Finding myself considerably colder and with the nostalgic feeling of wet grass beneath my single still boot-less foot was considerably jarring.
The huge crowd of people around me, which I was fairly sure were not freeloading under my bed all this time? That was frightening.
And yet, It was the twin blue suns above me giving everything a gentle and calm hue that truly chilled me to my bones.
It seemed like I was not the only one feeling a bit out of place, given how alarmed whispers started amongs the multitude at about the same time.
“Where are we?”
“Is this some kind of joke?”
“I didn’t say I was ready!”
The smattering of different accents was immediately evident and said interesting things about this whole affair. English has been the official universal language for a couple decades now since The Pact, but it hadn’t been even remotely enough time for each country to fully transition into a more neutral pronunciation.
I was confident at least some of these people were from the old continent and as far as I knew, international travel was still banned at the civilian level.
Their clothes ranged wildly, from the usual mass manufactured cotton stuff the state factories churned out by the millions to synthetics of those with better means. Some looked to have been taken while on the streets, still dressed for a work day. Office workers, labourers, security guards. A few overly noticeable ones were even in suits or pyjamas.
The last group at least made me feel better about the whole shoeless issue.
By now some groups had formed between the more social or perhaps those seeking refuge in numbers. I looked to my sides to find to my right a grizzled bear of a man staring at everyone like they were a piece of juicy steak and a catatonic teenager on a fetal position on the grass to my left.
Suffice to say I was not feeling inclined to partner up, given the immediate choices.
I noticed then that the kid was quietly talking while shivering, yet too far to make out the words. I felt some reluctance to get close given the strangeness of the situation but in the end my conscience won. Would hate to be in the same spot and get ignored because it was inconvenient.
Well, that, and I wanted to get away from Sir-Stares-A-Lot. Really getting a bad vibe from that one.
I kneeled by the kid’s side slowly, taking care to keep the other guy in my peripheral vision, nerves making me worry my lip.
“Hey, man… You okay there?” I asked with caution. It would really suck if he were to jump at my throat teeth first right now. Overly paranoid, maybe, but given how the last hours had developed one had to keep an open mind.
He said something in response, but way too quietly to make out. I got myself closer against my better judgement. “Care to repeat that, Buddy?”
“Just a little more, mom. I promise I’m not leaving you again.” The kid murmured while looking at nothing with glassy eyes.
I stared at him blankly for a moment while I digested that.
“I suppose that answers how you’re doing.” I snapped my fingers in front of his face twice, trying to get a reaction without success. Guy was totally lost in his funk. “Hey, I’m not one to judge, but this is hardly the place to be doing… whatever this is supposed to be.” I swear to all that’s good, if this guy is just stoned to the gills...
The teen hugged himself tighter. “I swear I’ll be a good boy. Just don’t let this end…”
“I see.” Was all I could say, if only to make the moment less uncomfortable. Hard to keep a conversation going when the other guy is tripping as hard as this one.
“He didn’t make it.” Said a way too deep bass to my side. I looked up fast enough to leave my neck hurting, finding the smiling bearded visage of the man I was supposed to be evading.
His dressing style went for the rough rural tough guy template. Worn out jeans and a maybe leather jacket over a slightly stained t-shirt. That, and a full on forester beard. Buffed and hovering menacingly. Yeah, I’m not feeling it.
I sighed quietly in resignation. My new companion seemed to take that as an invitation to keep talking.
“The wench said not everyone can’t handle her stuff.” Said with smugness the hopefully not murderous hairy man. He raised his chin in the direction of the kid. “That one obviously didn’t make the cut.”
I took a moment to take that in.
On one hand, he was confirming I was not crazy for seeing the silver haired poster child for military brutality, with a side dish of posh contempt. Quite good. It meant that I was sharing the crazy with the world and not just on my lonesome.
On the other hand, I did remember her saying something of the like. A glance at the rocking form by my feet did make it seem likely. Still.
“It may be. But what makes you say that, if I may ask, uh, Sir?” I hurried to add the last part when his eyes on me got a bit more intense. If he was trying to radiate that slasher aura consciously, let it be said he had natural talents at looking like a serial killer.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Thank you for the dolls, mom” The kid picked that moment to share with us his insight. Beardy and I shared a glance, his still kinda evil and mine quite confused.
“I don’t think that proves anything. He could just be very into dolls. For some reason.” The absurdity of the situation was not lost on me, but I chose to just roll with it. Debating was an old habit of mine and it did help to calm me somewhat.
I turned to our fellow kidnapee. “You wouldn’t happen to have accepted five very dubious presents, eh, buddy?”
“Five is the most beautiful number and I will cherish them. All of them.” Beardy looked a little —actually a lot— more smug.
“Point conceded.” I told him with a wry smile.
“Ferdinand.” He said, taking his eyes from me to look at our surroundings. I was surprised at the lack of horror movie tropes there and how he took our interaction as an invitation to present himself, but I decided to embrace the little normality available.
“Isaac.” I told him, giving another glance to our doll lover companion. “Think he will wake up from that?”
I had managed to. But the woman did say not all were able and it even sounded kinda-somewhat-sort of like a compliment. Was that it? A person reduced to a murmuring husk just because they didn’t meet some arbitrary requirement?
A feeling of anger grew inside me. It is not liked we chose to be here. To do this, whatever this is. To be ‘chosen’.
But then I remembered that I had, in a way. It was hard to tell in the heat of the moment and it hadn’t felt like much of a choice. But it was. Some fates are worse than death is a popular enough phrase.
And yet I didn’t want to die.
Looking at the kid, it was almost certain he didn’t, either. Bitterness was a familiar feeling to me by now.
