Shades of Wolves

Chapter 6: The First Death

November 10th, 2100

I don't know if I will survive, when there are dozens of people fighting each other, trying as hard as possible to have a taste for this huge piece of cake. But I do want to win. I have sacrificed Xixi, my most beloved cat, to be able to enter this game. He grew up with me from the day he was just a little kitten. When I figured out that he had his brain taken, I wanted to refuse, but my veterinary station is full of animals like Xixi, I need money to maintain them.

The pandemic is over. They were abandoned. Just like I was abandoned. It’s the pain that I don't want anyone to go through ever again. Ander always advised me to sell some of them or give some of them the humane death. And Falcao, he was really unscrupulous. He killed the poor animals with a big laugh on his face. If given the opportunity, I want him to experience the same feeling of being trampled just how he has done to others.

                                                                                                       Russel

Room 011, 1:00 pm, 18 hours before the first eliminating round.

Help help….

A pained, broken voice was constantly panting from behind the door. A big palm of hand grasped the doorknob. A crimson line of blood was trailing from the fist to the brick floor. It was such a terrifying scenario that everyone wanted to forget.

Falcao's mouth could not stop its throat from vomiting with blood. He clutched his own stomach and groaned. His eyes looked glazed as if life was withdrawing from them. He was trying to get out so someone could see him and save his life.

A pair of black shoes was in front of Falcao. A man slowly sat down with a satisfied smile, then stroked the hair underneath of his palm. Falcao tried his best to utter a few words. However, his bloody mouth prevented those weak small sounds from escaping.

"Is it hurt?" With his mouth close to Falcao's ear, he asked coldly.

Falcao looked at the person who was toying with him with pleading eyes. But he had no intention of sparing him. Waiting for Falcao to slowly pass out, he stood up, whistled, and disappeared at the turn.

…………………..

By the time everyone found out, there was no way to save him anymore. Ander and Russel looked hard to believe, but they didn't cry for their friend, not even a sad expression appearing on those faces. Perhaps, they expected Falcao to receive an even worse death.

Malvis came over, she turned Falcao over to examine him for a moment, and then sent someone to carry him away. Ander looked at her and asked:

"How did he die?"

Malvis took off her gloves and threw them in the trash, calmly answered:

“We will not disclose the cause of death. This is one of the terms of the game.”

Standing next to her, Hoa clearly understood why Malvis did what she did. In this battle for survival, they must guard themselves against each other, learn to be aware of the pitfalls.

……………..

The atmosphere in the dining room became quieter. The players looked at each other with questioning, suspicious eyes, and some were also afraid.

When Sammul entered, the others turned to be even more cautious. Since he himself had given the milk box to Falcao, he could have also put something in it previously.

"He's not the killer." Mahoney spoke up while eating.

Hoa looked up at her best friend, waiting for her to analyze further.

“Because he didn't know that Falcao would be sitting there. Moreover, he did not know that the guy would take his milk box away. I don't think he is the killer."

Hoa smiled forcefully. Mahoney could be right. There were so many people here, and Falcao was just obnoxious as hell. If nobody would be legally responsible for what happened here, then everyone could want to kill him. Even the two of his followers, Ander and Russel. Actually, they were even more suspicious, to be honest. They had a lot more of history with Falcao than Sammul. Cuz the other had just known him only for a few minutes.

“This could also happen because of WIC, don’t you think?” The girl with tall and beautiful legs that they had met in the interview was standing in front of them. She put the tray of food on the opposite side and sat down.

“You’re Nabeya, right?”

“Glad to see that you girls are still around”

“WIC, you’re saying” Mahoney asked.

"The clearer water is, the easier for fish to swim. If it's stirred, the water will become muddy. And fishes in the troubled water are those which were easy to be fished. Ain’t it?" Nabeya stroked her purple hair.

“But why did they kill such a potential player then? If Falcao stayed, he would probably kill quite a few people, so WIC would benefit more from the betting.” Mahoney questioned.

“Once upon a time, in a season, there were more than 95% of the players who were poisoned till death before making it to round one. Of course, WIC would benefit from their bets, but that season, viewership dropped significantly. Subsequent challenges were forcibly to be stopped due to insufficient number of players. If we continue to play as scripted, no one will make it to the final round. Instead, they finish fast, then start a new season.”

Nabeya explained. She was clearly had studied this game quite thoroughly.

