Killing (And Other Games)

(Forty Five)

(Forty Five)

Distant words wake me. At first it is like a hum, an electrical drone, but soon my mind is comprehending sentences and speaking. For the first time in a long time the world seems light. Behind my eyelids it's nearly white and I feel like I'm bathing in sun. I feel lifted up. I feel light.

"You know I don't mean it like that." This is Ryker and immediately I know there is something wrong. Immediately I know not to open my eyes if I want to find out what's happening.

"Oh I'm sorry, please elaborate," Zane snaps, his voice so venomous that it's like a slap.

"Zane, all I'm saying is that maybe we should've seen the signs."

"The signs? The? Signs?" Zane whispers, his tone so furious he's gone quiet. I sink down so I can only imagine how Ryker is feeling. "My sister was in prison Ryker. She was on twenty four hour lockdown. How was I, in the brief time I ever got to see her, meant to differentiate between the prison crazy signs and demon crazy signs?"

"Did she ever...drink?" Ryker's words, I notice, are so carefully pronounced that it barely sounds like English his accent is so strong. Maybe this is what happens when he's nervous.

"Of course. What are trying to say? That I could've stopped this from happening?"

"No Zane, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just trying to work out what happened, I'm trying to fit this into my...my...frame of reference."

There is a long silence and I feel some of the tension in the room ease away. There's a short sigh and then Ryker says, "I'm sorry though."

"Sorry?" Zane snorts although it's a little half-hearted.

"I'm sorry about her. I...liked her."

"Don't lie about the dead Ryker," Zane warns. This is news to me, that supposedly Ryker doesn't--didn't--like Aster. I can't imagine why not.

"What now then?" Ryker asks and I hear the scraping noise of a chair being pulled out. It's very close to my right ear.

"We continue."

"Just like that?"

"Well, it looks like Hand to Hand popularity is at an all time high," Zane chuckles hollowly.

"But so will the awareness of it. I think it's going to be harder now to get away with what we got away with before."

"I was thinking that too," Zane agrees and there's a brief pause before he murmurs, "and I had an idea."

Another pause, another chair being pulled out. "What is it?"

"The important thing to remember is that we need excitement now. We have to top what has just happened. We have to think outside the box. We need to be defiant."

"Defiant...to who?" The answer is communicated silently. It's not hard to guess. "Zane, you're kidding right. Tell me you're kidding."

"They can't get away with what they did to us. West is dead. My sister was ruined by them. Every single creature who worked for us is destroyed. We can't let that just pass by."

"We got lucky this time," Ryker hisses. "Immy saved us. I don't blame anyone for what happened I will blame you for fucking this up by being an idiot."

"I'm not going to take what they did to us. Things are going to change."

"What are you going to do?" They're shouting now. My facial expression must be betraying my consciousness. "Go into the parliament and slaughter them all where they sit? Kill the king? What the fuck are you going to do about it?" It's not a question; it's a challenge.