Chapter Twelve - Rat Race
I'm back, guys. I had a lot of this chapter written for a while, but didn't get it finished till now. The death of this chapter was a rollercoaster to write. I feel like it turned out very well, but man, it makes me sick thinking about what I had the Gamemaker do.
However, enough about me. I don't want to go on rambling when I've made you guys wait this long for the next chapter. Let's see what the Gamemaker has done to the person Kim was paired with.
"No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear."
~ C.S. Lewis
Max's Point of View
"Greetings and salutations, everyone!" An absolutely gleeful Gamemaker bursts into our room of confinement, the door slamming against the wall from the effort he used to throw it open. "Kim Le Chien has failed his challenge!"
There's no build up like the other time. It's just stated right out of the gate. Even if he hadn't said it was Kim, I would've already been panicked. The Gamemaker has already made it clear who will die today, even if I can't see him as clearly as I could if I still had my glasses. Dark skin, dark hair, a green shirt, and, if I'm deciphering my blurred vision correctly, glasses.
The Gamemaker looks like me.
I choke on the air I'm trying to breath, panicking. I am Kim's best friend. It makes sense that I would be paired with him. And, if I'm being honest, I knew Kim would likely fail. He may be strong, but he doesn't think with his head. If a challenge involved anything more than the bare minimum of intelligence, I was doomed.
But that still doesn't stop me from panting and thrashing about as the Gamemaker walks towards me.
"I don't want to die!" Am I crying?
"Leave him alone!" It is Alix, of course, who speaks up in an attempt to defend me, tugging at her chains.
The Gamemaker ignores her, still slowly approaching, but she has set up a chain reaction among the rest of our friends. "Don't touch him," Alya hisses, struggling to try and kick at the Gamemaker.
Nathaniel does his best to grab at his head, choking out the same word over and over again. "No!"
Manon screams, eyes shut tight, as her head thrashes around. It's a wordless, desperate, despair-filled howl. And she isn't even the one that's going to die.
"Stop it!" Adrien begs, straining against his binds. His expression is a mix of desperate fear pushing him to action and rage. "Stop it, please!"
Mylene has closed herself off, staring vacantly up at the ceiling. Juleka, on the other hand, watches me with an emotionless expression, but I've been in class with her long enough to know that she is distressed.
It's Sabrina, however, that I look at last, and she is the one that breaks me. Silent tears slip down her cheeks as she mouths three words at me. Three words that completely shake my world. "I love you."
My doppleganger looms over me, grabbing at my chains, and I cry out as I feel the chain being yanked upwards, choking me. My eyes involuntarily shut as I brace myself for the inevitable...but then the chain goes slack.
I open my eyes, and now Kim's stare back at me as he says the words that change everything. "But Max, Kim wasn't paired with you."
In a moment, he turns and grabs the chains above Alix.
"No," I whisper in horror, because as much as I don't want to die, I certainly don't want to see something terrible happen to Alix. "No, wait!"
My flailing and desperate attempts to get his attention back on me go ignored as he brushes a thumb against Alix's lips, only for him to get bitten by the pink-haired girl. He yanks his hand back, and for just a moment, there is a look of victory on Alix's face and a look of pain on his. However, pain is quickly replaced by anger, as the Gamemaker grabs Alix's head and slams it against the wall. She cries out despite obviously trying to at as if she is unaffected, and the Gamemaker responds by punching her in the face.
Now there are legitimate tears dropping from Alix's eyes as blood drips from her nose, staining her shirt. His punch has obviously messed up her nose; I can tell for sure from this angle, especially without my glasses, but it definitely looks broken.
"That's what you get, b*tch," the Gamemaker snarls as he lets her chains slip from his hand. "You know what the worst part is, Alix Kubdel? There was no reason for you to die."
"What does that mean?" Adrien asks, still struggling against the chains holding him in place.
"It means," the Gamemaker pauses to glare at the blond model before turning his attention back to the skater in front of him, "that our dear friend Kim," he gestures to his own appearance, "had one of the easiest challenges I've ever given out. Sure, there were some difficulties, but it was nothing someone like Kim couldn't have handled. He'd have beaten it with plenty of time to spare. But..."
Since he is obviously looking for some audience interaction, I manage to bite out a response to prompt him to continue. "But?"
