by Nicol, Andy
“I don’t get nervous, bird.”
He crossed his arms and shook his head, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.
The flight itself was only two, maybe three hours but the tightness in my stomach lasted far longer. I constantly had to grip the seat to keep myself from getting physically sick, and I tried to keep my cursing to a minimum. Tripping and stumbling down the steps, I grabbed my bag from the young man, who sheepishly led us into an old brick building. It looked more like a mansion than a base. The air was a lot warmer here, but that could change very quickly.
“Here are your keys. Your rooms are across the hall. If you need anything, your friend Louis will be down the hall. The kitchen is always open. What else…” He thought for a moment. “Oh yeah! Feel free to roam about the town. Other warriors are already here, and more will arrive soon. Someone will come and talk to you about the details. Good luck!”
I unlocked the door and tossed my bag down. The room looked very old, much like the rest of the building. There were two windows on either side of a canopy bed, and the walls were a dark navy blue. There wasn’t much light. I kind of liked it.
I pushed my hand onto the bed and fell face down onto it.
“A featherbed. I think I’m going to stay here forever.” I pushed myself up and looked around a bit more. There was a small chair in the corner and wooden beams in the ceiling.
Rhys-Mordred Isle is a resort town, mainly for skiing and snowboarding in the colder seasons, but it was also one of the only places used for the Tournament of Survivors, as it was the only town that didn’t have a proper arena or even an organization. No one has an advantage here; it’s a fairer game this way. The large landscape ranged from forest to field to beach to lake. It gave the competition a little bit of variety. Someone from Lilithia Heights might do better in an open area with few places to hide because that’s how we train. Someone from, say … Grizelda would do better in a mountain environment.
I hadn’t realized that I was standing and staring into a mirror until Soul stepped behind me, making me jump. He leaned over slightly, resting his head just above my shoulder and smiled at our reflection. Grinning, I brought my hand up and played with his hair. He grimaced at his bird’s nest and pulled my hand away.
“You realize that I’m going to have to fix that at some point, right?” He shook his head and stuck his lip out like a child. I turned my head enough to see his gentle face, which was calm and slightly tired at the moment.
“E-explore?”
“I’ll follow you wherever you want to go,” I told him as I grabbed my green army jacket. I pulled the sleeves up, feeling the fur on my hood tickle my neck as I followed Soul into the hall. I looked around the hallway … creepy wallpaper and old paintings, the kind with eyes that follow you. This place was unnerving.
Soul pushed open the door at the end of the hall and stopped in his tracks. I reacted defensively, an alpha wolf protecting its pack, and pulled a knife from my belt. I slipped around him and through the door.
“Whoa!” A man held up his hands and jumped backwards. “R-relax, would you?”
“Sorry about that.” I carefully placed my knife back into the woven fabric on my belt. I nodded in Soul’s direction. “I get a little wary when I see that look.”
The man dropped his defences and ran his hand through his chocolate-brown hair, nodding. “I recognize you two. Lilithia, right?”
I shook his hand with a nod. “K9 and Crow. Call me Benji.”
“So I’m guessing he’s Crow?” He pointed his thumb at Soul, who nodded silently. “I’m Greg. I’m here with Fred Burnham — he’s kind of an ass, though. We steer clear of each other.”
“You’re not forming an alliance?”
“Hey, if he wins, good for him. If we both end up the last two standing, good for us, but if I’m lucky, someone else will take him out and I won’t have to deal with him.”
I was sensing some bitterness there.
“I know the feeling. Where are you from?”
“Dwyer. I’m on my way out to the tavern. You two want to come?” I looked at Soul. He shrugged, then nodded.
“This place is kind of creepy. Lots of bad energy here,” Greg muttered as he looked around.
“D-don’t understand,” Soul replied as he leaned forward to get a better look at Greg, who was nearly a full two feet shorter.
