Rue glanced at his severed wrist. The wound had already sealed over. Zoe imagined that it should have regenerated into a new hand — surely Rue could shrug away a flesh wound, but with this game, every wound was permanent. Would her stats help to compensate for her missing kidney?
Only time would tell, though how much time did any of them have? Because Zoe no longer believed that any of them were going to win. This wasn’t a game, they were being fed to the Earth system. But why? So it could join the Crimson Armada?
What did that even mean?
She assumed Rue thought along similar lines. Outwardly, he seemed calm, but a fire raged inside his eyes. Zoe saw it, felt it shake her heart, felt it rage inside the hearts of her teammates through the links of her technique. If she felt it, then the Gambler had to be aware, but all the golden god did was grin as he rubbed his hands together.
[What a worthy sacrifice, and now look at our little piggy in the middle, so fat, and so ready for slaughter. Should we get ready for Round 2? Maybe our silly little mortals might win?]
He faced the audience, his eyes shiny and gold, and spread his hands wide.
[Do we want to see this?]
The audience responded with a wall of sound. Brutal. Offensive. Words lost in the overwhelming babble of languages spilling from a million alien throats.
Blood flowed from Zoe’s ears as the earth system spun overhead. Her hunger swelled inside her. That thing belonged to her. She wanted it. She wanted to devour its power. She deserved it. Thus, in response to the Gambler’s manic question, she gave her maniac answer.
“Yes, I want to win.”
And the Gambler caught her eye, and he knew, and she knew he knew, that she would see this game through no matter the horror. He winked, and she felt his affirmation deep within her soul.
Another snap from the Gambler began Round 2 with brutal earnestness. Zoe still felt lightheaded, sick, and pained, but her hunger urged her like a puppet.
The Gambler walked behind the humans, his long fingers drummed upon their shoulders. Each contestant flinched, tensed, or squirmed under his touch, but none retaliated. How could they?
The Gambler continued until he reached Bella. Both hands settled upon her shoulders and he slowly massaged.
[Now, we reach the point that I have been waiting for most of all!]
“Let go,” Bella ground out through her clenched teeth.
[Please?]
“Please, let go.”
His hands released her as he tittered.
[Yes, the point I have been waiting for, when the beautiful Bella spins the wheel. The first of our wonderful round two. Do you see the options before you?]
Bella’s face paled, but she nodded. It took her a moment, before she said, her voice shaking slightly.
“I choose… tongue.”
[Such a sensuous sacrifice to make, and now, dear Bella, please spin]
Bella leaned forward. One hand clutched her ever-present runeblade as the other reached for the table. She couldn’t avoid touching the spattered blood, and so she didn’t try. With a grunt of exertion, she heaved the wheel, and it spun before them. The crowd hollered, but they were distant, the sound concealed by the remnant snap of the Gambler’s fingers.
Zoe watched with her heart in her throat. Time slowed. Congealed in horror. This was not a game. This was torture.
She didn’t want to think what would happen, in case the Gambler was waiting for the thought to come before he made it real, but she needn’t have worried.
For the Gambler had his way despite it all.
The wheel landed on Red, and Bella let out a small sob as the blade materialized beside her hand.
Zoe grinned at her, scarred lips twisting with sympathy, with an attempt to mask fear, with knowledge of the hopelessness of the situation.
“At least it’s not a kidney?” she whispered.
Bella winced, nodded, and trembled as she took up the knife, but Zoe wasn’t sure if she heard at all. As Bella raised the knife to her mouth, the Gambler reached over and placed a finger on the tip.
[Wait one moment, my beautiful Bella. While I appreciate your commitment to self-mutilation in the name of the game, I must inform you of a change to the rules]
Bella let out a ragged breath somewhere between a sigh and a sob. Zoe leaned forward, on the edge of her seat, what perversion was coming now?
The Gambler’s head rotated on his neck as he made eye contact with each of the contestants.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
[Now, now, just because your thoughts are private, doesn’t mean they don’t hurt. Pervert? Monster? Favoritism? You wound me]
He placed his hand over his heart as his buxom clones caressed his measly biceps.
[Do you think I am bereft of feelings? Do you think because I rule this stark, unfeeling universe that I too have a heart as cold and empty as the space between the stars? I tell you I once was and continue to be, a man. A man whose heart pulses with emotions as true, and as valid, as any of yours!]
The audience wept at his outburst, and Zoe felt an itch behind her eyes as some alien force pressed against her tear ducts, but she felt no sympathy.
[I wonder, I do, I really do, which of us is the true monster? But alas, I shall not let your psychic bullying compel my actions — no — I stand firm in who I am. Round 2 is different because it is not the spinner who must cut themselves. Rather, the spinner must choose who cuts and feeds the Earth System. So, Bella of Earth, I ask you, whose lips shall you sacrifice? Those of your friend and leader, Zoe? Or those of your lover, Oriz?]
