A Collection of my Writer's Games Entries

Mayhem: Task 5 (Rosella Monty) *Quarter Finals*

** Quarter Finals Task - Cerial Killers **

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“What’s wrong, Rose?” he signed, “Did I do something?”

“Just stay away from me!” I hissed the last bit – “Murderer!” I got up and ran to the storage room and locked the door. I huddled in the corner of the room. I began to cry………..

I awoke from my tears and visions to a tapping sound on the door. I didn’t know what to feel exactly. I had called Murphy a murderer. Maxine’s murderer. Now I realise I was wrong. That wasn’t real, right? It was just a dream – actually a nightmare. Either way I kept telling myself that it wasn’t real. No one had killed anyone. The tapping sound was beginning to annoy me. I wiped my wet cheeks on the bottom of my tank top and stood up shakily. I took deep, shuddering breaths.
“What?” I said. It was meant to sound mean but my voice was so quiet that I barely recognized it.
“Umm, you’ve been in there for a while. Vampire boy has gone on shut down mode. Come fix him with your powers,” Drew said. I swear that steam almost came from my ears. How could he be so stupid in such serious times? I unlocked the door and shoved Drew against the wall.
“Still playing Games?” I growled, only just realizing the fear in his eyes. Alex gave me a look of shock horror in my burst of anger and Murphy and Tove were nowhere to be seen.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. I removed my hands from his throat and Drew ducked away behind a shelf near Alex. I didn’t know if it was just me or if they both looked like shipwrecks.
“Crazy witch bitch!” Drew muttered quietly, but I still heard him. He obviously had mental issues but since his brother was also in the same massacre as my cousin – I let it go. It was something we had in common. I grabbed my water bottle and took a drink to calm myself.
“Look Drew, I’m really sorry. But where’s Murphy?” I said,
“I don’t think he wants to see you – I wouldn’t if I were him – but I thought you could use your powers,” Drew’s words cut me like a knife. I didn’t mean what I’d said to Murphy. I was still under that stupid drug they gave us. I contained my anger towards Drew.
“Alex, where is he?” I forced a smile.
“Behind the counter near the front,” he replied. I turned and my smile disappeared. I made a beeline for the counter and peeked over the desk. Murphy was cocooned in a blanket as he rocked back and forth, as I’d seen Tove do a million times. I went around and came in through the entry so I wouldn’t give him a fright, then sat down next to him. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. His eyes sparkled with fresh tears. I had no idea how long I’d locked myself away but the earlier scene was obviously still fresh in his mind. He stared into my eyes, his blue eyes staring into my own. I felt a wave of guilt wash over me. This was stupid. I was stupid.
“Oh, Murphy!” I sobbed, “I’m sorry,” I signed. There was nothing I could do to put emotion into sign language. I wrapped my arms around him, at first he stiffened. But then I felt him relax as he pulled me into his own hug. He pressed his face into my messy hair. I could never live with myself knowing that I had hurt Murphy so deeply – that’s why I had to fix it. I would explain to him later but I was quite content in his arms. They made life feel normal for a moment. It made me feel free, but trapped at the same time. Most of all – Murphy gave me hope. Hope would help us make it out alive. We could do it together. After a while, he pulled away slowly but I felt something pulling my hair.
“Stuck!” Murphy said. I knew what he meant – his lip piercings had got caught in my hair. I cried and laughed at the same time and worked my hair out. We sat in silence; he had his charming smile on his face with tears still sneaking down his cheeks. I wore my own smile as I sniffled back my tears. If I was going to die today – at least I would remember this moment.
“Thanks,” I said, standing up. I heard a sudden strangled scream – a scream I knew all too well. I cursed under my breath.
“What’s wrong?” Murphy signed. I didn’t know how to sign Tove so I hesitated for a moment.
“Tove,” I said slowly. I grabbed his hand and ran to her screams. She sounded so close when she stopped. Drew ran into me and I gave him an angry glare before going around the corner. I covered my mouth to stop myself from, I didn’t know what exactly. Whether it was screaming, vomiting, crying or hiding my shock – maybe even all four – but I still fell onto my knees in front of her. Tove’s pale body was limp. Her hands were around her throat but in a loose grip. Scratch marks ran down her cheeks and onto her bare arms, her eyes – that were normally a silver colour – were red with blood.
“No!” I whispered. I never expected this to happen. Though I hadn’t talked to Tove – she was someone who would comfort me during the nights. I recall a late night conversation that we had about boys. I didn’t think of her as an ally – I thought of her as a friend. New tears crawled down my face.
“Such a loss,” a man laughed behind us. We all turned to face him – if only looks could kill. It was Kyros.
“Get to the food court!” he ordered,
“But what about Tove…” Alex started but Kyros cut him off,
“Start walking or I’ll fill you with lead and shot!” he growled. I took a final look at Tove’s dead body. She would never get a proper good bye. I didn’t care how crazy she was – she deserved a proper life. I grabbed a confused Murphy and led the boy’s out of the book store.
“What’s happening?” Murphy signed,
“Another game,” I signed back shrugging. Our numbers had seriously gone down. I did a quick count – only ten of us remained. Sixteen were dead in a matter of days. Now I knew what Maxine had felt like. The police could tell from her body that she made it quite far – her body was found with two other girls. Morgan – on the news – had later said that he was with his best friend, Arwen, and two other girls who he had befriended: Cleo and Maxine. Those were the bodies they found together – Arwen, Cleo and Maxine.
