The Night Awaits

Chapter 6 (Royal Descendant)

Once the key is inserted, the Chinese Exhibit has been awakened. The hall was intruded by dragon performers, barong xais, fire breathing humans, etc. It was a lot of red and lanterns. "Yoo, look at that! It's like a parade or something. This shit's awesome!" Phillip gushed in awe. Then a firecracker appeared and exploded in the lounge, causing thick smoke to infiltrate the room and cover everyone's vision. "I can't see shet!" Shalom joked in her terrible Australian accent. After a while, the smokes calmed down. "Where are the boys?" Nadhira asked. All the men disappeared from the lounge to God knows where. It wasn't long before the girls realized that there's a bunch of party poppers on top of the coffee table in the lounge. "Look, you guys! There's one for each of us." Nashira exclaimed. Each girl then took one popper and popped it. Inside the poppers are randomized letters. Leonna spotted a box below the coffee table and reached for it. "Wait, the lock requires 6 letters to open. What's the order?" She observed. "Try, puzzle." Nadhira insisted. The box then opens and revealed a scroll and a ticket to enter The Great Castle of China. "What does the scroll say?" Shalom asked.

Keiona's Confessional: I like it when girls work together. I feel like being in a k-pop girl band, maybe Everglow.

"The kingdom of China is looking for its new ruler." Leonna read. "Follow me. I will lead you to the Chinese Exhibit." Diana commanded. Then, the ladies agreed to follow Diana and finally arrived in the castle. There, they see a bunch of ladies in royal outfits and an old man sitting on the throne. "One of you are born with the blood of a royal descendant of China. You must prove yourself worthy of an empress before finally rule China. The winner gains immunity from the death challenge. To start, please follow one of my servants." the old man said. The ladies accepted his offer and went to the wardrobe while Diana searches for the men. "The first test is to dress fit for royalty and impress the emperor. Go on and dress up." one of the servants explained. The group then dressed up in Chinese traditional outfits.

Shalom's Confessional: Everyone is like wearing their dress from head to toe perfectly. If I'm impressing a man, at least I'm gonna hoe it up a little bit.

"Girl, the whole of China can fit into your cleavage." Alya joked to Shalom. Once everyone is dressed up, they went back out to the emperor's lair. Shalom decided to attempt to impress the emperor. She began singing If it's You by Jung Seung Hwan. However, the emperor was very impressed by her beautiful vocals. It seemed that he is in love with her voice. Alya's strategy is to channel her inner VSCO girl and show it to the whole of China. The emperor chuckled a little smile. When it was Leonna's turn, she used her acting skill and reenacted Romeo and Juliet in solo. The emperor was very confused about what she's doing but her quirkiness makes him smile a little. Nashira and Nadhira's went in together and just started sharing about their embarrassing middle school crush stories. However, the emperor did not find that interesting at all and just yawned. The final maiden was Keiona. Her strategy was to just try to do a comedy standup. But she's too shy to do something as big as that so she just gave up. "None of them were very appealing to me. But if I had to pick someone who was the least boring, it would be the Musician." the emperor said as he gave her a medallion. "Next test is who can finish their dumplings the fastest with beauty and elegance. Servants, please bring them to the dining table," he commanded. The servants lead the ladies into the beautiful dining room. 6 chefs came out from the kitchen and served them a whole bowl of dumplings. "Please, enjoy your food." the chefs babbled. All of them began indulging in their dumplings.

Nashira's Confessional: I know I'm supposed to appreciate free food but these dumplings are as dry as the Sahara deserts and taste like turtle's shit.

"Hey, emperor. Look over there. There's a butterfly." Keiona lied as she threw her dumplings away. After a while, the time was up and the emperor had to pick the food competition winner. "The Actress has quite the talent with her mouth." the emperor said as he gave a medallion to her. "The final test is the test of bravery. The first person to successfully kill one of my servants is automatically nominated as the empress." he continued. The servants looked scared since they don't know that was one of the tests. Shalom immediately ran while fearlessly took a pin off of her hair and stab one of the servants eyeball repeatedly. The rest of the servants ran and scream their way out. "Congratulations, musician. You have earned the title; Empress of China." the emperor congratulated. "However, to be officially crowned empress, you must find a worthy emperor or scion to help you rule China." he continued

