NEZHA

There was one day when Mammon had left his door half open for me to spy on him so briefly. Taking a glimpse of what I could see there was Mara, still a little girl sitting in an armchair four times her size as she was in front of Mammon’s desk. She was holding two dice tight in her hands and threw them to the table. Taking a closer look at it she did not throw it at the desk but in a thin box. Mammon hummed.

‘’Will you move?’’He asked her clearly.

Mara nodded and took a dark circle from the box and seemed as if she moved it somewhere.

‘’You really think you can trap me like this?’’Mammon scoffed at her.

Mara stayed silent.

Gammon. They were playing gammon. Doors to be exact. A game to trap your opponent's pieces with yours and take your own pieces back.

‘’Why do you want me to play with you?’’ She asked as she gave him the dice.

Mammon seemed to take a deep breath.

‘’That was what you tried to steal from me wasn’t it?’’He asked.’’Did you know what was it?’’

What was he talking about?

Mara shook her head.

‘’Now you know. You tried to steal a game. Why don’t you play it with me?’’

For this slight moment, I could see that man almost cared about her, teaching her something as if he actually saw her as an equal. But then I could see the threads of the web that were forming on Mara's limbs. The way that Mammon was trying to fabricate it all around her and make her do what she says.

He threw the dice and moved his circle three moves. He then took five pieces.

‘’A game of luck and strategy,’’He muttered.’’I can trap your parts or you mine. ‘’ His voice began to be broodier.

Mara’s turn. She threw the dice and moved four times. No taking a single piece.

‘’How is Minerva?’’ He asked her genuine.

‘’Snores’’She implies.

Mammon’s turn. He moved one time and took one more piece/

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‘’Nezha?’’ He asked.

‘’Obnoxious’’

Ouch.

‘’So you care for them?’’ There was definitely a grin from him as she let Mara play. Four steps. She took one piece.

‘’No’’She replied.

Mammon clicked his tongue.’’So if I commanded you to cut one of them their left ear who would you choose?’’

Then she held her breath. I did too as he asked a question so cold in the most simple way.

His turn. One step. Four pieces.

‘’You must fix your mask.’’He lectured.’’It won’t help you win this game.’’

Mara’s turn. Threw the dice. She did not move. A few seconds back she relaxed her back on the armchair.

‘’Are you giving up?’’Mammon asked her.

‘’No’’

‘’Then why aren’t you moving your pieces?’’

Her eyes looked at him narrowly.’’Because I already know that you will win.’’

‘’But you seem to be smart enough to know just like this game when you do nothing you lose’’

And there was a cruel air coming from that room. Mara seemed that she was now caressing her collar as if from the other side Mammon was ready to pull the trigger.

‘’When you give up.’’

Electricity began rushing to Mara’s small body as she tried to hold her scream.

‘’You lose. Everything ends.’’

Mara’s eyes began to tear up with the room suddenly getting a strange cold breeze.

‘’So,’’He asked slowly. I wanted to get in to stop it. But I just knew that it would change nothing.

‘’What it will be?’’

There was still pain in her grunts, pain in her holding screams. And I could do nothing. I did nothing. I stayed, watching her suffer.

Her hand was forcibly getting up while she picked her piece.

One, two, three.

The electricity stopped as she spat down on the floor.

Mammon did not speak for a while. He just stayed silent, looking at her move.

Then, there was a deep sigh‘’Your act and play need work’’He said, standing up as he touched her wounded face, pushing her cheeks closer to one another.’’Same time tomorrow.’’

And every day for months there was the same old game. I was watching them each day battling over a stupid game as if their own life was hanging if one of them lost.

The game began to grow longer from day to day but suddenly, they stopped playing so often. Now I could think that it had been a month since the last time they played. They were muttering something together. Something which the now thick smoke made me almost..

‘’She cannot be gone,’’Ao Bing’s bark woke me up. Still in the darkness, near the room, I could listen to the echo of his voice.

‘’Send me, I will give her to you and’’

There was a heavy grunt as if it came from a feist.

Then a whisper.

‘’No’’Ao Bing replied.’’You promised me’’He barked.’’That you will help them’’

Another fist in the stomach, making him fall on his knees.

‘’Please, I will do anything please’’

Then one more whisper. The one that I could listen to clearly.

‘’Choose who you will kill and who will come to work for me’’