Games

Ch 8: STEP AWAY FROM THE BOOK

I fall down on my budder bed and sigh. "Can we just agree to never ever do that ever again?" I ask the Team. They're all congregated in my room.

"Yes. Definitely. Totally," Ian breathes, still recovering from the pain and shock of running through fire. Strangely, we are completely unharmed, but we're still burning hot.

"Is the fish okay? I hear fish need water to survive. And, you know, fire is not water," I say, looking at Quentin out of the corner of my eye. He doesn't even bother retaliating, just leans back on the budder couch and sighs.

"I'm okay," he mumbles. "Are all of you?"

He gets several responses, most of which are some form of 'yes.' One answer, though, is different. "What the Nether is... Sky? What's under your bed? It looks like-"

I roll off the bed and clamp my hand over Ty's mouth. "We will talk about that later, just you and me. For now, let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

The others, save for Ty, nod in agreement and stumble toward the door, muttering about whether or not the GameMaster will even allow them to eat. Ty looks at me expectantly. "Okay, um... So I may or may not have..." I lower my voice to a whisper, afraid that the GameMaster is somehow listening in on our conversation. At the last moment, I decide to cover my mouth with my hand as well, in case there are cameras nearby that the GameMaster can read my lips with. "I sort of created a secret room beneath my bedroom. And I sort of kind of maybe might have built a special chamber to store my powers in."

Ty's eyes widen in realization. "So... So you could go get them back at any given time?"

Sort of. I just nod.

"Yes! The GameMaster has nothing on you!"

"Shh! He might be listening. And just because I have access to my powers now doesn't mean I will later. I can only get them back if I walk down into the secret room and transfer them to my soul again. If I'm in the middle of a Challenge, far away from my secret room, I won't have the choice to transfer my powers back, at least not at that moment," I whisper.

Ty nods. "Oh, okay. But, still..."

I grin. "Yeah. Okay, let's go get food."

We walk out into the hallway, where everyone is crowded around a book. Well, not quite everyone – Seto is leaning against the wall and sighing in exasperation. "Guys, if you could just let me-"

"No! No, we'll get it soon!" Jerome insists, staring intently at the book.

Seto sighs again and glances over at Ty and me. "I think they forgot how to read..," he explains.

I roll my eyes. "GUYS! STEP AWAY FROM THE BOOK," I shout.

They jump at the sound of my loud voice right by their ears, and they all quickly back away. "Sky! Come on, man, you don't have to yell!" Jason says.

"If the GameMaster's allowed to yell, then I'm allowed to yell," I say simply, picking up the book that they dropped when they backed away. "'Every day at six AM, twelve PM, and seven PM, a buffet of food will spawn in the purple building beside the Living Quarters. The food will despawn an hour after spawning.'"

I flip the page. "And here it says... 'Try not to die.'" I turn the page. Blank, it's blank. There's nothing else.

"What does that mean?" Quentin asks.

I shrug. "I dunno. Let's go locate this purple building and find out."

I walk through the door, and the others follow me. The building, made of purple clay, is huge, and it's directly to the right of the Living Quarters. Either we didn't see it earlier, by some feat of distraction, or our brains didn't care enough to register it. Or, I guess it's possible that the GameMaster decided to plop down this random purple building next to the Living Quarters.

I carefully open the birch wood door and step inside, expecting the worst. Any second now, something bad is going to happen. A thousand creepers could spawn, everything could spontaneously combust. The possibilities are endless, really.

But nothing happens. I raise an eyebrow suspiciously as I take a few steps forward. Still nothing happens. I shrug and stride across the room towards a table that I assume the food will spawn on when the time hits twelve o' clock.

"EEP!" I shriek as the floor beneath my feet gives way, and then I'm falling and falling and falling, and it gets to where I'm not sure I'll ever stop falling, and all I can see is darkness and little shapes in the darkness that I can't quite make out, and there is silence everywhere.

And then suddenly, I land. Well, okay. I crash. Somehow, though, I'm unharmed. That's cool. It's always cool to not get killed.

"Sky! Are you okay?" Ty's voice calls down. I look up, but I've fallen so far that the light at the top of the thing I fell down looks to be the size of an ant.

"Uh, yeah!" I yell up, glancing around at my new surroundings. It's still too dark, and I can't see anything. "I'm fine- ACK!" I'm cut off as something slaps – is that a tentacle? – over my mouth.

"Sky!? Sky, are you alright?"

I try to reply, but my voice is muffled beyond comprehension. The creature/person – by now I'm fairly sure it's a squid – yanks me backwards, and I yelp in pain as it shoves me into a different room, one that smells musty and old. "Sky!" I hear someone call, but their voice sounds so faint.

The tentacle is removed from my mouth, and I spit out a bit of slime before protesting my capture. "Who are you? Do you work for the squids? Are you a squid? Why'd you capture me?"

The person/thing/creature chuckles. "Welcome to your first mini-challenge, Skybrine!"

My eyes widen as a light over my head flickers on and the face of the GameMaster is revealed. But... Oh. Yup. He's got tentacles. That's not weird. "H-How are you...?"

"One of the players who died on this show in the past was a shape shifter. Now that he's dead, I have control of his power."

"Good for you, I guess, but I hate squids."

"Exactly. Why else would I be temporarily giving myself squid tentacles?"

I huff, crossing my arms.

"You can be mad if you want, I don't really care. However, I'd like to tell you a bit about these mini-challenges. They'll happen every other day right before your lunch. To eat lunch, you must complete the mini-challenge. You may back out if you want, though. Well... Usually you may. Sometimes I might decide that I just really want you to participate in one of them, and then you'll have no choice."

I groan. "Great, that's great. My life just gets better and better." I sigh. "Alright, whatever, just tell me what the mini-challenge is."

"Sure thing. Today's mini-challenge requires that you allow a family of squids to dine on your flesh."

"WHAT."

"You heard me. Don't worry, though, any and all damage done to your physical being will be restored after the mini-challenge. You'll be fine."

"And what about emotional damage?" I squeak, imagining those slimy, ridiculously annoying and evil squids chomping down on my skin. Ugh. Gives me the chills.

"You'll just have to deal with any emotional damage."

"Okay, no. I'll just go without lunch for today."

The GameMaster puffs his cheeks up and then lets out the air slowly, seeming beyond irritated. "You know what? I think today is one of those days where I don't give you a choice. The viewers want a good show, you know?"

I let out a low whine. "B-But-"

"No arguing, remember?"

My eyes widen. "Got it! No arguing!" I say quickly.

"Good." He snaps his fingers, and eight squids appear in a cage in the corner of the room. "Try not to put up too much of a fight. These squids have been tortured by you many times, and they want a night of revenge."

"A whole night?" I ask, my jaw dropping half-way to the floor.

He shrugs. "As long as it takes them to finish their meal."

My eyes lock onto the eyes of the biggest, slimiest squid, and I must be frozen in fear, because I can't seem to move. Okay, I need a game plan. I'll just- yeah, I'll just punch the squids until they die. Squids don't have that much health.

"Oh, and I've temporarily granted these squids the power of invincibility."

No.

Freaking.

Way.

*smiles suspiciously* What? No, of course Sky doesn't die in the next chapter!