Intrigue-chapter 4
A/N This is basically a synopsis of the books. Told in my own way, from Julian's POV, for those readers out there who don't know, or are a little hazy about, the story of the forbidden game. But that doesn't mean to say that you can totally ignore it just because you know all the books by heart. READ IT
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Julian started talking immediately, beginning with the part Freya already knew. His words wove a web, spinning lifelike pictures before their eyes. He told it like a story rather than a relation of events, and Freya was happy to listen, sinking into the pattern of his words. He went on;
"This all began when Jenny was 5, from the moment I saw her, I wanted her for myself. I was so...so....In love with her, I followed her life. Viewed her every movement, you could even say I stalked her" Jenny visibly shuddered at this and Julian ignored her, he carried on talking. "I made sure she didn't come to harm, but to do so, I had to watch her. I had to watch her fall in love with Tom, I had to watch their first kiss. their thousand upon thousand dates. It hurt, it hurt really bad. But then, on Tom's seventeenth birthday, Jenny stumbled into my shop, my place between the worlds and I sold her the game. The forbidden game.
"She had her suspicions about it, uncertain whether or not she should play it, but she had no other games to play, and it was too late now. It was obvious that her friends thought that that was all it was. A game, and she couldn't disappoint her boyfriend on his birthday, could she? So they accepted the rules of the game, callously invoking the rune uruz, to pierce the veil between the worlds and on the ninth chime of an unseen clock, they were plunged into my world, Niflheim, the world of shadows, where they had to face their fears, their nightmares. But I don't just throw people into the shadow world for no reason, every game has a prize, and Jenny was the prize for this one. The rules of the first game were simple, You are in a house, you must face your worst nightmare before you can progress to the next level of the house. All of these nightmares are very real, and if you die in the house, you die in the real world. The door at the top of the house is open, free for everyone to go through after the nightmares are all over.
"No one has ever beaten the game before, I was so certain that she was finally mine, but they all did it. All except Summer. Summer should have died, destroyed by the darkness and fear of her own nightmare, but I kept her alive, if not just for Jenny. They beat the game and, as promised, the door was open. But one person still had not faced his nightmare, the person I had put at the top of the house, Tom. The nightmare Tom had drawn on his slip of paper was losing Jenny. I thought I had won. Whatever happened, I would still have Jenny. So Jenny promised herself to me in return for the lives of all her friends. Having sealed it with a promise ring, the words "All I refuse and thee I chuse" laying heavy on her skin. I was feeling so victorious, but Jenny tricked me. Shutting me in the closet of a replica of her grandfathers basement and sealing it with another rune, Nauthiz - the rune for containment. She ran, dragging her friends and Tom with her.
"When they were back at Jenny's house, they stuffed the game back into the box along with Jenny's promise ring. Cramming the lid on and sealing it with an entire roll of cellotape, they were sure nobody would ever release me. But It wasn't too long before two boys opened the closet door and let me out. Startled, maybe even scared by my appearance, they stumbled backwards into the arms of my ancestors and were killed immediately.
"I was mad, angry, depressed. But I still wanted Jenny. I needed her. She was the ray of sunshine a shadow needs to come into being" At this, he threw Jenny an urgent look, following it around the table and Freya knew that this was a significant piece of information. Satisfied that he had got the message across, Julian continued;
"So that was the beginning of the second game. I got the idea from a game that a group of children, brothers and sisters of the seven-currently six- players, had made up. I often find children to be most interesting and imaginative. The game was called Lambs and Monsters. The rules of the game are as follows:
There is one monster, who chases the lambs. The lambs hide from the monster, who has to find and tag them. Once he has tagged them they must retire to his lair, where they have to stay until another lamb frees them. Or" his eyes glinted " Or until the monster eats them" he smirked. "But the monster can't eat them until all of the lambs are in his lair.
