Episode 2
Mathew (Madeline) Williams
After I heard the man's steps slip down the hallway, there was a loud thump from the wall next to me.
"God DAMN IT!" Alfred yelled with his fist slammed completely against the wall. He had his phone in the other with it in air, trying to connect to a signal no doubt.
I tried to open the door back up and slip back out the way I came, but he saw me before I had a chance to pull down on the handle.
"I bet it's your fault! "He lifted his phone up in my direction throwing it, so that it hit me square in the chest. I coughed and wheezed, curling into a ball trying to breathe and get the air back into my lungs. I went to lift myself off of the floor but his foot hit me in the middle of my back, pushing me back down, crushing me.
"Stay on the floor you disgusting faggot!" He yelled down at me.
I felt cold tears begin to prick at my eyes as he grinded his heel into my back. Struggling to stand I could feel myself getting ready to pass out from the lack of air in my lungs. Alfred was relentless, even going so far as to kick me across my stomach. I cried out loudly hoping for the pain to just end, when there was a loud banging against the door.
"Leave us the fuck alone!" Alfred yelled
I was able to look up only slightly, but quickly the door opened and two large men came and grabbed Alfred by the shoulders. They picked him off of me and holding him up they proceeded in punching the man in the stomach, until he lay unconscious and limp in their arms. I stayed on the floor shaking trying to get a word out, but before I could they pulled Alfred's body out of the room.
Francis Bonnefoy
Naturally, I choose to sleep in. There's no real reason as to waking up early in the morning and it certainly will show on a person's complexion. Take my good friend Arthur; He was up bright and early the next morning, bent over the small desk in the room. Well isn't that a naughty position~ He seemed to be scribbling something down quickly and even though his hair was a complete mess, it appeared that whatever he was writing was fairly important. He was making some noise, (mostly annoyed scoffs,) waking me a good two or three hours before I had initially planned. I rubbed at my eyes, siting up from my makeshift bed on the floor.
My sleep hadn't been the best from what I could recall, but it seemed as though I wasn't the only one. Arthur had dark circles right underneath those spectacular green eyes of his, and seemed as if he never actually slept.
"You know," I yawned sleepily "If I had known you would have been up all night I would have slept in the bed, since you so rudely wasted it."
I stretched out my arms above my head, reaching for my blue button up that I had left on the floor.
"Shut up you disgusting frog," Arthur snapped not even looking up at me as I rose.
"Well aren't you a delight in the morning," I spat moving to grab my red tie. "And here I was, thinking that we could start fresh and maybe start this whole thing over, but no why would I think that an annoying brit like yourself would have any class."
Ah yes, did I mention that between Arthur and I we were part of the two most feuding nations in all of the world's history? He seemed to engulf all that was the English culture, with his tasteless choice in clothes and his rather dreary outlook on anything that breathes. I on the other hand, loved everything that had the decency to say a polite 'good morning'. I groaned internally, walking over to the window in the room and closing its opened curtains.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely had nothing wrong with putting on a show, however, when I planned on doing so, I wanted to appear put together and not like I had just slept on the floor of a grimy hotel room. I closed the dark curtain pulling it across the silver frame.
"Hey! Can't you see I'm working here?!" Arthur snapped looking up at me for the first time.
"And what, if I may ask, has you working at…" I looked at the clock next to me. "Seven in the morning?"
"A story, you selfish asshole, now open those damn curtains!" He stood ripping the heavy fabrics open to reveal the sunlight once more.
"Oh? It must be a rather amusing story to have you up this early~" I teased.
At first the blonde didn't seem to understand my joke, but within a few seconds the tips of his ears were a dark red and his face was scrunched up in an embarrassed look. It was almost cute.
Almost.
"Well, I'll let you get back to your perverse story, I'm going to get in the shower," I went into the bathroom but before I closed the door I poked my head out. "Don't come peaking in if you're looking for inspiration."
There was a loud, angered yell that came from the desk, but I quickly closed the door before I felt the wrath of the boy.
After taking a very relaxing shower, I went to work dressing myself in my most handsome of outfits. Of course I had to look handsome at all times, which meant I was wearing a striped blue button down with white pants and a fresh bright red colored tie. When I exited the bathroom I found the Englishman sitting in the same spot, only with a new set of fresh clothes covering himself. I placed the towel from the bathroom back up on the hanging rack that I had previously found it on, walking over the man with a small smile on my face.
"Look… Arthur was it? I want to apologize for being so rude to you this morning and to make it up-"
"Here," he said, calmly lifting up an envelope to my face with my name written along with his own. "It came when you were in the shower." Without missing a beat, the man went back to his writing, leaving me to the already opened letter;
Dear participants,
Today please meet in the center of the town hall with your significant other, at ten.
