game of death

Game of death

“I wish something interesting would happen,” said Alison to Jimmy as they were making their way home.

“Sorry, all the crazy shit that’s been going on in the news, not interesting enough for you? Random buildings exploding and people claiming to see monsters,” answered Jimmy with coy.

“You know what I mean,” Alison fired back, of course, Jimmy knew what she meant however he just enjoyed winding her up.

The two of them kept weaving in between people through the metropolitan streets of New Lastia.

“In any case if you wanna have something exciting happen try to do something exciting instead of just wishing for something to fall into your lap,” said Jimmy.

Alison ignored that last comment as they both headed to the subway station, waved each other goodbye and went on different trains. On the crowded train Alison noticed a man vigorously shaking, however Alison quickly ignored him. There are plenty of crazies in New Lastia. The train stopped several minutes later and Alison got off the train in the suburbs. The walk out of the station back home is usually a blur as Alison has done this countless times. However, this night would be different. As she was walking back home, she saw the man that she saw back on the subway who was shaking vigorously. There was nobody else in sight other than the shaking man.

“I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!” screamed the man at the top of his lungs before being vaporized with nothing left of him …. except a black book.

It took Alison a minute to register was just had happened, she looked around at first to see if anybody saw what happened but there was nobody else in sight. Alison stepped closer to the book wanting to get a good look at it, curiosity got the better of her and she opened the book. 100-dollar notes started spawning out of the book.

“Holy crap!” shouted Alison as she frantically put the money and the book inside of her purse and ran home as fast as she could.

When she arrived home her parents asked her what was going on, but she just played it off as having had a hard day at work and needing to go to bed quickly. She then went to her room as fast as possible and closed her door. Alison’s heart was still racing, her heart beat was shaking her entire body. Alison opened her purse to see that money had stopped coming out of the book. She carefully counted the money and it all added up to 20000 dollars. This is a lot of money Alison thought to herself, what would she spend it on? Then it donned on her, that she doesn’t really know what she would spend it on. As she paused to think of what she could spend her money on a scratching noise came out of the book. Alison broke out of her reverie and focus on the noise, she then carefully opened the first page of the book which left her in shock as it was writing by itself.

It wrote:

Name: Alison Foster

Species: Homo Sapien mid stage

Date of birth: 17/08/2000 E42C standard

Blood type: +O

Planet: Earth 42C

Afterlife: Purgatory

Alison paused and just stared at what she was reading in shock and confusion. The book was not done writing.

“Dear Alison welcome to our game organized by our great overlord Nyaral your gift will be Zynil’s eyes,” wrote the book.

Alison’s eyes started changing the white of her eyes turned black as her hazel iris turned red and her pupils turned white; she had Zynil’s eyes. Suddenly Alison could see clearly through the walls of her room, she looked down and she could see her parents cooking in the kitchen. Alison blinked and her eyes turned back to normal and so did her vision. SCRATCH, SCRATCH the book continued writing.

“Turn me,” wrote the book.

Alison slowly turned the page.

“Thank you, Alison, I welcome you to our game but before we start, I will have to explain the rules, are you ready?” wrote the book.

“What the hell?” muttered Alison.

“What the hell indeed,” wrote the book.

“You can hear me?!” said Alison as she dropped the book and took a few steps back.

Scratch, scratch the book kept on writing, Alison creeped in to see what was being written.

“Could you please not drop me to the floor, it’s frightfully cold,” wrote the book.

Alison apologized to the book as she picked it back up.

“That’s quite alright, now my dear girl I would like to explain to you the rules of our game. There are 14 players per city in total, each week you will be given 14 targets which you will be able to see using me. Killing a target will generate a random amount of money, however if you kill another player you will get a guaranteed $40,000 dollars. But you will be marked for 24 hours which means the other players will be able to see you using their books like a target and they will not suffer a penalty for killing you,” wrote the book.

Again, Alison needed some time to really process what was happening, she was supposed to play a death game? That’s insane.

“What if I don’t wanna play,” asked Alison.

“The longer you spend without killing the more your bloodlust will grow,” wrote the book.

“What does that mean?” asked Alison.

