I was handing out resumes all day long, some of them sent by email as well. I was all alone, surviving on what little I earned from odd jobs and teaching chess online. Furthermore, I had run away from my parents and preferred not to contact any of the few relatives who possibly still remembered me.
Arriving home, with my eyes pointed at an empty refrigerator, I detoured my walk, went into my room and locked myself in to play chess. I wanted to compete again, to be a high-level professional who could be talked about because of his skill; I had a lot of fun playing, but I barely had enough money to pay for internet. That night I only won two games out of the dozen I played. When I got depressed I played even worse.
Without feeling the splinters of the rough edge of my desk, I fell asleep, either from exhaustion or a tendency to get depressed thinking about what a failure I was as a person. My parents had warned me years before, and I had been kicked out of college because I didn't want to study. Being a good student in high school hadn't helped.
“I'm a failure.” I thought between my dreams, which replayed the memories of my angry parents and the advice of my college teachers.
The night seemed too long, despite how deep my sleep was. I woke up confused among blankets I didn't recognize and on a bed too comfortable to be my own.
“Where the heck am I?” I thought, before repeating it a couple of times in fearful whispers.
All around me, similar whispers sounded as well. I was frightened to such an extent that I worried about only two things; was I naked, did I have any weapon at hand?
“Hello?” I heard between sobs, the delicate voice of who I assumed was a little girl.
I got up as slowly and quietly as possible. Likewise, I determined that I was not naked, for I retained the same sweatpants and T-shirt in which I had sat playing chess and in which I usually slept. To my disappointment, I found nothing nearby to use as a weapon.
The little peace was disturbed, the murmurs turned into a barrage of questions and complaints that could not be distinguished. Suddenly someone said with determination “Light! All rise!”
The room lit up, and the room became irritating to me, a twenty-year-old fellow who never left the house unless it was to work... or look for work. In front of me I caught the presence of the little girl who was still making a tremendous effort not to cry, as she looked side to side in fear.
It was a beautiful room, decorated with themes and images of chess pieces, with sixteen beds in all, arranged facing each other in two rows of eight beds. From each bed stood a different person, completely unknown to me.
The voice that summoned the light from the room was now a man in guard attire, tall and firm, but with a gentle and seemingly friendly countenance, he looked over everyone quickly. As he passed my spot, his eyes flashed like a scanner.
“Where am I, who are you?” he inquired, angrily, a man about my age.
I was too surprised that no one else seemed to want to talk. I myself wondered why I didn't speak. Maybe I was waiting for the tall guard to explain something to us. Although I also believed, for a second, that we would be killed before we received any explanation. Then, the tall man spoke in the voice of an elegant military man.
“You may refer to me as the guide Izan... or simply Izan.”
“Have we been kidnapped?” Said a young, short, bespectacled man.
After that, the sixteen of us there, including the little girl, kept silent without taking our eyes off the man. His gaze silenced us.
“If you will allow me, I will give the details of your situation.”
The little girl hugged a stuffed cat that I was surprised she hadn't let go in the commotion. Perhaps she realized I was watching her, because she returned my gaze and my frozen brain barely opted to greet her by waving my right hand.
“Your existence is not required on Earth!” Izan exclaimed, “You are here because you have a unique link to chess and the power of The Challengers summoned you to this place, the White school.”
“What a load of crap, where are we and who the hell are you, who are you working for?”
Izan moved imperceptibly and swiftly, standing next to the girl who had just spoken. He stared at her and spoke so that we could all hear.
“Miss Gabriela. Abandoned by your millionaire parents, abusive at your university, surrounded by lackeys you call friends and with a messy life. But I am not allowed to judge you. I hope you will allow me to keep talking and never interrupt me again.”
We all shook our heads, looked at each other in silence. The kindly guide who had been treating us formally now sounded like a dashing assassin who had just issued a threat.
“This is a chess school, magical if that's what you want to call it. Your lives in human society are either worthless or you have been rejected so that you have been cornered into an existential void, and it has destined you for loneliness.”
The man continued talking as he led us into an adjoining room, where he instructed us to change clothes in dressing rooms oddly suited to each of us. On mine was a picture of my family and one of my dog who had passed away a couple of months ago.
“As you may have noticed, we know all about you. Don't worry, you won't be harmed, for now.”
As he finished that sentence, some of us were walking out of the locker room, I felt a shiver run down my back and a tingling in my hands.
“You will notice that everything here is about chess. In effect, this place is an academy for chess fighters. Your skill will define not only your destiny, but that of many on Earth.”
