Afterlife

Chess

"I hope you don't mind me asking but...why don't you want to go to sleep?"

I had started to feel my eyes growing heavy, but after going to the kitchen and splashing water in my face, it was gone; well, slightly. I asked Evan if he knew Leo had anything to do in his tree house, like a game or something; he went around before coming back with a board-like box with a sequence of dark brown and lighter brown spaces. Inside were a variety of pieces, two different colors with the same group of figures. We set up the board and pieces as I got comfortable on the remains of my fallen pillow-tower on the floor.

Evan called the game 'chess' and taught me how each of the figures moved across the board; afterward he began a game, me playing the lighter of the pieces and Evan playing as the darker ones. I had evaded an attack from his knight on my queen before he asked the question.

I was debating on either telling him the truth or hopefully lie my way out of it while he was also contemplating how to make his next move on the board. Both had good pros and cons. If I lied, I wouldn't worry him and possibly even Leo (who should've been back by now), but then I'll have to be in constant fear with no clue on what to do and I couldn't go on with any sleep. If I say the truth, he may be able to help me, though, what help he'll give also worried me. Not to mention, he showed me a look at how his life used to be; it would be rude to not return the favor. Evan moved a pawn forward so it blocked mine; trapped.

"Um..." I looked among the pieces on the board; even though we just started he already looked like he was winning; each of my pieces was either trapped by their own color or were in the path of being taken. I needed to spread my figures more out; be open.

"Yeah, um...remember that guy I told you about?" I moved the pawn in front of the rook; slow start.

He smiled wickedly and said in a playful and mocking tone, "You mean your boyfriend!" He moved a knight back to his previous spot, daring my queen to go back; teasing.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance but could feel the color in my face. Definitely not helping my case. I looked down at the board and tried to think of my next move.

"Yeah about him...there's a problem." I moved my rook from its corner and placed it in the first space out; slowly there.

"Oh?" His voice had then filled with concern and question. He moved his king to where his bishop started to his left; reorganizing.

"Before I go on...is it normal to sniff a person's hair? I mean, of course it's not but..." I didn't know where I was going with this, my words were jumbled and my thoughts were haywire. I put another unmoved pawn one space forward; unsure.

He gave me a weird expression, one that conveyed how odd and seemed to say 'what the heck are you talking about?'. Evan looked back down with his hand hovering over the pieces; he told me that if you touched one, you were forced to move it to whatever spaces it was available to. I guess it added to the challenge and how you had to be sure of your choice.

"I don't know what's going on over there, but last I checked, that was considered pretty weird, Carol. But what does that have to do with anything?" He moved his attacking knight out of the way of any upcoming pieces on my side and took my pawn in the process; easy open.

I scratched the back of my neck since it started to feel hot, but then the heat spread to the tip of my ears. Of course the action was strange, why did I even doubt that for a second?

"Yeah obviously, sorry. Anyway, back to what I was saying...this man that you tease me of is the same person who, umm...did that." I moved the rook to the center, right where, in hopefully one move, it'll trap the king causing unable to move leaving it in a Check.