JINX

EPISODE 15 pt.2

They start ripping their clothes brutally, leaving no fabric to cover their tiny, trembling bodies. The coldness in the room quickly hits their skin, causing them to react to it. They start to shiver unstoppable.

The door opens wider than the moment the three guys came. Each one of them was dragged in the same hallway. Even if there's no one around, Miguel could still feel ashamed of his body. He tries covering his body, wishing to feel any warmer. The others were doing the same he is doing, too frightened to even think of escaping from their grip.

Miguel takes his time to look over his shoulders, trying any chance to look at his friends who are silenced in the meantime. And at that moment, he does want to talk to them but he knew it wasn't the perfect time to have a conversation with them as well. None of them doesn't want to get in trouble anymore.

What happened earlier is too much for them, especially to Miguel who almost died. And maybe, it was fate.

They start leading them back into their cell, still trembling yet, he is so relieved to know that nothing ever happened to them... Not yet.

"Hey, regarde ce gamin! Il ne peut même pas essayer d'arrêter de trembler" ("Hey look at this kid! He cannot even try to stop trembling") the man holding Miguel speaks up.

"Ouais c'est vrai, tellement stupide hahaha!" ("Yeah right, so stupid hahaha!")

"Regarde à qui le chat scardy mainlyenant!" ("Look whose scardy cat now!")

"Ces trois-là veulent vraiment jouer avec le patron. Tsk!" ("These three really wants to mess with the boss. tsk!")

"Eh bien, ce n'est pas notre problème maintenant. Mais les faire souffrir un peu devrait être amusant. Seriez-vous d'accord?" ("Well, that's not our problem now. But making them suffer a little bit should be fun. Would you agree?")

"Oui. Mais vous savez ce que le patron a dit, nous ne pouvons pas faire les choses à moins qu'on ne le lui dise." ("Yeah it is. But you know what boss said, we cannot do things unless we're told to.")

"Ouais. Personne ne veut voir le patron devenir fou en ce moment." ("Yeah. Nobody wants to see boss getting mad right now.")

But what made them actually surprised is that they weren't bringing them to the same room they spent the couple of days in.

"Where... Where are you taking me! Where the f**k are you taking us!?" Kyle starts acting up, trying to release himself from the strong, tight and painful grip from his hand.

"Ferme ta gueule, fils de pute!" ( "Shut the f**k up, you son of a b***h!") The guy holding him captive starts complaining to him by fighting back, knowing where will it ever end. Miguel and Melissa start to panic silently. Even if they want to defend Kyle and shout back at the guys, they couldn't seem to do anything at all.

The guy holding Miguel stops, looking at his shoulders. "Oh, quand est-ce que ces enfants merdiques s'arrêtent? Ils commencent à m'ennuyer!" ("Oh when do this shitty kids ever stop? They're starting to annoy me!")

"Hey, kid! Shut up! Or you'll have to face the consequences." The guy who is holding Melissa manages to speak up in a language that the three of them understand. But instead of getting intimidated, Kyle decided to sarcastically laugh at his statement.

That made Miguel and Melissa alarmed. They start sharing stares while Kyle didn't stop shouting for his freedom.

'What are you really up to, Kyle?' He asks himself. He knew something is up because if he had to compare the three of them, he would be the careless one, and they'd be the opposite of him.

And this is unusual for him to see Kyle acting like this.

Miguel eyes on him with such curiosity.

"J'essaye de mettre la main sur ce type parce que sinon, je pourrais éventuellement vouloir ce que je vais faire avec ce putain de gars!" ("I am trying to get hold of this guy because if not, I might eventually want what I'm going to do with this f*****g guy!") The guy starts to get annoyed, not wanting to consume the remaining patience he had for the moment.

"Il voulait juste te tester, mon frère! Peut-être qu'il le fait exprès!" ("He just wanted to test you, brother! maybe he is just doing this on purpose!") One of the guys speaks up, talking to the man who already had his veins popping out as a sign of frustration.

And since Miguel's not getting what is happening, he starts to scan the room, trying to observe where things were placed. He tries to memorize it all, hoping he could make use of it sooner or later.

"No!" A frightening and alarming voice came erupting into his ears then made him jerk out of his memorization process. Although he cannot seem to sink everything that has happened, his eyes were now wide open, gaze catching Kyle lying in pain as he curls like a ball, whimpering in pain from his stomach.

"Kyle!" Miguel shouts as he tries to run for him, but failed in an attempt after the big guy didn't let go of his grip on him. And him not letting go is a sign of them not showing any mercy.

"Let me go! Let me- ahh!" He shouts as the guy let go of him unprepared,  causing him to fall on his butt, in collision with pain. But despite the pain he had felt, that was never a reason for him to run for Kyle.

"Kyle!" He yells as he quickly bends on his knees as he starts to scan him. "Are you okay?"

"Hmph!" He whimpers, still trying to endure the pain. "I'm... I'm okay, Miguel."

Before Miguel could even talk again, the person talks.

"C'est ce que tu obtiens quand tu essaies d'être dur et pourtant tu n'es qu'un tas de merdes faibles." ("That is what you get when you try to act tough yet you're all just a bunch of weak piece of shits.")

"Ouais c'est vrai. Une bande de perdants." ("Yeah right. Bunch of losers.")

"Let's go. We don't want this to get to the boss. You know. Rules are rules." One of them talks, making the other two separates Miguel and Kyle. Still in pain, this didn't seem to bother at all. They just keep on walking until they reach the hallway where the others stand outside in a line, facing the wall. Miguel looks at Melissa who ks already looking at him, sharing the same questionable looks.

