trigger warning, a lot of blood

A Game for Monsters

“Teck!, are you still there?” Kasht yelled, from my sister’s room above, his voice almost breaking.

I looked up, the ceiling looked drenched and black, “Yeah,” I glanced around the dungeon like room I was in, “Where else wou—, would I be?”

I had tried to keep my voice smooth, mellow, worry free, but...

“Teck, please!, say what I can do!, please, I don’t want you to, die down there,” Kasht groused.

The faint humming of the machine came from around me. The room was terribly dark.

I sighed. 

I swiped back my hair and the cold sweat clinking on my forehead with both hands and sighed again. 

“I don’t think that you can do anything...”

“What?” Kasht pounded his fist on something above, “But, you are a tech genius!, you gotta, know, how to stop this madness!”

I wrapped my hands around myself and looked down, “I guess my sister was more of a genius.”

Kasht cursed, “Don’t you understand? Your sister is a monster and a mur—”

“She IS MY SISTER!” 

I looked up at the ceiling, my eyebrows scrunched, my jaw and fist clenched.

“And she is not a murderer!, and she is NOT A MONSTER!” I exploded. 

A pause...

Something, probably a chair, crashed to the floor, above. More cursing from Kasht. 

He was saying something, I couldn’t hear now, but his voice was getting louder, clearer...

“... they arrested her, that’s why, because she was not a murderer, that’s why there is that execution today, oh now I get it, she is not a murderer of three very nice people. Aaaand, she is not a monster, that’s why sweet little sister caught her over protective big brother in a mouse trap and plans to KILL HIM!”

A pause..., my head dropped...

Kashk rasped, “But that, that won’t be a killing, will it?, what are you gonna call that. What did you call, the other three?”

Another pause..., my lip and hands were quivering, my eyes burned and blurred...

Kashk continued, “Don’t pretend, Teck, you know who the other three were, and... I know too.”

A drop ran down my cheek and meat a bead coming down from the other eye. I squeezed my hands around me, hugging myself, reassuring myself...

I heard footsteps from above, Kasht’s footsteps, footsteps that were walking away.

“Teck, as much as I like you, I don’t want to end up as the fourth one, you and your sister can die today, happily, and I don’t care, I want peace, and I won’t get that around you, what if you are right?, what if your sister is not the murderer, what if you are?.......

I heard another thud, then nothing...

I clutched my head.

I felt like running.

So, I ran,

In the darkness,

I struck the wall,

Hard,

I fell backwards,

My head banged on the floor,

My breath got caught, in my chest.

I lay there, gradually tasting the weird substance, which was trickling into my mouth, little by little. I could smell it too, as it gushed out from my nose, it’s scent was mixed with that of the machine oil’s, so it was confusing. I could hear nothing except the soft buzzing of Mines’ work, and maybe a melodious breeze outside, above. 

It was shady, the darkness surrounded me, enveloped me. It was cold too, and a shiver ran up my spine as I slowly got up. The shiver had nothing to do with the cold. It was simply caused by the fact that my trust in my sister was reforming.

Mines is my sister and... I didn’t trust her that time, that time, when all the evidences pointed her way, she was right, in her own way, but I didn’t trust her, and she, Mines, is easily annoyed.

Very easily annoyed, and I know just what she does to people who she is annoyed with. 

Mines loves games, and she plays one before annihilating anyone. 

Mines know what pain is, and she knows exactly how to measure it, exactly how much is needed for vengeance. 

Maybe, maybe, Kasht was right, maybe I am the murderer, I knew about those three, then also about the other two and the other four, and it all just made me better off, I could do nothing, nothing to make her less of a monster, a monster with a deformed face and deformed logic.

Deformed logic...

Kasht was right, I have to get out of here and see him, and then, I have to say sorry.

I can’t be stuck in a game forever.

I started walking and collided with the wall again. I turned around and leaned on it.

I folded my hands.

I had to come up with a plan.

I let my head drop and I half closed my eyes.

I did not know what to do. 

I saw only the soft darkness and heard only the low humming. The pain in my nose was darkening, spreading, sharpening. The blood from my nose have reached my chin, and was slowly dripping down, drop by drop, drenching my t-shirt. The blood lingered in my mouth also, and it tasted rusty, sordid. The cold was turning my nose numb, everything felt still, and passive.

I was stabbed. 

It pierced through me until it met the wall.

I doubled over, clutching my stomach.

My eyes bulged out.

Nothing but a huff came out of my mouth.

It was pulled out, harshly.

I froze. 

Tried to breath in, every breath mustering more effort.

My eyes widened and blurred. 

Fell to my knees.

Blood gushed out.

Something shredded half the flesh off my right arm.

I clenched my fist, my head slanted back and hit the wall, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear, but I could feel the blood, drenching me.

A light appeared in front of me. I glared. A hologram, Mines.

“Hello, Teck.”

I could only move my lower jaw, I was paralysed, with pain.

She smirked, “Why did you have to try and get the program working?, oh, yes, so that you can someone else being tortured, but you didn’t except it to work on its own, did you?”

I clenched my jaw, gasping for air.

Mines’ ugly face glared, “You are too predictable, Teck, did you think that I would not find out if you put up false evidences against me?, you are a lousy actor too, should’ve seen your face when you said that you didn’t trust me anymore.”

I tried to stare back, to raise my head, but I was losing too much blood.

Something stabbed my shoulder, this time I growled.

The hologram chuckled, “You are way predictable, I was always called the monster, you hated it, ‘cause you never got to shine, so you let them catch me and then kill me, what a good plan, my brother. But now, you are going to die, any last wishes?”

I scrunched my eyebrows and mouthed a name – Kasht

“Granted!..., killed the moment he stepped out of my room, poor Kasht, he thought that he knew you better than anyone, but alas, only I know you even a bit. Now, get ready for the end.”

I gritted my teeth, the pain had gone numb, looked at the puddle of blood near me and closed my eyes.

“Game over.”