"As the second anniversary of the mass comatose will officially begin in the next few hours, many communities are trying to get together funds for the continued preservation of these poor souls. Not much is known abou-" Jude blinked before tilting his head up at the woman who had shut off the TV. The woman looked completely average in every way, except for the large tattoo that started at her neck and hid beneath her shirt.
"This shit is so superficial. These same people didn't do nothing to help when they were awake, why start now?" Eva, Jude's sister in all but blood, growled at the screen.
"Well, I wouldn't have to watch it if you took a normal amount of time to shower. Now move it. It's my turn. We're out of literally everything, and I just had the last bowl of cereal, so good luck with that." Jude lifted himself off the couch with a groan and moved past Eva to the small bathroom.
The steam clouding the bathroom mirror told Jude just how cold the shower was going to be, so he quickly ran through all the motions. After finishing the fastest shower known to man, he stared at his reflection. Kind blue eyes stared back, along with short pale brown hair, a slight nose, and freckles dotting his skin like blush. He scowled, easily ruining the illusion. He had never been soft or sweet, but it was easy enough to pretend with his face. At least it was more useful than Eva's appearance. Although she used to be unnoticeable in a crowd, with her shoulder-length brown hair and eyes, they had to discard that. No one with that much ink could hide in a crowd.
After he was clothed and clean, Jude went to join his sister. Eva was obliterating a bowl of cereal, which she must have hidden from him on one of the higher shelves.
"W sent you a letter," Eva said through a mouthful of dry cereal, but Jude understood enough to flush pink and grab the manila envelope from her hand. This time, Eva swallowed before talking. "He's such a damn dork. The fuck is the point of a letter when he has your number? Wait- how the hell does he even know our address?"
Jude ignored her with a skill he'd been perfecting for years and opened the letter. It was written in a perfect script that W had once confessed to spending his youth cultivating out of some obsessive sense of perfectionism, and outlined the next job for them perfectly. That devotion was exactly why he was so successful at his job. It took a special kind of person to get the connections and information he needed. Thanks to all the work he put in, he was one of the quickest-rising informants in the city. As such, Jude had been getting jobs for himself and Eva from W ever since they aged out of The Garden. W was one of the only people Jude could trust, only because he held a borderline-obsessive love for Jude. This came with the issue of W having a dangerous amount of information on him, but the pros of their odd relationship far outweighed the cons.
"Honestly, this whole thing is getting ridiculous. He probably even has your blood type at this point!" Eva was still ranting as Jude folded the letter back up and placed it on the table.
"You don't even know my blood type, how could W? I doubt either of us even has medical records. Plus, he was just giving us a job. We should be grateful. It's good money."
"Yeah, yeah. Doesn't mean I have to like it. What's the job anyway?"
"Just a delivery. The Underlings want information about Rising, and Rising wants info about the Underlings. Same story as always." At the mention of Rising, Eva flinched.
"Maybe we should just… sit this one out. We have enough from the last job, and you know how Rising feels about W. They're not above hurting us to get to him. Everyone knows how he feels about you. It's not going to be worth it if you- if we're not-"
"Don't worry so much! It's just a job; besides, you know how W thinks. Rising can't kill me, he'd go ape shit, I'm pretty sure the only person who can without dying horribly at his hand is you, and if you killed me, I'd probably done something to deserve it." Jude interrupted with a happy smile. Eva's frown deepened.
"Fine. Did he send the folders, too?" After confirming the information, they set out to Rising. Since they had started working for W a few years back, they had developed a pattern for these types of jobs. They would go to the people they saw as the biggest threat, then go to W's bar. No one would attack them in the bar unless provoked, that would break neutral territory and would get everyone in a ten-mile radius on their ass. After roughly an hour of talking with W, they would head to the less threatening group.
The meeting place wasn't too far, and the pair knew the streets well, so they managed to arrive first. After a time, Rising's second hand, Annette, arrived with two extra muscle - one male, one female, both clearly stronger than him - in tow. Early enough that they weren't being disrespectful, but late enough that Jude had gotten to "twenty-four bottles of beer on the wall." Eva punched his arm lightly to quiet him before talking.
"All the information you need is here. You got the money?" She made herself sound authoritative as she said it, but Jude saw the way her fists clenched. Eva had something going on with Rising, something that made her nervous around them. Interesting, but not something to focus on at the moment. Instead, Jude walked forward to meet Annett halfway. He felt Eva's hand around his wrist, but she let her grip go limp after squeezing once. He looked back at her, but she averted her gaze, so he went back to the issue at hand.
"Don't worry, pet. You won't have any issues with us today." Annette smiled sharply and gestured to the woman next to her. She reached into the pocket of her jacket and threw over a wad of cash. Odd. Usually, Annette wanted the information before handing over anything. Jude wanted to get out of this as soon as he could. He passed over the folder she had paid for before counting the money. All twelve hundred was there. The exchange went better than his dealings with Raising usually did. He turned to Eva to give her the all clear, but he paused when he met her eyes. Something was off. He spun back around in time to see Annette's other muscle - the male one this time - pull out a gun and shoot him in the shoulder.
"Fuck!" Jude staggered back until he reached the wall and clutched at his shoulder. "What the fuck, Annette! What happened to no issues?"
"Sorry, pet. Some sacrifices must be made for power, I'm sure you understand."
"W will ruin you for this. What on earth makes hurting me worth it?" Trying to reason with her was useless, though. There was no going back after attacking. If both groups were left alive, there would only be worse conflict in the future.
"You seem to have misunderstood something; it is not me who will be benefiting from this." Annette smiled and began to turn, " I'd like my money back when you're done, dear. We can discuss further then."
"Understood." Eva's voice shook as she spoke from his side, and once they were alone, she moved in front of him as Jude glared at her.
"What on earth was that-" he stopped talking, cut off by a scream. There was a knife in his side. Eva pulled it out with the same practiced ease she had used to plunge it into her side.
Jude clutched his side, trying to stop the blood from leaving his abdomen. He collapsed against the wall of the alleyway. The world was starting to spin. Eva poisoned her blades. He would be dead in less than a minute. No ambulance would be able to get there in time to save him. They were too far from the main city, and no one cared enough to patrol this area anymore. He was dead. This was it.
"I feel like I should say something profound for you to put on my grave, but I'm drawing a blank." Jude was smiling sweetly as he said it, but there was palpable hatred in his eyes. There was no reason to expect anything but getting stabbed again in reaction, but Jude never knew how to shut up anyway. He was already dying; might as well piss his sister-killer off in the process. "Is this a good time to tell you that your scones were, like, really bad. Both burnt and raw. It was kind of impressive."
Eva turned and started walking away. She was trying to hide the fact that she was crying. Jude felt rage burn in his gut. Two-faced bitch. You did this; what right do you have to mourn? He wanted to scream, but no. That would be pointless. There would be no reason to keep going in this world without her. Jude didn't have anyone else. He knew something was going on that he couldn't understand. She must've been trying to warn him all day. But she made her choice. Eva had chosen to leave him behind. It all felt so… pointless. And yet, he didn't want to die. There was so much more that he could have done, but no. Instead, Jude lived his life around Eva. Maybe he should accept that the hole in his stomach was killing him. It would be a lot less painful than regretting everything.
Then, his phone buzzed, and the world seemed to stop.
[Would you like to play a game?]
[YES] [NO]
Jude began to laugh, sending a sharp pain through his side. A game. As he was dying, some unknown company found a way to send him a notification and wanted to know if he wanted to play a game. He almost hoped that it would create a virus and destroy the device. At least then Eva couldn't sell it.
[You have selected: YES]
[Good choice. Welcome to the game.]