"Obviously, my version was a little more sophisticated, and the stakes were higher. I was the monster, and Jenny and her friends were the six innocent little lambs. They didn't have to hide because I knew exactly where they were. I dragged them off to my 'lair' one by one. Leaving behind only a paper doll and a clue as to who was next. Jenny found my lair, but she was a few minutes too late and I had already won. But if that didn't bother her before, why should it now? Pushing me into a vortex of my own creation, she dragged her friends to safety. All except her cousin Zach got out.. Tom went back for him, but he took too long and they were both lost. Now I had them, they were mine to use as wished, and I wished to use them as a prize, don't I always? And so began the third and final game.
"I now had Zach and Tom in Niflheim and I sent the remaining four players on a treasure hunt to find him. the rules were simple. Find three tokens and you get over the bridge to find the prize. But I never let anyone win easy, and this game, set in a funfair built as a form of torture by my ancestors long ago, was the most emotional for the few players left. Highs and lows were in store as Jenny was forced to accept the cruel fate of her grandfather" Jenny winced "and I let them find Summer, alive and well, though sleeping thoroughly. I caused them all to admit to their secrets" he looked at Audrey "and their desires" he looked at Jenny.
" Even through all this they remained solid friends and they won the game. I felt so defeated, but I had to accept it. This was final game and there could be no more. I had lost Jenny for good. She loved Tom and there was way to change that, but my ancestors, the elder shadow men, claimed her as their own. By freeing the spirits of their victims, they felt that she had violated their business. They wanted to kill her, but I wouldn't let them. So I made a bargain, a life for a life. It was a bargain which the Elders gladly accepted. Jenny and her friends, all of them, went free while the Elders carved my name from the runestave.
"It hurt. It was a pain so great, so unbelieveable, you would never, ever feel it. each stroke they made was like a gash in my flesh. I felt that it was me that they were carving. I was weak- so weak that it scared me, I remember swearing to myself that I would never be weak. Jenny and the players took me with them, but nothing could save me from my fate." There were tears in the eyes of everyone in the room. Ignoring this, Julian continued, with surprising finality;
"Except Jenny" Everyone looked up sharply. This was it.
___________________________________
OKAY!! If ya hate it-tell me so, if ya luv it-make me glow n_n
A/N This is basically a synopsis of the books. Told in my own way, from Julian's POV, for those readers out there who don't know, or are a little hazy about, the story of the forbidden game. But that doesn't mean to say that you can totally ignore it just because you know all the books by heart. READ IT
________________________________________________________
Julian started talking immediately, beginning with the part Freya already knew. His words wove a web, spinning lifelike pictures before their eyes. He told it like a story rather than a relation of events, and Freya was happy to listen, sinking into the pattern of his words. He went on;
"This all began when Jenny was 5, from the moment I saw her, I wanted her for myself. I was so...so....In love with her, I followed her life. Viewed her every movement, you could even say I stalked her" Jenny visibly shuddered at this and Julian ignored her, he carried on talking. "I made sure she didn't come to harm, but to do so, I had to watch her. I had to watch her fall in love with Tom, I had to watch their first kiss. their thousand upon thousand dates. It hurt, it hurt really bad. But then, on Tom's seventeenth birthday, Jenny stumbled into my shop, my place between the worlds and I sold her the game. The forbidden game.
"She had her suspicions about it, uncertain whether or not she should play it, but she had no other games to play, and it was too late now. It was obvious that her friends thought that that was all it was. A game, and she couldn't disappoint her boyfriend on his birthday, could she? So they accepted the rules of the game, callously invoking the rune uruz, to pierce the veil between the worlds and on the ninth chime of an unseen clock, they were plunged into my world, Niflheim, the world of shadows, where they had to face their fears, their nightmares. But I don't just throw people into the shadow world for no reason, every game has a prize, and Jenny was the prize for this one. The rules of the first game were simple, You are in a house, you must face your worst nightmare before you can progress to the next level of the house. All of these nightmares are very real, and if you die in the house, you die in the real world. The door at the top of the house is open, free for everyone to go through after the nightmares are all over.
