Finale" "(The Game of Life Part 5)

I knew somehow I’d have to finish this game and I’d do it with Ean.

Luckily, Ean’s cut wasn’t as bad as it seems. I mean yeah, he has a nice gash on his stomach now, but I took care of it.

“Anything yet?”

He asked me, staring at the sky. 

I glanced at my backpack. “Nope… Do you remember any more of the objects?”

“No ma’am,” He took in a heavy breath.

“Are you ok?”

“No…”

I looked at him across the ground. “What’s wrong? Do you need anything?”

He smiled and pushed himself up with his arm. “Chloe, I need you to win.”

I looked at the ground. “I meant like water or something…”

“Just hear me out, ok… if you die I have nothing to live for. I have no family, no friends… I’ll just be put back in a  boarding school for the rest of my life until I get mixed up in an arranged marriage and die.” He scooted over to sit directly in front of me. “Just promise me if anything happens to me that you’ll try. That you won’t give up.” He rested his head on his hands on my knees and smirked, his dimples turning up. “Please?”

I smiled back and nodded. “We really need to talk about this though. We can’t both win but…”

“We don’t need to talk about it. We can’t plan anything, we’ll just… we’ll see what happens, ok?”

I laughed softly. “What happened between us? We were never supposed to like each other, let alone love.”

He sat up straight and raised his eyebrows. “What was that?”

I dropped my smile. “What?”

“You said you loved me…” He tried to hold back a smile.

I dropped my gaze but grinned. “Yeah, I did.”

After a couple seconds of silence, I felt his warm hand under pull my chin up until we were staring into each other's eyes. 

He swallowed and said quieter than anything I’d ever heard, “I love you, too, you know.”

“I know,” I whispered back. Both of our mouths turned up. He slid his hand down to my neck and reached his head over my knees, touching our foreheads together. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him, my heart nearly jumping straight out of my chest.

There was no way I could take Collins’s offer. I’ve made up my mind that I’d rather die than live without Ean, and I know he felt the same way about me.

***

It was afternoon and we still hadn’t received any information or clues about what we were supposed to find and I was starting to get worried.

I sat unwrapping the bandage on my ankle. So much has happened in the past couple of days, I’d almost completely forgotten about it, and my arm. I figured my foot would never be the same again but I hadn’t seen it yet, and Ean was gone right now so he couldn’t see it and freak out.

When I finished taking it off, I dared myself to look and honestly, I couldn’t tell it was my foot. I gagged at the ripped off flesh and red marks, the spots where I could see the bone. I quickly wrapped it back up when I heard Ean walking back to the site.

“No sign of anyone... “ He stopped and smiled when he saw me bundled my foot back up. “Need anything?”

I shook my head as he sat down beside me and handed me an apple.

“I found an apple tree. I don’t know why it’s here, but it is.” I shuffled the apple in my hands a couple times.

“You didn’t find the other guy?”

He shook his head solemnly and took a bite of his apple, chewing slowly. “I hope he’s alive.” He whispered, quietly so only I could hear.

“I never thought either one of us would ever say that.”

“Me neither,” He laughed and looked at me. “What do you think, should we just start walking and see what happens?” He got up and I took his outstretched hand. He kissed me on the cheek, grabbed our knives and gun, and started walking.

***

“So you’ve watched every single season of the show ever?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Right after my parents died, the show released its first season. It kind of helped me, but it bothered Piper.”

Ean scratched the back of his neck. “How did they?”

I swallowed. “I don’t know. They just never came back. We got a letter saying they were dead but it didn't say how.”

“So you were… what 8 or 9?” I nodded. “And it was your lifelong dream?” He laughed a little.

“It was, I knew when I turned 18 I was going to win the Game of Life.” I smiled at my young naive self. 

“You will.”

“You will, too.” 

As soon as we dropped the topic, we saw a figure coming towards us. We looked at each other and smiled. Ean grabbed my shoulders and pulled me to him, kissing me vigorously. “I love you, Chloe.”

“I love you, too, Ean.” 

We turned back to the contestant who broke into a run. 

Ean yelled out. “It’s Adam isn’t it?” He stopped running. I laughed. “It’s good to see you! Look, we’re asking a favor!”

The man ran over to us and I pointed my gun, the gun he gave me, at him, slowing him down. 

“Look, Adam, we don’t want to win. We know you do.” He stepped forward and I cocked the gun.

“See, we don’t really trust each other,” I added. “We don’t know if the other is acting, and we want to make sure that either both of us win or both of us lose." I threw my gun at him. “Shoot both of us.”

He looked at it for a few seconds. I was expecting him to just shoot us both immediately, but he stared and stared, not moving. All three of us jumped and looked around as we heard a loud voice. 

“No! Stop!” Collins. “You cannot sacrifice yourself or others, it’s in the rules! You either willingly kill or unwillingly be killed. Take your choice.”

I looked up to the sky, calling out to the speakers. “I’m cheating! You gave me the chance to cheat, and I’m cheating.”

“You can only cheat if I give you permission.”

Ean scoffed. “That doesn’t seem very fair-”

“Fair? Of course it’s fair! I’m the Grand-Master, I make the rules!”

Ean leaned into my ear, placing a hand on my back. “He sounds like a toddler…” We laughed quietly.

“I heard you, Mr. Sullen! Keep in mind I have ears and eyes everywhere. And you all had microphones transplanted inside you.” 

Ean sneered again, rolling his head back. “Look, Collins, we don’t want to do this anymore. We’ve given up, can’t you just let us?”

“No, because I want Chloe to win… but back to my point. You have mics. I know everything you’ve ever talked about. I know your plan. And because I know you are going to hate me for life. You probably already do. But don’t worry, it’s l for the best.” I looked at Ean and he was just as confused as I was. We both whipped around when we heard Adam yell and rushed toward him. He had foamy spit coming out of his mouth and he collapsed. I ran over to him.

“Please don’t die, Adam… we need you…” I rummaged through my bag, looking for anything that could help. I heard Collins laugh over the speaker and I swore at him silently.

I turned back to look at Ean and let out a single breath. He smiled at me softly, pulling the blade out of his stomach. I shook my head and ran over to him, repeatedly whispering ‘no.” I caught him before he reached the ground and kept his head up. 

“I’m fine this is like the third time I’ve been injured with a knife.” He said quietly, his voice dry and fading.

“Ean… why did you do that…”

“I promised you, you’re going to win…” He put a hand under my ear and brushed back my thick curly hair. “Now I get what I want and Collins gets what he wants… and you get your lifelong dream.”

I half-laughed-half-sobbed. “No, I… Ean…”

“I know.” His eyes blink over and over, fast at first then got slower. His breathing got more and more forced. 

“Ean please…” I was broken. I can't believe he just did that.  

Collins laughed over the speaker. “Ladies and gents, our grand finale! Congratulations, Chloe Vandish, winner of the 10th Annual Game of Life!”