"But Mr. Le Chien thought he could outsmart me. I give him one of the easiest challenges out of all the ones I've ever planned, and what does he do? He tries to cheat."
"Oh gosh, the idiot," I mumble, pressing my head against the wall and staring at the ceiling, trying not to think about what is going to happen next, because I know what is going to happen next, I do, and it makes my survival feel all the more hollow.
I hear Alix's chains rattle beside me as Manon begins her screaming all over again. "He cheated, Alix, and therefore assured your death. How does that make you feel?"
"Die, you f-" Alix doesn't get the chance to finish. I open my eyes just in time to see her receive a kick to the stomach for once again trying to talk back.
Grinning like the psycho he is and ignoring the cries to stop and threats from several of the rest of my friends, the Gamemaker kicks her one more time for good measure before moving to unchain her. In spite of it all, Alix lifts her head high, and when she is unchained, gets to her feet and tries to land a punch on the Gamemaker.
He grabs her hand before it can even make contact, twisting it till we all can hear the sickening crack of her wrist as Alix cries out, tears mingling with the blood from her nose and split lip - which I'm only just barely able to make out through my blurry vision - streaming down her face.
"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this, Kubdel," the Gamemaker announces as Alix tries to pathetically writhe out of his grip. It's no use at this point; she's been hit so many times by him that she has no energy left to fight him with. He lifts her up bridal style and haphazardly tosses her onto a table in the center of the room - was that always there? - and, as she whimpers and tries to find the energy to stand, chains her down so that each of her four limbs is chained against one of the table's legs. You can tell even if that pains her, because it is stretching her farther than she should be splayed. "Now, why don't you stay put for a moment, and I'll be right back to deal with you."
To add insult to injury, he rips her shirt open and then licks some of the blood-tear mixture dripping down Alix's face, pulling away and laughing when she tries to thrash around. Then he heads to the door into the room and exits, leaving us to look at her.
"I don't want to die," Alix finally manages to croak out after a minute of silence.
For a moment, no one knows what to say, but finally Adrien responds. "It's okay, Alix, we'll get you out of this. You're not going to-"
That sets Alya into a fit, and she strains at her chains as she screams at Adrien, "Don't give her that bullcrap, Adrien! Don't try to give her false hope. What do you think we're going to do? We're all chained up! The only thing we can do is watch!"
And that sets the pink-haired skater into a fit, thrashing around on the table. "No no no! I'm not gonna die like this!"
"Mama!" Manon cries, curling up into herself.
"Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh," Nathaniel mumbles the phrase over and over again, hands shaking as he stares at Alix.
I try to pull against my chains, but it's no use. "Alix, Alix-"
"Max," she cuts me off, turning to looking at me to the best of her ability. The panic has faded from her face, replaced with a dull, pained acceptance, "t-tell Kim it's not his fault," She and I both know that's a lie, don't we? It objectively is his fault, "and tell my brother...oh gosh...tell Jalil I'm sorry that I didn't...didn't do a better job fighting back."
"Alix!" I give one forceful yank against my chains to no avail as the Gamemaker enters the room. "No, no! No, don't kill her! Take me instead. Gamemaker, take me instead!"
I want to live just as much as everyone else here, but there are people wating for Alix. Who is there waiting for me besides my mom? I want to see her again, but how can anything be the same after this?
The Gamemaker ignores me as, still in the form of Kim, he produces a plastic container containing a rat, of all things, inside. "Alix, I'd like you to meet my little friend. He's here for your challenge, alright? He's here for a race of his own."
"What are you doing?" I ask, desperate for some way to get Alix out of this, but the Gamemaker ignores me again.
He takes a metal bowl he has sitting at the table side and unceremoniously drops the rat onto her abdomen before dropping a bowl over top of it. Before Alix can even try to shift it off, he applies some pressure over the top to make sure she won't shake it off.
"Here's the name of the game, Alix. This rat needs to get out before he starves or," he picks up an iron from beside the table, setting it atop the bowl before grabbing the end that plugs in, "burns to death."
"No," Alya whispers, but beyond that, the room is silent.
"And you know what the best part is? He can't cheat his way out. No, it's just like Kim's maze, but there isn't any escaping the path I've laid out for him. If he wants to live, you know what he's gotta do.
