(A/N) WAH, so sorry for not updating in a while! Here's another chapter.
Part II Tournament
My eyes flutter open and I find myself in a strange room. Sitting up, I glance around until a sharp pain in my head made me lay back down and groan in pain. I rub the spot, which seems to be sore and turn onto my side. On the bedside table was a simple lamp, a glass of water and a bottle of ibuprofen. I blink in surprise until everything comes flooding back. I feel my cheeks burn with indignation and reject their offer of painkillers and some water. It could be some unknown drug for all I know. Sitting up slowly I take a better look at the room. The room has golden walls and the furniture in the walls contrast nicely with a dark blue color. The handles are colored white to add a bit of an accent to the entire thing. My dark blue sheets were made of silk with a plush golden pillow and white sheets that caressed my body. I scowl at the luxury given to me.
Getting up, and putting a hand to my pulsing head, I stumble to the bathroom which I find is attached to my room and has the same color scheme. Golden walls, dark blue floors and counter, and white accents. A fluffy dark blue towel sat on the white towel rack which reflected in the mirror hanging above the dark blue basin. White faucets and handles gleam back at me, promising water to quench my thirst and soothe my aching head. Giving in, I turn the handles and a steady stream of clean water pours out. I cup my hands and fill it with water, then bringing it to my lips as I slurp it eagerly. After a little bit, I shut off the water and the pain in my head lessons to a dull throb. I walk back into my room as a loud knock makes me jump.
"Get up and get dressed!" an unknown male voice shouts. Before I have a chance to respond, he walks off. I furrow my brows in confusion and look down.
I gasp in surprise as my attire from yesterday was replaced with a white, golden, and dark blue colored pajamas are wrapped snugly around me. What the hell? How did I…? Shaking my head, I crawl back into bed, ignoring the strange voice's demand when I hear a loud bang!
"Get dressed otherwise I'll come in there and do it myself!" Raspy voice threatened. The threat sent me into a flurry of motion as I threw open the armoire doors, finding only one thing: a gi. Confused, I slowly slip my pajamas off and leave them on the floor as I slip the gi on. The gi was golden in color with a couple of dark blue highlights on the sleeves, collar, the hem of my shirt, bottom pant legs and the bottom of my shoes. I quickly retie my tangled hair into a high ponytail and open the door where Smiley meets me. I nearly jump and slam the door in his face when he reaches a bleach white hand and yanks me into the hall. Without a warning, we're practically jogging down the halls and down a flight of stairs where I'm confronted with, what looks like, the main foyer. A set of beautiful dark oak, double doors with golden handles stood elegantly, inviting me to open them. Absentmindedly, I drift toward the doors until a yank brings me out of my stupor.
"You aren't escaping that easily!" Raspy growls and he drags me to the room on the left side of the stairs. In this room were four sets of dark grey couches sit and a couple of cameras are strategically placed about the room. A few people were sitting on the couches stiffly, wearing the same gi as me except with different colors. Smiley throws me unceremoniously onto the couch and harshly tells me to stay here or he'll slit my throat. The other people, three boys and one girl, tense in fear and the girl suddenly breaks down in tears. I, on the other hand, puff my chest out as he leaves and glare at him. He can't tell me what to do!
Soon enough, other people come down wearing different colors until there were 16 teenagers ranging from fourteen to seventeen sitting on the different couches. The last two to come down were Lucas and, to my fury, Vinny-er Vincent. Lucas was wearing a black gi with a sky blue accents. Vincent wears one in green with a midnight blue accents. Vincent takes the seat farthest from me while Lucas sits on the edge of the couch I'm on.
"Do you know what's going on?" I whisper to him.
Lucas shakes his head. "I don't know. Were you taken too?"
I nod. Suddenly, eight people enter. Smiley, Elf boy and white mask were among them. A tall, paper white, slender being that stands, at least, eight feet tall wearing a black suit and tie and no face nods to the white masked man. White mask goes over and flips a switch on the camera and a red light turns on. Smiley steps in front of the camera and, impossibly, grins wider than the cut one.
"People of Earth," he announced loudly, "you have probably heard of us. Seen us or," he chuckles, "know someone who has been killed by one of us. Today my colleagues and I have sixteen teenagers we have taken from various countries and brought them here. You won't find us, for we are not part of your world. Now you might be thinking, why the hell we have taken all these random people and brought them here in weird clothes. Let's just say…" he snickers, "they serve some sort of purpose.
