Mevia blinked her eyes open, grimacing at the sour taste in her mouth and the way her entire body felt sore as she squinted against the late afternoon sun shining through the windows. She might've slept tensed up...
Wait, hadn't it been morning earlier?
Wait, hadn't she been heading to lunch?
She bolted straight upright- and instantly regretted it as bile formed in her throat, head swimming as if someone had cut open her head, yanked her brain out, and tossed it into a pool.
Great, she'd needed that mental image in her head...
"Oh, good, you're awake."
Mevia blinked a nasty shade of green out of her eyes- not green like Jesse's eyes or Otto's robes, just this really sickly, yucky green- to see Ivor looking over his shoulder, hands working over a potion without him even having to look at it. "I thought I might have to make another dose of the antidote, but now that you're up your system should just expel it out of your body on its own." He paused, lips pursing momentarily. "Well, assuming that your body system is working properly."
Mevia blinked again, before glancing around. She appeared to be in the infirmary, although she wasn't alone. On another bed was Olivia, sitting up and wincing with bandages wrapping around her elbow, her knee, her ankle, and possibly her ribcage, from how gingerly she seemed to be holding herself. Axel sat next to her, fussing over her like he was her mother or something. On a chair nearby was Lukas, holding a bag of ice to a swollen ankle with a healing potion on the table next to him and Petra double and triple-checking his ankle, to his seeming amusement. Jace sat next to Petra, squinting at Lukas with this half-joking jealousy.
"... what happened to you two?"
Lukas glanced up at Mevia and gave a tiny, albeit reluctant smile. "We could ask the same of you." The smile faded a moment later. "Someone pushed Olivia down the stairs, and I tripped on a tripwire and twisted my ankle." He paused. "Which actually might've saved my life because a hammer missed my head by an inch."
"What-!?"
"And you were apparently poisoned, according to Ivor."
Mevia stopped mid-question, dark eyes wide as she stared at the blonde boy and the redhead and the brunette staring back at her. When a long enough moment had passed that she realized he wasn't kidding, that they were all dead serious, she blinked rapidly. "What?" she repeated, voice drenched in disbelief.
"You were poisoned," Ivor repeated what Lukas had said, "by a Potion of Poison that is one of the most lethal ones I'd ever seen. I had to administer three increasingly large doses of the antidote because the Potion of Poison just would not exit your system properly."
"But I didn't intentionally take a Potion of Poison," Mevia replied indignantly- she was, after all, not stupid and knew what a Potion of Poison looked like- "and I was feeling perfectly fine until-"
Mevia stopped abruptly.
Her water cup had gotten knocked over this morning.
Hadrian had done it with his elbow by accident.
Not a hard thing to do by accident, but very easy to fake an accident while doing it on purpose.
He'd offered to refill it. He could've put anything in there during that time.
Mevia hadn't paid the water close attention. Tasted fine enough, although there was a weird taste that made her assume it came straight from a tap or something.
But Potions of Poison could be adjusted to suit whatever liquid it was slipped into.
She hadn't started feeling so horrible until a short time after breakfast.
"Merde!" Mevia snapped loudly, making several of the occupants of the room jump several inches- Axel almost knocked his chair over backwards- feeling like she wanted to slap herself. She could've just taken a stick and whacked the thing across her face, she could've just killed herself. She pretty much nearly HAD by just letting Hadrian go refill her water cup.
"Don't say that in front of Jesse, she's going to ask what it means," Ivor said absentmindedly, before turning to look at her with narrowed eyes. "Did you figure out how you got poisoned?"
Mevia automatically was about to open her mouth and tell them exactly who poisoned her, exactly how that had happened-
Tell anyone about this, and you had better remember this, I will kill her, and then I will kill you.
I will kill her.
Mevia sat there for a moment, eyes wide as she stared at the expectant eyes of everyone in the infirmary. She could tell them now. She could tell them everything.
But then Jesse was going to die.
As if that was some sort of dramatic cue, the doors to the infirmary were thrown open with a shocking bang, and Jesse burst through the doors into the room, green eyes glimmering with tears. "Are you guys okay?!" she burst out, looking as if she might just break down in tears any second.
Harper trailed through a little behind her.
"Yeah, just a twisted ankle," Lukas said easily, putting his hands up in a comforting way and giving Jesse a calming smile.
Olivia shifted a bit and winced. "I mean, I could do without the pain in my ribcage, but yeah, it could've been a lot worse." She gave Jesse a smile of her own.
Despite what they were saying, Jesse still looked like she was going to start crying.
