The Kairos Games

Chapter 23

“David. What are you doing?” Cody has just walked in on David balancing two piles of books on a wheel-less longboard. David continues, without looking at Cody, then carefully picks up the board and starts lifting it like a weight.

    “Hey, can you spot me?”

    Cody stares, dumbfounded. “What? Seriously? You’re lifting weights?”

    “Gotta be in shape if I want to take on Kenton.”

    “I really don’t think Kenton is going around lifting weights right now.”

    “You don’t know that. Besides, what else am I going to do? Read books?”

    Cody glances at the book in his hand, slightly embarrassed. “Reading can’t hurt.”

    “Neither can working out.”

    “Hmm. I guess that’s a good point.” He watches as David struggles to keep the books straight. It appears to be as much of an exercise in balance as it is in strength. One book on the top of a stack falls off, and the rest tumble down after it. David curses silently to himself and starts restacking. “All the same, I think I’ll stick to reading…” He leaves David in the study room and goes back to perusing the shelves for relevant titles. Just as he is reaching for a book called Battle Royale, he hears something on the stairs. “David? Is that you?”

    No answer. Cody grabs a particularly heavy dictionary and sneaks to the edge of the shelf, quiet as he can. He watches as Kenton descends the stairs, looking larger and angrier than before. He’s holding something. Is that a gun? And what’s that on his back? A bow? Cody gulps and starts to back away, but he trips over a book and falls backwards, crashing onto the ground. Within seconds, Kenton is standing at the end of the aisle, pointing the gun at Cody’s face.

    “Where is he?” Kenton asks. “Where’s David?”

    Cody shakes his head. “Please don’t kill me!”

    “I won’t. I came here to kill David. You can get out. I don’t care. Just tell me where he is. Is he in here?”

    Shaking, Cody slowly pulls himself off the ground. “I won’t just rat him out. He wouldn’t do that to me. At least… I don’t think he would.” Honestly, there’s a good chance he would, but Cody doesn’t want to admit that right now.

    Kenton reaches for an arrow and holds it out, menacingly. “Listen, Cody. This gun only has one bullet left. That bullet is going in David‘s head. Nowhere else. I don’t want to kill you, but if I have to, I’ll be shooting you with an arrow, and that’s probably not the most comfortable way to die. Tell me where David is, or you’re never getting out of this library.”

    Kenton notices Cody staring over his shoulder and turns around. David walks up to him confidently. His arms are crossed and his hands are empty. “Hello, Kenton.”

    Kenton aims the gun at David and clicks it.

    “It’s alright. I know you came to kill me. I knew you would, after I killed your sister. It’s okay. I deserve it.”

    Kenton is silent. He tightens his grip on the gun, but doesn’t shoot.

    “I’ve just been biding my time here in the library. I figured you would catch up to me before the end of the games, so it’s not like I was expecting to win. I might be able to take you if you didn’t have all those weapons, but you came prepared. What can I do?” He pauses for a moment. Cody shakes himself out of his trance enough to start sneaking back down the aisle. He turns at the end and heads up the next one, moving slowly so he doesn’t miss a word.