by Haidji
Made from another material. Fluctuating over the ground of reality.
He died and took all their hearts with him.
Bianca would step by step, or maybe even suddenly, disappear from their lives, because her presence would always remind them of how evil he really was while he was alive, and nobody wanted that. They wanted a new star at the Christmas tree to pray to. They wanted a fake angel or a fake saint; so let’s let them have what they want.
Nobody wants to recognize evil when it is at his or her own house, and not at the neighbor’s one.
He lived like a demon and died like a saint.
And he left his Sin inside her heart.
Because we all have a Sin somewhere, and if we don’t, someone else will put a Sin inside our heart, so that we also have one.
So she said…ok…it is like it is.
Let’s dance through life like a transparent shadow until exhaustion and then, fall into the arms of destiny.
C'est la vie, Carpe Diem, Veni Vidi Vici, Let’s do it? Alea iacta est!! Let’s jump into it!!!
Bianca decided to jump into the Suicide Game.
Chapter 13
The sun was still wandering through other countries and the lights in the conference room at the Stadium were already on, like a pale moonlight over the round white table.
Alphabot had already left the room, and the six coffee cups were already empty.
The voice of the Green council member echoed in the room, elevated over the night sounds.
Apart from the seven council members, and Alphabot, everyone was still sleeping.
‘It is a day off for all candidates and most workers, but it is a day of double work for us; tomorrow the second step starts. And there is a lot to decide and modify before it.’
‘How many had survived?’ Asked Blue, as would he be speaking to himself. Let’s see it. And he answered his own question.
‘From the initial 8000 candidates, there were now 3640, already discounting the pregnant women…3640…what happened? Shouldn’t it be 4000?
Someone needed to watch the Gravedigger more closely…did some of the wires really get broken by themselves? The initial idea was 1000 candidates a day on the second step, and now the number was broken…Mathematics should be perfect science…so should our administration of the game be.
And candidate number 7777 died, and this wasn’t supposed to happen! Due to the research they made before, the most chosen numbers were 1234, 1111, and then 2222, 3333, 4444, and so on. Followed by birthday dates. And so they were keeping the most chosen numbers for the other game steps. What is going on there?’
Silence. They requested Alphabot to bring them more coffee.
Alphabot brought the coffee and Black said, before he could ask him:
‘No coffee…no water…thanks.’
And the Green council member was wandering around the room…upset.
This kind of mistake could not happen again.
Could not happen again! Agreed Purple.
Yellow and Red also agreed.
Blue just said, ‘maybe all is always in the laps of the gods and we don’t have so much control about destiny as we believe we have; luck also has its percentage in the destiny of situations, no matter how much we work on it’, and he smiled. ‘But we shall watch the Gravedigger work more closely; maybe he is not working properly’.
They scheduled another meeting to speak about this issue again. Black, Purple, Green, Blue, Red, Yellow and White left the room. Alphabot came to close the door.
Not far away from there, at the Stadium, the excavators and trucks from a construction company arrived, together with Steven Laurence, who would never allow changes in his masterpiece without his permission and presence.
The ground should be now almost one meter deeper to allow two more rows of seats. And this isn’t so simple, like it seemed to be when the depth was to be less than one meter deeper.
Ramps now needed to be made for the transport of the bodies out of the sandy ground.
Steven Laurence did not like the idea of ‘ramps’. He did not like the idea of any change in his masterpiece, but a six-figure check that his friend White handled with him in person, together with compliments about his masterpiece, convinced him to let them excavate the Stadium ground. Did not take away his bad mood, but convinced him. And he then convinced the workers to excavate all the ground, making the corridors inside the Stadium and the rooms, also deeper…because he really did not like the idea of ramps…
As the new seats arrived, and also more gray sand for the ground, there were still workers working in the inside of the Stadium, and inside the rooms and corridors, because Steven Laurence could live with a higher roof, and he could change the size of all the doors, and he could excavate everything deeper into the Earth… but he could not live with ramps, which to him, were slides.
His masterpiece was made for serious games, it wasn’t a kids’ playground to have slides.
So, in the end they needed only 45cm more depth to set one new row of seats, the best seats…in black, shiny black. They made one meter of new excavation, to allow for the two new rows of seats and to accommodate a higher quantity of sand, to cover the ground.
And the ushers, after a discussion about who should clean the blood spots after the jumps, decided to just put new sand over always, it was faster and more practical this way. Had always been a problem to clean it all up so fast and properly.
Inside the Stadium a man wearing a Red Cross uniform was speaking to Demir, the chief of the ushers. The name of the man was Albion and he couldn’t find the baby, the baby just disappeared. He brought the baby to the Stadium a few days ago to show it to Demir, his friend who was also one of the heads of the organ mafia, because Demir’s cousin wanted to buy a baby. Not because of the organs, of course, but because his cousin’s wife couldn’t have kids, and they wanted one.