I can feel bile rising in my throat, and I have to hold back my vomit as I realize the full extent of the Gamemaker's torture.
"Nothing to say, wise-mouth? You've always had something to say before, even when I told you to shut up. Now you have nothing? No final words for a cruel world?"
"Die in Hell," Alix spits right in his face, but all it does is get a loud, boisterous laugh from the Gamemaker.
He plugs the iron in as he says, "Ah, you've been one of my favorites in this game so far, Alix Kubdel. Such a shame that you have to go so soon. But take heart; I am giving you the honor of dying in one of my favorite fashions. You'll never have to stop being one of my favorite victims!"
The sound of panicked squeaking can barely be heard, but it's there.
"I'll leave things like this so I don't disturb all of your viewing experiences, and will go watch from somewhere else. Wouldn't want to make anyone uncomfortable." The Gamemaker winks. "And don't worry. Once she's dead, I'll leave her corpse in here for all of you. After all, I wouldn't want to take your friend away from you."
Alix begins to scream as he's shutting the door behind him.
Marinette's Point of View
As the lid comes off, I freeze, unable to comprehend the sight before my eyes. Somewhere in the background, I hear Jalil fall to his knees and begin to scream, begging someone to tell him why she's dead, why she was tied to Kim. To tell him who he saved if not his precious, little sister.
Her body. Oh gosh, the sight of it makes me want to puke, and I can't even really take it all in. Nino grabs my shoulders and turns me away so that I won't have to look at it any longer. I didn't even see the whole thing. Her face looked mangled enough, and the state of decomposition...
I shudder as Nino pulls me into a tight hug.
No one knows what to do. Nathalie is kneeling beside Jalil, trying to comfort him but not knowing how to. Several people have vomited into the grass, an involuntary reaction to such a gross sight. It's only now that the gravity of this situation has really gotten to us. It is evident from Alix's remains that she was not simply killed; no, her death was obviously quite gruesome. Now, it is no longer matter of knowing we killed our friends if we failed; it's a matter of knowing we killed our friends in some of the worst ways imaginable.
"Nathaniel-" I begin, afraid to even ask what happened, but one look at his face gets me to shut up.
He's on the verge of tears, a far away look in his eyes, and he is shaking. From beside him, Lila shakes her head, and I get the message: now is not the time.
I don't know if there ever will be a time.
But Jalil apparently caught on to what I meant to do, because he stands and on wobbily feets makes his way over to Nathaniel, Nathalie trying to grab his hand and stop him. "What did that monster do to my sister?"
"No," Nathaniel whispers, gripping at the side of his head to cover his ears, "no!"
"Nathaniel-" Jalil's voice is dark and threatening.
But Lila, filled with rage, is even more of a force to be reckoned with. "Leave him alone!"
Before the fight can escalate any further, there is a scream in the distance, and all of us look at each other in shock. Did someone wake up early in their box? However, as I meet everyone's gaze, I realize we come up one short, even with the loss of Kim.
"Rose," Nino whispers right as I make the realization, and Ivan takes off, the rest of us on his heels to catch up to the blonde and find out what horror she has found lying in wait.
She failed her challenge. This whole time, she must have been assuming Juleka died. However, now that we know not everyone who we thought was attached to us is, suddenly everything is called into queston.
Just who did Rose find in her box?
And there we have it, guys! I finally got us to chapter 12. Gosh, rat torture has got to be one of the worst ways to go. Disgusting stuff. It was particularly common during the Middle Ages, as one might guess.
What were your thoughts on the chapter? Good? Bad? I didn't go into much detail with the actual torture; I couldn't really when it was from Max's perspective and not Alix's, and besides, I think all of the anty leading up to it - including the Gamemaker's barbaric behavior - served well enough for the horror side of this. Were you guys expecting the switch of it not being Max who was tied to Kim? Who did you think was going to be tied to him once you found out or figured out it wasn't Max? Who do you think Rose found in her box? Let me know all of your thoughts in a review.
I am so sorry for not getting this out sooner; I've been really struggling to write my fanfics recently, but I will try to get updates out a bit more consistently. Gosh, we are getting closer and closer to seeing the end of this story, guys. That's so crazy to me. I'm so excited to see what everyone's thoughts are on this chapter, and what they will be on the following ones.
Until next time. c:
~ Dagger