Zoe felt Bella’s heart throbbing inside her ears. At first, there had been some sense of relief, some slowing down of tension, at the Gambler’s words, but it vanished with the Gambler’s latest question. Bella looked as though she might vomit, and Zoe felt the same. The pain in her side returned, doubling with each pulse.
If her Vitality wouldn’t heal her, she would use her Willpower to ignore the pain, because she had to remain in this moment. Who would Bella choose?
She could see the panic in Bella’s eyes. Hear the fear in the heartbeat as it pulsed up the thread of her technique. Zoe flexed her skein and calmed her through [Our Hearts Toll as One], but Bella felt it, and even as she visibly calmed, she looked even more sickened.
Oriz took Bella’s hands in hers.
“Make whatever decision you want,” she said. “We can always repair our bodies.”
But Zoe knew that wasn’t the case. Knew it with the cold certainty of one who had already been tricked into receiving a curse from the system.
Some things were permanent.
Bella looked at Zoe, silently pleading for Zoe to take the decision out of her hands, but how could Zoe do that?
“It’s up to you,” Zoe said, though all she wanted to do was grab the knife and plunge it into the Gambler’s rotten heart. “I won’t blame you, no matter what.”
Bella closed her eyes. Tears down her cheeks.
“I choose Zoe,” she said.
In the distance, beyond the effects of the Gambler’s snap, the crowd cheered. Some laughed, while others jeered as their bets played out.
[Don’t tell me. Show me]
Bella stood and gripped the knife. She turned to Zoe, her hand quivering, and gripped Zoe’s face to keep it steady. Hot tears splashed on Zoe’s face as Bella peered down at her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I know,” Zoe said.
But her mind seethed. Raced. This wasn’t fair! This wasn’t a game! The Gambler was cheating!
Spinning eyes of gold loomed before her as the Gambler pressed his face into hers.
[Who are you to say I cheat? Who are you to say what can and cannot happen?]
He leaned forward and pushed Zoe back with the force of his attention. She flattened against the ground as Bella sobbed, the knife falling from her hands. The Gambler strode over Zoe as she scrabbled backward.
[You think because there are two options that you cannot land on red five times in a row? Are you, by some chance, a goddess of Gambling from some system I have not encountered?]
Zoe’s mind screamed with fear. Such a cacophony of terror there was no room for thoughts. The Gambler stepped upon her chest and crushed her. Stone cracked against her spin and she coughed blood as he forced her into the floor. He reached back, his arm lengthening until he snatched Bella’s wrist so hard her bones creaked.
With one motion he brought her down and beside the knife.
[Pick. It. Up]
Bella picked it up, and the Gambler dragged her over toward Zoe.
[Cut. Out. Her. Tongue]
Bella fought against his grip, but he was implacable as chance itself and he brought her hand and thus the knife ever closer to Zoe’s lips. Zoe closed her eyes. A moth wing panic passed across her heart, a furious beating, drumming upon the drumming of her pulse, a message —
ding!
Trust Bella. She is our friend. We trust our friends.
Zoe didn’t know why the Black Star system wanted this to happen, but the reasoning was…
Abhorrent to Zoe.
So much of her — her hunger, her desire to survive, her visceral flesh — resisted this moment, but the part of her that smiled up at the newborn sun in the desert sands…
She opened her mouth... which part of her would speak?
“Do it, Bella.”
The cold blade entered her mouth like a dentist’s horrorshow. Fingers pinched her tongue. She tasted sweat, tasted steel — pain! — and she tasted her blood. It flowed down her throat, and she leaned forward, spitting, gasping, spitting again.
Bella sobbed, cradling her wrist as she fed the tongue to the suspended System.
[Wonderful. This second round showcases one of my favorite aspects of the living brain, just what will we do to another person in the name of the game? Because, I want to remind our dear viewers and our contestants alike, every one of you around the table could choose to die… you could resist me and you could die, but you persist in playing because you want to win. It is the lesson that lives in my heart, and I believe it is the prize that lies at the heart of our stuffed little piggy here. Such a noble truth]
Zoe’s tear-blurred eyes flicked up to the floating System. Blood stained its face and trickled down its throat. The distended stomach squirmed, as though full of eels slowly awakening. The eyes flickered and fixed on her and now she saw something inside them — some spark — some dawning horror.
Again the game continued.
Zoe sat in a blur as the other contestants sobbed and raged — it was like watching through fogged glass — obscured by pain, by loss — she poked at the Black Star system.
ding!
I’m proud of you for trusting Bella.
Bella placed a hand on Zoe’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Zoe nodded… what else could she do?
Tears welled up in Bella’s eyes.
“Part of me wishes I was still in Hell.”
Zoe squeezed Bella’s hand.
She felt as though she had stumbled into the afterparty and couldn’t tell if it was a wake or a wedding — a pressure held her in place — a grip of multiple hands — of fear and loathing and the lure of power — pinned her down and poured intoxicants down her throat. Medicine? Poison? Did pain make reality clearer or crueler? She could only swallow so much blood before she drowned.
Zoe wished she was anywhere but here, anywhere at all, even Hell.