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Chapter 19 - Realisation

Quick steps echoed throughout the area. Curiosity and excitement radiated in every direction, except from one man: Kiya. He ran and ran. The thought of Hitleck deceiving everyone else astonished him; such impressive acting and elaborate plans could only be orchestrated by a true superhuman. He was excited, curious, and cautious.

"Why did he go out? Why would he go out?" Kiya pondered for a while before retracing the past.

"Mm, maybe he went to the bug. THE BUG!!" Realization hit; he turned around and ran towards where Kiya thought the bug was, passing the room where everyone was asleep, he ran, huffing and puffing.

Finally, familiarity struck Kiya as he got closer to where the bug was at. His pace quickened until he eventually reached the place. He looked for the bug; it was gone. He surveyed everywhere, to no avail. At last, a bluish substance, resembling the night sky, caught Kiya's eyes.

He held out one finger; lowering it, he picked up some, bringing it closer to his face, and he caught a whiff. The smell was that of insects. 

Realizing that the bug must have been killed, he looked ahead at a trail of blue blood. He followed the blue blood, running. He got closer to an unknown door with a figure inside; the figure was not visible due to the dark.

He followed the trail, pace quickening with each step. He got closer and closer until eventually he reached the half-open door. He opened the door, fully revealing the silhouette. The silhouette was that of a human standing on a chair; his movements were bizarre.

"What the… Who is this? Hitleck?" Kiya mumbled to himself.

He walked closer and closer. Unfortunately, he stepped on the edge of a piece of steel glass lying there. 

"SHIT!!" He unknowingly yelled before shutting his mouth with his hands.

Hearing the noise, the creature turned around and looked at Kiya with his red eyes. It lunged at Kiya; dodging, he took steps back before looking at the beast, now on all fours. It looked at Kiya one last time before running off.

Kiya desired to find out the creature's identity; he tried chasing the creature but couldn't, as he fell down on the ground.

'What the? Why am I falling? Is it because of fatigue?' These were his last thoughts.

6 HOURS LATER.

"Hey, wake up… I SAID WAKE UP, DAMN IT." A voice emerged from the depths of Kiya's mind.

"Wha… what?" Kiya slowly opened his eyes to a hand aiming for his cheeks.

"WHAT THE…" Kiya tried to get out of the way, but the print was already made.

The slap made Kiya fully awake.

"DAMN, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT THAT HARD." Kiya said, looking at the guard.

"Who are you to say that? And WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING IN THE HALLWAY?"

"Did I?" 

"Ahh, forget it." The guard said, looking hopeless.

"Just get up, bro." Genzo said, holding his hand out.

"Alright." Kiya said as he got up, holding Genzo's hand.

He got up, brushing the dust off of his clothes. 

"So… Today is Thomas's execution, but we have no time for you to get ready." The guard said, looking at Kiya.

"Fine."

"Alright, let's go."

They started walking. Kiya, staring at Hitleck, had a doubt; walking a bit closer to Hitleck, he asked.

"Hey, where were you yesterday night?"

"Oh, I just went out to explore the place."

"Explore?" 

"Yeah, no one stopped me, soo."

"But, couldn't you try to find an escape route?"

"I could, but we were going to escape anyways, so to throw away the chance was... not smart."

"Seems like you believe everything too quickly."

"Hey, hey... Stop it; I cannot condone another fight." Fred said, looking at the two of them with a serious expression. "And didn't he save your life, Kiya?"

"That is true… Sorry for forcing you."

"Ah, it's okay; I guess I should have checked around a bit more."

"Stop this; I have to get you guys to the execution platform before it is too late." The guard said, grabbing their attention.

They walked with Thomas, who was still cuffed and was still mumbling. They walked and walked, Kiya still having unanswered questions inside his mind, which made him zone out once in a while.

Kiya's mind, filled with questions, failed to notice the execution ground appearing in front of him. Genzo patted him on the shoulder from the back, trying to make his mind come back.

"Huh?" Kiya said.

"Where were you?" Genzo asked sarcastically.

"Uh… Oh, sorry, I zoned out." 

"Look, I think we reached the execution grounds."

"Wha—"

Kiya looked up to see a guillotine placed in the middle of the ground. The guillotine was rather big and unusual; it was elevated about forty centimeters from the ground. Then, he looked all the way to see three zeros and a small two on top of it; they were written on cardboard. There were two dots after the first zero, symbolizing hours and minutes.

Curious about the number two on top of it, also written on cardboard, Kiya thought for a while.

'Huh, what do the two mean?'

He thought for some time before his judgement came to a conclusion.

'This must be some kind of timer; then we have only two hours!' Kiya thought, gazing at the two on top of the first zero.

'But... what must the timer be for? Is Thomas's execution going to happen after this timer runs out? Or is there some other reason?'

He again looked at his surroundings; the ground was built like a stadium where prisoners and guards watched the execution. And of course, the prisoners were cuffed. Although unnecessary for the execution of a killer, they wanted to set an example so that no one would try it again.

"Here we are, at the execution grounds." The guard said. "Aa-and your demise." He said, walking closer to Thomas. "You almost cost me MY FREAKING JOB, so this is definitely going to be a lot of fun."

They walked across to the guillotine; all eyes were on them. They heard a voice emerge from the elevated platform as they reached it. They looked at the top of the guillotine.

"What's that? Some kind of a robot?" Kiya asked, confused.

"It looks like it," Genzo said.

"HELLOOO EVERYONE, TODAY WE ARE HERE TO WITNESS THOMAS'S EXECUTION, THE ONE WHO KILLED A FELLOW SLAVE. HOW CRUEL!"

"Announcer?" Kiya said.

"TODAY, WE ALSO GAVE THE SLAVES A CHANCE TO ESCAPE. BY IDENTIFYING THE KILLER!! AND A YOUNG MAN NAMED KIYA FOUND WHO IT WAS. A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR KIYA." The robot said, as boos emerged from the crowds, Keep in mind that half of them were slaves. They didn't like the unfair advantage.

"DON'T WORRY! THEY ARE NOT GOING TO ESCAPE THIS EASILY. WE STILL HAVE ONE MORE GAME FOR THEM."

'A game? Then, the timer must be...'

"AND YOU HAVE TO COMPLETE THE GAME BEFORE THE TIMER RUNS OUT." The robot said, before putting his hands at the bottom of his ears in a cup shape, pretending to hear something even though no sound was made.

"WHAT'S THE GAME? THE GAME IS CALLED THE WOLF. THE GAME IS CALLED THE WOLF FOR SOME REASON, RIGHT? I WILL REVEAL IT IN JUST A MINUTE, AND BEFORE YOU ASK WHERE THE WARDEN IS. YOU SHOULD REALIZE THAT YOU CAN SEE HIM RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES, BECAUSE THE WARDEN IS AMONG US."

Kiya's eyes widened with shock, his brain immediately retracing everything that had happened in the past few days.

Startled, Kiya reached for the revolver, immediately pointing it at someone.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down. You have two hours, you know." A voice said.

"Shit, you... are good at this. How did you hide from us that YOU WERE THE WARDEN?" This response from Kiya put a shocked expression on everyone's face. Frederick was about to confront Kiya again before he spoke.

"Hmm. AHAHA… You got me."

"You... Got... Hitleck."

As the tides of fate hit the shores, the sand moves in accordance.

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