'What is going on here?' He thought to himself. He wasn't much of that surprised to see Valentine standing right on the other side, silently and intently watching them. When the three of them finally approaches the others, they were pushed to face the wall as well. Soon, the three guys were gone into a meter distance.

"Hello, dear players. I am sorry if this is sudden but as of today, Mister Clock has set a new rule." He pauses as he walks back and forth, observing the others.

"From this day forward, you will start to share cells with random people. You might want to ask why? Well, the only reason behind here is that someone tried to escape, carving the walls. Unfortunately, they failed."

They start to create faint notices, but those voices were heard much clear because they were in a small space. Miguel, Kyle, and Melissa already knew who Valentine is referring to.

"They?"

"Who could do such a thing?"

"Are they trying to get us killed?"

"They're not thinking properly!"

"They should be punished—"

"They were punished if that is your concern. But we won't be telling who it was and how they were punished."

Valentine pauses again, still scanning every one of them until he stops right at Miguel. Since their backs were facing him, Miguel can still feel the presence behind him. The tension lasts for five seconds before Valentine decided to continue walking.

"So, I have here the lists of your names and since Miss Camilla and Mister Roderick are already dead, you'll be separated in two in each cell tonight. Tomorrow after the game..." He pauses again, making all of them tensed up. Everyone is nervous about the thought that one might be dead tomorrow. And all of them seem to plan of not dying anytime soon. Like what Arya Stark of Game of Thrones,

Not today.

"So, I'll be calling names. First two, please step forward... Mister Chris and Mister Kyle." Kyle throws a worried look on Miguel who happens to nod for assurance that he'll be fine. Chris and Kyle soon stood beside each other.

"Next group, Miss Melissa and..." He scans the room to see who he could pair her with. "And Mister Joseff."

"Miguel..."Melissa whisper showing signs of fright, but he just responds with a nod, while he catches Melissa's hand, squeezing it light.

"It'll be alright." He whispers back before Melissa walks away, standing beside Joseph.

"Mister Tyler, you're going with Miss... Oh no, you're going with Mister Blake..." And when the two gentleman settles in one place, that leaves Miguel with a female. His heart starts to race as they were the last to stand there, facing the wall.

"And Mister Miguel, you're going with Miss Ash."

He gulps as they stare at each other. He couldn't even see just a small portion of fear from her eyes instead, the pair of hazelnut eyes of her tells something to him. Her eyes speak to him with a huge amount of confidence that's enveloping her soul and that is what made Miguel insecure the most— he doesn't have enough of that spirit called 'confidence'.

After the selection of roomies, they were forced to enter different rooms. Miguel let Ash enters first before him. As the metal door slams beside him, he gulps again.

He takes a seat at the edge beside the door as he watches Ash carefully. She delicately walks towards the far edge of the room, where darkness rules. An awkward silence fills the room, making him want to just stay silent. But there is this urge of him wanting to just talk, hoping the fear would go away. And before the dead silence fills their space suffocating them, Miguel starts to talk.

"Hey..." It almost sounded like a whisper but it echoed into the four corners, the sound bouncing back. Although he wasn't expecting a response, he just manages to smile at the kid.

"I'm Miguel. What is your name again?" Although he didn't forget her name, he cannot find another reason to make the conversation lasts longer.

"Ash." She shortly replied. He was a bit surprised but hearing the female speaks made him predicted that the kid is young.

"Oh right yeah... Ash." He awkwardly repeats her name, not knowing how to approach the conversation anymore. He was about to give up when Ash was the one who made the move this time.

"It was you and your friends, wasn't it?" He asks, making him furrow his brows with curiousness.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you throwing glances at Mister Kyle and Miss Melissa."

"You know them?"

"Nope. But I know the stares you had given them." She speaks directly like she's way older than Miguel.

"So Ash, how old are you again?"

"Why? Does it concern you?" She asks back.

"No. I am just curious you know?" He asks back once more. Giving up, Ash sighs.

"I'm twelve."

'TWELVE!?' He was too stunned to hear how old Ash is.

"I thought —"

"Everyone did, Mister Miguel."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. I don't want them to even underestimate me. I know what I have to do when the time comes." She tells him with such confidence, making him a bit jealous.

"You still haven't answered my question, Mister Miguel." She reminds him, making him look at her in the darkness.

"It was you and your friends who did it, right?"

"..."

"You were the persons who Mister Valentine was partaking a while ago?"

"Do you... How did you know?"

"Oh, you mean the plan you and your guys pulled out and failed or the person's real name that talked to us a while ago?" This time, Ash steps out of the darkness, the moon's light hitting her fierce skin, like a tiger about to attack her prey. Her face is intimidating, making him shiver.

"It looks like..." He trails off in his own words, not wanting to look so weak. But that didn't escape to Ash's conservative eyes.

"It looks like what, Mister Miguel?" She asks, stopping right in front of the darkened edge where she came from.

"It looks like... you know everything." He says, not breaking the stare.

"Yeah. I know a lot that the others don't."

"You're hiding a lot of things." He gulps again, pretty amazed at how a twelve-year-old kid could be this fierce.

"But we have to act fast but silent."

"What are you talking about?" That question made Ash smirk.

"How about I tell you that I have a plan?"

"You? Have a plan?"

"Yes. Why?"

"How—"

"We have not much of time, Mister Miguel. All I want is to escape... And I need your help."