Games

Ch 15: Challenge Two

Seto smiles before heading towards Ty's bedroom. "Is Ty in here or in your bedroom?" he asks me.

"He's in there," I answer him, and then we all follow him into the room.

The sorcerer strides across the room to Ty's bed, quickly checking the unconscious boy's pulse and then gently lifting his head up. Seto tilts Ty's head around just like I did, checking for bumps or open wounds. "Hey, Sky, could you shine your eyes over Ty's so I can- oh, snap," he cuts himself off, realizing I no longer have my Skybrine powers. I could go get them, but I don't want to show the GameMaster I still have access to them, at least not yet. I would gladly blow my cover to save Ty's life, but not now, not when Seto is only checking for extra injuries.

"Is he okay?" I ask worriedly. I'm not exactly a doctor, there's a rather large chance that I missed some huge injury on Ty.

"Yeah," Seto replies almost immediately, "he's fine. He did hit his head pretty badly on the wall of the round room, but it wasn't enough to cause any permanent damage. Still, an injury like this would usually take weeks to heal if we weren't in the game show." He pauses, glancing at Ty. "Luckily, the Living Quarters in this game show seem to have some kind of healing enchantment. Ty should be awake and capable of walking and talking by tomorrow morning, and he'll be good as new by the day after tomorrow."

I frown. "So technically, the GameMaster could do anything at all to us and then send us back here, to the Living Quarters, and we'd slowly be healed?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't he just say that when I brought up my mini-mini-challenge back at the round room? He told us that the policy just didn't apply when I was involved, but if I was actually being healed just by standing in the Living Quarters..."

"Actually, I think the healing enchantment was only recently added, like, an hour or two ago."

I sigh. "Oh. Well, at least Ty will be back to normal soon."

Seto nods. "I think we should all go to bed now, though. We've had a long day."

I chuckle. "You bet."

xXx

"PLEASE REPORT TO THE SPAWN AREA."

"Is he serious? Couldn't he give us a little more than one day to rest!?" I complain loudly, rolling off my buddery bed.

"Life is hard, Sky," Ian sighs as he leans back against my budder couch and closes his eyes, but he's still smiling. He's much happier now that he and Quentin are friends again, but they still haven't gotten together. What a shame.

"Well, I guess we'd better try to wake up Ty," Mitch says, lazily crawling off the budder recliner and towards the door.

"You have five minutes."

We all jump up and sprint to the door without another moment's hesitation. Rule number six is not a thing we want to break. "TY!" I yell as we burst through Ty's bedroom door. "STOP BEING UNCONSCIOUS, THE NEXT CHALLENGE IS STARTING!"

Ty only groans, so I stomp up to his bed and push him off. Seto glares at me, but he doesn't actually scold me, so I'm guessing it's okay for me to push an injured, unconscious person off a bed. "Wha-?" Ty drawls as he slowly sits up on the floor.

"Good morning, Ty. Ready for Challenge Two?" I ask, walking around to the other side of the bed and holding out a hand for him to grab.

"Wha- Already!?" His eyes widen and he jumps to his feet, ignoring my hand. Then he groans, pressing three fingers against his temple. "Ugh, my head..."

"Yeah, you kind of got thrown into a wall, but Seto says you'll be okay," I inform him. He starts to sway a bit, and I reach out and steady him. "Eventually."

Ty closes his eyes and holds onto my arm to keep from falling. "Right. How am I supposed to do the Challenge?"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'll stay with you and make sure you don't get hurt."

He smiles a little. "Thanks."

"No problem. We'd better get going, though. The GameMaster said we had five minutes about five minutes ago."

He opens his eyes. "Let's go, then, we don't want to be late."

xXx

"You're late, and I'm willing to bet it's Skybrine's fault."

I facepalm, dragging my hand down my face slowly. "I am so done."

"No, you aren't. This is just the beginning of the Challenge; in fact, you haven't even started yet!"

I exhale and look up at the GameMaster. "So, what's the Challenge?"

"Behind this door is a hallway with four rooms branching off of it. There are two of you for every room, and once you've settled in your room, we will continue with the rest of Challenge Two," the GameMaster tells us.