"It's really fine, I don't- ohhh everything's turning green again," Mevia muttered, her face probably turning the same shade that everything had just taken the ugly hue of. She'd tried to shift up into a different position, but her stomach had complained vocally.
Jesse's eyes screwed up a little, tears forming in the corner of her eyes and threatening to pour down her cheeks like a leaky faucet. "It's all my fault," she whispered.
"Oh- Jesse, no," Petra groaned, quickly shifting off the chair she'd been resting on and moving over to Jesse, squeezing the smaller girl's shoulder. "It's not your fault, it could've happened to anyone, it's not because we came looking for you... I mean, look, Axel, Jace, and I are fine."
"My fault," Jesse repeated, reaching up and covering her eyes as if she wanted to hide her face. "It's my fault."
"Dude, it's not your fault," Axel said comfortingly, getting up himself and wrapping both Petra and Jesse in a tight group hug. "It's not like you caused those things to happen."
"No. Someone else did," Olivia said, her voice growing stricter and tighter. "I mean, someone else had to set up that thing where the hammer almost hit Lukas, and it's not like you pushed me down the stairs."
"And it's not like you poisoned me," Mevia said, staring at Jesse directly and trying to fight down the rising queasiness in her system, trying to communicate what she was thinking to the girl through her eyes.
Jesse lifted teary eyes from her covered face and stared straight at Mevia, giving a tiny, stiff nod in response to the steady gaze that the older woman was sending her.
I know.
"Did Mevia figure out who poisoned her?" Harper asked, glancing at Ivor as Mevia tried to decipher that practically telepathic statement. Did that mean Jesse knew that Hadrian had threatened to kill her, or did that mean Jesse knew that Hadrian had poisoned Mevia? Or did it mean both?
"Yes, but she hasn't said who yet, and we've all just been trying to think of someone who would be willing to try to murder her, or hurt Olivia, or hurt Lukas," Ivor sighed, corking the potion bottle he'd been working on.
"I mean... I can't really see anybody in the whole group trying to hurt people like that. I mean, some of those incidents could've been lethal if they'd gone wrong," Jace mumbled, frowning slightly.
Harper's gaze went a little harder as she considered this for a moment. Sometimes when Harper was thinking, Mevia couldn't tell if the other woman was angry or not. Her gaze would go hard and her brow would furrow and she'd just stare at you for a moment.
"Let's play Twenty Questions."
"Wh-?" Mevia blinked at the comment, which had come completely out of left field.
"Mevia, if you're not just outright telling us, then it has to be something that you're not comfortable with saying outright, so I'm going to guess." Harper dragged one of the chairs over and dropped into it, crossing her arms and letting a small smirk cross her face. "And I'm not taking no for an answer."
Mevia opened her mouth to protest- and then she stopped.
She wouldn't be telling anybody that Hadrian had threatened to kill Jesse.
Had threatened to kill her if she so much as breathed a word to Jesse, or anybody else.
They'd be guessing.
"I- I think that's a good idea," Jesse contributed, meekly.
"... go ahead, then." Mevia shifted slightly, trying to figure out a position where she could inhale and not turn a shade of green that only cabbages should take.
"Okay, first question... does everyone here know the person?"
"Yes." That was a quick answer.
Ivor frowned when Harper looked at him expectantly, before he slowly added, "Is this person responsible for Lukas and Olivia's 'incidents' as well?"
Mevia automatically glanced at Jesse, whose worried smile had melted into pure anxiety at that question.
Her friends.
Weak point.
Focus on their weaknesses.
Hurt them.
"I think so," Mevia said at last, looking back from Jesse to the others.
Petra let out a nearly feral snarl. "Oh great. If we actually figure out who this person is I'm going to fu-"
"Petra," Ivor growled, eyes narrowing as they darted to Jesse and back.
"-zzing kill them," Petra finished, eyes momentarily widening as she changed the curse at the speed of light.
"Guys, I already know swear words..."
"You're too young for swear words."
"Ivor, I'm seventeen!"
"Still not a legal adult."
Harper made this odd sound in the back of her throat, repressing a huge grin at this as she glanced at Petra. "Er, Petra, do you want to ask a question?" she hastily interposed, before Jesse and Ivor could start arguing about Jesse's ability to use cuss words.
"What? Oh, sure." The redhead relaxed slightly, looking back at Mevia. "Third question, hm... is this person male or female?"
"Male."
This time Jace was the one to ask the question, although he was pondering the possibilities out loud. "Okay, so they're male, we know them... are they one of the watchers? One of the people in the audience? 'Cause even if we do all know them, it could be someone we saw onscreen or- uh- yeah."
"Yes." Mevia was wondering why her answers had started becoming monosyllabic. Maybe because she was worried that Hadrian was going to walk through the doors any second now.
