James
James watched as his cousin settled back in her seat without asking further questions about what she had just agreed to or what consequences were attached to them .
When she had even signed the papers , James had expected her to protest when she read the clause on bodily harm or loss of body parts but she had just read through and signed , she had asked James no questions when he had been prepared to practically dish out answers .He sighed , he was in no place to be showing empathy , especially after getting his poor cousin to sign it .
He had not approached his cousin out of the goodness of his heart .He knew why he had come for Clay .Clay was his only chance of getting Westbrook if he wanted to ever do .The car stopped moving and the partition came down .Saul's voice came through the small Telecom device ." This is the stop the child asks to be let down", he announced .
James watched as his cousin's eyes lazily opened , her eyes shocking him again .
It was like looking into a mirror ,an effeminate mirror but still one .It was a shabby and very cynical mirror but it still gave off a reflection ." Stay with your sister tonight but the game commences by exactly twelve midnight , I will be here before then to get you ", He planned with Clay .
James hoped vaguely that he would ask at least one question but She only nodded and opened the door , alighting Immediately .
James watched her button the weird suit before leaving .
The car moved immediately and Saul put on music , one of the classical pieces that James pretended to know about .He watched Saul's reflection from the rear - view mirror , his face had a silent reproach to it .
" What ? You disagree with me ? " , he bellowed .
James laughed bitterly , Of course he did .
Saul had been one of his Uncle's trusted helps in the family , his mum had hated how she had not been able to turn him over to her aid when her brother had left." You should not have brought David kids into this , it's not your place ", He insists.
James scoffed.
Kids ?He shouldn't have brought them into it ?Was everyone forgetting that he was a kid too ?That he was even younger than Clay ?Yet he had been brought into it ." Just drive ", he snapped .
He reclined back into his chair , feeling saul's pitiful eyes on him.
Whatever happened , he would take care of the sister's heart because regardless of how the game turned out , if Clay won or not , she would still die .No sub - player could ever leave the game alive.CLAYJade was silent as they took the stairs to their apartment , she had expected her to be full of questions .
Clay watched her walk ahead , she knew she was waiting for her to tell her what had gone on in the car that she had not been privy of .She pushed the key into the lock and used her weight to push the door open .
Clay quickened her steps and walked into their apartment , she closed the door after her self .Jafe was at the sink , drinking directly from the tap like she always did .
She had warned her severally and only stopped when she had also caught her severally .She jumped off the stool she had used to prop herself up and walked to their closet .She went to the sink too and drank to her fill , when she turned around Jade was seated on their bed staring at her
" I can't pretend anymore , what did you guys discuss without me ? It's obviously something underhanded and dubious ".
Clay propped herself and pulled herself to sit on the kitchens countertop .
" You weren't even doing a good job of pretending but you are right , it does sound dubious ".
Clay wondered how much information she could give her before she figured out just what she was going to do.
Well, she could tell her it was a kind of job ." What is it ? It's definitely not a job ".
Clay watched her job idea slide down the countertop and Into the sink before going down the drain .
" You're right , it's not a job . But, it does require me to be gone for sometime ".
She watched as her sister processed this tidbit of information .
She lifted her legs and placed them under her chin , wrapping her hands around her entire body ." How long will you be gone for ?"
" Seven days ".
Clay could not bring himself to tell her that the seven days would begin count in a few hours.
She nodded gently ." Seven days is enough time , a day for testing and cross checking any loop holes , another day for preparation . The third day would be for the actual transplant and then the remaining four days would be used to monitor how well the new organ adapts ".
Clay watched her sister ramble as she counted fingers .
" What are you talking about ? "
She lifted her head to face her sharply .
" Isn't that what he came to you for ? He needs something , an organ , bone marrow or even more and you agreed to get me a heart , didn't you ? "
Jade was screaming now .Clay jumped off the countertop and ran to the bed , she lifted Jade and threw her in the air , heights always made her let go of her anger momentarily .She yelped and put her hand over her eyes ." Put me down ".
She did as she said and put her down exactly where she had carried her from , she sat next to her .
" I know how you feel about becoming healthy only to find that I've become uhealthy , so I won't do anything that endangers me ".
She threw herself into her arms and Clay brought her arms around her after the ache from suddenly throwing her had subsided .
She was quiet about it ,but her shirt had grown wet .Clay patted her hair down remembering a week ago when she had put her hair up into an extravagant twist and asked that she do a video for her tiktok with her , she had of course refused and she had done it with Tommy , it was Tommy's phone after all." Everything will be okay , I'll be back in seven days time and we'll go straight to the hospital to put your name on the list . With money like that , we'll find a suitable replacement fast and in a months time , this will all be a bad dream ".