"No one has ever beaten the game before, I was so certain that she was finally mine, but they all did it. All except Summer. Summer should have died, destroyed by the darkness and fear of her own nightmare, but I kept her alive, if not just for Jenny. They beat the game and, as promised, the door was open. But one person still had not faced his nightmare, the person I had put at the top of the house, Tom. The nightmare Tom had drawn on his slip of paper was losing Jenny. I thought I had won. Whatever happened, I would still have Jenny. So Jenny promised herself to me in return for the lives of all her friends. Having sealed it with a promise ring, the words "All I refuse and thee I chuse" laying heavy on her skin. I was feeling so victorious, but Jenny tricked me. Shutting me in the closet of a replica of her grandfathers basement and sealing it with another rune, Nauthiz - the rune for containment. She ran, dragging her friends and Tom with her.
"When they were back at Jenny's house, they stuffed the game back into the box along with Jenny's promise ring. Cramming the lid on and sealing it with an entire roll of cellotape, they were sure nobody would ever release me. But It wasn't too long before two boys opened the closet door and let me out. Startled, maybe even scared by my appearance, they stumbled backwards into the arms of my ancestors and were killed immediately.
"I was mad, angry, depressed. But I still wanted Jenny. I needed her. She was the ray of sunshine a shadow needs to come into being" At this, he threw Jenny an urgent look, following it around the table and Freya knew that this was a significant piece of information. Satisfied that he had got the message across, Julian continued;
"So that was the beginning of the second game. I got the idea from a game that a group of children, brothers and sisters of the seven-currently six- players, had made up. I often find children to be most interesting and imaginative. The game was called Lambs and Monsters. The rules of the game are as follows:
There is one monster, who chases the lambs. The lambs hide from the monster, who has to find and tag them. Once he has tagged them they must retire to his lair, where they have to stay until another lamb frees them. Or" his eyes glinted " Or until the monster eats them" he smirked. "But the monster can't eat them until all of the lambs are in his lair.
"Obviously, my version was a little more sophisticated, and the stakes were higher. I was the monster, and Jenny and her friends were the six innocent little lambs. They didn't have to hide because I knew exactly where they were. I dragged them off to my 'lair' one by one. Leaving behind only a paper doll and a clue as to who was next. Jenny found my lair, but she was a few minutes too late and I had already won. But if that didn't bother her before, why should it now? Pushing me into a vortex of my own creation, she dragged her friends to safety. All except her cousin Zach got out.. Tom went back for him, but he took too long and they were both lost. Now I had them, they were mine to use as wished, and I wished to use them as a prize, don't I always? And so began the third and final game.
"I now had Zach and Tom in Niflheim and I sent the remaining four players on a treasure hunt to find him. the rules were simple. Find three tokens and you get over the bridge to find the prize. But I never let anyone win easy, and this game, set in a funfair built as a form of torture by my ancestors long ago, was the most emotional for the few players left. Highs and lows were in store as Jenny was forced to accept the cruel fate of her grandfather" Jenny winced "and I let them find Summer, alive and well, though sleeping thoroughly. I caused them all to admit to their secrets" he looked at Audrey "and their desires" he looked at Jenny.
" Even through all this they remained solid friends and they won the game. I felt so defeated, but I had to accept it. This was final game and there could be no more. I had lost Jenny for good. She loved Tom and there was way to change that, but my ancestors, the elder shadow men, claimed her as their own. By freeing the spirits of their victims, they felt that she had violated their business. They wanted to kill her, but I wouldn't let them. So I made a bargain, a life for a life. It was a bargain which the Elders gladly accepted. Jenny and her friends, all of them, went free while the Elders carved my name from the runestave.
"It hurt. It was a pain so great, so unbelieveable, you would never, ever feel it. each stroke they made was like a gash in my flesh. I felt that it was me that they were carving. I was weak- so weak that it scared me, I remember swearing to myself that I would never be weak. Jenny and the players took me with them, but nothing could save me from my fate." There were tears in the eyes of everyone in the room. Ignoring this, Julian continued, with surprising finality;
"Except Jenny" Everyone looked up sharply. This was it.
___________________________________
OKAY!! If ya hate it-tell me so, if ya luv it-make me glow n_n