"Where are we?" Bertrand nauseously asked. "I don't know but I'm chained to this pole and I believe we're outside," Rafa answered. "Tur, in front of you there's a ball. Smash it." Satya said. Turo then smashed the ball and revealed a key to the chains. He unchained himself before doing so to the others. "Now what?" Gazel questioned. Phillip spotted a race track type of thing located in the wide garden. As the group came closer, they also found a note telling them that each man must complete a task to gain immunity from the death challenge. If a man is voted in the death challenge, they will be tested to be worthy of an emperor. If a girl is voted in, they will be tested to be worthy of the scion. The first task was to break a piece of wood in two. The challenger must wear the bandana of strength to attempt the task. Gazel volunteered to do the task and completed it in a blink of an eye. The second task was archery and Phillip volunteered since he's good at shooting things. He wore the bandana of sight before preparing for the task. He raised the bow and shot the point in 1 arrow. The third task is to win a 7 Spades card against another opponent. The winner will have to wear the bandana of wisdom. Rafa decided to compete against Satya in the third task. Without surprise, Rafa won the game. They head on to the last task which was to complete the race track. Turo and Bertrand competed against each other. Bertrand took his fur jacket off and prepped for the race. After a while, Bertrand won the race against Turo so he wore the bandana of speed. Once all the tasks are completed, the group returned to the lounge where they met the girls again.

Gazel's Confessional: I was impressed by Bertrand's agility! Damn, he's fast.

"Now that it's time for voting, y'all can't vote me. I'm an empress bitch." Shalom sassed as she flipped her hair. "Also us boys who're wearing a bandana is also immune to the death challenge," Phillip replied. "I guess now is the time we gather and discuss who deserves to go to the death challenge..." Bertrand murmured. He gathered with the girls to tell that Satya failed miserably in with his task which sort of means he needs to prove himself. However, the men beg to differ. They believe that most of the girls deserve to go in because they haven't been in any death challenges nor have they been useful at all. They agreed that the best way is to vote for different girls. After taking turns voting to Diana, it was finally time to pick. "The Heiress," Diana spoke as she turned the card. "Second name going in is... The Saloon Girl." she continued. "You guys, what the hell! I did the demon death challenge thing and now you want me to die again? What is wrong with you lunatics!" Alya cried in fear. Keiona tried to comfort her as they made their way back to the castle. "The entertainment has arrived." The emperor said. "The task is simple! For this duel of the death, each must start in their respective corners of the tilemap. Taking turns each will move one step to another square in front or beside them. Moving diagonally is against the rules. The tile you step off will be turned over and then be out of play. First to run out of moves loses. And the loser will be beheaded." he continued as he pointed to the chess-like floor.

Alya's Confessional: I am mortified. I'm against one of the smartest girls back in middle school. This might not end well for me.

The two maidens made their way to a corner in the tilemap. Both of them took a turn to go forward for their move. Keiona decided to go left while Alya went another forward. After a while, they managed to switch sides leaving Keiona with only 3 more moves while Alya with 4 more. Keiona realized that she made a bad move. "Oof girl, you made a big mistake," Alya said. Keiona took a step to the right. Alya has always been best friends with Keiona since middle school. She knew that she can win if she wanted to. However, she decided to let Keiona win. She took moved diagonally to purposely break the rule. "Alya! You moved diagonally! What are you doing?!" Keiona cried. "This is for you, Kei. I love you! Survive for me." Alya smiled as tears rained down from her eyes.

Alya's Confessional: Being here made me realize how much my friends mean to me. But at the end of the day, I might not have a ruler's blood. But I definitely have a hero's heart.

"Thank you for your sacrifice." Keiona sobbed. "Guards! We have a cheater. Kill her at once!" the emperor commanded. The guards quickly held captive of Alya as she screamed for her life. They pulled Alya and positioned her to a guillotine. She cried and cried before the blade fell onto her neck, separating her head from her body. Keiona closed her eyes not wanting to see her long-time best friend die. The servants invaded in the castle armed with knives wanting to take vengeance of their sister. They quickly stabbed the emperor and the guards. It turns out that the jeweled key has been sitting on the throne, behind the emperor. The Heiress quickly took the key and cried her way back to the lounge. "You're all evil! Putting me against my friend." she kept sobbing. Nashira and Nadhira comforted her as Bertrand inserted the key into the box. "I don't want to this anymore." Keiona fell onto her knees. "We are too close from escaping to stop now, Kei." Nadhira comforted.