I didn't instantly understand what he was telling us. I just tried not to lose track of the sixteen who by now were my classmates, on my way to the dining hall. We were all dressed in the only clothes we were given; long dresses for the women and suits with ties for the men.
“In these classrooms you will receive the necessary teaching to increase your playing ability and in the appropriate places you will be given physical training. And here, it's the dining hall.”
A crowd of people were making their way to the place, laid out with large square tables. Each table had a pillar in its center that lit up as the sixteen people in each group sat around it.
“Each table is for each piece, you are the sixteenth piece and I will be your guide throughout your training in this school.”
“Mr. Izan, how long will we be here?” asked the little girl who still would not let go of her stuffed cat.
“Miss Valentina, it doesn't matter how long you are here, because no one gets old here. However, the biggest reason is that no one cares about you in the human world.” He looked up after kneeling down to speak to the little girl. “As many would say, you are not loved.”
Izan disappeared. The little girl accompanied us and sat down next to a girl who had not said anything during the whole tour, had not greeted anyone and did not seem upset by anything that had happened.
After a brief moment some people from the group began to talk at the table. As the food arrived, in front of us, a few teachers were introduced to complete our induction.
Information was pouring out and all around us the other groups were eating smoothly. They all looked experienced and confident. From the induction it was clear to me that there were only two ways out of there; die in game or be the champions of the interschool tournament. Ah, of course, if we died in that world we would also die in the human world.
I found the situation terrifying, but, Izan was right, that's why none of us were upset as one would expect, at the news of death. No one was in a hurry to return to the human world.
Breakfast was delicious, I wouldn't have complained. But, despite the comfort we felt in that place, my insides felt a nagging emptiness and intrigue. I tried to socialize as the others had begun to do, but I didn't know what to say. Everyone seemed to have already assimilated the situation. Except for two people.
Little Valentina was playing with her stuffed animal while she ate slowly. The other person, an impassive and silent young woman about my age, paid no attention to anyone's greetings or gestures. They were both very strange.
We had a break that allowed us to talk to each other and get to know each other better before class. I refused to keep trying to socialize and adopted the position of the girl and the silent young woman. As I did so, I noticed that the ages of the people there were very similar, except for some age differences that I managed to notice; a couple of elderly people were among the other pieces, a few teenagers in others and in ours was Valentina.
A woman with long blonde hair directed us to a classroom. I felt like I was in college again, which was not pleasant for me. I waited for the others to sit down and ended up taking the seat between the girl and the silent young woman.
“I'll be your teacher, I'm Susana. Don't expect us to teach you the basics, we have books for that. You probably still have questions so what are they?”.
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Silence fell over the place, though it didn't seem to be out of fear. The attitude of my classmates and my own thoughts told me that no one there was really happy with their life; this school was giving us a motivation to live, if you could call it that.
“Your spirits must overpower your mind and if you decide to be so stupid as to intentionally lose or cheat. Their bodies and spirits will pay for it.”
“We were told that by winning we will also be rewarded. If we win the competitions what will happen?” Asked a woman “What will we get?”.
“From now on they will be chess fighters. During practice, you will suffer damage and if you lose in the tournament with The Black School you will die immediately. There is really only one competition they must win to be awarded, the tournament against The Black School. And well, at the end of it all they will also get riches to ease their mortal lives.”
Everyone waited anxiously for the teacher to continue speaking, although many were eager for the prize, I was just curious as to why we had to play and for how long.
“You will gain Focus, this is a score that will indicate your power level every time you defeat your opponents, but you will die every time you lose to one of The Black School. You may have noticed that there are fighters missing in some groups. You are the sixteenth piece, you are complete because you are newcomers. But, in piece two there is only one person left.”
“This is absurd!” Someone exclaimed holding back a shout.
I could no longer contain my intrigue and interjected in explanation “Why exactly are we playing, is there a reason?”
“Master Gabriel, you mean well, but you are a failure, that's how you describe yourself. Finally, someone makes a useful intervention. It's simple, disputes and fights in the human world are never resolved randomly, so...”
I made a frown and my body shuddered. Suddenly someone moved next to me, the silent young woman stood up and held up a sheet of paper with a text she had just written.
“That's right, ladies and gentlemen, as Abigail rightly says, a game of chess in this world is a fight in the human world. Simply put, you will resolve the fate of humanity in every game.”
I sat with my arms hanging off my body, leaning my back against the seat and controlling my breathing. I whispered “is someone's life up to me again?”.
