Twelve

Moon

O nce again, I’m woken up in a horrible way, with no fucking clue where I am. When I realize I’m in a sphere, that's completely opaque, I freak the fuck out, I’m not gonna lie. The last thing I remember is falling asleep in Fenrick’s arms. I look down at my body, frantically.

“Oh fuck, please no–” I sigh with relief when I find myself clothed. “Thank fuck.” That's right, I got dressed and took my necklace off before we fell back asleep. Returning to my regularly scheduled breakdown, I start banging on the walls of the sphere, trying to find a weakness but there really isn't one. It’s a solid ball of death.

I’m about to start screaming bloody murder when that damn voice speaks again.

“Contestants, you will now face the virtual reality challenge. In this round, if you are killed, your body and your mind will survive, but it’ll hurt. And you’ll of course be eliminated. Think of this as a battle of skills and the will to live. Oh, do be sure not to fall,” he chuckles, and I swear, that dude is enjoying this way too much.

“Why is nothing ever easy with you fucks? Oh my fucking god,” I scream, and then laugh at myself. Because hello, this is the Tournament of Blood. “Right, I’m a dumb ass, ignore me,” I sigh, shaking my head at myself. This isn’t a theme park.

The opacity completely dissipates into a clear, almost undetectable sphere around me. That’s when I see where I am, on the edge of a skyscraper with a very thin metal bar in front of me leading to another skyscraper on the opposite end of the bar, about one hundred feet apart.

I start hyperventilating immediately because I am a lot of things in this life, including brave, however, I am fucking terrified of heights. You can’t mind over matter falling to your death. You can’t outsmart falling out of the sky or outrun it. You trip and fall? Death.

Just looking down makes me wanna pee my pants.

Again I have control over my bladder and bowels, but at this moment I’m questioning my strength and resilience.

A bitch can only take so much before she eventually does in fact piss herself.

“The objective?” the voice says, once more startling the shit out of me because I thought he was gone. “Don’t fall. Don’t get shot. Face your fears.”

“What the fuck does that even mean, man?” Who’s going to shoot me?!

Is there an actual objective, or is this just some sort of walk the tight line, and then you’re free to go, thing? Weirdest trial ever.

I take a shuddering breath, straighten my back, and remind myself that while it may be wildly unpleasant to fall, I won’t actually die. Although if I fall there’s a good chance I might have a freaking heart attack.

Right here we go then.

The gong sounds, letting me know that the trial has begun, and I take a tentative step forward. I don’t know if this one’s timed. I don’t know if I’ve got all the time in the fucking world to make my way across. I don’t know if zombies are gonna pop out of the door behind me and start chasing me across this fucking metal bar, so I’m going to move my ass before I end up getting eaten. Zombies are horrifying. Necromancers can reanimate dead bodies, and the Human realm somehow got wind of this, and now they have TV shows about that insanity.

I wish Fenrick was here. I wonder if the end of this trial will see us brought back together, or if it’ll be just like the last one and whoever you end up with is who you leave with. Since I don’t see a single fucking soul anywhere around here, I’m going to guess that I don’t leave with fucking anyone.

Who knows what the hell happened to Teresa and her Merman, Percy. We never got to properly talk. I need answers. I hope I don’t have to wait until after the games to talk to her again.

I haven’t seen Odas, Cato, Sweet Girl, Lust, Tristan, Daire, Silas, or Arlo in too long. I don’t fucking know where any of them went. Some of them were supposed to follow me, and some of us just got split up…

This day is trash. This entire fucking Tournament is trash. Whose fucking idea was this anyway? I guess, if you wanna be technical, it was my idea to join. But it wasn’t my idea to make these games so wildly fucking ruthless. I will say that there are no Goblins chasing me across this fucking pole currently, so I suppose that’s nice.

Maybe they fucked off, and they won't be bothering me again for the rest of the Tournament. That feels like wishful thinking, though. Hopefully, a bunch of people fall off this fucking pole, ’cause it’s awfully damn thin.

I take another couple of steps forward, and the skyscraper only seems to get further away. I’m starting to feel how high up I am.

I remind myself that I’m probably just on the ground in this ball not actually moving, and if I do fall, it’ll be a simulation of falling, and I won’t actually fall.

“It's fine, Moon. We can do this. We are a bad bitch. We are the baddest of bitches. Bad bitches ain’t got nothing on me.” I give myself a pep talk trying to forget about the fact that I’m extremely clumsy, and not only that, but prone to near-death experiences. Prone to absolute freaking chaos!

“I’ll be fine. I’m sure of it. Most likely. Probably. I don’t know. I'm not very confident, to be honest with you.” Now I’m talking to myself? Not a good sign. I’m hoping that whoever is in charge of putting the cameras on me is bored and something way more interesting is happening elsewhere.

I don’t want the entire universe watching me try to talk myself into just walking a straight line.

“That’s all it is, Moon. We’re just walking in a straight line,” I tell myself once more. “Walk a straight line until you can't walk a straight line no more. When you get to the other side, you will not be dead. You will have finished the trial, and you will move on to the next trial. You're a badass. We trained for this. This is what we were trained for."

You know, no matter how much I say it out loud, I still don’t feel any fucking better. I’m starting to think I’m going to pass out.

Although that’s probably more to do with the fact that I’m holding my breath, scared one little gasp will be the end of me.

I keep going, because what choice do I have? I mean, sure I could jump off the side, get the whole falling to my almost death over with. And then be sent to exile island, until someone wins. But then what?