Olivia made a thoughtful humming sound, crossing her arms- and immediately wincing, letting them go back to her side. She'd apparently forgotten about the bandage on her elbow and her broken ribs. (Or cracked. Mevia wasn't sure what was up with her ribs.) "Fifth question... it's not Soren, right? I don't care about him lying about the Ender Dragon, but I can't see him attempting to try to kill people."
"Of course it's not Soren, the man cries when he kills an ant," Ivor muttered.
Mevia almost snorted at that. That was true. Once Soren had stepped on an Endermite and killed it by accident. He'd panicked and tried to 'fix' it, before having to run away from the horde of vengeful mites that chased him for about a mile.
"No, it's not Soren."
Olivia looked at Axel, who had gotten the gist of the game by now and started pondering the possibilities. "So it's not Soren, I don't think it's Gabriel, can't be Magnus, obviously... what about that Slap guy?"
"Slab," Jesse corrected mildly.
"Yeah, that. He the guy that did it?"
Mevia paused here. Now, this was tough, because for all she knew Hadrian had ordered the gladiators to shove Olivia down the stairs or to set up that trap for Lukas. But he wasn't the one responsible for her poisoning, and she didn't know that for sure, so she decided on a simple, "No, he's not responsible for it."
Lukas picked up the question-asking next. "Seventh question... well, I can't see Milo or Reginald doing it... I could maybe see Cassie doing it but Mevia just said it's a guy..." He pinched his bottom lip thoughtfully, before speaking slowly, "what about that other gladiator guy- uh, Facemeat."
"No, he's not the guy who did it either."
Everyone looked at Jesse, waiting for her to ask a question. She noticed the looks and made a little motion with her hand. "Uhm, you don't- you can skip me," she said quickly, looking at Mevia again. Her eyes had a faint glint of fear shining through.
Mevia didn't really have time to try to think about that when Harper took the dropped question and began to try to keep working through the question, her brow furrowing slightly. "It's not Otto, is it? He's too focused on rules and- he's an honorable person, he wouldn't sneak up behind someone and shove them down the stairs, he wouldn't poison you, he wouldn't-" Harper stopped herself, frowning slightly as a dark flush creeps over her cheeks. Ivor's brow was faintly creased at that little outflow of information.
Mevia blinked at Harper, the almost desperate tone her voice had just taken.
PAMA had taken away everything Harper could trust.
Ripped it away from her.
She didn't want to think that one of the few people she thought she could trust wasn't there at all.
"No, it wasn't Otto. He's too against doing stuff like that to even try it. I mean," Mevia rolled her eyes, a grin forming on her lips, "you're talking about the guy who lost a game where everyone else was cheating because he refused to break the rules even though everybody else was doing it left and right."
A look of mixed relief, amusement, and scolding formed on Harper's face. "Don't tell him you eliminated him from the list just because of that one game of Mafia that we played that one time."
"Wouldn't imagine it." Mevia glanced at Ivor next, shifting again and feeling her stomach start whining that she needed to throw up, but she sucked it up. "Your turn."
Ivor blinked, before clearing his throat awkwardly. "Ah... okay, we're on the... the ninth question?"
When everyone nodded, he continued, "Okay... is it one of the YouTubers? Sparklez, Stampy, Dan...?"
"Can you seriously imagine Stampy hurting someone?" Petra asked, frowning.
"I mean, he did keep that flint and steel thing a secret," Axel offered.
Jace's lips pursed up as he considered that. "Well, but it's not like he was actually actively trying to hurt people."
"No, it's not any of them," Mevia interrupted before the debate could go on for too much longer, scratching her cheek awkwardly.
"Tenth question... well, it's definitely not one of us- oh, is it Aiden?" Petra asked, snapping her fingers slightly as the idea occurred to her.
Lukas looked very uncomfortable when that came up. Mevia was starting to wonder if Aiden and Lukas had actually talked to each other about the whole matter yet. Jesse didn't seem too upset with him at the moment, though.
"... no," Mevia said at last, unsure whether she was supposed to feel relieved or annoyed that they'd gotten extremely close to Hadrian and were now moving away from him.
Everyone glanced at Jace, who seemed to be considering something. His face was blank as he thought for a minute, eyes staring blankly- and then his brow furrowed, lowering deep over his eyes as he mused over the idea for a moment... before he lifted his head to look between Mevia and Jesse.
"It's Hadrian, isn't it?"
Mevia blinked at the sudden declaration, while Jesse's head snapped around to look at the male, eyes widening. The idea seemed to have snapped from one spectrum to the other entirely, completely out of nowhere.
