18 Chapter 7: Desert Requiem 7 (1/2)

I stood in front of the door where Cerguz is.

And he's waiting impatiently, I can feel it.

Right now this game he loves is the only thing we can use to win.

Quite frankly, I'm not really good at lying.

And I don't think being good at it will help me enough if he suddenly decides to end the game and control us all with his paralysis, taking us all out one by one the easiest yet most painful way he could think of.

But I know he won't do that when he hears me out.

Because I have one thing that he hasn't encountered from anybody else before....

I have a unique secret—

I nodded at the arguement inside my head and took a deep breath and turned the door knob.

The door creaks open.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.

”Give me a good reason why I shouldn't just paralyze you now and your friends just to get it over with?”

Oh. So he won't even play dumb and ask why I'm here? He's really desperate than impatient.

Cerguz sat on his chair with both his hands crossed diligently. Watching me with his usual leering eyes as if he can see through my clothing.

”Because that will be boring?” I retorted. ”Won't you want to know why I'm here?”

He stared at me for a moment. ”To stall, I assume. However petty talks are never interesting.”

”I don't like talking long very much. Good thing I'm not here for that. I'm here to play a game.”

”A game?” He seemed amuse. ”And if I decline?”

”You won't. Because I'm good. You'll see.”

He smirks. ”It's nice to hear how confident your barking is despite how wild your heartbeat is drumming right now.”

I took a deep breath.

So he can sense heartbeats now?

That means— he's already focusing on me.

”How about a test run? I'll give one lie now while you try to catch if it's really my truth.”

One eyebrow raised at one end as his lips parted.

Slowly it curves into a wicked smile; his eyes scanning me as if he can touch all the skin his eyes run pass.

He nods.

His eyes stared at mine intently.

”Ready when you are.”

I closed my eyes.

And tried to remember my previous life.

Right now, I'm not Aerrandria Leingod of Greenrun.

Right now—

I'm that eighteen years old from the life I once had.

I opened my eyes and stared back at him.

”I don't have a twin brother. In fact, I'm an only child.”

There was silence.

I can see his eyes gazing through me as if he's trying to read something.

”Interesting.” he murmured. ”Go ahead, my little doll. Sit down and entertain me.”

He gestures at the seat in front of his desk, just across from where he sat.

”When I catch you. It will be game over.” he says this in a matter-of-fact tone.

I know, I thought. As I dragged my feet across the room as if I'm crossing shallow waters.

I may have no idea if he already paralyzed the others but looking at him now, how we watches me like a hungry predator, I'm sure he's more interested in playing the game than ending it too soon.

Stray is right. His over confidence is his weakness. I doubt he wants it to end right now while everything is just getting started.

He would want to see how this end, how we will all play this out while we all tiptoe-dance in his area of domain. An area where he can control us all in one simple decision.

I have to stir him out.

I sat down before him. As I eyed him back.

”Five sentences to go” he says, without blinking.

If I let him play this out like a countdown, he can simply turn it around easily.

I need to take control.

”How about I'll just go ahead and say all five statements all together. The catch is, you can just stop me the moment you sense me lying.”

Show confidence.

It will catch his interest more

”It's similar to the usual game you play but this time, I'm calling this game: Catch me if you can.”

Taunt him for a challenge.

And his weakness will usually kick in. 'Underestimating all his opponents.'

Because he knows he can still win.

He laughs all of a sudden, my shoulders rose momentarily in surprise. ”Go ahead!!! Let's see how good you really are! Sadly, I already met children like you. They are good at lying! However, no one can beat me when my game begins. So let's see how hard it is to catch you, my beautiful doll.”

He leans forward as he lays both his elbows down his desk. He crossed both his hands together and lays his face over, covering his mouth.

I can see his eyes narrowing. Staring directly at my eyes.

I raised my hand and opened them.

Five fingers stands for five questions, I thought.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Recall everything from before.

The previous life I once had.

My family, our house, the path I usually take to school. Nicole and Risa.

Everything.

I opened my eyes and gaze back at him.

And so, I begun.

”I'm not a pathological liar. In fact, I'm not good at lying.”

That's why I never look at my friends when I turn them down for something. They know well how I suck at lying. I'm bad at it that I ended up being permissive to others when they ask me for something. They say my face says it all and I never learned how to change it.

