The Kairos Games

Chapter 15

Hannah rolls off the cloth-covered bench in the third-floor hallway. She can hear voices coming from the entrance, so she silently tiptoes over to the balcony. The speaker is sitting at a table underneath the stairs, hidden except for a streak of blond hair and a shoulder. Paige.

    “I mean, it’s not like I was expecting to make friends while I’m here. Obviously, everyone here is my enemy, but, I don’t know… I guess I thought that maybe there were a few people that I would be less hateful to, at least at first. I still need people in my life. I’d go crazy if I was completely alone.”

    “Really? I wouldn’t,” someone loudly replies. This new speaker is completely obscured from vision, but the voice gives her away. Deep, loud, sarcastic. Typical of a near-deaf tomboy.

    “Well yeah, but you hate people, Dani,” laughs Paige.

    “That’s why I’m gonna win,” she replies.

    “Okay, was it just me, or did you think it was weird that they asked us to bring food? Who are we feeding? The winner?”

    “Probably. Unless they just want us to sacrifice it and make us starve faster.”

    “Well I just brought Ramen, anyway. That’s all I can find in this place. I’ve still got plenty of it left, so losing this won’t be a big deal. What’d you bring?”

    “Goldfish,” Dani says as she digs her hand into an open cardboard box. She throws a handful of orange crackers in her mouth and continues, “and I brought extra to snack on. They’re not getting more than one bag; I don’t care who they think they are!”

    Hannah nervously makes her way down the stairs. She is perfectly fine with accepting one bag of goldfish, but she fears even asking that much of Dani may be her last act. Why did the game makers think she was the right person for this job? They’d be lucky to even start the euchre game.

    As she turns to loop down the last flight of stairs, two more tributes walk through the doors. A stereotypical Asian and an anglophile. Becca and Amanda.

    Becca immediately takes note of her competition. “Whoa! Paige? Dani? You’re our competition?”

    “Yup,” says Dani.

    “Well, we’re screwed,” she sizes up Amanda and sighs.

    Amanda, unperturbed, sizes up her bag of bagels. “I’m hungry. We need to start this game before I eat all of these bagels.”

    “Give me those!” Becca snatches the bag from her hands and holds off to the side with her own.

    Amanda is nearly in tears. “Wait! No, I won’t eat them! I promise! Please just let me hold them! I can smell them and daydream about eating them!”

    Becca rolls her eyes. “Ugh. Fine! But I’m watching you,” she threatens.

    “Alright. Chill, Becca. They’re just bagels.”

    At this time, Hannah crosses the bottom of the stairs and stands in front of the small crowd. “Hey guys,” she says quietly, “We’re going to go upstairs, so just bring your food with you, and I’ll tell you where to put it.”

      “Oh hey, Hannah!” says Paige. “Are you the one who organized this? You don’t even play euchre!”

    “I know how… Anyway, it wasn’t me. The Gamemakers just made me the referee; I won’t be playing. Also, I should go ahead and tell you, you don’t get to pick your teams. They said to do it randomly by drawing the score cards.”