Hoa also nodded in agreement. That season was really worth to be forgotten to WIC. They had to reduce their ads and were sued by their partners for breach of contract. The season lost its attractiveness and excitement, which made their stock prices plummeting. With the pandemic resurging and Tesla, Apple and sss coming back to the game, WIC almost lost two-thirds of its companies and was almost taken over. However, thanks to a successful season 3 with challenges worth watching as well as the superiority of the candidates, they made it through and were revived.

“So, does it mean Falcao's death was a warning?” Mahoney hid her mouth with a palm of her hand, whispering her question softly in secret. Her eyes were set on Nabeya.

“Maybe. Or, someone actually killed him.” Nabeya laughed.

"It's scary!"

"Then you must not have watched season five yet. There were this pair of twins. And they were forced to choose between two of them. Only one got to live. Everyone thought that they would have given in in order to let the other live. To everyone’s surprise, turned out, both of them had the desire to live so bad that they trapped each other to death.”

Hoa quietly looked at the rice grains below. She took a spoon to separate them, as easy as flipping her own palm.

When Sammul sat at a table. Everyone at that table was wary. There was only one person who was really interesting to him. It was a girl with white skin and deep blue eyes. She tied her hair up to reveal her long and seductive neck. The girl approached him cheerfully and asked.

“Hi, I'm Tajina. How did you manage to kill Falcao? Can you show me, please?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her face was clearly cheerfully expecting of Sammul's answer. But he still quietly sipped a spoonful of soup.

“You are my idol. A blind man who can defeat a giant" She leaned close to Sammul's face. She didn’t bother to hide her infatuation towards him.

“Hey Tajina, could you please stop it already?” An Asian guy spoke up, who definitely wanted to pull her back. His hair was dyed with orange. His ears were pierced. And his eyes were narrowed. He was wearing baggy clothes which looked too big for his too thin of body.

“Have I talked to you yet Hwang Hee?” She said without turning her head to look at her friend. Tajina waved her hand at Sammul's dark glasses to confirm if he was truly blind. Then she dipped her middle finger into Sammul's soup and brought it to her mouth to taste. Her tongue stuck out to lick the finger. It looked nothing but pure erotic right there.

“Is this soup better than me?” She put her fists under her chin, making some kind of sulky expression.

Sammul let go of the spoon. He put it in the tray and got up to leave.

“Hey. At least, you have to eat it all. You know that giving up food is a crime, right?”

Sammul looked at her. Every word that was uttering out of his mouth was just as soft as how the soup looked.

"I don't want to eat with someone who just swallowed a p***s"

Tajina did have any second of expression of anger. It was quite opposite. She laughed out loud hard as if she was just a farmer who got an excellently successful harvest. That laughter proved what Sammul said was true. She was also not shy at all. Coming here and playing this game, nobody was more noble than anyone.

"Wow. That’s impressive. You can tell it immediately. If you don't mind, I can satisfy you with my skills. My tongue doesn’t have botulinum for sure"

“No need. I prefer money than a hole.” Without waiting for Tajina to say anything more, Sammul left.

Tajina stood up, she shouted at Sammul in excitement.

"Maybe you'll be the next to die. Be careful, you blind ass!"

Tajina stroked her nails. Her dark, pencil-lined eyes shone with a sharp light.

"What's so cool about that guy? If it were me, I'd leave it last, wouldn't that be easier?” Hwang Hee looked at Tajina scornfully.

"Because he's blind?"

“Between the blind and the strong, who do you want to fight?”

Tajina didn't answer, but mumbled a few words in her mouth, towards the blonde.

“i***t”

………………………………

11 pm. 8 hours before the first eliminating round.

After Falcao's death, people were really on high alert. They didn’t come out of the room at night anymore. Mahoney also said she was tired and wanted to pray for her brother in the room.

Hoa went out. She needed to have some air before the competition. Hoa went to the top floor, where she could clearly see the stars and the moon. Perhaps, her mother on that wide sky would give her some guidance.

When Hoa went to the rooftop, she was a bit surprised because Sammul was also there. He was taking a sip of beer. His body seemed relax. The cold wind and him seemed like they were mixing together. If it weren't for the exposed white skin of his, Hoa could not tell or distinguish between darkness and Sammul since he was dressed in full black from head to toe.

"Aren't you afraid that someone might kill you and throw your body down there?" Sammul didn't need to turn his head towards her direction, still, he could be easy to tell who was approaching him.