“Well, you know how this place is always used for the tournament, right? You have to think about how all that energy — that anger and pain — would have to leave some kind of imprint, right?” He waved his thin arms around.
Shaking off the sudden chill that ran down my spine, I followed the two men to the door as the shorter of the two droned on about the history of the building. Soul absentmindedly rubbed his shoulder against mine as we walked, so I slipped my hand into his and he blushed. As he always does.
Greg glanced out of the corner of his eye and smirked. “You two are going to have to be careful. Couples get targeted.”
I scowled and squeezed Soul’s hand a little bit tighter. “I’m not new to this.”
I pulled my shoulders in closer and looked up at the buildings around us. Most were made of brick and looked relatively old, maybe a little imposing. Soon, I caught sight of a big red sign swinging in the breeze. It read “Mayfield’s Pub.”
I sighed out of relief and let my hands fall back to my sides as I stepped in front of Greg and Soul, pushing the door open and looking around. The taller and grimmer of the two joined me at my side and cast a look around. I noticed a few people stop and stare when I walked in, but the second they noticed Soul, the place went dead silent. He nervously hunched his back and wrung his hands as he looked at me.
“K-K9?”
“It’s okay. We’re fine,” I stated quietly as I marched myself over to a table near the bar counter, hidden behind a low bookcase.
People slowly started to turn back to their conversations, and Greg looked around curiously.
“People look at me funny sometimes, but I’ve never gotten that reaction before…”
“Eliminating half our city’s recruits will usually do that for you,” I muttered as a waiter walked over.
“What can I get for you?” he asked shyly.
I shrugged. “Something strong.”
“I’ve got just the thing.” He winked.
I grimaced as he turned to Soul, who suddenly seemed calm, far calmer than I’d ever seen him before anyway.
“Local brew,” he said.
“I’ll have the same,” Greg stated. The waiter left with a nod and let us go back to talking.
“You said people give you funny looks. How so?” I asked.
“My eyes. People think it’s weird that I have different-coloured eyes.” He blinked and brushed his hair to the side of his face as I leaned forward to look. He really did have one bright blue eye and one dark brown eye. “Wow,” I muttered quietly. “That’s actually really cool. I’ve never seen it before.”
“They say it’s really uncommon. I used to get made fun of, but I think it makes me stand out a bit — it’s called complete heterochromia.” He wrung his hands as the waiter placed our drinks on the table. “How high in rank are you guys back in Lilithia?”
I bit my lip and thought. Lilithia didn’t really have a proper ranking system; it’s still mainly an online polling system more than anything.
“Soul’s only been there for a few weeks, but I’d say he’s at about … ten out of forty. I’m a little closer to the top, maybe six or seven? We haven’t set up our system yet so we only have a basic idea.”
“Dwyer just set it up. Our qualification tournament is an obstacle course. I’m not sure how you did it.”
He looked expectant, so I quickly swallowed my drink, which caused me to cough. “Boy, that is potent. We have a smaller version of the big thing. Less people, smaller space, but same deal.”
Greg nodded as he looked around again. “So far, only ten out of fifteen city reps are
here, so that’s…” He started to count on his fingers.
Soul cleared his throat. “Twenty.”
“Yeah, twenty warriors,” Greg said as he leaned forward again.
“You two ever fight together — like as a team? Or are you just dating?”
I don’t really know if you can even say we’re “dating.” We hadn’t really gone out other than to train.
I looked up amidst my thoughts to see a small monitor in the corner of the room, just above the fireplace, showing clips from all of the current warriors’ qualifications. Sadly, the clip they decided to show of Soul and I was our little bout against Jekyll and Hyde in the market, which changed to him going after Angel. The footage was shaky since Soul had the camera in one hand and a forty- to fifty-pound axe in the other. What the hell were they thinking when they chose that?
“See for yourself.” I crossed my arms and nodded towards the TV. It showed Robert, Johnny, and another man talking about our styles of fighting and how Lilithia — as pretentious a name as it was — bred warriors like no others. We were a gruff and tough place that, compared to some other cities, seemed pretty barbaric. We weren’t the worst this world had to offer, though.