“You’ll see.... I really wish I could emote to amplify that statement, oh and I almost forgot the most important thing, if a target is not killed within it’s week, it’s corruption will start to grow and as for what that means, well... you’ll see. Or maybe not, it has never happened in this world, you humans are a brutal bunch,” wrote the book.

Alison closed the book and put it in her drawer. She went to sleep trying to ignore everything the book wrote. The next day Alison joined her family for breakfast, her mother Debra asked her if she was alright as she did not come down last night. Alison just told her that she was tired. After breakfast her mom dropped her little brother Sam at school, who was excited about taco Tuesday. She then dropped Alison off at work who was working for a small retail shop in the city. The day went by like it usually does, snarky comments with Jimmy, fighting off Karens, am I gonna get fired scare, having the soul sucked out of you and all the other usual retail stuff. When she got home, Alison wanted to open the book in a moment of monotony, but she didn’t, instead she went on her phone until she fell asleep.

The rest of the week was very much rinse and repeat, however there was something that Alison felt uneasy about, something like a sort of need. She didn’t know what it was but it wasn’t good. When Friday rolls around Alison offers to take Jimmy out to dinner.

“Are you selling drugs now? Or are you on drugs?”, asked Jimmy.

“This is why I don’t like getting you nice things,” said Alison.

“I’m joking, so where to?” asked Jimmy, Alison only replied with a smirk.

Alison and Jimmy were in a very fancy restaurant with elegant music, a dazzling view of the city skyline and the quadruple dollar sign on the menu.

“Okay now I’m serious, are you selling drugs?” worryingly asked Jimmy.

“No dude,” giggled Alison.

“Are you putting moves on me, is this your big plan?” asked Jimmy.

“You wish, if I was putting moves on you’d know,” smirked Alison.

“But seriously how did you get the money for this?”

“I-uh won it on a scratch card,” said Alison nodding her head to convince herself of the lie.

“Huh, maybe I should try my luck too,” said Jimmy.

Alison and Jimmy enjoyed their meal but then Alison felt strange. The feeling... It was back. Alison felt her muscles tense, she felt the blood rushing through her veins, Alison started breathing faster and faster.

“Are you okay?” asked Jimmy.

“Yeah,” said Alison, although she could only think of one thing, to drive her steak knife into Jimmy’s neck. It would be so easy and then she would be free from it, this hunger she can be rid of it soon.

“Alison,” said Jimmy as he shook her.

“What!?” asked Alison confused.

“I was saying your name for a whole minute, are you okay?” Asked Jimmy with worry.

“Y-yeah,” replied Alison as she had calmed down, it was gone. The rest of the night went smoothly. Alison and Jimmy went their separate ways but as Alison was leaving, Jimmy looked back at her with worry.

When Alison arrived home, it started again and it felt like her body was on fire. Her eyes changed again and she could not only see her family through her walls, but she could see through them. She could see their hearts beating. Instinctively Alison grabbed her phone, it was malfunctioning. With no other recourse Alison took out the book.

“Interesting, I thought you would succumb to it sooner,” wrote the book.

“What’s happening to me?” Asked Alison.

“This is bloodlust, the longer you go without killing the more intense it will be. Your physical state will increase with your bloodlust as well,” wrote the book.

Alison didn’t know what to do, she could barely think straight. She just closed the book and buried herself in her bed clutching her mattress. Somehow, she finally falls asleep however when she woke up, she found herself in front of Sam’s room staring at him through his door. Her bloodlust had taken over her mind. Alison snapped out of her bloodlust and rushed back to her room to get the book.

“Show me where one of the targets is!” demanded Alison.

“An interesting development,” wrote the book before one of its pages turned into a map.

Alison went into the kitchen to grab a sharp knife and then left her house in the middle of the night with the book and knife in hand.

Ricky a homeless man with a half-eaten sandwich to his name was staring at the night sky on top of an abandoned building. Ricky sighed and put down his sandwich and went to the edge of the roof, he staired at the ground silently for 10 straight minutes. Tears started falling down his unkept face.

“Goddamn it you’re better than this Ricky,” he whimpered to himself.

He took a step back, picked up his sandwich and went to the floor below where he had his sleeping bag. As Ricky got ready to go into his sleeping bag, he heard a noise, which made him do a double take and look around. Suddenly he saw Alison’s red eyes and after that, light’s out.

