"And Desta Mekonnen has been eliminated!"
The voice rang out, causing Leon to hit his head against the dusty warehouse desk. He was on top floor duty, looking at a room full of the dozen or so old computers. The electricity was gone, so none of the computers could be turned on, and the only light source was a battered torch Allan gave him beforehand and the few streetlights who's light could make it into the building. The building was bathed in a deep blue, so Leon could only see the outline of whatever was there. Allan gave him a bag to put anything sensitive inside, so Leon stuck the PC inside. He could barely fit the bottom inside and the top was poking out, but it's what Allan asked for, so he guessed it was time to oblige. For whatever reason, the keyboard was haphazardly against the side of the desk, but that didn't matter. Probably some pissed off employee on his last day.
"Yo, Leon!" He heard, followed by a crashing noise. When Leon stepped out, Allan's outline was scrambling to his feet.
"Come down!"
"What?" Leon asked.
"You gotta!"
Leon once again obliged, following the slightly better light of Allan's torch to what looked like a pile of crumbs.
"Crumbs?" Leon asked.
"Recent crumbs!" Allan said, pointing the torch to himself. He looked even greasier and unhinged than usual. "Meaning, somebody was in here. Look, I'm gonna grab these and try figure out where they came from."
"Okay?" Leon said. "What if it was a homeless guy?"
"My guy, they travel in packs." Allan confidently stated. "If this is one guy, it's clearly a third party scoping this place out for information."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning we just gotta set up a camera." Allan took a camera from his backpack. It looked older, clunkier. Came with a tripod that Allan was quickly setting up, before placing it in front of the door.
"With this, we'll see who the spy is."
"You think there's a spy?" Leon asked.
"Look, there's gotta be someone on the inside, okay? Someone connected to the gods and teaming with them for some kind of advantage." His smug look changed and his eyes bulged slightly as he looked at Leon.
"Is it you?"
"No."
"Alright, just checking. Anyway, get out of here."
"What?"
"If we leave at the same time it'll look suspicious. So get out."
Leon obliged, leaving the PC and Allan to his weird camera set-up and whatever he was doing with the crumbs later. Best case scenario, something relevant comes out. Worst case, he lost an evening he could have spent doing literally anything else.
The next morning, Tedros sat by the coffin. Desta lay in the best clothes she had. The wake was over, and the bar a few doors down was serving drinks and other refreshments. His mother was hysterical throughout the entire ordeal, and yet he wasn't. Tedros just felt numb throughout the last day, the only thing tethering him to reality was how itchy his suit was.
"Need a drink?"
Tedros looked behind him, and Mateo was there, holding a tray that only contained a can of lemonade. Tedros favourite, so he took it. Mateo sat next to him.
"You doing okay?" He asked.
"What are you doing here?"
"Eh, I just volunteer with the church sometimes." Mateo shrugged. "Anyway, you doing alright?"
"I mean, I could have been the one in that coffin." Tedros replied with a sigh. "Look, don't tell my parents, but I might have gotten her killed."
"What makes you think that?" Mateo asked.
"I trapped her." Tedros said as he took a sip of his lemonade. "Tried using my powers to make a barrier between her and Evelyn, but that just gave Evelyn a chance to knock her out and win the challenge."
"Oh. I'm sorry about that." Mateo said, looking to the door.
"Look, that'll be the last time I fail to save someone, okay?" Tedros announced, finally moving his gaze from the coffin to Mateo. "Because I'm stopping these games."
"You are?"
"Yeah. Look, all we have to do is kill the gods, right? It's five people ruining us against sixteen more players. So we could have four players to one god and kill the head one with whoever's left. And that number's only gonna decrease with each game. So the longer we take to fight back, the more time they have to win this."
"Do you at least have a plan?" Mateo asked.
"Look, I'm gonna set up a team of players. People I trust, right?" Tedros said, holding his phone out. "We can scope the games out, text each other on the fly during the game, and if everything works out, we kill one of the hosts. And we repeat until we win. And the team is gonna be called…the league of righteousness."
"Is this something from a comic book you read?"
"No, it's a morale thing." Tedros said, looking dead serious as he did. "Look, you in?"
Mateo stood in place for a second. Tedros was hurting, that much was obvious. His motives were at least somewhat thought out, if as simplistic as the conflicts in his comic books. Obviously, killing the people who call themselves gods will be tougher, but perhaps training him up wouldn't be the worst idea.
"Have you considered getting a gym membership?"
"Might be something to look into." Tedros replied through squinted eyes, slowly nodding.
"I mean, I might be able to get you on Terrence's family plan. Worked for me."
"Right, this was productive." Tedros said, gulping the last of his lemonade down. "Tell me where that gym is, and I'll be there tomorrow."
Sybil woke up in her bed, her head spinning. It was bright out, and the ceiling was spinning, somehow making the pure beige of the apartment unbearable to look it, and each sound of the birds outside compounded into making her brain into a fine mush, the type that gave the pain of what she imagined a fresh gunshot wound to feel like. But while her brain was scrambling to do anything, she felt her throat try to force a torrent of vomit out. She tried to run to the bathroom, only for some kind of weight to trip her up, making her release her vomit all over the floor. God dammit. She looked back, and her arm was pure blue crystal. She shook her hand into feeling sensation again, and the crystal slowly retracted into her hand. She opened her window and stepped over the puddle of vomit. It was the weekend, she could deal with it later.
She checked her phone to see what she missed. A couple texts from her sister asking if she got home okay. And a notification that she was starting a 24-hour livestream. She sighed, and opened the stream. She was playing some new role playing game, she couldn't really keep up with what came out these days. She bought the new Dragon Curse game six months ago, and she still didn't have the chance to play it. She was in a low cut top, as per usual. Yeah, cool. Go ahead. At least she had an actual job. One that required a degree, that she could be proud of. A job that gave her several months of stress from students who did not want to learn jack.
And maybe students she'd have to kill.
She suddenly remembered that part. The job got her into a death game against her students. And she'd have to kill them. Eh, you know what? Fine. Again, she did something with her life. Got a degree, has a job that affords her an apartment, all the good stuff. And these kids? Probably gonna follow a passion and then burn out early on, and at best settle for something that pays the bills. But with the schools reputation and the behaviour of most of them, they'll probably end up high under a bridge as the life slowly drains away from them.
Her eyes widened on that thought. Wow, that is harsh. Hopefully, that's just the remnants of alcohol talking.