“Get back into your teams,” Giorgi shouted, “Anyone caught trying to switch teams will be shot on sight!” I sighed after he said that. I didn’t want to be killed. I turned to Drew.
“Look after him,” I told him. He was armed with his skateboard only.
“Vampire-warlock can take care of himself,” He said, but I glared at him, “But I’ll keep an eye on him,”
“If anything happens to him...”
“You’ll use your witchcraft on me, I get it,” he said glumly. I shook my head in frustration and followed Alex to my team. We obviously had the advantage. We had six people on blue team while Murphy and Drew only had two other team members. I noticed that the boys heavily outweighed the girls – red team was all boys while blue team was half and half. As I was thinking of all this, I just realized that there were tables full of foods. They ranged from stale burgers to moldy apples. We were escorted to a table full of different foods.
“This is a very simple game – quite harmless, at that,” Kyros grinned at Giorgi evilly for some unknown reason, “This is a food fight,” I gave Alex a quizzical look. A food fight: harmless right? But I didn’t want to speak too soon. A gong went off and my entire team jumped behind the counter.
“A food fight? Awesome,” a boy grinned. He was no older than 15. I think Michael was his name.
“I remember I used to do these all the time. I’m surprised they’re letting have fun though,” a lady said. I think I heard her being called Margie. She was probably born in the 80s. Michael ran out a grabbed an orange.
“Come on guys!” he cheered and peeked over the bench and pegged the fruit at someone. I heard a male shout, in what could only be pain, “Woose, it wouldn’t hurt that bad,” this kid seemed to think this was not a matter of life and death.
“Start throwing or I’ll shoot!” Kyros yelled. We all jumped to our feet and grabbed a handle of food before ducking back behind cover. Michael ran out but a well-aimed burger got him in the stomach. I threw a potato in the general direction of the team and ducked back down. I soon noticed the blood coming from Michael’s stomach.
“What did you do?” I said worriedly.
“Nothing,” he replied, fear in his eyes, “I just got hit by the burger. It must’ve come out...” he trailed off and groaned in pain.
“Just don’t move,” I rested him against the counter and peeled opened an orange. Inside laid a small dart that dripped of purple liquid. Poison was my first thought. Murphy was my second. We were throwing weapons at each other. Of course these people wouldn’t let us play a game without consequences. An orange knocked Margie in the head and she fell to the ground a few meters behind us. I heard a peculiar ticking noise before I realized what it was. I grabbed Alex and jumped under the food table before a gust of heat and sticky stuff hit us. A loud scream rang through the food court. I realized that the sticky stuff was a chunk of flesh and almost vomited.
“Thanks,” Alex gave me a smile,
“I really hope Drew or Murphy threw that,” I tried to laugh but couldn’t. Margie burnt body – well parts of it – was shuddering before she finally went limp. I looked to Michael who was practically dead now, he had no life in his eyes but his chest moved in irregular beats.
“How did we get here?” I sighed. Alex pulled me back behind cover.
“Bastards!” I shouted as I threw some fruit in Giorgi’s and Kyros’s direction. They shouted curses in unison.
“What the hell, Rose?” Alex yelled, “We’re dead meat now!”
“Just run!” I said and pulled him up and began running: leaving Zara and Theo alone with the two dead bodies. I leapt over a boy’s body that had two daggers in his mid-section and a dart – poisoned – in his cheek. I grabbed Murphy and Drew and left their other team member behind. Kyros and Giorgi fired a few shots, none hitting us, but they were still too close for my liking. I shouldn’t have let myself get carried away, but it felt good throwing a random weapon at them. Suck on that you psychopaths! I led the boys into a corridor then went in through the back way into a shop. I knew the way around after Murphy got accused of stealing – which he didn’t actually do but this was a great hiding spot. We came out in a camping store storage room and locked both the entrances to it.
“What did you do now, Rose?” Murphy signed. I could hear the annoyance in it.
“I may have threw some armed fruit at Kyros and Giorgi,” I signed and also said aloud for Alex and Drew. “The food was loaded with weapons,” I explained. They still stared at me, “What?” I said innocently,
“Crazy witch!” Drew held up a hand for me to high-five. I smiled and slapped my hand against his,
“To be honest, I’d rather be sitting in here than being target practice,” Alex gave a small smile. I sighed in relief. At least they weren’t angry at me. I thought they might have. But I missed the bookstore already – it’s smell and it’s familiarity. It felt like home and now, sitting in this dim room, it felt like a new world. We sat in silence for a moment.
“I still can’t believe you did that,” Alex shook his head smiling,
“It was in memory of everyone who had died,” I told them. I closed my eyes and saw Tove’s smiling face. I rested my head on Murphy’s shoulder.
“Thanks – for – being – my – friend,” I wrote the letters slowly on Murphy’s forearm with my finger. It was something we had learnt to do on our sleepovers. I couldn’t sign to him in the dark so we taught ourselves this. It was like our hidden language. I half-expected Drew to burst out screaming witchcraft but he and Alex talked in hushed voices. I listened to them talking about a field trip day – they must be really good friends.
“You too, Rosie,” I could detect the smile in his voice. I sat in a daze for a moment. A huge banging on the door startled me. Kyros. I looked at Murphy worriedly but – for the first time – forgot he couldn’t hear.
“Kyros,” I wrote on his arm. His smile disappeared.
“I’d always wondered what it would feel like to be dead,” Drew said thoughtfully,
“You can do that tomorrow,” I said standing up, “But today we’re escaping,”
We all stood up – all with Kyros banging against the door. I suddenly had a fantastic idea. I pointed up to the air vents. We could crawl around in there. Hopefully there would be some way out of here.