Jade lifted her tear stricken face from her chest , her heart broke more .
" W...what do you mean in seven days time ?" Jade asked .
Ahhh , she had messed up.
She mentally scrambled , looking for how to salvage that but she could not think of anything to say to her ." You're leaving tomorrow ? You're actually leaving tomorrow ? "
Clay remained quiet and Jade pushed herself off her , burrowing into the blankets , scoffing unbelievably at Clay .
Clay let her be , she knew when her sister wanted to be left alone .Now , how was she supposed to tell her that she was leaving tonight?Clay stood up and headed back to the kitchen where she gathered ingredients for a large serving of lasagna .She cooked and baked , turning every emotion she was feeling into an ingredient for all of the dishes she was making .
She had checked on Jade and found her asleep .Sometimes around nine , she was finally done with cooking and stared at all that she had made .
She had made a large serving of lasagna , enough for Tommy and Jay to reheat for two or three days .Enough chocolate chip cookies for Jade to eat when she read or studied her calculus.She had made a small bowl of salad too , Jay liked her vegetables fresh .And finally a medium sized apple pie.It was safe to say that Clay had utilized every single food ingredient in the house .She piled them together and sealed them , stacking them in a huge picnic basket .
She carried them over to the next apartment ,she knocked severally and got no reply .She finally let himself in.The place was .....clean for the first time in a really long time.Not your regular clean but clean by Tommy's standards .She threaded carefully and found him in him room , asleep on the floor .
"Tommy ? "
He rolled around to face her , he was sweating profusely .
Clay dropped to the floor and touched him ." What's wrong ? "
His eyes were glassy , he had been crying .
" I missed my baby's visitation ".
Tommy had a kid that he had lost custody to , he now stayed with his other dad.
Everytime something happened with the kid , Tommy drank more .The kid being away from him somehow made him worse." I need to get clean , I need to get clean to contest the sole custody . I want my baby with me too", Tommy wailed.
He sat up and wiped his face.
" What brings ya by boo ? " , he asked .
He looked from her to the large basket behind her , looking at them for a while .
" I got a job ", Clay offered to him .
He studied her face .
" You do not seem too happy 'about that ", he observed .
Clay chuckled.
" No shit "." You want me to watch Jade while you working ?" , he asked .
" Yes , I am going to be gone a while ", Clay stated .
She expected him to ask questions but he only smiled.
" More time with your brat of a sister but it is all good, no better way to get sober than a kid high on power screaming insults at ya ", he proclaimed , her eyes lighting up as she laughed fondly over the memory .
Clay laughed at this.
" She's asleep now but I will be gone when she wakes up".
Tommy nodded and took her hand in his .
" Be safe beautiful ".
Clay stood up and left the apartment .
She returned to their apartment and got a pen and paper.She wrote down everything she had figured out about the game and everything she wanted to tell her .Told her where she kept emergency cash Incase she needed it and folded the letter .She added her copy of the contract to the letter and placed the both under the picture of their parents .In a few days when she missed their parents , she would find it .
Clay watched her from the entrance of their apartment , she was scared that if she moved close enough, she would wake up and she would chicken out .But she honestly could not .
So , she stepped out and closed the door behind her .She covered her head with her hoodie and jogged down to where she was supposed to meet James .James's car was already packed around the block .Had he even left in the first place ?Clay stopped to look at the car for a few moments , deep down , she felt a reluctance to walk further to the car but Clay felt guilty for even feeling reluctance to a means that could save her sister .She sighed softly and brought her hands to run through her hair , she looked at the sky and inhaled before she began to walk , blanking her mind because thinking of anything would cause her to consider turning around and going back to her sister .She reached the car and wondered if James could see her but she had no time to consider that so she raised her hands to the window .Clay rapped gently on the window and heard the smooth click of locks opening before she opened the door .She entered to find that almost nothing had changed , she took another look at James though and realized that everything about him had changed .He was seated exactly where he had sat earlier but he had left alright .His
Clay was in a state were she was awake enough to feel her body and the cool air on her face but she wanted to enjoy the bliss of sleep for a bit longer , so she still kept her eyes closed and her body lax.It had actually been a nice rest for Clay .Usually , hee dreams were plagued with her parents and how their faces had looked when Clay had been called to identify their bodies or on worse days , he was plagued with Jade's face joining her parents in that cold room .But today had been different , maybe because her sleep had been drug induced , she had dreamt of absolutely nothing .She had to remember to thank her cousin for that .A loud siren went off , jarring Clay from her lax state .She opened her eyes and sat up , she shook her head to clear the remainder of the sleep from her eyes .She was on a makeshift bed in a small room that looked like a cabin .Where the fuck was she ?She wanted to pay more attention to what lay around her but the siren was buzzing in her head , lou
