Chapter 16: Let the Games Begin

My heart stopped when the driver finally cut the engine.

We had been traveling for what felt like an eternity. Our shivering bodies coiled around one another as we attempted to retain some heat in the frosted chamber. At some point, my hands lost all feeling and I could no longer revel in the pain inflicted by my handcuffs. I watched as blood oozed from the reopened wounds, staining my white uniform.

No one spoke for the remainder of the trip. Probably because the saliva on our tongues froze, cementing the muscle to the roof of our mouths. Or probably because we were still trying to process the freak show that was our lives. Not even twenty-four hours ago we were being held at gunpoint, participating in the strangest version of standardized testing and now, we had to go play some twisted witch's game. A game where only one-third of us would make it out alive.

No pressure.

After being trapped with these people for so long, I began to make a list of strengths and weaknesses. The hulking figure in the back of the bus definitely possessed an upper hand in strength but I doubted he was as fast as the girl who sat beside him. Momma long legs as I liked to call her, could have been an Olympic sprinter with that body but she spent most of the ride crying, screaming and pulling at her cuffs so I began to doubt her sanity. The witches of the group were by far the most terrifying. They slumped back in their seats, unbothered by the cold and maintained these creepy blank stares on their faces. They seemed comforted by the nature of this particular trial.

I didn't know exactly where I fell within this motley crew.

I wasn't the strongest or the fastest but I was pretty quick on my toes and I thought, maybe, with my 'Other' ability I could have an advantage. Unfortunately for me, I still had no clue how to use it.

But I did have another secret power to fall back on. If the last few weeks I had proven anything, I knew how to survive. The cards were practically stacked against me since my arrival at Garrenbuck and yet I managed to remain alive up to this point. That had to count for something.

The doors to the back of the bus swung open seconds later. Two pairs of guards climbed into the cramped chamber with blinding lights mounted to their helmets. Distracted by the light, I didn't even notice the eye masks in their hands until one was firmly strapped onto my head, obscuring my vision.

"What the hell," I growled under my breath.

A guard unchained my arms from their tiresome position only to lock my cuffs around Ana's wrists. Only after all the prisoners were bound together and effectively blinded by eye masks did the guards lead us out of the bus. Snow crunched beneath my feet as the guards pulled us along. I had to be careful as I stepped over what felt like tree stumps and loose branches; if I were to fall the entire procession of prisoners would fall on top of me like a stack of cards. Nearby, I heard the nervous murmurs of another group stumbling through the dark.

"Stop here." A guard yelled. Me and my aching calves did not have to be told twice.

"Now slowly walk forward," I got the strong impression the guards would not be following us from that point on. Their voices drifted further and further with every step.

Taking a step forward, I bit back a yelp as the tip of my boot grew damp. I took another step and then another until my entire foot was finally submerged underwater. I didn't think it was very logical for them to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on our transportation if their goal was to drown us. But then again, who was I to question their torture methods?

"Stop." When the guard told us to stop for the second time, I was practically swimming.

The next two minutes were oddly silent as we awaited our next instruction. A feeling of abandonment crept into my bones as my limbs slowly fell victim to the freezing temperatures. It came to me as quite a shock when I finally realized that we were now all alone as the guards had most certainly left.

"Welcome to the first Aptitude Trial," said a voice all too familiar. The Commander.

"The trial itself is very simple. Once I unlock your cuffs with this small remote," he said 'small remote' as if he were holding up the contraption for us to see, which was impossible due to the current circumstances. "You will remove your blindfolds, only to find yourselves stranded in the middle of a forest. Your objective: you must find your way out of the forest and back to the transfer buses before sunrise. If you do not make it out before sunrise, the consequences go without saying..."

I envisioned the "consequences" looked something like getting chased through the forest by a squad of armed G.S. soldiers. Certainly not a preferable way to end one's life but it was a far better option then freezing to death.

"However there is one minor caveat." I was already dreading whatever he planned on saying next. "Before I unlock your cuffs, you must follow my instructions carefully."

"Dunk your heads under the water and say, 'Daruma San fell down'. You must repeat this action three times."

My fellow prisoners acted quickly as if not fully understanding the peculiarity of his request. I was still trying to unravel the secret meaning of "Dogma Son fell down" when Ana pulled me under the water with her. I popped back up a second later, sputtering the nonsensical phrase in between my coughing fits. As a "witch's game" I expected us to have to recite some terribly complex incantation and maybe perform a sacrifice like the one from my dream. Instead, we were taking a communal ice bath.

"Now," the Commander spoke again only after we finished the ritual, "Once I unlock your handcuffs, please remove the blindfolds."

We acted quickly, ripping the blindfolds from our eyes as our cuffs fell into the water. We were standing in a murky lake, sequestered in the middle of a vast thicket. At the edge of the lake stood a holographic image of the Commander. As I suspected the guards had left as quickly as they dropped us off. We were alone as we faced the consequences of our recent actions. Unbeknownst to all of us, there was something strange lurking in the water and we had just summoned it to the surface.

"Now, in order for this to work you must ask our dear friend, the Daruma San why he fell down? Good luck." The hologram disappeared and were left to complete this very odd task on our own.

I couldn't help but feel a little silly as we called out into the void, asking this imaginative creature why they fell down. I felt like the United States government was punking us. They dragged us to the middle of nowhere to take a dip in a freezing lake and ask some imaginary person name Donna Sob why they fell? It sounded ridiculous.

A least that's how I felt until we heard the first scream.

A girl standing at the far end of the lake was yanked into the depths of the murky water. A green band bobbed in her wake, serving as the only reminder of her existence.