Love,
The producers
I looked down at the sheet, even going so far as to flip it over to see if there was a back, but apparently there was only the single line. I looked down at Arthur, hoping maybe he would have the answers but instead he was jotting away in that small notebook of his, clearly unaware of the outside world.
What on earth is he writing?
I looked at the clock on the bedside table and as the hands ticked to nine forty five, it rang with a small bringgg! Alerting both me and Arthur it was time to leave. With a soft sigh the man put down his pen and went to grab his ugly green sweater to cover himself from the spring breeze.
I opened the door for the man of course, though he seemed to show no appreciation, walking onwards without me, out of the rooms exit and down to the floor lobby.
Walking out of the hotel, we crossed the street into what was called the town hall, even though the only 'town' seemed to be the few stragglers who ended up in this game. I was quietly suspicious of everyone located in the town since –after a bit of digging- I found that no one could remember exactly how we arrived here.
Opening the dark doors into the empty room, was sort of like opening the doors into an elementary music room; the minute you walked in, the sheer noise hit you like slap across the face. Everyone I had met at the bar the night before had already been standing in the room, with a few new faces mixed into the group.
After a few minutes I spotted the small blonde boy from the bar and I walked over to him and what could have been his partner, Alfred. I smiled at the boy who seemed to be shaken up slightly, as his partner placed a hand on his shoulder.
"How are you mon ami?" I asked smiling at the boy and nodding at the man in front of me, "Francis" I said politely.
"Alfred," the blonde smiled back holding the smaller boy tightly against his chest.
"I-I am well…" the boy offered looking up at Alfred with weak smile, "Alfred seems to be a lot friendlier today."
It seemed the boy had been hinting something at me, which is when I noticed the just how forced the man's smile was. I felt myself rise slightly at this, pulling the smaller blonde away from his holder.
"Mattie, would you be so kind as to bring Gil over here? I believe he would love to meet this lucky man," I smiled evenly and let the poor child run to the albino man, who was somewhere on the other side of the room.
"Isn't he just the cutest?" I ask after a few seconds of silence.
The man said nothing.
"It's truly a shame, I mean he's such a sweet boy, yet he's stuck with a tasteless pig like you." I tsk-ed looking dead at the man who stood in front of me.
I could tell I had hit a sour note with Alfred, since his body went ridged but before I could comment on it, the speakers above us boomed to life. I turned around leaving the man behind me, in an attempt to find the source of the noise but it seemed as though the voice had been all around us and not in one stationary spot.
"Hello dear friends and contestants, I am your host and it's time for our live episode!"
"Who the hell are you and why am I here?!" A brunette yelled, though I noticed Antonio calm the male rather quickly, even going so far as distract him.
"I know you must be wondering as to why you're here, and why this is happening to you… but first!" The hall we were currently standing in darkened and a spotlight currently held everyone's positions.
I personally froze under the beams bright light, but a few people seemed to move closer to each other as if in fright. I noticed this was the case for Gilbert's girl, who went from one end of the room to the other holding on to the male rather tightly.
"We're going to be starting our first elimination!"
Elimination?
I looked wearily at Arthur, who gave me the same scared expression back as if afraid to move. I tried to smile at him for some reason, but even when I did manage a small look, it didn't seem to calm him down.
"You see contestants, the viewers of the show vote every week to see who who'll be leaving in this competition and they've already cast in their votes from last week~!" There was a pause and within that time all of the lights shut out.
All but one.
The light that still shined in the room was casted over the blonde behind me who began to look around in fright.
"N-no… t-theres no way…!" Alfred's eyes darted across the room scanning over every person as if pleading for help, "I did as you asked! I-I acted friendly with that boy! I-"
Two men appeared out of nowhere, built like a truck each of them, removing Alfred from the floor as he was kicking and screaming.
"PLEASE..! SOMEONE HELP ME! THERE GOING TO HURT ME, PLEASE HELP!" He was pulled away from the rest of us, out of the door where his yells could no longer be heard.
"Aw… isn't that cute~ You see… poor little Alfred wasn't being too kind to his partner, and well, we just couldn't have that could we~?" The laugh that came after that was borderline demented and psychotic.
I shook internally, unable to do anything but stay in my place until the lights returned.
"I hope you all learn from our dear Alfred's mistake…" the voice cackled, "I can't wait to see your lovely faces here once again next week! And I hope you live a happily ever after~!"
The speakers then shut down, and the normal lighting returned to the room, as if nothing had happened leaving me and everyone else in the room in an eerie silence.
One by one the people trickled out of the room. There was a gloom that hung over the group and I noticed that Arthur hadn't been taking it too well. It seemed that he had managed to be-friend the American man, since they met in the bookshop somewhere down the street last night. I felt a twinge of remorse for the Englishman, who looked as though he was internally shaking from what had happened.