More like— I didn't had the chance at all.

I flexed my thumb to my palm. One down.

”I'm born with brown hair and hazel eyes that is a bit curly and always frizzy despite all my efforts to make it straight, it always returns back to its unruly self.”

I wonder how many rebonds have I paid for?

How many hair brush I already broke just from brushing my hair in place.

As for the word 'bed hair', I feel like I was born to represent it.

I curled my next finger down.

Three to go.

”I go in a community school with two of my best friends but we never go home together because they usually take a ride home while I walk back to our house which is really not that far away and when I get home, the house is almost always empty.”

I stared back straight at Cerguz but I don't see him, I see that quiet neighbourhood where I once lived. Green lawns and clean streets. Tall trees carefully lined in a row by the side of the road. There are also some cars parked by the driveway of some houses. All the neighbours around us has that neatly presented flowerbeds while ours just rolls bare unkept grasses. And when I open the door, the lights are off and a note is left by the fridge. I guess I'm eating dinner alone again.

I curled my middle finger down.

Two left.

”My dad worked in the military before and loved all his gun collections but sadly not as much as he did for us so he left us; so since then my mom raised me alone I couldn't even remember his face anymore.”

—BAAAMMM!!!

I focused my attention to Cerguz as he stood there with both his hands flat against his desk. ”H-HOW—?!?” he grunted, his jaws tightening. ”How is this possible?! I've watched... YOU the entire year! I know your father never left your mother...a-and you live a sheltered life! Always and always together with your twin brother and that white hair of yours is genuine!!! SO HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!? HOW CAN YOU SAY ALL OF THESE AS IF THEY ARE YOUR TRUTHS?!?”

I stared blankly at him.

He's impatient now.

Only time can tell when he can spin this game around or decide to end it.

I need to make this count.

Make sure he will listen...

”Last one— won't you listen?”

Last one.

My last memory.

I closed my final finger and made a fist.

I pulled my hand down and brought it to my lap as I grope the darts slowly out from my pocket with my other hand.

I looked directly at Cerguz once more.

”It was raining hard that day that I can't even make out where I was going—”

He eyed me, his brows twitched curiously.

”I just kept running and hoping that I can get back home and get umbrellas for my two bestfriends who I left stranded in school,”

My eyes began to sightlessly stare back at Cerguz

I can see that scene clearly.

The curtains of rain that poured relentlessly as I ran and ran with my schoolbag on my back and wind on my ears.

”I didn't even notice it was there but when I turned, I just knew I was staring at two bright headlight raging towards me—”

I focused my eyes at Cerguz now.

His brows eases but his eyes widens as if he sees what I saw, feel what I had felt.

”There was no remorse, no flashbacks, no nothing...”

I watch as his face slowly drained out of blood, lips apart while a sweat rolls down from the corner of his face.

”...that is

—the day I died.”

••▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅••

He just stood there unmoving...

As if trying to process what I just said.

His eyes stared blankly pass me in a trance like state.

I quickly removed the covers of the darts and threw one directly at him even before he could react.

But his hand formed a fist before his face abruptly.

He caught the dart.

Darn it!!!

His eyes focused back at me. ”What's this? A gift?” He chuckled, holding the dart with his thumb and a finger.

”I'm at lost for words!” He says in a contemptuous smile, walking around his desk and towards where I sat. ”I can't fathom how you did it but it sure heck creeped me out.”

Suddenly he closes in and grabbed my neck.

I tightened my grip to the other dart and went forth stabbing the hand that holds me

but he slaps my hand with his other even before it reached him.

The other dart rolled just by the foot on his desk.

”I already caught you now, so I guess I won?” he laughs.

—BOOOOMMMM!!!

The entire room shakes as the ground quakes violently. A crack emits in the ceiling.

Nora has began.

I need to stall for time

As long as I can.

Cerguz eyes me. ”I see your friends are up and playing their own games. Should I just take them all down now?” he asks, his voice starting to sound thick against my ears as the grip he had on my neck tightened.

”But you're right. This is interesting. I've never had this much fun in years! So maybe I'll start with you! How should I reward you?”

I tried my best to claw at his hands but I felt how far our strength are.

Slowly he pulls me up from my seat as my feet dangles in midair.

”Shall I do the same to you and your brother like what I did to those two red haired siblings before?”