Like a horse kicked by their jockey, I sprinted out of the water with Ana and many of my peers hot on my heels. I didn't plan on waiting around to see what had taken that girl nor did I plan on being the second victim. Using all of my practice from testing, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me while jumping over tree stumps and ducking under low hanging branches. Ana and Paxton were quick to catch up with me.

"Paxton take Phe and keep her safe, I have to go find Esther and Joan." Before I could argue on my own behalf, Ana kicked up her heels and turned back into the crowd.

Paxton grabbed my hand within his much larger one. He slowed his pace allowing a couple of blue and red banded prisoners take the lead and then, when he was sure no one was paying attention, he steered me in the opposite direction.

"Let go of me." I tried to pull my hand free, "I don't need you to hold onto me, I know what I'm doing."

"Obviously you don't," Paxton slowed into a jog, "You were leading the pack in the wrong direction."

"How do you even know which direction to go in? Everything looks the same."

We were surrounded by miles of trees, each one looking identical to the next in the pale moonlight. As we moved farther from the lake I began to lose any distinction between north and south. We could have been running around in circles for all I knew and I would be none the wiser. Paxton, however, never faltered as we ventured further, he seemed to follow his own feet with blind faith.

"This is the way the G.S soldiers left."

Well, that wasn't very helpful.

"And how do you know that? They blindfolded us." My words came out in shallow pants as I failed to catch my breath.

Paxton refused to answer me at first, rather opting to occupy himself by ducking behind a tree and then pulling me towards a new direction. Up to this point I had never spoken to Ana Cortez's cousin nor had I ever spent time alone in his company and yet I was now expected to trust him with my life. I suppose I trusted Ana, who saved my life more than once, and whom I even considered my closest friend whilst at Garrenbuck but we were no longer at Garrenbuck. The longer Paxton remained quiet, the more paranoid I became. The green band on his wrist clearly marked him as a Fae, a child of the Deviant, which meant it was in his very nature to be untrustworthy.

"Paxton stop." Mustering all of my available strength, I managed to wriggle my hand free from his grasp. Grabbing hold of my knees, my chest heaved as I attempted to rescue my lungs.

"We don't have time for this, we need to keep moving." He tried to reach for my hand but I stumbled away.

"I don't know you. I don't know anything about you except that you're Ana's cousin and why should that mean anything to me?" I must have looked crazy. Standing in the middle of the woods, hunched over with my arm extended as if he were to attack me at any moment.

Swearing under his breath, he scratched the back of his shaven head as if momentarily forgetting the loss of his hair and then with a defeated look in his eyes, he turned back to me. Paxton took one careful step forward as if approaching a wounded animal. The moonlight cast shadows across his angular face, obscuring the expression he wore. He refused to meet my stare, rather glancing around the darkened forest as if expecting a monster to jump out at any given moment.

"Listen- I don't even understand it."

I scoffed, "I'm going to need more than that."

"You're going to think I'm crazy," he warned.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Try me."

He shook his head, clearly aggravated by my antics but I had no intention of backing down.

"This forest is alive." He began in a voice that was far too ominous for my liking.

My first instinct was to fall back on my go-to defense mechanism and fight his crazy with sarcasm. I mean obviously the forest was a live as it was filled with various kinds of vegetation but I had an inkling that's not exactly what he was referring to.

"Obviously the forest can't speak to me because that would be crazy but every time we brush against a tree branch or graze a bush, there's this jolt of energy that runs through my body, propelling my feet in the right direction."

Up to that point, I had been hoping his response would have something to do with being an Eagle Scout. The conversation would have ensued with a brief quiz which broke down his forest expertise, in order to prove that he was as knowledgeable as he claimed to be. Then, after a few begrudging comments I'd probably let me lug me around the forest seeing how I didn't have many alternatives. But that did not happen. No, he threw me a loop with the whole talking trees thing. A lie probably would have been better received.

Seeing the madness slowly contort my features, Paxton was quick to defend himself. "I know that it sounds crazy but this band means I'm a Fae-"

He raised his wrist, showing me the green band as if I had not yet noticed it. As if upon seeing the color, I would miraculously accept his story about talking trees.

"So you're a Fae and apparently trees talk to you and that's why I should trust that you're safely taking me in the right direction," the sarcasm oozed from my tongue.

If he had hair he would have been pulling out by now. "We don't have time for this. We need to go."

Just as he finished his exclamation, a scream echoed in the distance. Without waiting from my response, Paxton grabbed my hand again and took off into the night.

**These Aptitude Trial chapters have been the hardest to write. The action sequence after action sequence makes it a little difficult to focus on things such as character development and setting description but I also understand that these chapters are crucial to the story so I'm just gonna have to deal. The positive about this chapter and is that we get some Phe/Paxton moments which is definitely a new dynamic. It's also not an easy dynamic. While Phe has known about Paxton for quite some time she doesn't know him personally and for Paxton, he only noticed Phe, for the first time, a couple of hours ago on the transfer buses. Their bond is definitely the weakest of the group because it is based on their connection to other people. And now they have to rely on each other for survival.

As for the Daruma San bit, I am expecting some people to try to correct me on the lore but I have purposely altered the rules of the game for the sake of the story.

Please tell me what you all think about this chapter and the story so far!

I would also like to share with everyone these amazing pieces of art of that @chemicalvamp created! These pieces were inspired by Ana's escape plan. We can see our favorite members of the breakout club hiding in plain sight as newly minted members of society.

I am obsessed with these pieces. If you also enjoy art and would like for your artwork to be featured in one of the upcoming chapters, please DM me for my social media accounts. I would love to share more artwork with our fellow readers.