𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐘

Chapter Five: Unwanted Altercation

I opened the door of my small, two-story home and stepped inside. Smiling as I glanced around, I walked over to the living room, sitting down on a couch. The remote to the TV sat upon a small table, and I quickly snatched it up. I turned on the TV, heading straight to Netflix where my current favorite show, Squid Game, awaited me. A smile dawned upon my face as I prepared for the blood and guts that I was about to see.

Episode Four, "Stick To The Team", was the one I was on. I was curious to see what game was going to be played, for there were many children's games that involved teamwork.

"Let's see what Gi-Hun and the gang are up to today," I said aloud, before pressing play on the TV.

Over the next hour, I sat before the TV, watching this amazing show before me. A fight in the main dorm room had happened during the night, and many people died in brutal fashions, and yet I didn't bat an eye. I had fought people before, and won. I was used to violence. Thankfully, my favorite characters ended up surviving the night, but so did my least favorite characters. I groaned in despair upon realizing this fact.

Halfway through the episode, the players were called to form teams of ten. The main characters grouped together, recruiting other people to join them as well. I watched as the female protagonist invited another woman to join them, and smiled. I liked her. She reminded me of another strong, beautiful, independent female that I used to know-

Fuck! I just did it again! I need to stop thinking about Ballora, she's dead!

I broke out of my reverie to see the teams battling each other in a game of Tug-of-War. One of the members of the team, an old man who I liked, was giving everybody tips and tricks on how to win, even if their team was weaker than the one they were going against. I watched as the two teams began to pull at the rope, each attempting to avoid certain death by falling into a pit below.

Suddenly the episode ended. Right in the middle of the game.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "No! It can't end like that!"

I shouted in anger, enraged that they had ended the episode on a cliffhanger. I had always hated cliffhangers in anything; movies, TV series, fanfictions, anything!

I raised the remote to watch another episode, before glancing at the time. It was very late, and I realized that I had to sleep. I sighed and groaned as I stood up, turning off the TV and leaving the living room. Reaching the stairs that lead to my bedroom, I slowly mounted them, growing more and more tired with every step. I entered my small bedroom and collapsed on my bed, pulling the sheets over my body and falling asleep, right then and there.

I attempted to peer through the thick, silvery fog that surrounded me, but the mist was too opaque for my vision to penetrate. Its moist kiss on the skin of my arms and face was cold, and it chilled me to the bone. I shivered as I glanced around this dark expanse, unable to recognize my surroundings.

Shapes began to move in the distance, dark bodies appearing and disappearing as they maneuvered through the fog. An unsettling feeling descended on me as I attempted to recognize these beings, to no avail. They moved around as if to tantalize my senses, filling me with dread.

"Where am I?" I asked aloud. "What is this land?"

My voice echoed through the vapor, returning to me from all directions. Laughter began to pierce the silence, beginning as the faintest whisper of a giggle, slowly building to a maniacal uproar that scraped away at my courage. It assaulted me from all sides, seeming to emit from each of the shadowy figures that surrounded me, causing me to put my hands over my ears. This didn't seem to help, if anything, it caused the sound to grow louder, as if it were coming from within me.

And then suddenly, the laughter stopped.

I looked around, grateful for the respite but trying to understand why the noise had stopped. The mysterious figures stopped moving, and stood perfectly still in a circle around me, except for one, which was slowly moving forward towards me at an agonizingly slow pace. As it drew nearer, its features grew sharper, and I could see its outline clearer. The shape was taller than the others, and it was that of a person with flowing hair that reached its shoulders. I felt as if I could recognize it, but things like memory and reason didn't seem to work in a place like this. Just as the shape was about to emerge from the fog and face me-

A loud crash sounded from somewhere downstairs, startling me from my slumber. I sat bolt upright, glancing around wildly, searching for the fog and the shapes that weren't there. A sigh escaped my lips as I realized that it had all been nothing more than a dream, and a weird one at that. Who was the figure in the fog that I had almost encountered?

I pushed aside these questions and got out of bed to investigate the noise. My feet were nearly silent against the floor as I snuck down the stairs, glancing around my home. I saw no sign of disturbance, which was rather odd, for the sound I had heard was very loud.

I decided that while I was awake, I would grab a glass of water. The cabinet doors squeaked ever so slightly as I opened them, removing a tall glass from inside, and filled it up with tap water. I slowly sipped my water, relieving my slightly parched insides with the life-giving fluid.

A strange sensation suddenly overcame me, and I stopped drinking. It felt as though a presence was standing right behind me, a dark presence that caused me to shiver in fear. A plank of wood creaked from behind me, and I spun around, throwing my glass at full force at whatever, or whoever, was there. I heard a crash as the glass shattered, a man's voice shout, then a thud as a body hit the floor. Shocked and terrified by what had just happened, I slowly inched forward, looking down at the man. I was unable to recognize him, as it was dark, but I saw that he had long hair that flowed past his shoulders. A wave of terror overcame me as my mind thought the worst, that I had just killed Technoblade, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw a green and yellow party hat laying beside the man's head, knocked off by the force of my glass, and a knife, loosely held in the man's still hand.

It was Ennard.