Clay was still in the position she had fallen to when the woman had been shot .She had stopped looking at the woman after a while but that was futile .Her terrified blue eyes had stuck and Clay could feel her face queuing behind her parents faces , waiting to haunt her when she slept .Clay slowly stood up .She had been unable to think properly since the attack but it made sense now .A game had to have an element of hard achieved survival and the weird mutation was here to make that possible .Okay , it did not change much of the game plan except that she had to make sure the mutations did not come near her .She filed that away to add to her theory on the gameverse .Clay did not want to think about the only thing that she actually needed to think about .The Temperature of the woman's blood , it was too large a factor to be ignored. Temperature did not in any way affect aesthetics , so of course , it had no place in the virtual world .But , this was also by the Westbrooke's ,
Clay had never understood why people were interested in slow motion or why certain scenes in movies , especially romance and blockbuster movies were portrayed in slow motion .But that was all in the past.Clay was now a changed woman who believed in the science of Slow motion and understood why it existed.The things that tended to change your life always came at you slow because you felt that you were dreaming .Those things might also want to end your life ,then the slow motion was you asking for more time or simply watching your life crumble before you .For Clay , all she thought of was Jade's eyes , cold and lifeless like the woman earlier .Clay did not close his eyes like people facing their own slow motion endings usually did , she wanted to but her eyes intended to watch just how it happened .It never did happen though .Just as the revolving gun opened fire , the girl from earlier flew over Clay .She pulled her down while pulling out the pin from another of the green gren
" Come with me ".June turned around and began to walk off the streets , Saul followed her and Clay did too , after picking up her earlier discarded backpack .June stuck to the sidewalk , looking carefully at each house they passed .Eventually , she stopped in front of an average looking suburban house with an overgrown garden of poppies and hydrangeas .She turned around while pointing at the house ." Here , let's check out this place ",She suggested.Saul nodded and Clay remained unresponsive , their words about the game still grating heavily on her.They crossed the flower bed and headed for the door , there was no porch , gate , fence or security of any form .June turned the door knob and pushed the door but it wouldn't move .She took a step back and kicked the door but the door still did not budge ." Anyone have any sharp objects ? Pins ? Needles ? ",She asked as she looked around.She sounded frustrated as she asked and Clay noticed her hand itching towards the pistol that
It might have been too soon to declare the golems as not on a threat level because they could hear something approach .A loud mechanical droning suddenly rolled around the house , the house shook as it took on the vibrations that came with the droning, it felt like an earthquake was centered directly on the house . Clay jumped off the stool and turned around , she was looking through the windows and searching for the source of the whirring .She stopped turning when her eyes reached the window she had come through and she saw something out the window .A large mechanical face stared at her through the window , its gray eyes so human like as it stared at Clay , the jaws of the golem shifted into what she could have sworn was a grin .The misplaced grin on the metal face along with the human eyes was just too much , it made Clay's skin crawl and want to put an end to the abomination that she was looking at .Clay stumbled back as the creature stood erect , there was nothing for a mome
Her head hurt and her eyes were incredibly heavy .Clay kept her eyes closed for a while longer hoping to reduce the pain that came from the heaviness .When she did eventually open her eyes , the first thing she saw was her backpack lying ahead of her .Shit !Clay rushed up and swayed , vertigo hitting her .She waited for the swoon to wear off and then stumbled to her bag , the contents had been strewn around .The protein bars , water and her book were gone , only the emergency regeneration kit and her flashlight were left .Her bow and arrows were gone too .Clay groaned loudly , nothing was going the right way .She needed to study the journal that her cousin had left for her instead of a good enough weapon .And all of the references her cousin had been making to her about her Dad did not go forgotten .Clay needed that book .She touched the back of her head and felt fluid , she brought her fingers from behind her to examine it , blood .She took her fingers back tracing wher
" Hey , Clay ? ", A voice called out .A tap on her shoulders ." Clay Honey ? ", The voice called out again , sounding impatient .Another tap , this one harder and leaving a sting ." Come on hun , do not dare die on me ! You need CPR? Mouth to mouth recuperation ? ", The voice yelled , sounding more and more familiar .This time she hit her so hard that Clay groaned aloud and pushed June off of her .She lost her footing and fell on her ass , groaning and turning to glare at Clay ." I am not dying , just sleepy .And it is called resuscitation not recuperation ", she corrected her ." Well , I am eighteen ", She argued .She said it like she ought to be pardoned because she was eighteen , if they were in another reality , Clay would be telling her that her sister had known words like that since she was four .Clay sat up , there was smoke from up ahead where the men had been camping out .Shit ! The journal .Clay scrambled to her feet and took off , she could hear June behind her