Glyle sat on Ines bedframe while she slept. It was a thankless job, but one he felt he took to rather well. In the event some game started at night, he would be ready. But it did get kind of boring. Turns out not a lot happens at night. Ines tried letting him play her old handheld console when she was at school, but he had to put his entire body weight into pushing a single button, so he eventually gave up. But just as he began strutting on the bedframe, imagining himself taking on anything the gods could throw at him, a beam of light started shining in through the window, and he felt some of the fluff inside him move down to his torso. And more dropped when he heard the door unlock.
Ines herself was still sleeping soundly like nothing bizarre was happening. Glyle jumped down and climbed on Ines dresser before jumping onto the doorknob, and thankfully his weight was enough to open the door. When he entered the hallway, both Ines parents were up, her father holding a knife. They locked eyes with Glyle for a brief second, before her mother shook her head and grabbed her fathers arm, both going downstairs. Which was a shame, considering Glyle was hoping they'd carry him down. He jumped down from stair to stair until he finally reunited with them in the kitchen, where Kwaku was standing, with a piece of folded paper between his fingers.
"Good day." He said calmly. "This is the Destrade household, correct?"
"Yes." Her dad said, holding the knife in front of him. He was visibly shaking, and any attempt at intimidation clearly wasn't working.
"Just making sure." He nodded, putting the piece of paper on the kitchen table.
"Just who are you?!" Her mother screamed from behind her husband.
"I'm a host of the game your daughter found herself in. She was excluded from the last challenge, so she's a key player in the next one."
"Why are you doing this?!" Her mother screamed, clutching her husband's shoulder to not fall to the ground.
"For now, that has to be confidential." Kwaku replied, walking to the mother in case she fell to the ground, but she slapped him away. He decided it would be best to keep his distance. "But I do think that she'll last long enough to learn the truths of this game."
"You do?" Glyle asked.
"I've read up on her. She was born with brittle bone disease. And I've seen people in her situation give up when adversity strikes, seeing themselves as less deserving of life. But every game she took part in, she managed to survive, be it through her own intuition or her ability to find support. I personally guessed that if she survived the first five games, she'd have the potential to survive everything else. And as such, she's my personal favourite to win."
"Um, what's going on here?"
The four turned to see Ines standing in the doorway in pink pyjamas. She looked at Kwaku without saying anything, just giving a slightly tired look. She knew he was only here for game related reasons. And soon after the glance, Kwaku gathered the note and handed it to her directly.
"Dear Ines Destrade." She read out loud in a flat tone. "Due to your lack of participation in game six, you and Ulysses will both serve as captains for game seven. Your goal is simple. Gather any players willing to work with you, and in thirty-six hours, the game will be a battle until one player is killed. Sincerely, the gods."
"So that's the next game?" Ines asked flatly as she folded the paper over. "Okay, I'll get on that tomorrow."
She silently picked up Glyle and went back to her room. With a quick "Best of luck.", Kwaku also left, leaving just her parents dumbfounded at just what's going on.
Back in her room, Ines tried going back to sleep, But Glyle was nudging her.
"What do you want, Glyle?" She asked, clearly annoyed and refusing to open her eyes.
"I wanna know what your plan for the game is."
"Well, Mateo and Tedros are obvious picks, and then there's anything I can make myself. Outside of that…Leon? I don't know, honestly."
"And you're not worried?"
"I am worried." Ines sighed, her eyes still closed. "It's just that I'm…tired. I didn't feel anything when I saw that note. I'm probably gonna have to kill someone in two days, and I've just accepted that."
"So what, ya think you're losing yourself?"
"No, it's more like…what would Ramon do? And he'd fight like hell if his life was on the line. And I want to do that too."
Ulysses lay in his bed fast asleep, or did until the beam of light invaded both his room and the deepest parts of his subconscious, forcing him awake.
"You know, I expected your room to be cleaner." Xaawo announced to herself casually, looking at the discarded clothes, taking extra notice to stay clear of the socks.
"What's going on?" Ulysses asked. The rational thing to do here would be to cry out for help. Either call his parents, or try grab his phone to call the police. But nothing about this was anything close to rational, so he stayed quiet.
"Anyway, here's your mission. Starts when you next get to school."
She stayed in place, observing Ulysses. He had no idea if she could witness his reaction in the dark, but he knew he couldn't read anything, so he turned on the light. The light exposed him wearing nothing but boxers, and Xaawo put a hand over his body.
"Don't need to see the half-naked seventeen year old." She muttered under her breath.
Ulysses read out the challenge. So he'd have to gather a group of people to fight to the death, huh? Yeah, that checks out. Probably his own fault for being too weak to be picked last time.
"Not much reaction, huh?" Xaawo asked. Considering how he acted around Tedros and Allan, she was hoping for more panic. Guess these kids are adapting to insane events quicker than expected. Good in the long term, but for amusement's sake? Not very.
"I'll start in the morning." Ulysses mumbled before flopping back into bed, refusing to open his eyes. The lights were still on. Xaawo turned them off before opening the window and hopping out. Hopefully Kwaku got a more interesting reaction, not that he'd appreciate it much. Whatever, she'd witness all the bloodshed soon.