Game of Life

Chapter 1

It started with a harmless stroll late one night. My parents had been fighting again so I took a walk to get away from it.

On my way back I ran into an old man on the street. He waved and invited me over for a chat. Naturally if a strange man wants to chat with you in the middle of the night you do it right? Yeah, don't.

His lonely appearance had me strolling over and, with a quick greeting, he offered me a smoke, which I turned down. "Smoking causes cancer you know."

He laughed at that. A light and happy sound. "Cancer is the least of my problems right now."

"Touché," I agreed, guessing at his age there were more important things to worry about.

"So what brings a pretty young girl like you out at a time like this?" he asked, taking a drag of his cigarette.

"Family drama," I responded, trying not to wrinkle my nose at the smell.

"That's the best kind, isn't it?" he said with a chuckle.

"True that, so what's your story? Old guy like you shouldn't be alone on the street. Ain't there some family that'll take care of you?"

"Don't you worry about me, I want to hear about you." I didn't know how I felt about that, but I didn't want to just up and go.

"Well, ah, not much to tell really. I've got a younger sister 'bout nine named Sasha. I'm still in high school. Going to graduate in a year or so if I can keep my grades up."

"Do you go to Rosswell High?" he asked.

"I..yeah." I did a double take, staring at him curiously. "How'd you know that?"

He smiled and looked up at the sky. "I used to teach there."

"Oh, alright. Hey man it's getting pretty late I should head home soon." I was getting uncomfortable with the conversation, him knowing my school freaked me out a bit.

"Just one more thing, if you don't mind?" he practically pleaded.

I sighed. "Oh alright, what is it?"

"If you could have one thing in your life, what would you want?"

"Well I'd want my family to stop fighting so much."

"That's easy enough to fix, but what about something for you? Wouldn't it be nice for some excitement? Something new?" he persisted.

"Well, yeah, life is a bit boring lately. Wouldn't mind something interesting."

A slow smile crept onto his face,and I got a bad feeling. I needed to leave. I stood up carefully, brushing dirt off my jeans. "You have a nice night sir," I said. With that, I walked briskly away.

"Goodbye Calla!" he called and I shuddered. He shouldn't have known my name. Once he was out of sight, I broke into a full out sprint.

When I got home my parents had already gone to sleep and I crept up the stairs, silently swearing at every noise I made, scared of waking them up. I managed to make it to my room without being screamed at so, mission accomplished, I crawled into bed.

When I woke up the next morning we were in hell.

~

It wasn't literally hell, obviously, we were certainly still on Earth, at least it seemed like we were. There was still the blue sky, the occasional cloud, green grass, trees galore, and the persistent force of gravity holding them down.

Scattered randomly around in the clearing was every single student from Rosswell High.

Groggily, we all clambered to our feet, surprise written on everyone's faces when we realised we weren't in our beds. A few of the more sensitive people started screaming, earning them shouts to shut up from some, while others tried to comfort them.

"What the hell is going on?" Several angry shouts filled the clearing.

Someone took a run for it, barely making it to the tree line before he was thrown backwards. A fact that caused the screaming to start up again as he crashed heavily into the ground in the middle of the group, neck broken and limbs twisted at all the wrong angles.

A slow clap started and we flinched, turning almost in unison to the sound. I covered my mouth when I saw who it was; the old man from last night, but every step he took he changed, morphing into something else. His skin fell off in pieces, revealing the fleshy undertones, horns sprouted from his head, dark, bat-like wings unfurling on his back.

"Quite a show, quite a show," he purred, fangs elongated from his mouth as he spoke, a forked tongue flicking back and forth.

"Welcome!" he bellowed, "I bet you're all wondering where you are, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're in my domain now, and you better play the game if you want to survive." He giggled like a maniac, it was a terrifying noise, like something you'd hear in a haunted house.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," he squealed between giggles, "I just get so excited for my games, I forgot the most important part! I am Severin, and I've brought you here for some excitement, since life gets boring sometimes." He winked at me with a smirk and I felt my blood go cold, this was my fault.

"Now then," he said, "The object of this game is to survive, at specific intervals and locations, I will summon a little beasty. Your job is to kill it. And try not to die. Be quick though, I would hate for you to be fighting more than one of my pets at once. Those of you still alive at the end of the game get to go home, simple as that."

"Each of you has been given a...special present for the day, if you raise your hand like this," Severin raised his creepy talon hand like he was going to give a high five, "You'll notice you each have control of an element."

I looked around, everyone was glancing at their hands, swirls of energy appearing with the movement. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and raised a hand, gasping. While everyone else's glowed with a particular energy, mine flickered.

Severin smiled when everyone turned to me. "Yes, one of you I just couldn't decide. You my dear Calla, you get a little of each." I flinched at his use of my name but he continued, "Good luck. You better learn how to control those fast little ones, the game starts in ten minutes."

Seconds later the ground began to shake. "Just kidding," he snickered, "Have fun!"