I tried to comfort him in the best way I knew how.
"Would you... uh… would you like to go eat something…? Maybe later tonight? I know it'll get your mind off of things… and… I'm not particularly fond of you being so mopey…"
The man looked up at me with sad green eyes that secretly made me melt. I wanted to hug him and make it all better, but I knew even asking him to this dinner was pushing our current 'Relationship'. I shut my eyes, silently hoping he'd at least deny my offer in a less than horrific tone, also praying that he'd at least be somewhat easy on the insults, since I knew it'd only tire himself even more so.
"F-fine…"
Wait… did he just…?
"But… if we are to go anywhere, you are to treat me with respect." He said looking me dead in the eyes. I noticed he had rubbed them dry and was carrying himself with what little dignity he felt he had left.
"Of course," I smiled.
Arthur had his own sense of formal wear that absolutely surprised even me. Sitting in front of me was a man dressed in a three part suit that not only complemented his body shape, but also his skin tone with the ash grey bringing out the depth of green in his eyes and the lightness of his skin.
I had told him that we were to be attending a very classy restaurant and that formal wear was an absolute must, and I thought I might have to dress the man myself, but when I arrived from making the reservations I found someone who looked positively impressive.
We now were sitting at our table, sipping at some French wine I had ordered, though neither of us was saying too much this night, since we both were a bit hesitant and afraid of losing the pleasant atmosphere we had been sharing.
I don't like silence much. Just sitting in the space from which words should fill, it's all rather annoying. Of course I was never going to admit that. Thankfully Arthur placed his glass down and addressed me with a clearing of his throat.
"So… how did you find this place?" He asked calmly.
"Last night, I did some exploring while you were settling in. I found that this is supposed to be one of the few restaurants in this town." I paused. "It's supposed to pass as high class French cuisine, but we'll see."
The Englishmen snorted slightly and cracked a small smile. "And what would you know about French cuisine?" He teased.
"Oh, I know enough to know what you probably wanted and already had it ordered." I smiled as a stone faced waiter came and delivered our plates to us.
On the white crisp dishes sat a small row of golden colored scallops. They were decorated with light green parsley and a creamy red sauce that wrapped its way around the plate. When I looked up to gauge Arthurs reaction, I was pleasantly amused to find the man's face had contorted into a half smile that looked as if it was going to burst from the seams.
He met my eyes and regained his posture.
"How…" he cleared his thought. "How did you know I was a fan?"
I smiled using my fork to bite into the small fish. "Let's call it a lucky guess."
He watched me, the thoughts turning over in his head. I couldn't help but lift my glass, and tap it quietly against his.
"To new beginnings," I spoke softly .
Elizabeta Héderváry
"Eliza, this is Mathew, He was partnered up with the man we saw this morning… and… I was wondering if maybe I could stay with him for the night? He seems to be terribly frightened of something but he wants me to stay with him…"
I looked at the blonde who was shaking slightly as he stood in front of me. Gilbert was downright pleading me with his eyes, which in some sense was cute, only, that would require me to like men. I was so right when I assumed playing the safe route and tricking the poor fool I was stuck with that I liked him, would keep me in for as longer than just admitting my own preference.
However, what I didn't plan on, was the fact that not a single other woman seemed to exist in this damn town. It really shouldn't have been so hard as to find someone with estrogen pumping through their veins, I mean, come on, women make up at least half of the population and men wouldn't even exist without us.
Having this boy in front of me had pulled a hitch in my plans. If I wanted to really charm this audience that I kept hearing about, I needed to be with Gilbert at all times and make them wear down until of course we were the only ones left; the greatest part of it all is the fact that even if the poor boy had to leave, wouldn't that just leave me all alone~ oh and I would be so so sad.
But not for long, of course, since there are plenty of other sheep in the herd.
I glanced back up at the albino's pleading eyes and rolled my eyes.
"If only for the night…" I paused then grabbed ahold of the man's arm, tucking it nicely in between my breasts. "I'm really gonna miss you though…" I flashed him my saddest smile and even went so far as to tuck my hair behind my ears.
Gilbert's face morphed into a huge grin, nodding and repeating it'll only be for the night. I shot a look at the blonde, who seemed to read through my actions and turn a bright red. I wanted to squeeze the boy's cheeks and comment on just how cute he looked, in order to play off my disgust, but I instead I let go of the man's arm and walked back onto the bed. Gilbert placed his hands in his pockets in a relaxed fashion and I couldn't help but smile at him.
Just as they were walking out the door I noticed Mathew turn around to look at me. He had such large bright purple eyes, it was completely endearing and amusing to watch them widen in horror as I glared at him from the bed.
Sleep tight, I mouthed, blowing him a kiss and letting him slip out of the room.