"We've noticed you humans enjoy drama." He draws out the word 'humans.' "So today, we have here a tournament. A tournament so each and every one of you flesh bags full of bloody hatred and damned f-"
"Okay, that's enough Jeff!" White mask harshly cuts off Smiley, Jeff's, little rant and pushes him off the camera's view. "What he was trying to say was…" White mask took a deep breath. "We've created a fun show for you to watch. We've taken these humans because we believe they hold some sort of...power, if you will. The winner is the one that holds that power and we need it. There will be eight contests that each and every one of us," white mask gestures to himself and the cameraman turns the camera to the rest of the freaks in the room and then turns it back to him, "have designed especially for them. Two people will be eliminated from each competition until two go head to head in the last competition that was designed by the Slenderman himself to determine the special one. Now you may be wondering, what is this tournament about? Well," he chuckles, "welcome to the Tournament of the Muse!"
The air suddenly gets tense as none of us 'competitors' look to each other for an explanation.
"Let the tournament, begin!" With a flourish, the camera blinks off.
"Was that live?" a girl asks.
White mask snaps his head in her direction. "Yes."
"Yeah, it's going viral!" Elf boy states and shows a phone screen to his friends who murmur their pleasure.
"Now, let's get these...Contestants ready for the first round." White mask walks off with the others and we are left alone in the room.
Suddenly, a girl breaks down crying and the chaos starts. Words of anger, fear, determination, and any other emotion I cannot name spew through their mouths as we're all trying to sort out what the hell just happened. I turn to Lucas who has a blank look on his face. I nudge him.
"What are you thinking?" I whisper.
He turns to me and whispers, "The first round. I...I'm afraid we won't make it."
"Why? You want to win?"
"No. I don't wanna die."
We lapse into silence and, one by one, we're dragged from the room. Some people willingly went, others wept, or put up a fight. Lucas stumbled when he was taken until I was the only one left in the room. I squeeze my hands into fists when the lights suddenly went out and covers slammed over the windows, leaving me in pitch black. I try to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness when a voice overhead rang throughout the house.
"Dear Tournament Contestants," came Jeff's raspy voice, "this is the first round. You can either run, hide, or fight. It's up to you. Find your own weapons which are hidden around the mansion. Goodluck, you have five minutes before I start hunting." The voice crackled out.
Despite being in the dark, I fling my body off the couch and blindly start crawling around the floor. If I want to have a chance of survival, I need to get out of this room. I hear a thud from upstairs and assume it was a contestant. My hands feel around me for anything that could help me see when I felt something cylindrical. I run my hand over it and feel it is a flashlight! I thought there were only weapons...Oh who cares?! It means I can see! Flicking the light on I have to decide whether I want to go upstairs or stay on the main floor. Maybe I can get on the roof! I decide to run upstairs, the light guiding me. I hear bangs and thuds all around me, presumably from the others. A boy runs past me in an attempt to find a safe place, a kitchen knife in hand. I keep running until I reach the end of the hall where a shuddered window sat. The shutter was made of wood, so punching it isn't an option.
"Two minutes!" Jeff sang over the speakers.
I use my flashlight to try to find something to break the window, getting an idea to search the rooms. I slam into each room, which was unlocked surprisingly, and search through the drawers and armoires for anything before going into the bathroom. My gaze falls upon a silver towel rack. Setting the flashlight on the counter I grab the towel rack and yank hard.
"One minute!"
It finally gives way and splits from the wall. Sprinting out of the room, I smash the towel rack onto the wood, which creates a small hole for me to escape.
"Thirty seconds!" He says with apparent excitement.
I smash through the glass on the other side and squeeze into both. I could feel stray pieces of wood and glass scratch at me as I squirm out. When I look out, I see the roof just above my reach. Leaning out, I grab onto the edge of the roof when…
"Five…"
I pull my legs from the glass.
"Four."
I am hanging by the roof and look down, seeing the fifteen or twenty-foot drop awaiting me.
"Three."
I hoist my upper body up onto the roof.
"Two."
I struggle to pull the rest of my body onto the roof.
"One."
I manage to scramble onto the roof when, "Zero! Ready or not here I COME!"
The roof was slanted so I carefully picked my way up to the very top where the two slants meet and straddle it like a horse. He could come from any direction for all I know. Maybe he would know where to find me. No, he does know where to find me! I left an obvious trace and left my only weapon back in the mansion. I mentally facepalm at how stupid I am. Of course he's going to go upstairs and find the smashed window and find me. And the only way out is down. But...I could use this to my advantage… I could push him off the edge.
The wind blows fiercely out here, slapping my cheeks as if to punish me for a stupid idea as to come out here. The gi, thankfully, keeps the wind out so only my face suffers. My hair whips in the wind and sometimes in my face. The sun is setting, telling me it is about to be night. Blinking, I turn away and try to listen for sounds inside the mansion. Unfortunately, the wind prevents me from hearing whatever is going on inside the mansion so, I have to brace myself and wait until this first round is over.