“Every time you play a game, a fight between two brothers or a war between two nations will be unleashed. So the outcome of your game and the way you play will decide who triumphs and who loses, will decide who lives and who perishes, who suffers and who does not.”
“Stop! Does that mean that the events of our lives have been decided by chess games in this world?” one man asked.
“No, some events are left to the mercy of human decisions, which are usually stupid. But, when there is a relevant event in the human world, a game in this world is influencing it.”
“Wars, massacres and massive disasters.” I whispered.
“You are correct, Master Gabriel.”
“Interesting! But why us?” Gabriela said, the most determined and sociable, from what I noticed until that instant.
“Miss, your skill at chess is remarkable, besides, I guess they already told you that you are not relevant in the human world... but here you will be.”
“Well, finally playing chess is of some use to me.” Gabriela said.
The teacher Susana explained the workings of our school, only what we seemed to be allowed to know. On top of that, she gave us a one-sentence lesson to end our day class and leave us alone in the classroom.
“Don't expect help from others, because in the end you will always be alone, is that the lesson?” Little Valentina said into the air, hoping perhaps that someone would help her understand.
I had thought we would be taught chess theory or sent to solve tactical exercises. However, all we got was the phrase that Valentina didn't understand and the recommendation that we be never late.
“Don't worry girl, we'll be fine.” It was the only thing I could say to the girl, who upon hearing my answer shrugged her shoulders and spoke to me lightly sketching a smile.
“My name is Valentina, I'm seven years old.”
“Hello, Valentina. I'm Gabriel, I guess you've already heard it from the teacher, do you like chess?”
“It's the only thing my dad was able to teach me before he died.”
I hesitated. “I'm sorry, what about your mother?”
“I don't know, she left us when I was three or four. I don't remember her.”
My breathing felt a brief interruption in its normal rhythm, my chest felt tight. I was used to seeing horrible things in the world, still that little girl had kicked me in the heart.
The silent young woman on my other side touched my arm to get my attention. Then she slid her diary in front of me, with a message written on one page. “What do you hope to accomplish by asking such questions of a girl you don't know?”
It didn't seem to me that she had done anything improper. The girl seemed to want to talk to someone, but at the same time she looked scared. I also didn't think she minded being alone and in a strange place; she didn't cry or get upset at any point during the induction.
“You don't need to write messages, you know? The teacher gave us permission to do whatever we want until the afternoon.” I said to the young woman handing back her diary.
The young woman looked at me angrily, then looked down, wrote in her journal and slid it back on my desk. “I am mute.”
I passed saliva, asked to be excused, and continued talking to the girl, who had begun painting in her journal. We had all been handed one along with a pencil that, as we wished, would change color. “For a girl her age that must be great,” I thought.
I kept silent, pondering what had happened so far. I couldn't help but consider the possibility that I was dreaming. However, the very realistic sensations and the information they had about us made me doubt it. It seemed impossible to me that my mind was simulating all that during a deep sleep.
“This will be our destination by the looks of it, and it looks like fun!” Gabriela said approaching me.
“I don't put much stock in fate and few things amuse me, so I don't think we'll match. But, good for you.” I said.
“Don't be a spoilsport. We'll get everything here, no one will bother us, and we could win a lot of things.”
“You did hear that to win the prize we have to risk our lives and kill our rivals from the other school, right? Not to mention that we'll be unleashing chaos and death on Earth.”
“I don't like that.” Said Valentina, who had been listening.
“Wow, does that matter to you, Gabriel. Did you notice that we have almost the same name? Dale, let's go tour the school, they'll go too.” Gabriela said, ignoring Valentina and pointing with her hand to some classmates.
“I'll pass, thanks for the invitation.” I replied angrily.
People left the classroom, only Valentina and I were left. I told her let's go out to learn more about the place and not get lost later. We did, we walked down some hallways and found the bathrooms.
“Come please!” Valentina said as she came out of the bathroom shaking the water off her hands.
As we entered the women's restrooms I was met with a familiar scene. Gabriela and a couple of henchmen were forcing the young mute to remove her clothes. The victim was also wet from head to toe and was hugging her dress tightly.
Holding back my fury and trying to ignore the past in which I had received similar treatment in high school, I shouted “What are you doing?”
“You're not very smart. You should know what's going on here, you can stay and enjoy the show if you want. The mute isn't that ugly.” Replied one of the women accompanying Gabriela.”
“Get out if you don't want to suffer!” It was the only thing that came out of my mouth at that instant. I didn't think about it, it just came out.
