Level Six Ongoing: Siderophobia

Why do I feel I have no control? The stars look down at me like they know they rule the world, and like they know there's nothing I can do about it. They belittle me from so high up, for being so tiny and contributing nothing to this world that would spin whether I was here or not, and my father gives me the same feeling.

When he looks down at me from his height, he knows that I believe I'm supposed to be wrapped around his finger, tightly locked into the way he wants things, and he knows that if I fought or argued with him, that he can put me directly back into my place. He belittles me like he wishes I wasn't here, and like his life would go on exactly the same if I died at this moment. He treats me like he'd trade me for a diamond in a heartbeat because it holds more value, and honestly, probably for a book with half the pages ripped out and the cover folded over.

My father is mean, like the stars are mean. When I was under the stars, both of them looked down at me wondering why god approved of me being here, and the longer they did, I started to wonder too.

"I'm sorry, Mars. I know you're gonna hate me for this," Camdyn muttered apologetically, his gaze down at the blood on his shoes. He still held captive the Shyrene he said he was going to shoot, and I thought that had to be all the evidence I needed that everyone was okay, but his tips were stepping into a spreading puddle of crimson, gushing from a laying body — also a woman with short curly hair, slightly uneven from a failed haircut. Her gun was covered in that red beside her too, and her eyes were still wide open.

Camdyn killed Shyrene's other double. The one he never once said he was going to shoot. He must've been quick about it, if she was armed too, even if it was at me.

"So now you're able to aim at someone good enough to kill them, but not back when you were aiming at Saturn like I told you to? Wow," Soren thundered, his footsteps closer to Camdyn so deadly they could shrivel up a garden of flowers when he passed by them. "That's disappointing, and actually makes it worse. I've been giving you the benefit of the doubt all this time, but this means you were capable of making the shot, and chose not to. Were you in love with her ever since then?"

"I was, sir." Camdyn admitted. I swallowed my gasp, as not to attract attention to me.

"Blake," Soren called, frustrated. "Finish him off, no matter what it takes."

He was up on his toes once he was asked, his own gun loaded, and pointed directly as he was instructed. Shyrene was still locked up in Camdyn's grasp, but she wasn't putting up much of a fight. With a still body with no intentions to move, Blake's shot to Cam's head was open without issue. I was bubbling up inside, like I had to be out there to block it if a bullet came flying, with every will to risk my life, but at the same time I felt I shouldn't. I felt that as much as it looked like this was on Blake's side, that Camdyn had it under control.

"You fire that gun, and I'll kill her. You saw what's already happened. She's the last of Shyrene in the game, you're aware of that Blake, and I know that you don't want this to happen." Camdyn blurt out boldly, even with a gun pointed at him. It made his gun on her temple more harsh, and forced up against it, which proved that he wasn't afraid of what would come out of it. It made her whimper a little. It's the first time I've seen them so afraid while in enemy mode. "I know that Shyrene trusts that we'll finish this game fine, and that even if she loses all her lives she'll be revived when we're all done, but you know there's risks. You know that it's possible we might not make it out. So do you trust us as much as she does? She's risky with her life because it's hers, but are you as risky with her life as she is?"

Blake's expression was just as determined and he had the definite look of a killer, it could make the hair of my head tremble right off into a pile on the floor, but when it fell away, it wasn't gradual whatsoever, and it seemed like it was never there, and like I was scared of nothing. At the end of the quick turn around, he became the entire meaning of fret, agony, concern; he was as if a slave beneath our feet.

"Kill me instead," Blake begged, falling to his knees. He was completely out of his enemy character and seemed on our side again, but his doppelgängers that didn't have this instruction were still deep into their cruel sides; looking angry and ready to kill. It was like a glitch of some kind in the life of technology. It was a binding that he got himself out of, and broke free, all out of the power behind his love. "We haven't had the chance to blossom yet, Camdyn. We've barely started, we haven't had most of our firsts yet. You can't kill her. How stupid would that be, if I locked us up in here just because I couldn't confess, and when I finally do it ends soon after because she passes? We have so much ahead of us!"

Camdyn hesitated at his request, and with Blake riled up in his emotions, he was attempting to move him along, by pulling the gun up to his temple. They fought over it, a shot going off once up above them, but Camdyn won it over, putting it back at Shyrene's head like it belonged there.

