I’m in the bathroom.
Memories clawed to the surface.
No, no, no...
I can’t be in the bathroom.
It doesn’t make sense.
Monsters and demons and...
I looked down at my bloody hands.
No...
This doesn’t make sense.
It can’t be real.
There was an easy way to find out though. I looked up at the door handle and immediately away.
No, no, no, no, no, no...
Every cell in my body begged me not to leave. Tears came out in heavy, broken sobs. The weight of it all crashed down on me. I punched the tile floor and screamed.
I should have saved them.
Why wasn’t I fast enough?
Why are they dead?
Why wasn’t it me?
What happened in the dream resurfaced piece by piece. A feeling came too. It flowed through my body, pushing back the pain, solidifying my resolve. I looked down at Aurora and remembered.
I need to save her.
I need to win.
I attempted to will my status to appear. A moment passed and nothing happened. I tried again, focusing harder, but still, nothing happened. Confusion and worry seeped into my mind.
Was it even real?
A weight pressed down on my chest, making it hard to breathe.
Did I hallucinate it all?
The dream had offered a magical sliver of hope for the horrific truth my reality had become—a bit too convenient.
I pushed my doubts aside and took a shaky, deep breath. Holding my left hand out, I put everything into summoning my status. A slight tingling spread down my arm and into my hand. My focus shifted. A dozen thin tendrils squirmed out from my fingers, each emitting a faint glow.
I yelped and jerked my hand back. The tendrils faded away.
What was that?
I held my fingers up to my eyes. Other than being covered in dried blood, they seemed normal—no strange holes or lingering glow. Uneven skin drew my gaze to the underside of my left forearm. Five scars, each in the shape of a zero, were spaced evenly between my wrist and elbow, and the letter “I” had etched itself into my palm. The skin was a splotchy, angry red as if I had recently been branded. I traced my fingers over the numbers, and my skin prickled like a bad sunburn.
Five zeros...
Five attributes...
I guess the dream really did happen.
I tried once more to summon my status.
Nothing happened. My status didn’t appear, and neither did the tendrils.
With a groan, I pulled myself to my knees and then to my feet. My sedentary lifestyle and aging body were catching up with me. I made a nest with the towels from the bathroom closet and set Aurora inside. I didn’t want to leave her on the floor, but the counter or toilet seat was too precarious.
I leaned forward and examined my bruised nose in the mirror. It didn’t seem broken. Blood coated the entire right side of my face. I ran my fingers through my blood-caked hair. I glanced over at the shower and back at the mirror. A middle-aged, overweight, tired man stared back at me.
Not the hero of a fairy tale.
I remembered my conversation with Ami with surprising clarity, as if it were a memory, not a dream. They were gone, and it was because of some stupid game.
Because I couldn’t...
I gripped the counter edge as if to break it. I hated them. I didn’t want to play along with this nightmare.
But I had no choice.
And I needed to win.
I looked back down at my baby girl.
“Whatever it takes,” I whispered to myself.
First, a shower. Assuming the world really was ending, at some point the running water would stop working. I was going to take advantage of it while I could.
I gritted my teeth as I peeled my clothes off, reopening the wounds on my chest. I prodded the shallow cuts. A few drops of blood trickled down my skin. I probably needed a few stitches, but they were more like deep cat scratches than anything serious.
Climbing into the shower, I rinsed off the blood and inspected my body for any other injuries. I surprisingly found myself otherwise unharmed. I dried off, picked up Aurora and the kitchen knife, and headed back to the kitchen. I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead as I retrieved the first aid kit from the cupboard above the microwave.
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Nothing else in the room was real.
With my free hand, I applied a near-empty tube of antibiotic ointment to a large cotton pad. I leaned back, pressed the pad onto my chest, and used three large sticky bandages to secure it in place. It would hurt like hell to change, but it would do for now.
I returned to the master bedroom with the first aid kit. Placing everything on the bed, I slid into jeans, wool socks, a T-shirt, and a thick flannel. I grabbed a duffel bag from the closet in the hall and started to pack. With the bag half full of clothes, I slung it over my shoulder and performed a few squats and bends.
The duffel bag was cumbersome.
This isn’t going to work.
I grabbed Aurora and made my way up the stairs and into Alan’s bedroom. The familiar and entirely untouched room locked me in place. The standing desk covered in school supplies, the matted gray hoodie he refused to get rid of, the pile of laundry Madi had asked him to put away over a week ago, the Iron Man sheets he’d had since he was little, the posters of every national park he’d visited so far—it was all still here.
I leaned against the door frame, a fresh wave of grief washing over me. I pulled myself together and retrieved his backpack from the beanbag in the corner. Alan had gotten into hiking his senior year and had chosen a durable outdoor option when we went back-to-school shopping a few months back.
I set Aurora down on the beanbag. I removed the school supplies and random bits of hiking gear from the bag, leaving only the small first aid kit I found in a side pocket. I slung the backpack over my shoulder and looked down at my baby girl.
I couldn’t keep carrying Aurora around by hand. It wasn’t a viable long-term solution. Madi had some sort of sling she wrapped around her body to hold Aurora to her chest. She had been using it on our Sunday strolls for the last few weeks.
I shook the memory from my mind and picked Aurora back up, unsure how long I had spaced out. The wrap should be in the nursery.
I stepped back into the hallway. The ajar, blood-smeared door loomed in the distance. I held Aurora close, as if she was the only thing keeping me afloat, and trudged down the hall into the bedroom. My eyes pinged around the room three times before settling on the closet on the far wall. My body trembled. I pinched my eyes closed.
I just need the wrap.
