Grimm Games

Chapter 30: Evading Agony

The searing heat of the sharp blade through my hand took a moment to register. The twisted look on Sonya's face is what cued me in to her malevolent betrayal.

She pulled the knife from my hand with minimal effort. "Now we're even." As she rapidly hobbled out the door and around the corner, Millie followed her out into the darkness.

"I'll kill you," Millie was heard growling through clenched teeth before her footsteps on dried grain grew distant.

"Millie!" I shouted, ordering her to stop with my pained pleas, but my calls went ignored. It was too late. "Goddamnit, Millie."

"She'll be okay." Jade immediately took my wounded hand into hers. "Now put pressure on it."

I did as she suggested, grunting in pain as I tried to slow the flow of blood that dribbled from my palm. "Millie's gonna get hurt. I gotta go after her."

"No, you don't." She gave me a firm glare. "You're her sister not her keeper. Give the girl some credit. She managed to make it this far unscathed. She's got this."

The nuisance in Jade's voice made me pause. "Babe?"

She huffed, signaling her frustration.

I didn't push it, not wanting to argue, but the fear of what horrors stood outside of the open door briefly took my attention. "We have to close the door."

She didn't hesitate, shutting and locking it before returning to my injury. "Millie's smart, strong, and capable of taking care of herself." She remained calm although her eyes grew wide from the shock of everything that just happened. "There's only so much you can do."

"You're mad at me for coming here, huh?" I finally asked, unable to ignore her attitude.

She avoided eye contact, examining the jagged opening on my palm. "Sometimes I think we put our activism ahead of common sense."

My heart nearly went still from the bite of her words. "Jade?"

"We have to find something to wrap your hand in." She looked around the room in search of an item. Her eyes lit up when they landed on a roll of toilet paper. She bundled a wad of the coarse two-ply into her grip. "Here, use this."

I appreciated her not directly saying I made a mistake or mentioning how naïve I've been in a game where no one's to be trusted, but I knew she was thinking it. I started to explain, "I thought I'd try the old 'you can trust me' trick, you know? Give Sonya a chance to come around."

She pressed another wad of tissue to the entry wound on the back of my hand and sighed. Her silence said it all.

"You're upset?" I bit my lip to suppress the pain and searched her diverted eyes, reading her body language for the words she dared not say.

"We've been social activists for so long, and even though we've made some progress and had some successes, we're not where we need to be." She continued to avoid eye contact and that act stung more than her words or lack thereof.

I crushed the toilet paper in my fist to slow the bleeding and protect the wound. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying there's a reason why our cause is struggling." She finally looked up. "We need to change our tactic."

"Okay..." I tried tuning out the searing pain to listen.

"There's a reason why Grimm Games is so successful and why so many participate," she went on. "Arcanum is making you and all of the competitors the enemy."

The pain radiated through my hand and up my arm, and I couldn't quite grasp what she was saying. "What does that mean?"

"The public's just placing bets on who they'd rather see bite the dust," she remarked dryly. "And they're lapping up the spectacle. But if they started to see you as human, as one of them, they might start sympathizing with you. So, Arcanum ensures they only highlight your least appealing qualities. It's diabolically clever."