The sky turns to night, making the temperatures drop harshly. I soon see my breath as I breathe, the stars and moon illuminating my shivering figure through the leafless trees. The gi was warm earlier, but at night, it just keeps the wind out, not the temperature. I want to huddle into a ball to preserve core body heat, but I'm afraid of falling off the roof, so I just grit my teeth and suck it up. I rub my hands together and blow into them, trying to warm them up. This gi did not come with gloves. I look up at the moon and guess it's nearly seven or something. How long does this round last? I question. I close my eyes as I try to pretend I'm one with the cold. One of my teachers always said that feelings are only a product of the mind. I never took her seriously, but I might as well try. It's hard to do what she says but I take in a deep breath and let it out.
After a little while, I feel a hand grasp my arm. I gasp and my eyes snap open, about ready to punch the idiot who dared come up here when…
"Don't punch! Don't punch!" Lucas says, raising his hand above his head. The moonlight was behind him, shrouding his features in shadow.
"Oh, Lucas. What are you doing out here?" I lower my fist and look at him questioningly.
"It's over. I came looking for you."
I blink. "For how long? How did you find me?"
"Just an hour ago."
"What?!" I exclaim. "So I've been freezing my ass off for nothing?!"
"It took a while to find you though."
"A while?" I say in disbelief. "Did you not see the smashed window?"
"Oh, I did. I just didn't know if it was you. I thought you would have hidden in your room, like me."
I facepalm and sigh. "Yeah… Let's get off this roof."
We scooted carefully down to the edge of the roof. I turn around and grasp the edge of the roof firmly despite my frozen fingers. I swing one of my legs down to try and feel the hole. It takes me a couple of tries but I finally manage to slip one leg in, then the other. I inch myself as far as I can into the hole before letting go. I frown when I find only my midcalf could only get in. I take a deep breath and then let go of the roof, shooting for the edge of the glass. My fingers curl around the edge of the hole and I wince as it breaks the skin. Nevertheless, I scoot further in until I'm safe. Lucas is right behind me and I help him get inside. Once we both are on solid ground inside, I notice the lights are on, the shudders, except for the broken one, have retracted back to wherever it came from. A man with a blue mask, black eyes dripping with, what appears to be, tar, and a dark grey hoodie marches up to us.
"So who did this?" He gestures toward the broken hole.
"I did," I say immediately and block Lucas from saying anything. He isn't the scariest person I've seen here.
He's silent for a bit and we just stare at each other. Finally, he says, "Dinner is downstairs. Lucas go. Laila, come with me."
Lucas and I exchange looks.
"Ya know, I can go with you." He murmurs to me.
I shake my head. If I'm going to be punished, he shouldn't be there to see me. "No, go ahead. I'll join you."
Lucas looks at me, then at Blue Mask before hesitantly walking toward the stairs. When his body left our sight, Blue Mask turns to me.
"Let's get you cleaned up." He says and takes my arm, leading me downstairs.
I hear the scraping of utensils on dishes and chatter coming from the dining room. I assume the rest of the competitors were telling each other what happened. We make a full 180 and head underneath the staircase and down another set of halls. We finally come to a door which opens to reveal a little doctor's office. He points to the operating table and I hesitantly take a seat. Silently, he moves around and grabs hydrogen peroxide, a cotton swab, tweezers, and gauze. Grabbing the tweezers, he picks at glass pieces and splinters stuck to my skin. I bite my lip to keep from screaming out in pain as the shards refuse to come out of my skin. After that, he then pours the peroxide onto the cotton swab and rubs it across my cuts then wraps them in gauze.
"Done. Now go eat." He gestures to the door.
I don't need to be told twice and scurry out of the room. When I get to the dining room, Lucas jumps from his seat and fiercely wraps me in a hug.
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you? What did that asshat do to you?!" He grabs my face and looks for any unusual marking.
"Yes, I'm fine. He didn't hurt me just...patched me up." I respond, gently taking his hands from me.
Lucas sighs in relief. "Good. Now let's eat."
He grabs my hand and drags me over to a spot that has two seats. One seat has a mountain of food on its plate while one has little bites taken out of it. He gestures to the mountain and I take a seat. I wearily eye the food which was mashed potatoes with dark brown gravy poured on it. A baked potato split into fourths with a piece of butter sits in the middle, a side of green beans and some sparkling water in a champagne glass.
"So what happened to you?" a girl across from me asked. She wears a hot pink gi with golden highlights. Her hair is strawberry blonde with crystal blue eyes boring into mine.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
She gestures to the table. "We've all been here for an hour and you just got here. Where the hell were you?"
I point up. "The roof."
She coughs, from laughter or from shock I do not know. "Excuse me?"
"I broke a window and climbed onto the roof." I grab a fork and start digging into my buttered potato.
She blinks and laughs loudly, sounding exactly like a hyena. "Really?" she sneers. "What absolute fun!"
Oh, you're one of those girls, huh? I narrow my eyes at her.
"That's really stupid." She continues. "I mean, I…"
I tuned her out and continued eating.