Babies came from catastrophes or even accidents. Wearing fake but well made Red Cross uniforms, Albion’s crew was one of the first groups that appeared to help by an Earthquake, floods, fire, or even war.
They were a special unit, he said, mostly the first that would appear on catastrophes.
Of course they helped, but the main mission of his group was to find kids under two years old, especially babies, save them and sell them; it was the best business ever, because no one would ever miss or search for them.
It was better than his grandfather’s and father’s business in the 1980’s, they were just kidnappers. Albion’s family was proud of him.
Now he brought this baby, fresh from an accident in the UK, to show to his friend Demir; but the baby disappeared. He searched for the baby inside the Stadium and couldn’t find it, and no baby came out, it must just have fallen somewhere and be already under the gray sand of the Stadium ground.
Albion went to the main office and asked to deactivate the baby’s bracelet. He said that the baby was already gone before him and he wanted to deactivate the bracelet, just to not have the risk of his wife bringing the baby to the Stadium without him. And he waited awhile inside the entrance; nobody tried to come out with the baby…. Must have fallen in the sand. What a shame! Was such a beautiful one. Escape from an accident, to die in a game.
Albion reported all this to his friend Demir and promised to bring another baby for Demir’s cousin in one of the next days. Or after the game, if his friend would stay some more days around. A similar one, of course.
Demir was back from a meeting with Black, his contact and friend in the Council. Black should know that Demir always reads the list of candidates that left the game, and the list of survivors, and he counted everybody and between day 3 and 4…he missed 12 candidates, 12 good healthy girls, where were they? Did someone steal their bodies? Was it one of the ushers? Demir was sure that someone changed the lists from the days before, because he made copies…and now, was different.
Imagining the worst things that could happen, like one of his own crew stealing his beautiful bodies
, he came out of the meeting with Black in a better mood.
Black was friendly, but also cold, direct, and sometimes he used to repeat sentences. Demir suspected that Black had Asperger’s syndrome, but he never asked Black about it. It would be unfriendly and they were not that close. Anyway, Black explained, twelve women were pregnant and we sent them home. Pregnant women cannot be game candidates. Candidates number 4957, 7821, 3287, 5432, 1452, 1473, 0061, 2982, 7011, 6253, 4216, 1045 dropped out of the game, in a different way. ‘Pregnant women cannot be…game candidates.’
Demir accepted the explanation.
It was good for Albion, that he saw Demir now and not before his meeting with the Council.
Pregnant women sent home wasn’t good for Demir’s business, but it was better than if someone he trusted would steal his daily bread, and he was happy about a new client, the firm of doctors who were into bioengineering.
So, Demir would stay some days longer to meet the new client, and could therefore forgive his friend Albion for losing the baby.
‘Was just one baby more, added to the pregnant girls.' Demir laughed, it was a joke. ‘Just bring me a new one, maybe a better one and don’t lose it, we have enough accidents here everyday with the game candidates!’ and he laughed again.
While the conversation between Demir and Albion was happening and the work was being made on the Stadium, with workers excavating the ground for the two new rows of chairs…inside the Condominium, they were excavating two steps deeper inside the candidate’s minds…
Chapter 14
Candidate 7195 – The Scientist
Was his name important? Persons called him ‘The Scientist’, not that he was one.
But he looked like one, or maybe he was one, inside his mind and soul.
He had one idea, between so many ideas, he had a big one, and sometimes he felt dizzy when he remembered that the world turned against the clock. A bizarre, but true, reality, which no one (so it seemed) really understood.
That not even the Earth was two times at the same place, because the Universe moves, the Galaxy moves, the Solar System moves…and one year later…we are never at the same place we were one year ago, time is a spiral and there are many spirals inside, and outside, the circles of life. There is, somewhere, a jump, which changes the energy, to more or less, depending on the energy of the Moment inside which we live.
But this, exactly this, together with everything else he had studied, including the Coriolis effect, the centrifugal forces and centripetal forces, gave him the idea…so easy and so simple.
Artificial gravity on one hand, levitation on the stand point and…on the other hand…it that was all part of his invention…the prototype was almost ready, and the vehicle…would work.
All he needed was some energy to start. It could be electric, gas, oil, petrol, coal, just some energy to start the engine, and the same energy that he understood, the energy that causes the jump, would do the rest.
But…then, suddenly, he started to think…and now what?
Would this change the world too much? His idea was to make a vehicle, a kind of new car, that could run on this energy – that he had found a way to harvest – endlessly, and it would be better for the environment, it seemed so good, but it had now turned dangerous, so suddenly…
How many persons could lose their work? How many companies could break?
Why do changes happen so suddenly in life?
His idea had come suddenly; was developed slowly with hard work and now, the final product was there…he had tested it alone, smiling about it as some kids saw it, thinking that it was a balloon or some…new kind of flight machine, flying car, maybe a military one…because he had to disguise its true purpose, so it could not look like a car.
