Specials

Chapter 22- Remembered

Sarah, Jania's memory block started melting away. Sarah was a villainous vampire girl who was on her team in The Games, a simulation that tested their heroic strength. More faces and names flooded Jania's memory, and she started throwing open more of the steel doors. Angel, the peculiar person who had been stuck in a glitch of the game. Dawn, the blue-haired girl who could splash blinding color all over anything she touched unless she was wearing her black elbow length glove. Jania noticed that she was missing these gloves, holding her hands out in front of her, trying not to touch anything. Chameleon, the hero with skin that shifted colors with her mood was chained to the wall, her skin a pale gray of fear. Jania unchained her, then continued on to the last door. When she threw it open, she saw nothing but a darkness swirling with mist. A last name tugged at her. Kia, the silvery gray ghost who was dating Sarah. Jania felt the memory block dissolve into nothing. But where was Kia? Suddenly, in the center of the room, a candle bloomed with warm light, not quite reaching to the corners of the room. In it was a girl who looked a lot like Kia, only... different. She was solid and substantial, the candle's light not passing through her as it normally would but instead hitting her face, sending shadows gathering in her slightly hollow cheeks.

"Jania...? Is that you?" Kia (it had to be Kia, who else would it be?) asked, rising from the floor and coming to the doorway. As Kia drew nearer, she saw that though Kia was restored to a seemingly life-like state, her face was deathly pale, almost as transparent-looking as when she was a ghost. And then Jania saw why.

Blood was running down Kia's simulation suit, gushing like a fountain from perfectly circular holes in her chest and stomach.

"Kia, what's happening?" Jania asked.

"I... I was somehow sent to the spirit realm, where I met with my mother. I had the choice to stay with her, or return to earth. I chose to return, but mother was upset by my decision. She said I would not have the same ghostly form as before, would not be whole. And now... I'm dying again," tears ran down Kia's face as she said this.

"Oh, Kia!" Jania cried, giving the no longer ghostly girl a hug, despite the blood that now stained Jania's clothes. And that's when Jania noticed. This whole time, she had been wearing a simulation suit, and she hadn't even noticed, since she'd been avoiding mirrors. She probably could have regained her memory in seconds!

"I need to see Sarah," Kia said, "Before I die again." Jania led Kia outside the door, to where the whole group was standing. Sarah's mouth and the area around it was stained bright red, looking like a child who tried to apply their mother's lipstick, and Slice was lying on the floor devoid of any movement, but Kia didn't seem to notice. As the two clung to each other, as if to save each other from drowning, Jania puzzled through some of her wonderings. In the rules for The Games, it had been stated that any injuries sustained in the simulation would be carried on to real life, which was enforced by their simulation suits. But did that include death? If the answer was yes, then did it include Kia's death? Because that would then mean that The Games' simulation power was strong enough to breach the realm of the dead, something that Jania would have thought impossible. The longer Jania thought about things, the less sense it made. But she decided to just continue on as she had been in these games, reacting to everything as if it were real life, not worrying about whether it was or wasn't. Just as Jania was about to offer that perhaps they could take Kia to one of Alec's apprentices', in case they could be persuaded to heal her, a shadow flooded the room, coming from the top of the stairsteps.

"Well, well, well," Alec's voice boomed, "Look who we have here!"

*

Dawn was not having a good day. She had lost her gloves, so she couldn't use her hands at all, just hold them out gingerly and hope she didn't bump into anything. She had been rejoined with her team, only to discover one of them dying. Her socks were wet. Her head was pounding. And on top of all these issues, now there was this. Of course, she had been prepared to take on the Undertaker at some point in the simulation, as that was the whole point of things, however, she couldn't help but wonder why it had happened now, at the worst possible moment for her.

"Now, I could have sworn I locked you up safe and sound... Ah, no matter. You are my guests now, and I intend to offer you tea," the robed figure who called himself the Undertaker grinned menacingly. He made a motion to go back up the stairs, beckoning the group to follow. When nobody moved, his smile turned to a grimace. "WALK!" He boomed, and flicked his wrist. A strange dust floated over the whole group, forcing them to walk forwards in halting steps as their muscles tried to resist this strange magic that the Undertaker had cast. They all stumbled up the steps, then were forced into a gloomy looking sitting room, where their limbs bent to lower them into chairs that were made of a suspiciously hard, white material. When seated, chains sprung over them, like metal seat belts, securing them to their chairs of bone.

"Thought you would escape..." the Undertaker muttered angrily to himself, "Look where that got you... What should I do with you now...?" A sinister grin bloomed over his face. Dawn suspected he had figured out what to do with them.

"Now, you children have earned yourselves the greatest honor of all time! A chance to participate in one of my experiments, granting me the power to have control over those filthy little trolls who thought they could burrow into the ground away from me. Isn't that great?" the Undertaker grinned at them. Before any of them could reply, he waved his hand, and Dawn fell into unconsciousness.