The Third Annual Writer's Game: Roots

Auribus Teneo Lupum | Males

District Four - Eton Morgan

Did not hand in.

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District Five - Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy liked the feeling of the girl's soft hair as she lay beside him, her body heat combining with his as the sun continued to dry his clothes. His feet, however, continued to float in the water of the river. It was cooling as the time approached midday and the water had enough force in its gentle flow to wash away any blood that had stained his skin. "The sun is bright," he commented, voice monotone despite his attempt to make conversation with the girl who lay beside him. She stayed silent, seemingly not bothered by the bright light that was enough to blind anyone who looked directly at it.

Leo sighed – a corpse was not good company.

He pushed the girl's body away, untangling his fingers from her hair as she slid haphazardly across the damp rocks. She was the second person that Leo had killed – another girl, in an attempt to bring back the rush and the sensation of power that he had felt when he had pushed his previous victim beneath the flowing river. She had been peaceful. Leo's latest companion had been taken whilst screaming and thrashing against the pain of her own knife.

Every single person that came close to him, Leo killed. It did not help him when he was feeling lonely, but this sense of being alone was not something that he was entirely unused to. He could learn to cope with it. He was happy to be by himself alongside the river, feet being washed by the cool water to the accompaniment of birdsong and the gentle splashing of fish. Many of the fish from earlier had disappeared, but there was something new in their place that Leo had begun to watch. They traversed through the mud of the shore, a dark grey flash that never seemed to part from the others in their school. Leo had not seen these type of fish before.

They seemed interested in the newcomer, swimming around his feet and legs. He almost smiled as they brushed against his skin, tingling and tickling like the entrails of seaweed under the current of the river. The fish were almost a companion.

Until they bit him.

The fish attacked as a choreographed team, all swarming towards Leo's bare skin in a single instant. It was the first time within the arena that Leo had showed pain, his body flinching and face contorting into something that looked as if it was about to scream. His only instinct was to jump to his feet but he stumbled on the rocks, backing himself up the shore as fast as he could.

The creatures stayed attached to his leg even after he had escaped from the water, pulsing and burning against his skin whilst they drained all blood and colour from his lower limbs. Leo could only imagine the pain of a white hot poker being jammed deep into a wound. He tried to brush them away but they were stuck fast with barbed teeth.

Leo could feel himself growing light-headed, no doubt a result of the blood he was losing in the attack. He wanted to run straight back into the water where they would have less power and he could brush them away, but more of the leech creatures waited for him in the shallows of the river. They would attack as soon as he came back.

With a bright spark of inspiration, Leo took the girl whom he had already killed and pulled her rag-doll corpse over his shoulder. She was lighter than her expected, easy to throw into the river as if she was nothing more than a sack of stones. The splash from her body drew the waiting creatures towards her to investigate, moving faster as they got a taste of the fresh blood that still leaked from her many open wounds.

Leo's heart began to pound, but not in a way that made him feel panic or upset. On the contrary, a bright smile had begun to spread across his face and overtake his usual neutral expression. It was a feeling that he was not entirely used to; he was happy.