sara said. Her face drooped. “This is terrible.”

“Hey, you two.”

We both looked up. There was a man standing next to the invisible wall (don’t ask me how I knew). He had on a red jacket, the hood pulled up to cover his face. His arms were folded and he looked like a thug for all of the world, but he could see us. That was more than everyone else. It seemed that no one other than Players could see each other… but he had no partner, and those things weren’t attacking him. How could he be in the game and not be a Player?

There must’ve been more pieces to this game than the voice told us. Those beings weren’t in the briefing after all, nor were single Players. They said we had to pact, so how did he get past it?

“Yes?” I asked as Sara helped me stand up.

“Have you two formed a pact?” he asked.

He was part of the game, that was for certain.

“Yes,” Sara said.

He nodded. “Go on through.”

“There’s sort of a wall…”I began as Sara moved.

“I think it’s gone,” she said as she walked past the spot I had ricocheted off of. “We’re good to go!”

I stared in surprise. The wall was gone… and so was that other guy. So, there were guys that could unlock walls, that would be useful.

“Come on!” she smiled. “I’ll race you to the fountain. Just try to keep up.”

There, the first glimpse of the Sara that I knew. Still, I was confused. Was the Sara I knew hiding beneath this bubbly personality, or had this bubbly personality been hiding underneath the Sara I knew? I might not have even known who Sara was. The next seven days would be interesting.

With her head start, she beat me to the fountain. There were stood, double over, panting. Sara looked up at me and smiled, then she reached into one of the fountain spouts as it shot up water and flung it at me. I smiled as the water splashed against my face.

“Very cute,” I said as I wiped my face. “Oh… timer’s are gone.”

Sara looked at it. “So is mine. Guess we’re done with our mission for the day. I don’t see any of the other Players though. You think they’re alright?”

“I know at least one of them isn’t,” I sighed. “I saw… I watched someone get attacked by those frogs and he… well, I think he’s been erased.”

“Oh gosh,” Sara said. “I guess we’re lucky to have forged our pact. Now we’re safe from those things.”

“Not entirely.”

More strangers sneaking up on us? If it weren’t for the fact that it was a female voice this time, I would’ve thought our wall friend had followed us. However, the girl I turned too was nothing like him.

She was lovely. Nice frame, but like Sara, most of her beauty was in her face. She had a teasing look on her face, but it was beautiful, captivating. I had to admit, she was attractive, but that attraction slowly faded when I noticed something odd about her. There was a pair of two dimensional black wings sprouting from her back.

Why couldn’t girls just be normal?

“These Noise are passive when you form a pact, but let’s say I give them a little push,” the girl said, waving her hand into the air and calling down three symbols. Three frogs leapt out, all eyes were upon us. “They are more than capable of attacking a team.”

“Why would you do that?” Sara asked.

“Uh, it’s my job,” the girl winked. “Erasing Players is what we Reapers do best. Nothing personal, it’s a dog eat dog world out there. If we don’t erase you, we get erased. So, naturally, you’re going to have to go.”

“What do we do?” Sara asked.

I held up my black pin and squeezed. “Maybe she knows something.”

The girl laughed. “Oh my. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, and it’s an expectable amateur mistake. Sorry honey, but you can’t scan Reapers. That pin isn’t going to do much for erasing Noise either. If I were you, I’d try some other ones.”

The frog leapt at me, and immediately the pain set in, but something was different. I was still at the fountain, but it felt different somehow, as though I had entered another world.

“Sara?” I called, but she was nowhere to be seen.

She was there though. I could feel her. She was standing somewhere nearby. We weren’t alone, that much I knew. What I didn’t know was how on earth we were going to destroy these frogs.

The pain wasn’t as bad as last time, I’d be able to last longer, hopefully long enough to figure out a plan. That Reaper was set on destroying us, no doubt that was part of the game. She had no reason to help us, unless she did so by mistake. I pulled out another pin, one with the image of a flame on it. Could it be?

I squeezed.

I could feel the energy inside of me. It was like I was programmed to do this, it felt instinctual. I focused my mind, and sure enough, flames erupted underneath the legs of the first frog. It croaked in pain, trying to jump away, but I kept at it. The flames followed it at my command, and soon I had them all grouped together. It was tiring work, using the pin, but soon enough the frogs vanished and I felt the world returning to normal around me. This time when I looked around, Sara was right there.

“Where were you?” I asked.

“I was about to ask you the same question,” she said. “And why couldn’t I do that before… and, did you feel weird when they…?”

“Oh you two are going to give me a headache.”

Our Reaper was back.

She smiled at us behind her pink lips. “Noise are beings that exist on two planes, the only way to destroy them is to erase them from both planes. That’s why you can only beat them with a partner. One person on one plane, one on the other. Also, you need a partner in order to get your pins to work. Does that cover it for you?”

“Why tell us these things?” I asked.

She shrugged. “It makes the game more interesting. Besides, the boring missions are upfront, the fun ones come later on, and I’ll have fun harrying you along the way. It only gets harder from here. Remember that.”

Sara and I nodded.

“Just who are you?” I asked.

The girl rolled her eyes. “I’m a Reaper, or is this one of those ‘can I have yo’ numba’ deals?” she winked. “Name’s Jessica. You’ll be hearing it a lot over the next week.”

She vanished from sight, but that didn’t make us any more comfortable. This mission was challenging enough for me, if they only got harder from here, would I last the week?

“I hope that’s all for the day,” Sara said. “I don’t see any other Players though. Should we go look for them, help them out?”

The strange Sara was in control again.

I nodded. “I’m good with that.”

I began to walk away, but Sara stayed put.

“Don’t you want to go help…?”

“I’m scared,” she said, tears welling up in her face.

I put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry…”

“I remember dying,” Sara said. “I remember those few seconds before that car hit me, and I was cursing myself for letting it happen. ‘I can’t die yet’ I thought. I have too much to live for, too many people. There’s my friend, Megan… I… I can’t think that I might never see her again.”

Megan Ririe. Sara hung out with her all of the time.

Wait, she remembered Megan? So she was screwing with me when she said she didn’t remember… no… no, no, no, no. Her memory, it had been her entry fee, she had no reason to screw with me, that would only screw our chances. Her memory was gone, but only a part of it. Only the memories concerning me. Memories of me, that was her most valuable possession?

I stared at my partner, at this girl, this stranger. I had no idea who she was, and now she had no idea who I was either. Back at square one, except where she annoyed me before, she scared me now. So many secrets, what else was she hiding from me?

I gripped the Player Pin.

Nothing.