No, he was just a scientist, testing a prototype device that nobody could easily identify.
Where have we gone, he wondered? Are we so far gone, that something that could be good for the environment could be bad for the human race? Are we so far away from nature, so far away from the sky, so far away from it all? And yet, on the one hand, not even close to hell, but on the other, descending into hell, perhaps.
In a world where we don’t need to create androids, because some of us seem to have been born without a soul, he still had one, at least for now.
So now he was there, paralyzed. The prototype was in the garage; plans, drawings and related things were around, over, under, and inside, the desk. And the cigarette lighter was in his hand. He was paralyzed, which is what happens sometimes when reality touches a dream and you realize that the world outside, which was already there and had inspired your dream, the world outside suddenly makes your dream seem like a nightmare.
He was confused, his idea had seemed to be so good, but maybe it was the worst one he ever had, maybe he should go back and make paper again, his special paper, made by cork rests and recycled paper. It was a good idea, but cork and paper companies don’t like to work together in the same project.
After one month working day and night on it, a cork allergy, and a couple of meetings where they loved the paper (asking for his formula), the Scientist gave up, after hearing that the paper would only be made if he could, himself, convince the paper company to work with the cork one. Because, being different companies in the same city, they were enemies.
He destroyed the prototype.
He burned or smashed all his plans and drawings. Including other plans and ideas. While doing this, his study about the wind body fell out the window, being carried by the wind itself. (A boy found it on the street, picked it up and tried to read the plans, walking on the street going to drink his coffee at Starbucks. He didn’t understand them and left the papers over the table as he went out of the place.)
It soon became clear to the Scientist that this didn’t help much; he had destroyed the plans, but the idea kept going in circles inside his mind. But there were not many mind readers in the world; so, until he could decide if it was a good or a bad one…at least it was stopped. It seemed that everything all around and inside of him was paralyzed.
He started thinking of his ideas, and research, which had been reflected in the prototype, drawings and plans he had just destroyed.
Where was exactly the point where the Earth makes the ‘jump’? Between one and another year?
It wasn’t at midnight of the 31st December. He had figured it out, and how to harness the energy of the jump. This is probably the only thing he was sure about at this moment in his life; all the rest, in his life, was paralyzed.
The Earth’s rotation was slowing down, a day was longer than it was 100 years ago; also when a sidereal day was almost 4 minutes shorter than a solar one, the Earth needed these almost 4 minutes to make a new solar day…this was his inspiration to calculate and understand the jump…and to find the answer to how his idea would work; just further observation and calculation had been needed.
The key to the answer wasn’t in the equinox, but more in the perihelion and aphelion; anyway, the Earth wasn’t at the same place it was one year ago, and he also not, and between North, South, East and West, he had the right answer, and he was going to help to make the world a better place with it.
But now, if this was the right answer, he did not know if it would still make a better world, or bring more confusion and war, or other forms of destruction, at first, before it would then help save the world. What is the cost / benefit equation here, he thought?
This increased his mental paralysis, to take the right decision about his idea, his solution, which he had just destroyed. Destroyed in his papers and plans, but not inside his mind and heart.
Because now, instead of thinking only about his idea, the cosmic jump, he was thinking about his own one also.
He could destroy the papers, but his mind was always awake, thinking about things. Maybe he could silence all inside of him with a jump. The world wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to fight longer. Everywhere he showed his ideas, persons denied them.
&nbs
p; Suddenly, as he heard the bell inside of him, he decided…to jump into the Suicide Game.
It was time to forget about all his dreams, and jump into the unknown place named death.
Chapter 15
Inside the Condominium it was time for new seminars…this is how the candidates’ day off was going to be…it wasn’t a day off work at all, it was just a day off death, where none of them would die.
All candidates moved into their new rooms, after surviving the first step of the game.
Their belongings were left in their old rooms and transferred into small cabinets, where only special VIP guests could come and see if there were some things interesting, to be put aside in case they would die. The VIP’s could buy them, before they sent the rest for charity purposes. And most of the time, the rest wouldn’t be much, just enough.
Their new rooms were on the second floor of the modern condominium, all made of concrete, wood and green glass. No curtains on the windows.
They now used the ‘Suicide Game uniform’ version in sport clothes, to feel more comfortable; and, because a paparazzi was able to take a photo of them, the t-shirt sellers in front of the stadium started to sell also the Suicide Game sport pants, rain jackets, and socks.
Probably the audience would be completely dressed in SG couture on the next step in the game, because a complete outfit kit…was cheaper than two t-shirts.
The candidates woke up at 6am, by alarm. They went down to the seminar in the meditation room.
‘Breath deep, relax… feel the calmness around you.
And now…imagine death. What do you see? Is it scary? And dark? Follow the steps:
Reduce the image in your mind.
Put some color into it.
Think about a calm safe place. A beautiful lake.
A beautiful lake with transparent water, there is safety, there is peace.