But he wasn't wrong.
"Yes."
Several sets of eyes snapped to Mevia in that instant, widening. Mevia was still frowning at Jace, though, and she crossed her arms, ignoring the way everyone was now gaping at her in shock. "How did you figure that out?"
Jace simply shrugged a little. "Well, the original question was asking who poisoned you. And Hadrian knocked over your water and went to refill it earlier. You seemed okay up 'til then, so either it was a really slow working potion of poison, or he had something to do with it."
"... very astute, Jace."
"Thanks, I try." Jace briefly grinned, before he glanced up at Jesse, a warm, calming grin on his face. "See, it's not your fault, Jesse." Even though his voice was calm and gentle, if you looked closely you could see his cheek twitching.
Mevia got the feeling that Jace was tempted to go whack Hadrian with something.
Jesse didn't look comforted at all, tears forming in her eyes again. She looked like she wanted to protest, but didn't, lips pressing together as silvery clear liquid shimmered in her eyes.
Mevia's eyes narrowed for a moment- and then she understood.
"It really isn't your fault, Jesse," she said, as reassuringly as she could with her stomach vocally asking to please vomit up everything she'd eaten in the past ten days. "Hadrian's... very good at finding someone's weak points and using those to get what he wants."
Now the short girl's head jerked up, and she stared at Mevia, with wide, tear-filled eyes. A moment of understanding passed between the two of them.
"Oh, am I now?"
Jesse's face drained of color, and she whipped around, everyone automatically looking up at the voice, Mevia's stomach threatening to regurgitate everything and anything that was currently in her body.
Hadrian stood in the doorway, smiling pleasantly at all of them.
But it never reached his eyes.
Those were filled with a frozen danger.
A/N: Back from a long hiatus; sure, a cliffhanger's the best place to leave off.
If you read 'Just a Game', you guys will know that the main reason I haven't written anything for about a month is because I've been working on something special and awesome, so you guys should expect that to come out soon! (We're doing a couple of test runs to see how it turned out.)
Anyway, long time no see! I'm gonna try to get back into an update schedule so... yee. Composite's probably next.
Responses to reviews!
THEOVERPOWEREDBLADE: Haha, I love that moment too!
KaosRuin: Lol did I? / Well, they do now. Keep in mind, Hadrian is very subtle with displeasure and other stuff; plus no one really knows what he's like outside of the Old Builders. Plus, Otto probably doesn't want to believe the worst about his friends, and Harper would be a little rattled at the idea.
Destroyer: You. I like you.
Kairi4ever15: I think everyone agrees with you, he deserves such hell (and will probably receive it because we have a pissed off Petra in the room with him now).
LunarTheMooncake: Uhh
ItzJaiden: That... would be interesting xD
Toni42: He's exposed to a small group of people... in a room... away from the others... all of them being people Jesse cares about... ... this actually might not end well... / Safe to say it's PROBABLY Hadrian... / Awww, I love you too bear x3
Guest: He really does deserve it xD / They don't suspect him because in public he just acts very amiable and calm. He's very rarely acting like he does with Mevia and Jesse.
SiSiren: Considering everyone wants to do worse to him, I'd say it depends on your perspective xD / Here is the next chapter and oh boy this will either be great or horrible.
homeworkoverload: Ahh, I see. / ... Hadrian's died at least fifty times by now. At LEAST. / I'm rich from all the people who wanna kill Hadrian xD
ShiningHopeBeast: Glad you think so, and no, it's not gonna be like his books xD / True that xD / Yeah, I'm really happy. x3
EllieRose27: Totally understandable, I'd probably do the same.
Emily the Avenger: He's always been a b*tch, always will be. Maybe. xD
Mikaza1498: ... I feel like everyone else shipped me and Toni together before I honestly even realized I LIKED him... / Hehehe x3 / Haha, really, all of us are just waiting for karma to hit Hadrian. And believe you me, it will hit him hard. x3 / Yes, yes he will. x3 / I did not update soon, but have an update x3
Darkbeast Dend: (smirks) He deserves it. / Fish are nice xD / UPDATE! / Aww, that sucks.
CamronXTheXGamer: (thumbs up) (leaves the room) (locks the door)
J.M.M.: Nope, it's within a larger series of 'games'. / (shrugs) / Yep / Sort of.
ZenSpider: xD / Yeet x3
skaardvark: SURPRISE, I didn't abandon it! Just took an impromptu hiatus xD
KittenKrap24: Haha, glad you like it.
CatCrap39: Yep! / I think so xD
Large Baguette: (snorts) Same.
That's about all for now... so see ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