“I wonder myself, how far you can smell the scent.”

Sammul did not answer Hoa. He leisurely swallowed the beer down his throat.

Hoa sat down on the opposite side. Now that she could have a better look at him, clearer. She figured out that Sammul really did not look too bad. He got a tall nose, white skin, short black hair, which matched with his solid black suit perfectly. It somehow brought up a vibe that Sammul could be an assassin. Hoa wondered, if she could see the eyes behind those glasses, what would it be, how would they look like...

“You know who I am?” Hoa asked.

“The one whose dog was run over, isn’t it?”

Sammul's answer pierced Hoa's heart again. This guy's mouth was full of knives somehow.

"Does it still smell like blood on me?" Hoa asked. She was sure, that the ability of sensing smell was Sammul's greatest strength.

“I remember your scent.” Sammul answered simply.

“Aren't you afraid someone will kill you? Come up here alone? While Russel and Ander can get you revenge?" Hoa curled her lips. She wanted to see what Sammul thought of Falcao's death.

“Revenge? Or thanking me?” Sammul snorted contemptuously.

“That Russel guy, he has a lot of smells from cats and dogs. But he also has a strong antiseptic smell, not like he works at a pet store. This morning, he came into contact with no less than 20 animals. High chance is that he works at an animal rescue association. The skull necklace Falcao wore around his neck, stained with the scent of blood. How much force do you think it takes for a cat's blood to splash to the neck like that?", Sammul smiled softly.

Hoa also saw that Falcao was very violent. It likely was not impossible for him to torture animals for fun. Russell may resent him for the same reason.

“What about Ander, what beef does he have with Falcao?”

“I don't have time to investigate them. But if he was close, knowing the death of his best friend, would he still eat that much? Salmon, meat? You also see clearly that he eats like a hungry tiger."

Hoa thought back to this afternoon, indeed, Ander was not in a bad mood. Like, not even a bit, not at all. Even when he saw Falcao's body, he was not sad or in pain. He just asked about the cause of death. And that was it.

“You also have the ability to kill him. You might purposely tell him to pour all of his milk out in order for you to have a chance to give him your milk box, in which you surreptitiously put drugs.” Hoa gave out a question.

“Then how did I manage to know that he would come back to me?” Sammul took another sip of his beer. Apparently, at that time, no one knew whose table Falcao would come to. It's ridiculous to rely on luck to murder someone.

Hoa lowered her head to think for a moment. Sammul stood up, he traced the ground with his stick, and walked slowly to the door.

"Because you're blind!"

Hoa's words made Sammul stop. He seemed to have just heard something very interesting.

"And?"

“You’re blind and purposely sat alone. You made yourself look like an abandoned animals at Russel's animal shelter. You’ve known very well that Falcao always wanted to bully them, so you kept the drugs in the milk even before he came. Furthermore, Falcao clearly wanted to flex his power on the first day, he would find someone to take action. You activated his subconscious which wanted to mistreat animals.”

After listening to Hoa's analyzation, Sammul only laughed excitedly. He walked towards the door, ignoring all the accusations of the little girl.

"Did you really kill him?"

He still kept his mouth closed.

"Hey!"

“What do you need to know for?”

No sound had been made behind Sammul’s back. Hoa didn't know how to answer the question. It’s true that this clearly had nothing to do with her. The rules of the game also clearly stated that death was not any specific one’s responsibility.

"I didn't kill him"

Sammul left a sentence before going downstairs. He threw the beer can in the trash along his way back.

Hoa looked at him. It was such a vague confirmation to be believed in. Hoa couldn't understand Sammul at all, but she was sure Sammul wasn't simple at all.

………………

Room 016.

Russell was sitting on a chair. His hand was stroking a picture of a cute cat. Then he went to the balcony. In a gust of wind, he burned the picture, his mouth curled in delight.

“You can rest in peace now. That bastard is dead.”

………………..

Room 023.

The big Ander was constantly throwing his fists onto a sandbag. His body was soggy. His mood was extremely high. The force of his hand was so strong that it crushed a picture of Falcao on the bag.

"You son of a b***h. You're dead after all."

………………

In the hallway,

A hand picked up a used beer can. She turned it upside down, shook it a bit. A pill slipped out of it into her palm of hand. Its red color under the light made her hands feel like she was addicted, her whole body trembled with joy.

"Finally found it!"