Nothing else in this room matters.
With my eyes pinned to the closet, I crossed the room. I dug through the piles of clothes and well-used baby toys until I found the wrap. Objective complete, I dashed out of the room and collapsed against the shut door, hyperventilating. My entire body ached. I could smell the blood, taste the death.
I should have saved them.
I should have stopped them.
I should have...
I squeezed Aurora.
Only one thing matters now.
I shuffled back to the master bedroom, set Aurora on the bed, and took a moment to figure out how to wear the wrap before sliding her in. I did a few squats and called it good when she didn’t fall out.
Aurora’s diaper bag caught my eye.
If Aurora is permanently asleep, will she poop?
How will she eat?
She isn’t going to starve, is she?
I chided myself for failing to think of such basic things while with Ami. If she was on the scheduled-to-die list, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was meant to wither away. I would have to ask the next time I saw Ami, whenever that was. Hopefully it would be tonight when I slept. Just in case, I packed the duffel bag with several diapers and a pack of wipes.
I added a few more items from the medkit and slung the two bags over my shoulders. Closing my eyes, I took a moment to prepare myself to head back out into the house. I rubbed Aurora’s back. “Don’t worry, baby girl. We can do this.”
I first went to the kitchen and packed all the nonperishable food. A dozen protein bars went into the backpack, and the rest into the duffel bag. I then searched through the house for anything useful. Once both bags were stuffed to the brim, I grabbed the car keys and left out the front door.
A warm evening breeze ruffled my hair as I scanned the surrounding fields. Who would have guessed that the decision to move to rural Idaho had probably saved my life and Aurora’s? I wasn’t surprised that nearly all of Southeast Asia had died. I couldn’t imagine being on one of those city streets where thousands of people commuted shoulder to shoulder, only to have millions of gremlins suddenly appear. All it would have taken was a single gremlin from a neighbor’s house showing up out of nowhere, and I would have died.
I reached into my pocket and removed my cell phone. A cheesy picture of the five of us holding Aurora with outstretched arms while grinning at the camera stared back at me. Other than those we kept on the walls, almost all our memories were digital, meant for a civilized time. In a week or two, every family photo and video would be unobtainable.
I’ll regret it if I don’t try...
I entered my PIN and called Mom. Dad had died six years ago, and Mom had been in a retirement home ever since. She’d struggled to walk for over a decade, and her memories had deteriorated a lot in the last six months. She was at the point where any day we could get a call with bad news.
I let the phone ring and the answering machine play out. The call ended, revealing my contacts list.
I should try for Andrew and James as well.
I called Madi’s brothers one after the other. Neither picked up. I glanced through my contact list of friends and distant family, but I didn’t have it in me to give anyone else a try. I bundled up the anxiety the list gave me and buried it where I kept the rest of my grief. Everyone lived too far away to do anything anyway.
I returned the phone to my pocket and examined the rural fields around me. A nearby clump of trees draped in shadow gave me pause. Was the world about to become a monster-infested hellscape, or was the danger only in the trials? Another question I had for Ami.
My eyes bounced between the four neighboring houses. While not especially close, we referred to ourselves as a neighborhood as the sixth closest neighbor was over ten miles away.
The first house was currently up for sale, as the Jensons had moved out two months ago. Mr. and Mrs. Oakley were well into their eighties and spent their days gardening in the second. Aunty Kim, a stereotypical hippy cat lady in her late forties, lived in the third house. The final property was owned by a retired vet who spent his summers up here hunting, Arnold Berkley, but he preferred Arty.
Should I check on them?
Is it worth running into more of those monsters?
I glanced between the houses again as I unlocked the family beater.
None of them are likely to have...
I didn’t finish the grim thought as I tossed the duffel bag in the back seat and chucked the backpack into shotgun. The goal was to have three layers of supplies: first the car, then the duffel bag, and finally the backpack. Eventually, I wanted to find an off-road vehicle as well. My current ride wasn’t exactly apocalypse-friendly.
Maybe I’ll just drive by and...
The air in front of me twisted and bent, breaking me from my thoughts. In the same crisp suit as before, out stepped the announcer. I placed a protective hand over Aurora and gripped the knife as he retrieved his microphone.
“A bit disappointing so far, but maybe it’s just a rough start. Hopefully you’ll do better from here on out,” the demon said to no one in particular as he counted down from three with his fingers.
“WELCOME BACK TO THE 91,734th PLANETARY GAMES!
“I’m your host, Xelander Butchik, and it’s time for the Second Trial! Before we get started, let’s get everyone up to speed on the changes our contenders have undergone over the last few hours.”
I leaned against the car and watched the demon parade around and talk about classes, Ami, and a bunch of generic stuff about Earth. I clenched my jaw and focused on taking slow, deep breaths as I waited for him to address me. Every cell in my body demanded that I bash his face to pulp, even though I knew that wasn’t possible and would only get me killed.
“As for our contenders.”
The demon turned back to face me again.
“If you have any questions about your class, ask the A.M.I. She’ll answer what she can. Anything she can’t answer you don’t need to know about, so stop asking. Now, I know many of you are still reeling from the First Trial, so we’ll start you off slow. The Second Trial will be a Reward Trial. Nothing too difficult. Give those who are ready a chance to pull ahead early. A task completely accessible to each of you.
“For the Second Trial, you must kill someone. Remove a fellow contender from the games. Do that, and we will provide you with a skill coupon which can be used to upgrade one of your current skills to a higher tier or gain an entirely new skill. You have until noon tomorrow.”
Xelander’s grin contrasted with the rage and terror in my chest.
“Good luck.”
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