There's Something Big Happening!

“Olly! It’s you!” Eligh rushed to embrace his younger brother but was stopped by a stiff hand to the face.

“Yup, I’m me.”

Chuckling mirthlessly, a hand rubbing the back of his neck, Eligh said, “Where have you been? Have you been…,” he felt a little foolish asking, “okay?”

Instead of answering, Oliver leveled a cold gaze at his older brother. His dark eyes moved from bottom to top of Eligh’s body, then flicked over in Mara’s direction, back to Eligh. Then he sneered.

Eligh cocked an eyebrow. Oliver never acted like that. He wondered how three months of distance could change a person. “What happ—?” He stopped when Oliver dashed towards him, instantaneously invading his personal space.

He had his hand clasped around Eligh’s flag before Eligh knew what was happening. “Big brother,” Oliver began. Eligh tried his best not to flinch or else the flag might be pulled.

He made a noncommittal sound with his throat in response. Oliver tugged on the flag a little, teasing him. The look on his face could only be described as alien. Mean. He looked like someone else!

What was this?

“I’m gonna let you in on a little something.” Oliver said. “There are more to these Games than meets the eye.”

Eligh felt like he had been thrown back into the past. Three months ago, Oliver had told him the same thing, when he’d wanted Eligh to listen. Shame flooded him once more. Explains why he looks so mad at me. He thought.

“Olly—”

“I’ve found someone who’s willing to help me get to the bottom of this.” Oliver flicked his head over in Mara’s direction and set his gaze back on his elder brother.

Apparently, the look on Eligh’s face was amusing enough to bring a legitimate smile to Oliver’s face, the mischievous kind of ‘Olly’ smile that Eligh missed so much. He even laughed as Eligh cried, “You mean, Mara?!”

“Yup, and I don’t need you anymore, big bro. She told me you came to find me, but…” Oliver fished a small black orb out of his pocket and smacked it into Eligh’s chest.

Eligh took it and frowned. “A gift orb?”

“With your stats, I hear, you’re gonna need more help than I do. Take it. And go home.”

Then everything was gone.

In the next second, Eligh found himself dropped onto a circular platform which overlooked the entire island. Its floating bottom was clear and made the captives feel like birds frozen mid-flight, stopped by a barless cage. There were over ten people already captured, and the jumbotron’s countdown revealed that only nine minutes had passed.

“Damn you, Olly!!” Eligh screamed up at the clouds. And just when I’d found Mara again, too! And what’s with the ‘go home’? I’m here to compete, too! And now you want to do this with Mara? I’m the one doing this with Mara!! Ah—!

“Hey. You made it.”

Eligh stopped himself faster than a frog could eat a fly. That internal scream was just about to turn real; the expression totally showed on his face. But now, the thought in his mind was, Oh, no, at the sound of that voice.

Jordan. Every time he was just about to forget that dude…

Jordan sat cross legged on the clear platform, smiling up at Eligh from around a few people’s legs. He was patting the “seat” next to him.

Eligh fumed, “What is your damage? I didn’t want to make it here, this isn’t a party spot, old man. We’re caught! And if we stay in here, we’re out of the competition!”

And I cannot afford to go home. Not now that I’ve found Olly, he hates me, AND he’s trying to steal my girl!

I mean… Mara.

“Not to mention that we’ll still be disqualified even if we do get out of here on time, if we fail the thirty-minute piggyback requirement.” Some random yellow-team captive said.

“Ughhh!” Eligh groaned. He’d forgotten about that.

Again, he muttered, Damn you, Olly.

But then again, he couldn’t blame him.

The last time they had seen each other, Eligh could have listened. Even if what Oliver had been saying made him seem bat shit crazy.

~ / ~

“I’m telling you, Eligh, it’s true!”

Eligh laughed and ruffled his free hand through Oliver’s fluffy hair. The guy had just woken up, with the puffy eyes and bedhead to show for it, and surely remembered his dream too well. It was at times like this that Eligh thought Oliver was the most adorable, no matter how old the two of them got.

Early February snow blanketed the grounds outside and the house inside was warm and cozy enough to fall asleep on the kitchen counter. Their adoptive mother, May Butters, always had candles smelling of caramel lit throughout the house and a soothing, electric fireplace going.

It had Eligh in such a good mood. Then, Oliver slapped his hand away from atop his head. Eligh frowned, setting his steaming hot chocolate down near the sink.

He sighed, “Okay, Ollie. I think you might be a little too tired. Or…” He looked at his brother again. “Are you hung over?”

“Hung over? Dude, I’m nineteen!”

Eligh laughed, shrugging his shoulders. “Hey, I don’t know what you’ve been up to out there.”

“Finding out that there’s more to the Gear Up! Games than meets the eye.” Eligh sighed again for the second time in five minutes. Oliver continued, “They’re doing something weird every year and no one’s noticed. Until now! I saw something on last year’s broadcast, I promise.”

This wasn’t how Eligh had expected his relaxing Sunday morning to go. Unlike most twenty-three year olds, Eligh liked practicing the art of ‘chillaxing’ on Sunday mornings. He wanted to be the most chill old dude when the time finally came, a veteran ‘chillaxer’ who wouldn’t regret retirement. Unbothered and properly bored, like routine.

“Olly, look. There’s nothing going on with the Games—”

“I’m telling you, there is! I saw someone get dragged—”

“Olly—”

“Just listen to me! Isn’t that what you always do? What’s different now?!”

“You sound freaking crazy, that’s what!”

“You…! You’re just… You know what, forget it. You always think you’re so right when you’re just as brainless as everyone else.”

Eligh shoved Oliver backwards by the shoulders and cried, “What’s with you today?!” Oliver just looked at him a few seconds before storming away. When the door to his room slammed shut, May Butters came into the living room, finding Eligh rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands over in the kitchen.

“Bad morning?” She asked. Eligh could only snort. So, his mother continued, “Maybe giving your brother’s words some thought might be do you some good.”

“Did you hear him?” Eligh retorted.

“Only a little.”

“Then you know he sounds like he’s spent all nineteen years of his life stranded on a deserted island, talking to the trees.”

May chuckled a little and said, “Well… what do I know?”

~ / ~