Live or Lose

5

Ethan POV

Sub finishes reading the letter and I watch as it slowly disintegrates in his hands and the ash falls to the ground from in between his fingers. Either way this game goes, 3 of us are going to lose a life. That leaves 1 less to use for the other rounds, so we have to use them wisely.

Since Denis, Corl, and Alex have the black checkers, one of theirs moves first, marking the start of the game. I don't want to lose a life, but it will also be painful to see it happen to my friends. However, I have no choice.

Me, Elijah, and Sub all group up to decide our move. Denis, Corl, and Alex do the same to decide their next.

"Let's move the second one from the the top row forward and to the left. It's an easy first move," Elijah decides, waiting for our input.

"Sounds good to me," I say, looking at Sub for his answer.

"Yeah," he agrees.

We proceed to walk over to the checker and begin moving it to the space. It's a bit heavy, but we're able to move it with the help of each other.  Once we finish, the checker locks into place.

Denis, Corl, and Alex move one of theirs and it seems to be the same checker we moved, except it's on the right side of their board instead of the left.

...

The game goes on and some pieces get hopped, but that doesn't matter too much. The pieces we need to worry about getting hopped are the kings.

However, if our pieces keep getting hopped, we'll have less to become kings. Kings are important to have because they can move both forwards and backwards, giving them a lot of power in the game.

Currently, Denis, Corl, and Alex have 10 pieces, meaning we've hopped 2 of them. They've hopped 2 of ours as well though, so we're tied.

Our team has 1 king, which we've just now gotten. They are really close to our king space as well though, which is unoccupied. So, the game is pretty close.

Out of nowhere, I notice a piece of paper on the side of one of our checkers. All that's on it is simply the number 2 written neatly in large handwriting.

"Lije! Sub! Come here for a sec!" I wave them over, though still looking at the paper.

They rush over to me.

"What's that?" Elijah asks.

"Maybe it's a clue? The letter talked about finding clues in each round," Sub suggests.

"Maybe..," I say.

"Keep it in your pocket for later," Elijah says and I tuck it into my pocket.

We're doing pretty well until I accidentally step onto a space where there's an opportunity for Denis, Corl, and Alex to hop me. Not knowingly, I stand there for too long, securing that that's the spot I was moving to, though it wasn't. Crap. The players are also the pieces.

I somehow get locked into place and my own body won't let me move from the space. Details from the letter dig into my mind, reminding me of my stupidity.

"The players count as kings. A king, of any sort, must be hopped to get a checkmate. If you get a checkmate, you win the game. The losing team's members all lose a life."