They showed our fight at the warehouse against the two brutes in the background as the third man tossed his questions about.
“Now, Robert, is there any significance to these men that they’re currently fighting?”
“Yes, there is, in fact. If you’ve noticed Crow’s face, he has a long scar running down to his neck (along with various other scars). That was caused by these two men. They’ve been known to use a pipe and razor wire, or whatever they could find, in previous fights to tease and torture their opponents, going back long before their time with us. They say that those two had done so much damage to Mr. Ravin that he no longer has a proper grasp on reality. He was apparently looking to get some revenge against them…”
“Actually, Robert, that’s not true,” Johnny interrupted.
Anger was building in my stomach, but my brother’s voice washed that away and I sighed gratefully.
“They did do a lot of damage, yes, but he has a perfect grasp of reality. He just has a hard time forming proper sentences, though he has started to readjust and speak much more clearly.”
I watched the recording of our fight. Soul choked out Jekyll with the wire and I finally noticed the look on my face. It was humorous, somewhere between pants-wetting terror and complete adoration.
“And what about K9? I believe it was revealed a few weeks ago that she too has a history with these two.”
The screen flashed and showed an older video of me in the black vest and loose-fitting cargo pants, both of which had covered most of my scars.
“Indeed, and if you could see her arms here” — Robert pointed to the rings around my upper arms — “you can see circular scars, likely from razor wire.”
I gritted my teeth as they showed Soul and I going after each other in our training.
“She wears a much more revealing outfit now. Now I’m not one to tell a lady what she should wear, but why do you think that is?” He paused, then answered his own question. “Most likely to show off these scars. She was shot quite recently and I can tell you, she is still very bitter about it. She most likely wears this now because she wants to remind these two men of what they did and to elicit sympathy from the crowd.”
Johnny piped up again and shifted in his seat. “These scars are her war paint. She takes great pride in showing off what she’s accomplished. She wears this to remind herself and to warn others.” He stressed the last part of that sentence, looking into the camera to emphasize it even further. My brother really was good at this media stuff. They hadn’t asked all the questions I’m sure Johnny had braced himself for, but years ago, he had some tech-savvy friends scrub the video from most streaming services. I’m sure it’s still out there but after Viktor hired me, we tried to cover it up as best we could.
Greg stared with wide eyes and I scowled.
“What’s your problem?” I said. I didn’t like so many people knowing so much about me.
“What else can you tell me about Crow?”
Robert looked down at his hands with a frown. Johnny spoke up again.
“He fights like a true warrior, and he is very dangerous to anyone who poses a threat. He won’t hesitate to take down anyone in his way, but he is a very kind-hearted man generally. He would never hurt anyone he didn’t absolutely have to.”
I silently praised my older brother as Soul glanced gratefully at me. They showed the rest of our training battle, right to the very end, including the point where Soul had lifted me off the ground and I sheepishly held out my hand. I smiled at the memory; it was a nice one that I wouldn’t mind keeping at the front of my mind for a little while.
Greg turned back to us, his blue and brown eyes looking from me to Soul, then back.
“I heard about this. Some people are crying conspiracy, you know? I-I believe that; I think there’s something bigger going on.”
“You’d be right. We know exactly what’s going on, but we can’t explain it yet, so you better watch out for our big reveal,” I told him with a smile as I finished off my … whatever it was the waiter had brought me.
“How long has this been going on?” he asked as he leaned forward. Soul bit his lip and mouthed something to himself, so I spoke up.
“You know what was happening to our fighters, right?” I asked him.
Greg nodded and his eyes widened. “Y-you … That was him, right?” he said, pointing at Soul.
I nodded and Soul grabbed my hand, which I had placed on his arm. “It had been happening for quite a while, two or three months. We were down to about twenty warriors. As luck would have it, he came after me, only he didn’t leave me hurt or tell me to go —”
“What did he do?”
