The Masked War

Chapter 9

I stare at Aaron and Leo in shock for a couple seconds, a look of surprise on my face.

Leo hisses to Aaron, a look of embarrassment on his face, "That was the worst one-liner I've ever heard. In fact, it's not even qualified to be a one-liner. One-liners are funny."

Aaron flinched at Leo's words, a movement so small that I could barely see it. But it was there.

"Shut up," Aaron hissed back, recovering his senses. "It's not like you could come up with one, and besides we had a very limited time slot."

"Are you going to try and eliminate us?"

Fox's cold voice, turned to ice, comes from behind me and I glance to him, surprised by the paintball gun already in his hands, pointed at Aaron and Leo.

Sighing, Aaron swings down to stand beside us as Leo carefully crawls down, practically hugging the tree as he sits at Aaron's feet.

"Look," Aaron explained. "We're not going to eliminate you. We want an alliance."

I glance at Fox, confusion in my eyes as I question, "Why?"

Aaron plops down on the branch and I cautiously sit down as well, my hand creeping to my gun as I hear a small sound beside me, likely Fox sitting down as well.

Swinging his legs in the air, Aaron explained, his tone carefree, "Well, though we were here first, we're willing to welcome you into our hiding spot since we're nice people. Besides, I figure we would do better allied than apart."

I turn to Fox, taking in his cold look and his narrowed eyes. Distrust was written all over his face.

"Fox," I hiss to him, keeping my voice low. "I think what they're saying makes sense. It's definitely been a couple hours since the game first started, and it's likely around one or two in the afternoon right now. Now, if anytime, would be the time to start going down and picking off the remaining teams."

Fox's eyes stay focused on Aaron and Leo for a couple seconds, his muscles still tense from holding up the gun but finally, he sighs, lowering his weapon.

"Okay," he gives in, a smile starting to spread on his face as he claps hands with Aaron. "Let's do an alliance. But, we should definitely end it once there are very few teams."

"Alright," Aaron agrees with a shrug.

I glance at Leo. He looked pale as he stared down at the ground yards below.

"Leo," I question, concern in my voice. "Are you alright?"

"Not really," Leo mutters, huddling closer to the tree. "Heights aren't really my forte."

Aaron laughs, rubbing Leo's back soothingly.

"We'll go down soon, Leo," he promises. "Just need to make sure no one's hiding on the ground below us."

"How long have you been hiding up here?" I question.

"We found two paintball guns and paintballs at around 9:15," he answered. "And so we came to the forest and were looking for other teams. We had a pretty close run-in with another team, and came here. Thought it was safest to hide, and then attack. We've been up here for almost four hours now."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "You know the time?"

"Yeah," he responds, showing me the watch on his wrist. Though a bit scuffed up, it looked to be working fine. The hands ticked, showing me that it was around 1:30 PM.

"Is that an antique?" I ask. After all, most people had digital watches that sprouted from rings, or small magnet-like things that were placed on your wrist. I hadn't seen a watch with hands in years; they had stopped the manufacture of them decades ago.

"Yeah," he says, studying it. "It was my grandfather's; my mother gave it to me just before she died."

"Damn," I say softly, glancing up at him. Though I'd inferred that much, it was still a shock for the words to be spoken aloud. "I'm sorry, Aaron."

"It's okay," he says, his tone level. He glances up at me, a weak smile on his face. "I've accepted it."

"Should we go down?" Fox questions, glancing down at the ground.

"Hell yes," Leo says hurriedly, already beginning to make his way down.

"Wait," I say. "We should at least wait up here until 2:00. At least then, there's only about two hours until a winner is announced. We can split up when there's half an hour left."

Aaron shrugs as he responds, "Sounds reasonable."

He glances at Leo's pale face and wraps his arms around him in a hug, attempting to provide him comfort.

Fox relaxes beside me, gazing off into the distance as I crane my neck, looking up at the sky. Drops of rain drip onto me, the heavens letting it's small tears wash over me.

I close my eyes, letting the quiet song of the rain quiet my thoughts and erase my mind, leaving it blank. Let it erase my sorrows, let it take away my emotions.

Let it take away my mind, and leave only the clouds and rain.

LMFAO I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO UPDATE LOL LOWKEY IN A WRITERS BLOCK RN HAHA - E