My focus narrowed to Cerguz.

Red haired siblings?

Nora and her sister Pola?

”I also gave them the chance to negotiate before but unlike YOU, the younger one was wise to accept my offer. However I didn't want it as a secret from her sister, of course not! That's unfair!!!” He laughs hoarsely. ”So I told it to her older sister. Oh how UPSET she was so I had to make her sleep. She wasn't thankful for my honesty at all! Ungrateful brat!”

”You— bbbastard!!!” My voice only sounded like a squeak against the pressure in my throat as he held me higher.

Suddenly he shifts his hands and held me up by grabbing my entire face. He rubs his chin as he went on talking. ”But can you imagine the look on her face when she woke up and saw how neatly we had packaged all her sister's disassembled body parts in a container? Hah!!! You should have seen the horror she had in her eyes. Poor thing! Poor thing in deed!!!” His voice trembles in excitement as if he was reliving that moment. ”She was so shock than when she tried to REEEACH out to her sister, her own arm exploded! So I guess she had awaken her powers because of me, yes? Of course. Of course. It was like that.” He says in a nervous laugh, his eyes in a daze.

”BUT!!! If I did that to you and your brother now, it feels like there's no originality to it, isn't it?” He taps his temples now. I can feel his hands tremble. His eyes are shrouded in manic enthusiasm. ”Or or or! We can do it like how I did it to that rebellious purple eyes brat!”

Stray???

”I made him watch how I severed all the hands and feet of all his tiny friends! Of course it wasn't my fault! Nope! It wasn't! He tried to escape! He's the heartless one! He wanted to leave and abandon all his friends here? Serves him right!!!” He sways a finger in midair as if lecturing something. ”So~ I simply disabled his movements and all his friends and made sure he watched with unblinking eyes how I SLOOOOOWLY sliced and hacked through all their limbs off before him, sawing through their tiny little flesh and bones; all wide awake of course! I can't attack unconscious children! That would be an inhumane thing to do! Huh? What was that? why I did that you ask?” He pulls me closer to his. ”He didn't care for them anyway so I disposed ALL of them for him! It's rather a gift if you ask me! I cleared aaaaall my collections out for him. But haha! —it's not really a lost. I can just get a new batch whenever I want. But of course I acted out hurt.” He nods as his eyes rolls up, seeming to recall that memory. ”And I suppose he learned well because he never tried escaping after that!.... He was just around your age when that happened... how nostalgic actually. Yes. I can still remember it all clearly like it was yesterday.”

I shut my eyes close

As my mind began to try imagining all those horrible things done to my friends.

This twisted evil man—

”Oh I know! I know! Hahah! HOW ABOOUUUT— I do both! Like join them together! I could just get your brother now and make you watch how I prepare him for packaging for my client?”

My eyes spring open.

”....you... him...”

”What? I can't hear you?” He asks in a laugh. ”Oh! Sorry! Of course!” He brings me down to my feet and smiled at me warmly. ”There you go!”

”Don't you dare touch him...”

”OHH!!! That was what you're saying? Hah... hahahah!.... hah... HAHAHAHA!!!!!” He cackled, covering his face with both hands as he went on laughing like a lunatic. ”Haaaaa~! I won't DARE, of course!!! I'm not playing with you anymore!” he wipes a tear from the corner of his eyes. ”I would really do it, my dear! No dares only swears!”

I can feel my heartbeat echoing to my head.

I stared at him and clenched my hands tight in a fist, my nails digging to my skin.

'If he even tries.....' I thought

The corners of my vision began to dim

'...what he did to Nora... or Stray....'

Slowly, my head began to feel light.

My entire vision closing in even though I knew well that both my eyes are open.

”C... tr... Me... fs...t..wor... tal.”

”Speak up!!! I can't hear you, you know?”

I could feel my body growing feverishly hot, as if all the veins in my body are widely dilated.

...my blood surging thoroughly inside me in a rush, coursing through every blood vessels I have.

But my heart— it's slowing down.

Making me well aware of how each pounding of it is like a drum inside my head.

Drumming in slow motion,

As the sound goes louder

but lower

and lower.

Until it stopped.

I couldn't feel anything anymore.

I feel numb

I don't even have control of my own body

But I know I'm standing before him,

Wide eyed, staring directly at him

How odd.

What's happening to me?