Ricky stood in front of a beautiful river glistening with the sun’s ray reflecting upon it. All Ricky had to do a was let go, take a dip in to the river and he would be free. So, he did just that.

However, back in reality Alison was on top of Ricky’s dead body, her knife right through Ricky’s heart perfectly between the ribs. Alison’s eyes went back to normal, as she felt the relief and ecstasy of quenching her bloodlust. That was short lived, however Alison realized what she did, she just took a life. She threw up before begging “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” over and over again.

“Not as sorry as you’re about to be,” said another man standing in front of her.

Alison lifted her head to see a man with long hair standing in front her.

“Hi, I’m Joe and you just stole my kill,” said Joe.

Ricky’s body disappeared in a puff of grey smoke, then Alison’s book fell out of her bag opened and generated a 10-dollar bill.

“Hmm, okay I’m less mad now looks like he was trash in life and death,” said Joe before laughing.

Those words cut through Alison and her eyes changed again to the eyes of Zynil. Alison threw her knife past the fake Joe and right to the real Joe’s neck, who was more shocked than hurt. The real Joe’s eyes were also strange with purple irises and very irregular pupils.

“Tho-se, ey-es, y-y-you sa-aw the il-il-il-u-sion?” Joe tried to ask with a knife in his throat.

Joe dropped to his knees in disbelieve before vanishing in puff of grey smoke. 40,000 dollars came out of Alison’s book in 100-dollar bills, Alison just stared at the money as her eyes reverted to normal. Joe’s book lingered for a few minutes before vanishing.

The next morning it took a lot for Alison to get out of bed, as soon as she did she opened the book.

“You will have to be careful today, you’re marked,” wrote the book.

Alison paused for a moment her expression making her look like a different person.

“My vision keeps changing, what’s up with that?” Asked Alison.

“Those are the eyes of Zynil, they allow you see through any person or object, they also give perfect kinetic vision allowing you to perceive the tiniest of movement. They also give you pretty good accuracy, for now,” wrote the book.

“For now?,” said Alison confused.

“In some cases, these powers can grow, oh and these powers do mess with electricity, just to warn you,” wrote the book.

“Well, that explains my phone earlier,” said Alison as she closed the book. She then took a deep breath, she had a lot of things going through her mind up, to 12 people could be coming to kill her she had to be ready. She put the book in her bag and got ready for the day.

Alison found herself back in the abandoned build and went to the top of the roof where she started waiting. SCRATCH, SCRATCH, the book was writing something, Alison opened it to see what it was writing.

“Why are you here?” wrote the book.

“Up to 12 people could be planning to come and kill me, I assume all the weird things that have been happening on news have been because them. If I continue my routine, they’ll probably hurt my family. If continue I to play this game I’ll be killing innocent people like the man from last night. ? So, this is the end for me. I’ll let them kill me and I won’t take the life of any innocent people,” explained Alison.

“You are a very interesting life form, you would give up your own life so you would not have to kill anymore?” wrote the book.

“Yes,” answered Alison without hesitation

A young man wearing a black leather jacket came on to the roof top, he smirked at Alison who could feel the bloodlust emanating from him. The man cut the palm of his hand with a knife while extending his hand towards Alison. I=Instead of blood, flames gushed out of his hand into a great blast towards, Alison as she closed her eyes waiting for the blast to reach her... But it never did. Alison opened her eyes to find that time had stopped, the world had become grey. A tall dark elf appeared in front of Alison.

“Congratulations, you are the 64th player to have passed,” said the elf as he put his hand on Alison’s shoulder and they both disappeared leaving the book behind.

Time restarted, the young man stopped the fire blast and saw that Alison is not there anymore. He took out his book from his bag and waited for the money to arrive, but it never did.

“What the hell is going on!? I killed the bitch!” yelled the young man at his book.

“Sorry Elrick, but she passed,” wrote his book.

“What do you mean passed? I never heard that rule.” asked Elrick.

Alison’s book disappeared and reappeared on a desk in a dark room. A few hours a later the lights in the room switched on and Jimmy entered the room and looked at the book in confusion.

The end.