The wait in the dining room has been excruciating. Blake really wanted some time with Jake to talk things out, but Leo’s in the room. Eh, Leo doesn’t understand English, so it was okay.

“Jakey? Why do you even hang out with that Canadian prick?” She leans on the wall/

Jake blinks rapidly, tilting his head. “What’s all this, then? Why d’ya ask?”

Blake shrugs. “Curious.”

“W-well, she’s kinda a big help for me, keeps me from not losing my shit. Alyx’s meds didn’t help much, but turns out, havin’ a mate helps.”

Blake raises an eyebrow. “Meds?”

Jake glares at Blake. “Yeah. Meds. Don’t we all take ‘em? Ain’t that why we all know Alyx?” It sounds like Jake’s sidestepping the conversation.

Blake shrugs again, staring right at Alyx’s body, still lying on the ground. “I knew her ‘cause we were ‘mates,’ as you said. She had bright ideas, and I enabled her. Frankly, I’ll admit; she was a little fucked up. But her heart was in the right place.” Blake turns to face Jake. “She was trying to help you.”

Jake takes a deep breath. “Help me with that? If anything, it made me worse. Sure, it helped me with my hoopin’, but at what cost?”

Blake rolls her eyes. “But you’re being considered for the NBA. If you think about it–”

By now, Bill returns from the bathroom. “Damn little rat scarin’ me on my way out. Where did Little Miss Pink and the Canuck go?” Blake shrugs. “Beats me.”

A minute passes. By now, a fly could be heard. Probably buzzing around Alyx’s body.

“Say, you think this is all a prank?” Bill cuts the silence.

“What do you mean…?” Jake chuckles.

“Think about it. We all get invites from Alyx, then when we arrive she drops dead. She could be fakin’ for all I know!” Bill then stomps over to her body and kicks it. Jake yelps.

“Stop that, Bill! What if you’re ruining evidence?!” He grabs onto Bill’s arm.

“Ain’t no evidence if she’s still alive!!”

By now, Leo returns from the bathroom. She facepalms at the scene and shakes her head. She mutters something in Spanish, but the tone of it sounds like she’s cursing all of them.

“Cut it, Bill. She’s dead. Stop living in denial and come back to the real world. Or… did you ever live in it in the first place?” Blake taunts.

“Why, you little—”

Just then, a bark could be heard. It’s Red’s poodle… with Red. Sans Shay.

“Now, Bill, be a dear and collect the body of our intrepid ice skater?”

Jake gasps in shock. Bill smirks. “Never thought I’d see the day she kicked it…” He saunters over to the hallway.

“Oh, she’s still alive. Just sound asleep. Please don’t kill her.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Bill’s smile slowly turns into his signature scowl. Jake sighs in relief.

A minute passes, and the whole party is assembled again. Everyone’s standing around Alyx’s body except for Jake, who’s cradling Shay’s sleeping form. Bill’s scowl is still plastered on his face as he stares daggers at the sleeping hockey player. Jake stares daggers back. Blake seems uninterested in all of this. Leo taps her foot as if to egg Red to get on with it.

“So. I truly, honestly don’t know how to break this unfortunate news to y’all. But I insist, no, I implore that y’all have to read this. Y’all won’t believe it if it came out of my own mouth, so I’m afraid it’ll have to come from our dearly departed doctor Alyx’s.”

As everyone read through the papers, their eyes widened in shock. Jake’s breathing goes shallow. Blake’s eyes narrow at Red. Leo tilts her head. Bill reads out loud:

PROJECT APEX: THE RUNDOWN

Sports medicine has evolved. Now, it is not enough that athletes have to be at the top of their game. Now, they also need supplements, they need buffs, in video game terms, to truly be able to call themselves “greats.” But that is not the point of my thesis.

I believe that unconditional human perfection is what will make someone in today’s age the “greatest of all time.” This means that injuries mean nothing to them, that they can shrug off career-ending incidents like they were splinters. Possibly, even death would be an afterthought. To accomplish this, I’ve put together a series of experiments on a certain group of people.