"Do we need to go into a certain one?" Jerome asks.

"Yes, I'm glad you asked! But you'll know which room is yours when you see it," the GameMaster assures him. "And there will be no advantages in this round, since everyone failed at the mini-challenge except for Mitch, Jerome, and Seto. Mitch and Jerome are disqualified, anyways, because apparently Wobbie and the mobs didn't scare you at all, and Seto used his magic, so he doesn't count." Then he turns to where the blood red door used to be. Now there's a neon orange door in its place, and the words "CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO" are printed above it in blocky, dark blue letters. "Are you ready?"

"I guess so," I mutter.

"I wasn't asking you."

"Then who were you asking?"

"Everyone except you."

I grind my teeth together and stomp through the orange door, slowing when I remember that I was going to stick by Ty. I swear, if that stupid GameMaster put us in different rooms-

Oh, my. The GameMaster was right, it's fairly easy to tell which room is whose. For example, the first dark oak door on the left has the name "MITCH" printed on it in neon, flashing red. Below it is Jerome's name in a flashing shade of light brown. On the second door on the left, Seto's purple name blinks brightly, and below it, Jason's sky-blue name. The first door on the right has Ian's name in dark blue and Quentin's name in orange, and the second door has Ty's name in neon green. I glance down, expecting to see my name in bright yellow.

Nope. Instead I see "SKYBRINE" printed in blood red. I facepalm. "Seriously? How hard would it be to make the stupid name budder-colored?"

"Dude, don't say the word," Ty warns me, nudging my side.

I shake my head. "Nah, it's fine. Rule number seven – I think – is that all rules are void during Challenges."

"Doesn't that make rule number seven void as well?"

"That's too confusing, let's just move on with our lives."

"Okay, whatever," Ty laughs, pulling me toward our room. "What do you think we'll be doing?"

"I have no idea. Well, I mean, I can assume it will be either painful or life-threatening, but that's all I'm sure of," I reply, opening the door for him and then closing it behind us. The room has light blue wallpaper and a floor of sandy-colored tiles. There's a dark blue couch at the end of the room, and I lead Ty, who is starting to look kind of pale, over to it. "Here, sit down. You shouldn't be moving so much right after going unconscious for a whole day."

"Thanks," he says quietly as he sits down. I plop down next to him and swing my feet while glancing around the room. It's pretty boring, honestly. The light, which is hanging from the ceiling, looks interesting though. I mean, it's a pretty standard light fixture, nothing too special, but the bulb is really strange-looking.

"IS EVERYONE SETTLED IN!?"

"SHUT THE FLIP UP, MAN. YES, WE ARE ALL SETTLED IN," I scream in reply. Ty presses his headphones against his ears and I smile apologetically.

"Then it's time to continue the Challenge!" It really hasn't even started yet, but whatever. There's a puff of smoke near the front of the room by the door, and then the GameMaster pops up. "Oh, you two. You're going to be the most fun."

"Uh... What exactly is the Challenge?" I ask hesitantly, not at all liking the creepy grin on his face.

"It really isn't that hard. Quite simple, actually."

"Simple has never been synonymous with easy."

"Woah, Skybrine. You almost sounded smart for a minute, there." I glare at him. "Anyways, all you have to do is admit to each other and me that you have no caring feelings, friendly or otherwise, for the person sitting next to you. And you have to make me believe you."

"Hmm. Can I sit by you, then?" I ask. It'll be no problem to say that I have no caring feelings for the GameMaster. I hate him with a deep and burning passion, honestly.

The GameMaster shoots me a glare. "Not funny, Skybrine. You have to admit that you don't care about Ty, and Ty must say the same about you."

"Mmkay, I don't care about Ty," I say, shrugging.

"Idiot. I said you have to make me believe it. You have to actually mean what you say."

"What? Dude, I hardly ever mean what I say."

The GameMaster grins. "It's okay if you can't do it now. I have ways of changing your minds."

Uh oh, that doesn't sound good.

MUAHAHAHA