Not My Pyre (A Pearl-Centric Double Life FanFic)

Chapter One: The Importance of Family

One year later...

There'd been many more people wanting to participate since Last Life had gone so well. So many, in fact, that the Life Games Arena was now used both as a dorm for the contestants when they weren't in the Games and as an arena to compete to participate in the next Game.

There were only fourteen spots, and five of them were already taken by those with a title or who had won in the past. The other nine had to be competed for. Pearl was excited to see who she'd be facing in this year's Game. She had a title - the Scarlet Pearl or Five A.M. Pearl - so she had a spot and didn't have to participate in the competition to get it. The other four pre-claimed spots went to Grian, winner of Third Life, Scott, winner of last year's Game, Last Life, Etho, who had won two of the Game back before respawn technology without actually killing anyone, and Jimmy, who had a title: the Canary.

"So..." Jimmy said. "I guess we just wait here for the others to be chosen?"

"Probably." Grian shrugged and sat down on the arm of one of the plush armchairs in the dorm living room. Not the chair. The arm of it. As usual.

"Do you guys have any theories about this year's twist?" Etho asked, sitting actually on one of the chairs.

"Maybe a timer? Or special power depending on your colour?" Pearl suggested, taking a seat on the floor and calling Tilly to her. She'd kept the dog since Apollo gave it to her, but hadn't been allowed to take her into Last Life. Too big of an advantage, apparently. "Or no mobs, passive or hostile? I don't really know what their twists are like. None of us have played in many Games with twists."

"Who knows what they'll do? They could make us have one life or be unable to harm anything, for all we know." Scott said.

"Theorising about the twist isn't really effective... We'll know by the end of the day." Pearl commented, running her fingers through Tilly's fur. She was so soft...

"Then what should we talk about? We've got several hours where it's just the five of us." Jimmy said, eyes flicking to Scott. Pearl didn't know what happened between them after Third Life - or possibly in early Last Life? - but Scott avoided his ex-husband like the Border Woods.

"I haven't been outside the arena much since I signed up for the Death Games, and that was four years ago. How is it for the people?" Etho asked.

"Pearl's the only one of us who's been outside of the arena since Third Life. What was it like?" Grian turned to her.

"Well, before I came here, my eight-year-old brothers had to lie and pretend they were ten to get a job to pay for our food. They're nine, now..." Pearl smiled as she thought of her little brothers. They sent letters back and forth all the time.

"You have brothers?" Scott asked.

"Oh, yeah. Three of them. Apollo, who's twenty now, and then Frey and Jupiter, who are twins and nine." Pearl said. Had she really never mentioned her brothers? They had always been such a big part of her life, but it had taken her six months to stop being angry at the world and her mother for getting her sent here... Maria Esent had actually been kicked out of their house for what she did.

"Wow. I didn't know that... Come to think of it, I don't know anything about any of the other contestants' families." Scott sounded surprised. It made sense that he would be, though, since it was a surprise no contestants had talked about their families before.

"I don't either," Jimmy said. "Hey, why don't we talk about our families? We don't have much else to talk about."

"Pearl, you already started. Why don't you tell us more about your family?" Etho asked.