I wanted to experiment with the balance of mental and physical health. While I believe the two are linked, it is the permanent union of both that will make humanity “perfect.” This means things like anxiety, depression, even self-confidence issues will not get in the way of the perfect human body. Here is a quick summary of those who I’ve set my sights on:

Corver, Jake - Basketball forward. Physical health HIGH. Mental health LOW. Suffers from BPD. Manic state greatly improves his gameplay. Find a way to be able to activate it at will.

Harlow, Blake - Formula 1 driver. Physical health LOW. Mental health HIGH. Mentally sound and perfect, though she has been slacking. Remind her of her failures; she’s easy to manipulate, especially with love.

Johnson, William - Football quarterback. Physical health HIGH. Mental health HIGH. One-track minded and, frankly, stupid. However, he has the highest capacity to be a “GOAT.” Lobotomy considered.

Miller, Shay - Hockey forward. Physical health HIGH. Mental health LOW. Allows silly little things like identity crises get in the way of her success. Play along with her, and secretly boost testosterone.

Hopefully these recruits will prove fruitful to my endeavors. Of course, they don’t know that they are being experimented upon, which is the ultimate goal of this test run. Once my efforts have been sanctioned, I hope to roll out treatment for all athletes.

Will fill in with more details soon.

Jake gently lets Shay down to puke in the nearest garbage can. Blake clenches her fist and bites her lip, drawing blood. Bill sneers at the paper in disgust. “Stupid?! Who does she think she is, callin’ me stupid?!”

“Shut up.” Blake calmly says, slowly turning to Bill.

“...excuse me?”

“Shut. Up.” Blake snarls at Bill. He can’t be fucking serious.

“Now that’s not how you talk to me, you b–”

At that, Blake just roars in rage and lunges at Bill. Using her sharp claws, she swipes at his face, scarring his nose bridge. Bill hisses in pain as he tries to wrestle the racetrack star off of him.

“I LOVED HER! And she thought me a pawn?!? You don’t get to say shit, Bill! NOT YOU!” Blake screams at him.

Bill, for once, does not respond. Instead, he focuses his energy on getting her off of him. Red instinctively takes a step forward… but then withdraws, taking out a cup and filling it with milk tea. She smiles, as if enjoying the spectacle.

“I’m tired of you talking shit to me, William! I ought to fucking kill YOU right now!”

“Stop… screaming…”

Jake weakly cries out as he limps back to the dining room.

Blake points an accusing finger at Jake. “Don’t you dare fucking intervene. This is MY heartbreak, you don’t get to say shit about–”

Just then, Jake slams the floor with his foot. Gone was the meek, easily frightened Jake. The Jake that Blake faces is… no one she’s seen before. This Jake was pissed.

“She used all of us. She knew about my condition, and she was gonna fuckin’ weaponize it against me. No wonder I feel like shit! She didn’t help me at all! She made me WORSE. She made us ALL worse! We’re really fighting about who had it worse?! It was all of us!! Alyx didn’t care about us, and you know that! You KNEW she never even loved you, huh, Blake?!?!”

“FUCK OFF!!!!!!!” Blake yells back at Jake. But then… she slumps to the ground, letting go of Bill. She hangs her head in defeat.

“Fuck off…” Her voice breaks a little. One didn’t need to hear her speak to know just how hard the truth is hitting Blake. She was Alyx’s biggest defender, now her greatest victim.

Just then, a weak groan broke the silence. Shay was waking up. “...the fuck’s…goin’ on…”

Jake immediately runs toward Shay’s side. “N-nothing. Nothing at all… are you hurt?”

Shay weakly shrugs, then smiles. “‘m tired… ‘m gonna sleep some more…”

Red finally emerges from the shadows - well, the kitchen - and shakes her head dramatically. “Well, now that we all got that out of our system, I suppose we will all have to ruminate on what we just discovered. Now, be dears and let’s not attack each other like children again?” Red smiles serenely, and a little condescendingly.

Blake just gives her the middle finger as Red steps outside, leaving her poodle in charge of watching over everyone.