𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗗• 𝗦. 𝗞𝗔𝗡𝗚

𝑡 𝑤 𝑒 𝑛 𝑡 𝑦 𝑜 𝑛 𝑒

-if I fall asleep please don't wake me up

[J i - y e o n g]

It was quite funny to me, well ironic really. 240 days it took, 240 exactly did it take me to turn my life into a hell hole once again. But this time I'm not mad. This time I'm allowing myself to embrace in its down casted factors and embracing its twisted and fucked ways.

I stood towards the middle of the rope. The cuffs being chained to my wrists, watching the guards lock them in place with a small key. "Kinky." 66 mutter under her breath, with content sigh. 67 and 66 for some reason made me want to stay around longer. They made the tide in my head stop and the malice thoughts in my mind cease.

The aroma they carried was one unmatched mostly because it is one I'm not sure I can say I'm familiar with. 66 looks at me, her hair highlighting the soft features of her face. The crinkles created on her lips when she pouts her lips weaves creases along the corners of her face. "Just remember the old mans words," She tells me. Her mellow voice sounds melodic to my ears.

She is a good friend. A friend I know I won't be able to cherish for long.

"First off, the leader is very important. That person gets close to the face off the oppostions leader, and the rest of the team gets to look at the leaders back. If the leader seems weak or dispirited, then the game is already over. Then at the end of the rope you'll need someone dependable to act like the achor of a ship. How you place people is also important. One left. one right. Alternate with the rope in the middle. Place both feet parallel to each other, and hold the rope between your armpit. That way you can put in all of your strength. And lastly, this is the most important thing, for the first ten seconds you have to hold out. You pratically lie down. Push your lower abdomen up to the sky, and bend your head way back so you almost see the groin of the person behind you. Its almost impossible to get pulled in then. Hold out for ten seconds just like that."

Every part of skin on my hands felt like it was slowly being peeled back. Warmth spreaded each corner of my body. Flaming my cheekbones to a pulp once I see the light from above the room. The soles of my feet shuffle against the textured ground. Eyebrows knitted together as I lean further and further down that I could feel the breath slowly leaving my lungs.

The ropes elastics budge beneath me. The floor feels as if its breaking once my balance starts to gain strength, pushing my stomach higher and higher from its orginal stance. "Pull!" The rhythm evident in our motions. Within every minute I could fill the warming sensation overfill me with the humid uproar. The flag slowly moved further towards our side, our oppostion obviously stunned by the facts as their actions started to falter. team 5's face contorted, sneakers scraped the velcro floor. Their hands red, blood staining the once white ropes as they tugged harder and harder against it. I could feel it, I didn't need to watch.

"Do something god damn it!" The old woman behind me shouted in terror. Her words slurring through her cursed tongue. Her head falls back in failed attempts to bring us backwards. I could feel my wrists ache tiredly, as if the cuffs were slowly tightening around my body suffocating me to death.

"Pull yourselves together and listen up! When I give the sign just take three steps forward." Yeah, no doubt this is my last day of living. But hey, at least I got to meet some female friends for the first time in years.

"Go forwards? Are you crazy?" Thinking about it now, nearly all of us are if we ended up back here. "We have to make them trip." The woman behind me started sobbing. Her cries filled the game hall to the point it felt like she was ripping my throat out to. "Lets give it a shot!" 456 shouted profoundly. "No I can't do it!" 66 who was pulling in front of me, I could hear her snicker with a slight tut between her chapped lips. "I swear to god I will push you off right now before they get to. Stop crying like a fucking baby and do it!" 212 purses her lips tightly, her lip quivering.

My ears listening out to the old man in front waiting for him to start the signal. "On the count of three, one, two, three!" Even in this moment. A moment that feels so surreal that I don't think I want to open my eyes, to scared to see what is held on the other side of the comforting darkness.

"Hey, 240. You can open your eyes now." 66 looks at me with a sweet smile. Forcing a prideful grin even when she's still fighting on the brink of her life right now.

Just as suspected they fell. Their bodies in a perfect domino effect. Each player going down with a tired scream and their skin slamming the ground once they fall from their pedastal.

Once more we pulled. The cells in my skin burning and the flare beneath the bare soles of my feet inflamed watching team 5 slowly being dragged into the middle. Bodies slide against the floor as easy as water drips from a tap.

In this moment I would smile. Maybe do a little happy dance. But no when I see them dangling. Screaming and sobbing with the sweat discolouring their now purple faces. Knuckles white as they try to climb their way back up to the stands. Shouting pleading to merciless ears. Harsh words being shared around yet not scaring not a single person around them except themselves.

I'm thankful, and grateful. But still somehow envious and jealous.

My stomach thanked me with the most blissful kisses once I laid down. Feeling the cold from the ceiling above me. I look beside me, and player 66 sat up pulling the most chirpy smile for someone who just witnessed others die. "How can you still be smiling? Huh?" 67 pokes the girls side. Pinching her cheeks with a subtle scoff. Her cheeks air when she lets out a tired huff. "Maybe because last night is no different from now. We will continue to watch people die. And at some point we may be those people dying. This game is driving me insane yet either way I'm going to stay. And if I'm going to die I wanna look pretty. Okay?" 67 hit a firm hand past the back of the shorter girls head.

"You're an idiot you know that? I swear to god once I get out of these cuffs I'm going to kill you myself." 66 ducked her head before 67 could reach her. A giggle blew from her cheeks as she sends her a delicate smile, waving a charming hand.

"Listen, if I fall asleep please don't wake me up."