The slight taste of iron made me release my lip in a hurry.
I noted that Ferdinand chose to reserve his opinion on the matter to himself, his attention already on something else.
I tried not to hold that against him. It’s not his fault he doesn’t care nor is it his that I do.
“Look, there are more of them.” Ferdinand was pointing slowly from one place to another. Following his finger, I could see that our buddy here was not the only one ‘not worthy’. I could count at least a couple dozen figures in various forms of prostration around the place, most of the people nearby giving them a wide berth.
Something else took my attention, though.
High above us on a boulder, a silver figure looked upon us with her trademark judgemental eyes.
“Feel privileged, chosen. Your mere presence here is already the height of your existence.” And there it was. That witch never lost a chance to remind of us of how beneath her we were. Could do with a bit more enthusiasm, though. Her tone was the equivalent of a veteran literature teacher exposing to a bunch of dimwits the classics of the written word, yet knowing they were completely lost on them.
It couldn’t be denied she had an insane amount of force of personality, though. With her ethereal voice always sounding like it was in front of you, a proud straight back, elevated positioning and dramatic entrance, basically everyone who still had a grasp of reality in the clearing turned to her with a wide range of different emotions.
It did surprise me how there wasn’t as much terror as I felt was justified.
Even now, my hands shook and cold sweat began dripping down my neck followed by a brief but intense needle of pain in my eye.
Mama’s boy and his fellows were proof enough she didn’t really care that much for fairness in whatever surely terrible test she had in mind.
Ferdinand to my side lost all trace of good cheer on his face, his look a tense glare at the Witch.
“Every single virtue of a proud warrior will be expected of you. Might enough to cleave all foes, while outnumbered. Cunning enough to outmaneuver the brightest minds, while badly positioned. Strength of mind enough to endure any ailment, while forced to your limits.” Despite it being quite improbable with how many people there were listening to her right now, it had felt like she had looked me right in the eyes for a moment there.
“You will fail at this.”
The silence in the clearing was so heavy it almost could be called a physical thing.
“Craven, imperfect creatures that you are, I expect only disappointment in the future, were I to have any hopes for you at all.”
Angry whispers began.
“No, to do so would be to seek failure of my own making. Instead, I will hold you to a single ideal which I believe would be to your deepest interest.”
Was she taunting us? That’s the only thing that came to mind for what she could get out of this. I had no doubt she could butcher us, despite the fact that she was a lithe and elegant woman against a sizable mob of pissed off and frightened people.
It went against all logic and common sense. And still I was certain of this. This knowledge came from the animal part of me, in charge of my survival and that of my every ancestor.
Face her and you will die.
There was no doubt in me that this was true.
If this was so and there was no way we could harm her —She took me to what most certainly is another world— then what could she possibly obtain from being insulting? There was no need to declare herself superior. She was. The proud way in which she held herself and the dismissal in her eyes showed she was very much aware of this.
I realized it a moment before it happened.
Not all of us treated her as the terrifying figure who stalked me around half the city. Nor the cold psychopath that plucked my eye out with casualness and boredom.
I could be angry. I could hate her. But I had been warned by her actions to treat her with utmost care. I got this feeling that disrespecting her initial offer was what got me my particular treatment, what with how she emoted while she was still cold metal and even colder intent.
The people around didn’t have enough fear. And just from looking at them, I knew some were looking close to breaking point.
I refused to think anyone sane could go through what I did and dare to look at her with the defiance of an equal. Maybe one or two madmen without a sense of self-preservation could happen to be part of our group. But dozens? The most logical conclusion is that whatever the nature of their meeting with our lady of violence, it must have been of a gentler nature.
“Be of some use to The One Above All before you inevitably perish.”
The next I knew, the unmistakable bang of a firearm close by left my ears ringing. Something pushed me to the floor, a heavy weight falling on me and taking the air out of my lungs.
Again and again it sounded, until finally, a single click called the end.
Whatever was crushing me lifted itself away, allowing me to breathe again.
“Sorry ‘bout that, boy.” I barely made out the rumbling voice of Ferdinand above the ring in my ears and the panicked screaming. Guns were apparently a lot louder than I gave them credit for. I still had the presence of mind to thank the surprisingly heroic man for what I realized must have been an attempt at protecting me.
“Thanks for that… can’t say I expected it to go exactly like that.” I took his outstretched hand and stood with little difficulty given the size of the muscled arm helping me, noting how it was very calloused.
But Ferdinand wasn’t paying me any attention, his eyes wide and glued forward and above.
I turned and noticed quite quickly why.
The Silver Witch stood in the same pose as before, with the change of having a ring of slowly orbiting bullets around her in a perfect arc. The look in her eyes was merciless, staring with laser focus at a single man with a pistol held in his limp arm by his side.
The crowd parted around him with fear painted on their faces, leaving a safe distance between themselves and whatever was about to happen. Some were openly sobbing.
By the disbelief in his face, he now knew what to expect.
“Mortal weapons can not hurt the Divine.” The bullets stopped in front of her lazily. And then moved so fast they disappeared to my eyes, a sharp whistle the only clear sign they did.
The man screamed first in shock and then pain, blood being splattered around him where his legs used to be connected to his body.
Screams came again, people running away in terror while others retched at the sight and brutality.
“Five hundred of you entered this trial. Only one hundred will walk out victorious.” With her punishment delivered, she seemed to forget the existence of the still screaming, but quickly weakening man.
That brought everyone to a halt.
“Use whatever means you think best to survive until the end. Do try to move with proper haste, before the predators arrive for their feast.” The howls in the distance left little to the imagination about what predators she was talking about.