A House Closer to Death ||| Book 1: The Game that Ended it All

Round 1, Epilogue: The Ballad of Life and Death

I found myself getting dragged down for what seemed like hours.  My limbs were on fire, and the longer I was dragged the warmer I felt.  I was still panicking.  I didn't wanna die.

But they didn't either.

Finally my back hit the floor with a loud thud.  It took me a moment to get my bearings, but once I did I was staring up at a dark red ceiling.  I sat up and saw I was in a clearing of sorts, being surrounded by mountains that were only a slightly brighter red than the sky.  The floor was the same way.  Just behind the mountains was a raging fire, and that's what made me realize where I ended up.

I'm in hell. 

I turn my head to the left to see someone looking back at me.  It wasn't just anyone either.  Red and green hair and eyes, tan skin. 

"Kees."

"Rosemary?"

The only difference is that she now had dark red demon-like wings, and a red tail with a dark pointed tip.  "Saw you on the monitor the day you got in there.  So how'd ya end up?  Stumble upon the place or did your new group of friends get kidnapped?  Oh wait, you wouldn't have been there if you all got ambushed, you would've been running for your life, maybe convincing some other people to abandon their friends.  That's what you tried, isn't it?"

"R-Rose, I don't know what you're-"

"Abubububup.  First of all, don't call me Rose.  Only my real friends can call me that.  And second, don't bullshit me with 'I don't know what you're talking about'.  Because that's exactly what you did!  The friend of yours with the plaid coat?  You took him and ran.  Tried to anyway.  He was so concerned about Charlie, and you were so willing to abandon him.  Don't that remind you of something?"

"Wait, how do you know Charlie's name but not Thomas's?"

"I heard Charlie's a lot more often.  Is that really what you're concerned about right now?  You're a shit friend Kees, you always were!"

"If you're any better then why are you here, huh?"

"Same reason as you dipshit.  I'm not proud to say that I got way farther than you, but I did get that damned role and those stupid fucking Twins just..."  Rosemary paused before growling.  "Under any other circumstance I would've just let them kill me and be done with it, but that... person kept telling me that he'd hurt Annie if I said anything.  So I didn't.  All you had for a motive was your own life, no one else's, and guess what you chose?"

"R-"

"No, think about it.  You wanted to go back and live a normal life, but when 90% of everyone you know and love is dead because of you, there's no going back.  If you had just told everyone, they could've voted you out and they could've gone on normally.  Maybe they'd even consider you a hero for the rest of their lives, but no.  You decided to keep being a selfish little prick and you tried to kill every single one of them!  There was only one memory that brought up in my head.  The day you convinced me to abandon Alex.  You remember that, or do you not want to?"

I stood there in silence for a solid minute.  She was right.  There's nothing I can say back. 

"Listen, I've figured out the hard way how slow time goes down here.  It's been 4 years since I've been here and it's felt like entire centuries.  So I'm gonna get straight to the point.  Only one of us has to be trapped here, and it's not gonna be me.  Because if I have to endure another single day of this crap I'm gonna go insane.  And you know what, at least I can admit that I'm being selfish."

"So you're just gonna leave me here?  Just like that?"

"What's the matter Cornelis, don't like getting abandoned?"