I take several quick steps when the straight line I’m walking on starts to wobble. Yes, you heard that right, it’s wobbling. I throw my arms out to my sides to try and keep myself steady, as I continue to walk, and this fucking bar wobbles. Now, it’s not that strong of a wobble, but it’s a noticeable wobble.

I mean, I could be hallucinating because I am not breathing, but I think it might actually be wobbling. I might actually be about to fall.

“Moon!” I hear someone shout, and my head snaps up. I’m about halfway across the bar, and on the other skyscraper that I’m heading toward is a face I recognize.

“Daire!” I whisper. The sight of him makes my heart race, but I don’t risk looking around to see how anyone else is doing.

He’s a Vampire, so he probably just flashed himself across his pole, and boom he was done. Lucky fucker. If I had my power, I would just give myself balance as I ran across the bar. But no.

“Come on, Moon, you can do this!” he shouts to me, and I resist chuckling because I’m fairly certain that that will cause me to fall.

“Or, I’ll fall to a screaming, bloody death,” I hiss, knowing he can hear me.

“You wouldn’t actually die,” he shouts, and I can hear the laughter in his tone. The bastard.

“You’re about to die, once I make it across this pole,” I growl, continuing to take one step after another. Is the pole getting longer? No, I don’t think so, I’m just moving slow as shit. Fuck my life.

Obviously, this Tournament is only going to get harder, so I suppose by all accounts, this is a pretty easy trial.

“I can do this,” I whisper to myself, as I get closer to the end. Daire is standing at the edge, looking like he wants to reach out and yank me to him, but something is blocking him. I smile up at him, taking another step forward, and that’s when my foot slips.

I fall, flailing, but manage to catch myself at the last possible second. The bar I was standing on went from a flat beam to a round pole, and I lost my footing. Now I’m dangling from it with sweaty hands as Daire shouts something at me that I can't hear over the sound of blood rushing through my ears as my adrenaline amps up.

I shift my weight, trying to see if I can shimmy my hands across the pole, but my fingers slip on my left hand, and I nearly fall.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” I hiss, grabbing the pole, so my left hand is facing my body, and my right is facing away. I swing my legs, pleading with the curious cat in my brain, not to look down. That's what gets cats killed. Curiosity.

My first attempt to hook my heel over the pole fails, but when I swing harder the second time, I’m able to catch the edge.

I wrap both legs around the pole, and slowly, one arm at a time, move so my forearms are wrapped over the pole, rather than my hands. Then I start the awkward shimmy across the pole. It’s slow-going, and when the fucking pole starts to rotate, I freak all the way out.

“They’re trying to kill me!” I screech, and that’s when I hear Daire shouting once more.

“You won’t actually die!” he reminds me, unhelpfully.

“You don’t know that!” I scream, lifting my head in an attempt to see how much further I have to go.

Maybe two feet. Thank fuck.

A few grunts later, I feel a pair of strong hands wrap around both my ankles.

“Let go of the pole, and I’ll pull you up.”

“Fuck no! Move out of the way.”

“I won’t let you fall, Moon.”

“I have no way of knowing if that’s true or not!”

“If you fall, I can’t feed. Obviously, I’m not going to let that happen,” he counters, and this time I squint. Okay. That makes sense.

“Okay, but make it quick. I’m letting go in three, two…two and a half…”

“Moon!”

“One!” I scream, and I keep screaming, as I release the pole, and Daire drops one of my legs, so he can lift me by the other. I’m falling head first toward my death, then I’m swinging to the right and flying to the sky.

“Shhh, I got you,” Daire soothes when I realize the world isn’t spinning around me anymore. He’s wrapped me up in his arms and is holding me tightly. I sink into him.

“Holy fucking shit, that was horrible.”

“Good news contestants. You have now leveled up. If you are still here, you’ve made it to the final twenty-five,” the ominous voice announces, as the scene around me disappears. I fall forward onto my hands and knees when my reality comes back into focus. I’m in my bubble, and bumping my bubble, is Daire. He’s also in an awkward position since we were hugging in the VR and in our separate bubbles in actual reality.

“Top twenty-five, huh?” Daire grins, and I smile back, thankful as fuck that I’m safely on the ground.

“I guess—” my words are cut off by that voice speaking again.

“The rest of the games will only get harder. For every trial you pass, you’ll level up. For each level you pass, a new map will be generated. With more dangers between trials, and ultimately, the final trial will be the most difficult. As a reward for making it this far, please enjoy the arena showers. You will not get another opportunity to do so.”

“Shower?” I whisper. My heart is still racing from the trial. I haven’t even processed that I’m now in the top twenty-five, and now I’m being told I get to shower? Oh, heck yes.

“It could be a trap. Other contestants could use it as an opportunity to play dirty.” Daire frowns, and as our little bubbles disappear, I stand and launch myself at him. I hug him tightly, sighing heavily.

“Or, it could just be a chance to shower. Besides, I have a badass Vampire on my side, I’ll be fine.” Daire snorts at my words. I step back, smiling at him, and he shakes his head at me, like he can’t stand me, but also finds me entertaining at the same time.

I watch as he pats his pocket like I’ve seen him do in the past. He’s still wearing his glasses, and I want to ask him about both, but now doesn’t feel like the right time.

“Fine then, let's go.” Daire nods.

“I’m excited about hot water,” I cheer, making Daire chuckle.