"Blake! I said whatever it takes!" Soren screamed, angrier than I've ever seen him in my life. "How's this even happening? What's gotten into you?"

"I-I just can't. I can't do it. I'm sorry, sir."

BUG DETECTED

PLAYER ON OPPOSING TEAM HAS SWITCHED SIDES

RUNNING SECURITY MEASURES

DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS OTHERWISE INSTRUCTED

"To hell with you guys!" Soren yelled out, despite the words written up above us, reloading his own gun. "I'll do it myself. It's not even for certain Camdyn can get to the trigger to shoot her before I do. Stop being such a coward."

"It's not certain in either direction, of good or bad, and even at a 1% chance, I don't want her dead!" Blake fired back, brows furrowed. He had chased after him for as much as he could, but with how life-threatening Soren can be, he stopped following him. Instead, he shut his eyes, and if it's what he wished for, which I couldn't doubt, Shyrene was fading in and out, being replaced with Blake when she disappeared. They stood in the same position, in the same spot, alternating back and forth.

Soren could care less, and I wasn't going to let him be that way without a proper opposer.

"Papa!" I called out, loud enough to make him flinch. He looked at me, running at him from the side, and it screwed up his shot, but I couldn't stop him in time not to do it at all. The image of Blake was finalizing, becoming darker, rather than the look of a watercolor, and we could clearly watch the bullet enter into the center of his forehead, like a modern version of David and Goliath. Shyrene, though invisible from the area after Blake literally took her place, fell flat to the floor as if right out of the air. She winced out of the pain of a twisted ankle, but not a bullet wound. Blake fell back because of the second choice, blood already flowing down the front of his face.

Shyrene kneeled beside his body when she got herself up. She seemed more mad than having the intentions of mourning him. "You retard. I can't believe you'd do this for me."

RULES HAVE BEEN BROKEN

MEMORY OF LEVEL HAS BEEN LOST

LEVEL SIX CONSIDERED FAILED

YOU WILL BE RESTORED TO INITIAL HEALTH BEFORE THE REDONE BEGINS

ONE LIFE WILL BE TAKEN TO PAY FOR YOUR LOSS

YOU HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO CLASSIFY THE RULE BREAK AS FAULTLESS ON YOUR PART. IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO SO THEN YOU UNDERSTAND YOU MUST SACRIFICE THE TWO LIVES LOST TO MOVE YOU UP A LEVEL. THIS WILL LEAVE YOU WITH FIVE LIVES IN THE PROCEEDING LEVELS.

BLAKE: 4

SHYRENE:1

DO YOU WISH TO REPEAT OR PROCEED?

"What do you think Camdyn?" I asked, when he didn't blurt out an answer like I was used to him doing. I thought I hated that, but now that he kept quiet, if felt weird.

"Are you actually asking for my opinion?" He said, still panting from everything he's just went through, and letting himself shudder once. "Or is this a test?"

"Talk about paranoid," I giggled, the first time I've been able to joke for what feels like forever. "I'm seriously asking you. You went through a lot back there. Is it worth going through again? We lost two lives and we can consider it done. If we do it again, we lose one for failing and having to restart, and then we can lose more for trying it again. If we repeat it, do you think we'll know better to do it flawlessly?"

He rolled his neck, stretching it out. "Soren is a lot to put up with. I don't know if we can put certainty on beating him out. He might be made up in your imagination for the level, but you're his daughter. You know exactly how he acts."

I blinked ferociously, like I was holding back tears, though I didn't think that I was. "You get used to it when you're his child."

A sad look invaded his expression, maybe of pity, or apology. Probably both. "You don't deserve that," he breathed out. "I say we go on and forget about it. Replaying it is more risky than not."

I nodded, agreeing, as I looked up at the print in the sky. It covered over the stars, and I don't know if I was thankful for that or not. When around Soren, it wasn't bearable, but when he disappeared when the level ended, and I was around Camdyn, it was pretty relieving. I still think it would be at least. People change things.

"We'd like to proceed, please."

PREPARING LEVEL SEVEN

FIVE LIVES REMANING

PLEASE WAIT