𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐘- a labyrinth sequel

𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

"𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐈 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄," a voice chimed in from the doorway. Aurelia glanced up from the chessboard in front of her and immediately frowned. Leaning against the door frame, was none other than Nicolas Donnelly. It was only his second day here, and he already looked like he was over it. What he was wearing could barely even be considered uniform. His tie was  draped loosely around his neck, the top buttons of his uniform shirt unbuttoned, and a blazer thrown lazily over his shoulders.

"What do you want?" She demanded, toying with one of the chess pieces. She'd been playing ever since she was a kid. Her father had been the one to teach her, and he'd taught her everything she needed to know. With her dad being away, Aurelia wished that he was sitting across from her. Lia had played in competitions when she was younger, and had almost always won. Her dad was probably the only one who ever really challenged her. Chess came easy to her. It was a game of strategy and foresight.

"You forgot this yesterday," Nicolas replied, stepping into the empty room so he could set her cellphone down on the table. "It's dead. It was ringing non stop yesterday." She pocketed her cell phone and glanced up to see him toying with the king, tracing his fingers over it. "Thanks," she told him, trying to sound polite. "Do you need anything else?"

"Can I play?" Nicolas asked her abruptly, but he'd already sat down across from her before she could say anything else. He folded his arms in front of him and leaned halfway across the table.

"You play chess?" Lia asked skeptically, arranging the pieces back into their starting positions whilst Nicolas did the same for his. Donnelly shrugged, "Used to. I'm pretty rusty." After he made his first move, Aurelia moved her pieces around with ease, anticipating his every move, and reacting with a counter-move of her own. She'd played chess with all kinds of different opponents, and she wasn't really ever surprised anymore.

Aurelia couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that his moves went from sloppy and random to calculated and coordinated. She perked up in her seat and lifted her gaze to see him smirking at the board. "I thought you were rusty?" She questioned, watching as he took one of her pieces for himself.

Nicolas shrugged, "Define rusty?" he questioned. She narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought you would have known better than to underestimate your opponent," he stated. Aurelia couldn't think of anything to say because he was right. She'd majorly underestimated him. She'd assumed that he only asked to play as a formality, and that it would be over in a few minutes. But he was proving to be quite the formidable opponent. "But that's your fatal flaw, isn't it? Judging a book by its cover?"

"That's not true," Aurelia quickly defended.

"Of course, it is" he drawled, "You've judged me since the moment I got here." As he stole her bishop, Aurelia mentally scolded herself for being blind to his obvious attempt to attack. She quickly moved a piece to try and gain some of her control back. "Check," he told her, crossing his arms over his chest.

Okay, fine. Donnelly was good. He was really good, actually.

But not good enough.

It took her a moment, but she saw her opening. Every player had their weakness, and she had found his. Mind you, it wasn't obvious at first glance, but there was one. He was cocky. All Aurelia needed to do was exploit it, and the game would be hers. It took Donnelly a minute to realize what she was doing, but when he did, he quickly tried to block her attacks, but she was coming for his king in all directions, and for a moment, he stared at the board, wondering if there were any more possibilities he could think of. Aurelia had already run the probability in her head, and there was nothing he could do. No matter where he moved his king, she had him cornered. The second she called "check," she could see the cogs in his brain turning, and he knew that she had him.