When everybody finished dinner, the "hosts" escorted us to the living room. Cameras were turned off and the room was rearranged so that all the sofas faced toward a TV. Jeff gestured for us to sit and we immediately obeyed, not wanting to get on his bad side. In no time at all, the lights dimmed and the TV glowed, a circle with an X over it flashed on screen and the introduction from this morning played. So this is how it's going to be. From the corners of the room, I could see myself staring into the camera with a death glare that I didn't know I was giving. The video soon ended and the regular news came on.
"This, folks, was broadcasted nationwide across the globe. Scary to see your children taken, locked in a room, and forced to play their sick twisted game. A little while after another video came out." The newsman said.
Another video replaced the new room and a closeup of the white masked man appeared, his black feminine lips very pronounced. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we are going to be kind to all of you. As much as we wish you all to just watch, we also wanted to see how the human population can tip the scales on the winner. The muse will still win, but maybe they could use your support as they go through the challenges we have planned." The white masked man disappeared and sixteen headshots of all of us appeared on screen with our full names underneath. "We can't wait to see who you vote for." With that, the video clip ended and the newsman reappeared.
"Well, it certainly seems view participation is certainly required. We have recently found the poll but only fourteen remain now! The video of the gruesome deaths will not be played for the younger audience but we do know that Isabella MacClinclain and Joseph Salivester are out of the tournament. Such a sad loss for two young, promising lives. This is the LNN, signing off." The TV turned black.
We all sit there in quiet silence for a while, not sure of what to do until Jeff spoke up.
"This is the late night news report of our recent broadcasts. As you all know now, Isabella and Joseph were the unlucky losers. Will you be next? That's a question you all will have to ask yourselves. Gifts will be outside your door the next morning. Hope you receive something worthy. We will play the late night news every single night after the broadcasts. Good night."
They then escorted us to our rooms, doors slamming shut as each contestant got dropped off at their rooms until it was only Vincent and I left. I entered my room, which was on the right, as Vincent entered his across from me.
They put me across from this bastard?! I think bitterly before slamming my door closed. I quickly changed out of my gi and unceremoniously dropped it to the floor. Someone would pick it up, right? Putting on a nightshirt that was in the armoire, I slipped it over my form. The edge of the nightshirt fell below my knees, so I didn't worry about pants and crawled into bed. Surprisingly, I fell right to sleep.
Jeff
"So who do you think will win?" BEN said, turning to Jeff as the corkboard of all the contestants stood before them. The headshots and a brief sticky note of their personality, likes, dislikes, and talents of the contestants displayed. They had already taken down Isabella and Joseph, dumping them in the trash as if they were nothing more than an old note.
Jeff shrugged. "I dunno. How can you tell? The muse could take on any form! It could be this one," he points to an athletic looking contestant, "or this one," points to a scrawny one, "any one of them really! I can't just...choose!"
"Jeff's right," Masky said as he gazed up at the corkboard.
"B-but it still could be fun to guess!" Toby chimed.
"Yeah!" BEN piped as EJ rolled his eyes. "What do you think Slenderman?"
The tall faceless being gazed at the board, deep in thought. "If you want, but I'm not choosing."
"Oooh!" Sally, the little brunette girl of 7-years, sparkled as she stared at the corkboard. "Then I choose...This one!" She gestures to a girl who was 14-years-old and looked very childish named Amirah James.
Jeff rolled his eyes. "Then I guess we're doing this." Slipping a permanent marker out from his hoodie pocket, he put an 'S' next to Amirah's headshot. "Anybody else?"
"Oh, I choose this one," BEN smirked, pointing to a blonde girl with a lot of makeup one with the name Janice Dellia. "She's smokin' hot." Jeff stuck his tongue out but wrote 'BD' next to Janice's headshot.
"I-I'll take h-him." Hoodie, the shy boy, pointed toward the nerd Lucas Whickham. Jeff wrote down an 'H' next to his headshot.
For the next few minutes, all the Creepypastas, including the pets, Smile Dog and Grinny Cat, specifically picked a contestant until only one remained. "Who do you want?" Jeff turned toward Lui, his older brother.
Lui gazed around the faces and picked a boy that was average. Jeff wrote his initials next to the headshot and capped the marker.
"There," he declared. "The Pasta who's chosen contestant doesn't die, wins the competition and will train the muse." They all nodded in agreement. "Except for Sally." He kneels down to her. "But you can pick her mentor."
"Yeah!" Sally cheers, throwing her ghostly arms up. "This will be so fun! I have a great idea for a round!"
"I'm sure we'll use it." He smiles sweetly at the little girl. "Now, go to bed."
She giggles and runs off as everybody disperses. A chill suddenly crawled up his spine and he took his knife out, ready to attack an intruder. When he found he was all alone, he shrugged it off, not knowing the danger that lurked.
(A/N) Can you guess who chose Laila?