Greg was leaning far over the table, listening to us like it was the most interesting story he’d ever heard.
“I’m still a little fuzzy on the details. He knocked me out, and when I was functioning again, I was sitting in his office, in the dark. Once I realized that he was doing everything against his will, I promised to help him find the people who put him up to it.”
The look that passed over Greg’s face rivalled my brother’s own disapproving scowl. “I’m sorry, all I heard was that you were suffering from Stockholm Syndrome…”
I groaned as I leaned forward and rubbed my temples. “N-no, it’s not … He didn’t — I’m not … No, it’s not Stockholm Syndrome. I-I don’t have to defend myself to you!” I slammed my fist on the table.
Soul’s face was bright red but he seemed to chuckle, along with Greg, who let out a hoot of laughter.
“You two have an interesting story, I’ll give ya that. People like that.”
“That’s all well and good, but this is the real deal. No popularity contest here,” I shot back.
“You’re just full of snappy comebacks, aren’t you,” he said as he pointed at me and then took a drink of his beer. “I like that.”
The bar was starting to get packed, and we ordered another round. We sat there for a while, laughing and joking with Greg and sharing a bit of gossip about our fellow competitors. Soul mocked Greg’s laugh, and Greg teased Soul about his rat’s-nest hair. It was a great time, that is, until Soul jerked his head up, spotting someone at the door. He leapt to his feet. Once I turned, I saw them too.
Them.
“Why are they here?” I mumbled as the grip on my glass tightened.
The brutish Irishmen pointed at Soul and I, then made their way over. Hyde had thick bandages over his refined features, mostly on the left side of his face, which still appeared to be bruised. Jekyll had bloody gauze around his neck and a small butterfly bandage over his right eyebrow.
At the time, I didn’t think that Jekyll and Hyde would honestly be dumb enough to attack us here and now. I discovered I was quite wrong when one slammed my head onto the table and pinned me
down.
I struggled and grunted as blood fell from my nose. I could see Soul stand up out of the corner of my eye and swing a punch, only to have Jekyll grab his arm and twist it behind his back. My Crow was too stubborn to let them see him sweat. He grunted as Jekyll grabbed a handful of his black hair and made him look at Hyde, who seemed to lean on his hand, still pressing my head into the table. I pulled out every weapon in my arsenal of derogatory names, statements, and curses — and trust me when I say I was well armed — and strung them together, aiming them at the absolute jerk-face standing behind me. I admit, if given the time, I would have thought of something better than “jerk-face.”
Soul struggled even more and tried to throw his body back, but failed. Jekyll was still much taller and much wider than him, and that made it easier for him to taunt and poke and shove my Crow around.
“Oh, little Vixen. You keep running and we keep finding you. Maybe someday you’ll be rid of us,” Hyde said in his smooth and unnerving voice. “But that day is not today.”
“I swear to god, we’re going to kill you both, you sick freaks. Damn the league, we should have just done it.” I settled for a second, letting Hyde relax his muscles before I tried to heave myself off the table again. I kicked the chair back as Hyde leaned over me with even more pressure. “Damn you! You bastards!”
My eyes burned and started to water.
“You hear that, Jekyll? We aren’t just monsters, we’re nightmares too. We’ve gotten inside your head,” he taunted, almost singing with that grizzly voice.
I cried out as he leaned over one last time, then let me up and hauled me to my feet by my jacket collar. I was facing a seething Soul. If Jekyll were to put any more strain on Soul’s arm, he could easily break it. Still, he struggled and snarled at Hyde. I grunted softly as Hyde shook my shoulder and forced me to step closer to my partner.
“Get a good look at each other…” Hyde said breathily as he leaned toward me. “Take a good long look at your man, Vixen. You’re both going home in a hearse.”
“We’re going to run Lilithia,” Jekyll said, smiling cruelly.