Gabriela walked up to me, raised her hand and threw a slap that would have caused me quite a bit of pain had it not been for my protector. In class, the teacher explained that we each had a being who would protect us from harm in that place, except during a game of chess.
The bully's hand was stopped by a shield around me, Gabriela winced, shook her hand and, along with her group of bullies, took flight. Though, before that, she allowed herself to challenge me in a low, defiant voice.
“This afternoon we will play against each other, as the teacher said. We will choose our opponents. Don't expect a friendly game... I'll make every damn bone ache until you wish you'd been on my side from the start!”
Without responding to the threat, I signaled Valentina to come over, she helped me lift the young mute, fix her dress and carry her into the room.
“Why didn't your protector work?” Valentina asked the young woman inside her dressing room, after she had bathed.
The woman came out, very beautiful, in a black dress ready for the afternoon event. The rest of my colleagues were arriving to change their clothes. I had already done it, while Valentina helped the young girl change her clothes and get dressed. The girl changed her dress and we left.
We were checking books in the library where we would meet for the games the teacher had announced. As we enlisted earlier, we had time to talk and read. Though in all that the mute young woman was not answering our questions.
“What's your name?” Valentina asked the woman.
“They're coming. I know you don't want to say anything, but would you mind telling us what happened in the bathrooms? We're supposed to have a protective spirit that protects us from any harm outside of chess games.” I said.
The woman sighed, looked at us with her eyes as if obscured by an opaque varnish and wrote in her diary. “The protector only works if you don't want to allow harm against you and I thought using it would harm them... and my name is Abigail.”
The huge place, crammed with books, had now filled with students, chess players or fighters as many called them there. It was not a dark place, but it was serious and formal, with no extravagant or overly colorful decorations. Everyone remained silent, accompanied by their guides. Izan appeared almost at the same time as the others.
“Piece sixteen, ready.” Izan said, after another guide who had said the same thing and followed by another who repeated the same phrase, each mentioning their respective piece.
“All the pieces are in, it's time to play!” Shouted the teacher Susana, accompanied by a man I assumed was a teacher, old and with a long beard.
The library shuddered, the room expanded, the floor changed color and the different pieces were separated one from the other to be elevated on platforms that let us see, from the height, the tables and chairs that emerged from the floor among shiny ash.
The teacher waited for the place to quiet down, though the murmuring from some in our piece did not stop until she began to speak again. “Welcome, fighters of piece sixteen!”
All around me everyone, in every piece, on every dais, looked majestic. Absolute elegance, challenging smiles and gentle faces could be seen. We could also hear murmurs that did not speak well of us newcomers.
The teacher shouted from her podium. “Pairing! Now, those who want to play must say so, declare their desire to play.”
Suddenly, dozens of voices, each on their own side, announced their intention to play. Among all those declarations, I heard the voice of one of the elders and the voice of another girl about Valentina's age.
“I declare I want to play!” Gabriela, the bully, exclaimed decisively, who gave me a glance out of the corner of her eye before vanishing from our dais and appearing immediately after, standing next to one of the tables.
No one else on our dais had dared to launch the statement. A part of my being wanted to play, this was the closest I had ever come to fulfilling my dream of playing in a high-level tournament. However, this was hard to believe, it was magical and... the other part of my being was afraid of failing, as always.
The teacher looked up, which had been fixedly watching the tables. “No more declarations! Now, summon a rival.”
My fearful, insecure, distrustful self-made my feet take a step back. I already knew what that meant.
“I summon Valentina, from piece sixteen!” Said the girl who had declared she wanted to play. Valentina quickly looked at me in awe, hugged her stuffed animal tightly and appeared downstairs in front of the little girl who had summoned her.
The little girl kept looking at me after giving little nervous glances at her rival. I feigned assurance, nodded my head and raised a fist in a show of strength towards her. The girl nodded back, grabbed her stuffed animal with one hand and offered the handshake to her rival and then sat down.
The invocations kept booming, my head was getting dizzy with so many voices and my heart was beating too fast. Never before had I felt so worried about having to play chess. So, I clenched my fists, pounded my chest, stood up firmly and closed my eyes. I was ready to be transported to Gabriela's table.
Gabriela's voice, irritating and loud, reached my ears. “I summon Abigail, from piece sixteen!”
I flinched, opened my eyes and turned to look at Abigail who was already fading away to appear downstairs. Gabriela looked at me, smiling. I mumbled insults at her and expected the worst. “That bitch is going to hurt Abigail again.”