Camp Mortala

Twilight One

Aliya

            My heart dropped when I saw his eyes burn with desire. I didn’t want to risk getting into a fight with him. I knew I was able to eliminate the guy earlier, but I don’t think I can stand up to him. From his appearance, he’s probably had a lot of experience and training. It was like he’s some popular hotshot athlete in Academy, while I’m some scrawny nerd who lived most of my school days either in the classroom or the library.

And from all the blood staining him, he probably completed a massive killing spree while I only just managed to sneakily trick one of his colleagues. He raised a brow and wiped his blood-stained hand to the thick material of his jacket and held it out towards me, which made me surprised.

“Are you just going to stare at me? Get up.”

I flinched a little at his statement and took his hand. I let go of his hand when I got on my feet, shaking my hand lightly from the strange feeling of his large hand. He looked at me with his eyes still dark and serious, but his expression softened. I only looked down at my filthy hands, sinking them into the pockets of my jeans.

“Let me guess. You are not very good at this kind of situation, correct?”

Of course, I wasn’t! My hands are shaking right now, my heartbeat was so loud I swear I can hear it, and the image of that guy from earlier is still flashing through my mind now and then. All I knew is that I’m stuck into this game, I have to kill people to win, which is obviously against the law…but the concept of murder is still scaring me. So I nodded in response.

]

“Okay. I won’t consider you a wimp despite you seeming to already act like one right now, because yeah this game is pretty ridiculous for some acquaintance camp, and I’m very sure that woman was absolute nuts.

Just this once, I’ll help you get out of this maze. But since we’re supposed to be enemies, I can’t go with you to the exit. You’ll have to go off by yourself-“

“But are you sure there’s no cameras or something? The Game Master might know this-“He cut me off with a short scoff, holding up his stick that was still dripping of blood. I was about to speak again but I just closed my mouth.

“Well, what the hell do you think this place is, The Hunger Games?”

We look up when another person screamed, the birds flying above us in the grey skies as their peace was disturbed. His raven hair blew alongside the cold wind and draped back down his forehead as he glares at me with an expression saying ‘come on you’re not this dumb.’ I only grinned a little.

“Well no s**t, Sherlock. This isn’t some ‘fight for your family and district’ game where everything is so high tech, you get to be provided weapons and hideouts, but mostly, you’ll be rich along with your little district if you manage to live. This filthy excuse for an event, Camp Mortala, is all a scam for an annual interschool experiment.

They can’t even afford a nice stadium or a good trail, and even those speakers they have are so worn out and old school. In short, they don’t care about the game process, the facilities, not even the contestants! All they want to do and want to know, is ‘who remains as the winner of this game?’ And ‘which school are they from?”

♥♥♥

I kept quiet as he glares towards the path and walked towards the different directions. The clouds in the sky were slowly disappearing and starting to show spots of blue. The view around the maze was becoming slightly brighter. But the tension between me and this man was still intense; we didn’t talk to each other since that conversation an hour ago. He would only glance at me now and then; either it was to check if there’s someone from behind, or that he was checking if I was following. I wasn’t sure.

It wasn’t long until we heard a person screaming from the direction close to our path, and suddenly was running with a branch in hand. Letting out a scream, I stood frozen as this guy with me suddenly gashed their head with his stick. The stick was the size of a baseball bat, and it made a loud thud each time he struck the male.

Blood splattered down his white undershirt and across his face, but his expression only showed frustration and anger.

As the man fell motionless, I jolted at the sudden contact from behind. I turned around and kicked towards another guy. He stumbled backward a little but he charges again, landing a punch at my gut. The familiar, metallic taste of blood coated my tongue and dripped down my lips as I fell on my bottom. I kicked him away and he hissed a little in pain.

His blood-soaked fist tightened and was about to approach again but I flinched as he fell back, crimson blood trickled down his forehead. The male I was with threw another hit followed by another, leaving me sitting here in pure horror. This man was crazy. I could only look down and close my eyes shut, and be scared as the sound footsteps start to fill my ears.

“…are you okay?”

I opened my eyes to see that he was in front of me and looking at me with a somewhat concerned face. His onyx orbs were looking at me deeply while he pulled me up. Running his hand through his hair with a small groan, he scanned me up and down and removed his jacket, wiping a part of it to my face. I was about to resist but he held my face to keep me from moving too much.

“Your mouth was bleeding.”

“But how about you; you have more injuries, you even have a bruise-“I was about to touch him but he turned his face away from me with a short hiss. I just kept quiet as he held my chin and wiped all the blood.

“But I said I’ll make sure to make you reach the end, safe. Don’t worry about me. I can handle these by myself.”

After wiping off the blood, he stepped back and tied his jacket to his waist. We continued along the maze with him in front of me. The day was about to end soon, and the directions were slightly getting hard to see in the dark surroundings. The sky was starting to turn yellow and orange and the trees could only show their black silhouettes and slight gold linings to the disappearing remains of the sunlight…

It was really strange. Why was this guy suddenly being so protective and all? We were from opposing schools; we’re meant to be enemies and not allies. No one is supposed to be an ally in this game, even if you’re from the same school. But for him, he’s suddenly decided on being so nice and even killed that guy who tried to kill me.

It was fishy…but I’m thankful.

But my thoughts stopped when I felt something warm surround my hand. I looked down and saw his large, tan-colored hand holding mine, not as in our hands were intertwined but his hand was holding my hand close to him. For some reason, I felt the heat rise to my cheeks and I looked down. Good thing it was getting dark or I would’ve looked like a tomato.

♥♥♥

 It was dark; the sky was blended with orange and lavender. We were walking quietly in the path and hoping to find the exit. He looks around continuously and we were like walking around in circles. My feet were getting tired from the day’s journey around this hell of a maze. People’s screams were echoing now and then, but we were too tired to panic and move faster.

“…we’re here.”

I felt myself jolt awake when he said those two words, looking through a path that led to an open exit towards the woods. His hold of my hand loosens; making me feel slightly dissatisfied when my hand fell back to its place at my side. I look at him as he pokes me to go forward. His eyes showed emotions that I couldn’t read, but I just did what he was gesturing.

I started to walk away from him, taking hesitant steps and past him. I heard loud footsteps from behind me and the sound of his stick scraping against the ground, as he was walking away from me to make it seem like we were far apart by the time we leave the maze. But I looked back and asked a question that made him stop in his tracks.

“Hey…what was your name?”

He didn’t seem to answer and just continued walking, the familiar black hair drifting farther away. I was about to leave the maze and my hand grazed onto the concrete wall on the exits when I heard him from afar;

“Elias.”