Four Empty Chairs

My eyes slowly open to take in the world around me.

Where am I?

I did open my eyes, didn’t I?

Everything remains black no matter how many times I blink.

My back rests against the cold floor. To get a better idea of where I am, I stand up.

Well, I try to.

Moving my arms and legs is met with firm resistance. They’re bound. Whenever I move my arms, metal jingles and clinks around. It feels like I’m handcuffed to some kind of metal bar. If I tug, it moves a little.

My legs don’t make noise when I move them. They’re probably tied with cloth.

I’m blindfolded and gagged with cloth as well.

What happened?

Oh, right.

Rachel.

She really didn’t kill me though. I can’t believe she followed through on her word. It felt more like a “don’t struggle” situation. She was acting completely psychotic so I thought I was done for.

With a bit of effort, I rub my face against the floor in an attempt to slide my blindfold off. It takes a couple minutes, but it loosens enough for me to see.

Light assaults my retinas in a blinding flash. The window doesn’t have blinds so the sun shines unhindered. Despite having removed my blindfold and escaping the pitch black darkness, I’m met with a bright white light which continues to blind me.

Giving myself a moment to adjust, I take in my surroundings thoroughly and carefully.

First things first, my wrists are handcuffed to a school desk. Unfortunately, the handcuffs aren’t plastic. They’re the real deal.

Of course, my phone isn’t on me.

I have a hunch of where I am, but I want a look out the window for confirmation.

Struggling to stand with my bound feet, I purposely knock over the desk my hands are attached to in order to get up. I highly doubt that Rachel is babysitting me, so I won’t worry about how much noise it makes.

There are two sets of handcuffs. Both of my hands have different cuffs on them. The end my hands are in is tightly locked in place like you’d expect, but the other half of the cuffs are completely and unsalvageably damaged. They’re crushed, bent as close to the size of the desk’s legs as possible. No matter how I move them, it’s impossible to detach them from the desk. She must’ve been unable to find something immovable to bind me to, so she attached a desk behind me to act as a ball and chain. It’s not impossible to leave like this, but doing so is slow and unwieldy.

She doesn’t need to keep me here forever after all.

So, where am I?

From my new standing position, I can easily get a view of the outside through the window.

About what I expected.

It’s the old school building. The small scale and damaged state of the room around me made it obvious, but this confirms it.

I knew Rachel wouldn’t hide me in her home. What if I was found by a family member? If she didn’t know any other place to hide me, I guess it's easiest to just tie me up here. Sure, the others know this location too, but she probably intends on killing everyone before they get a chance to hold another meeting.

Soon.

Actually, what is her plan?

I guess after taking my gem, she’d go kill… Simon. Everyone is aware of his ability and if singled out, he’s just as weak as the average eighth grader. Not to mention, his ability to rescue someone from certain death could prove detrimental to Rachel’s plans.

Afterwards… Maybe Allen? Allen always hangs out with Dylan so he probably seems weak in comparison. Christina seems pretty tough, herself. Her ability is a complete mystery too. Rachel has at least seen Allen’s. Allen would likely be the best pick between the three options.

Then she’ll go for Christina, then Dylan. Dylan is the strongest as far as we’ve seen. Not only is he tall with a muscular figure, he also killed Luke already. Rachel witnessed it. He was indisputably powerful. But could he defeat someone who already has six gems? Doubtful.

Finally, she’d kill Kyle. He would be left for last, not because he’s strong, but because he’s allusive. I’m not sure if she’ll even be able to track him down at all. Honestly, the final boss wouldn’t be a fight to the death with a fire manipulating body builder, it would be trying to find Kyle.

I need to tell Simon what’s going on. I’ll text Kyle after. He’s smart and despite being so selfish, he does seem to care about the group at least a little.

How am I supposed to take these cuffs off though?

Alright, I saw this in a horror movie once. The main character was handcuffed by their insane ex but managed to escape using a hair pin.

I’ll give this a shot.

I lay back down and rub my head on the ground until a bobby pin pulls loose.

Rolling onto my back, I pick up the pin off the ground after some fumbling.

With the pin in my right hand and stretching the chain to its limit, I slide it into the keyhole of my left cuff. If I turn it too hard I could break my one chance of escape. Gently. I’ll turn it clockwise…

Nothing happens.

I remove the clip and play with it in my fingers. Using just enough force to slowly bend the metal, I try to make the loop at the end a little wider.

Failed again.

Over the next, presumably, several hours, I adjust the size and shape of the loop until it eventually pops open the lock on the cuffs. The light from the window changed slowly in both color and brightness, but it’s an impossible task to judge how long it really took.

The film made that look so easy!

Luckily, the loop I ended with was able to work on both pairs of handcuffs.

Finally,

Click!

That’s it! I thought I was going to go insane!

Now that my handcuffs are removed, untying the cloth around my legs and in my mouth is child's play.

I turn the knob to leave the room but the knob refuses to move. I’m locked in.

Maybe it’s barricaded? I don’t know if these doors even have locks.

In any case, I lift up the desk I was previously attached to with all of my might. I’m less fit than I imagined. Just lifting the desk strains my entire body.

Putting my back into it, I throw the desk at the window.

Thud.

The desk bounces off.

Again!

Thud.

This time the window cracks.

Once more!

Smash!

A nice cold breeze blows right in. That’s better.

Free at last, I can’t resist the urge to search the building for my phone. Of course, with no luck.

Now how do I contact Simon? I’m going to need to meet up with someone who knows his number. The closest house to the school is… maybe Allen’s? It’s either that or Dylan’s.

I would borrow someone’s phone off the street, but I only know my number and my mom’s off the top of my head. Even in a situation like this, I won’t involve my mom. She couldn’t help anyway. She’s probably busy.

I’m not going to hitchhike either. That’s scary.

I’m going to have to walk all the way to Allen’s house. Hopefully I’m not too late.

***

Knock Knock Knock

Who is that?

While relaxing in the living room, I seem to have gotten a visitor.

Opening the door, I’m met with a welcome face making an impatient one.

“Sarah. I thought you were at the hospital for your grandma?”

“What?” Her brows furrow.

“You messaged me on the phone yesterday, that you wouldn’t be able to make our date.”

Her eyes widen in realization before quickly explaining, “That was Rachel. She’s stolen my gem and is preparing to kill Simon.”

Give me a moment to register. Excuse me? It was Rachel? Rachel ruined my first date!? Here I was thinking that Sarah had second thoughts.

I’ll get her back for this! I was so disappointed!

What was that about Simon?

“Simon is going to be killed? We can save him, right?”

“We have to. And fast. I’ll explain everything on the way. You said you can drive, right?”

I shout to my mom that I’m going out with friends and she allows me to take the car. On my way out, I send a quick message to Simon and Christina warning them to watch out for Rachel’s shapeshifting and another message. I send an additional message to Dylan to meet us at a café between his house and Simon’s. Just in case, I loop Kyle in on the message to Dylan.

On the drive to Simon’s house, Sarah explains everything.

She was put on a fake date with me and kidnapped by Rachel. How could I have missed it?

Now that I think about it…

“How’d she text you using my number? My phone hasn’t left my sight, and my password isn’t something she could guess.”

“I think- it’s a technique that scammers use. I’m not an expert, but she can make it look like you sent a text that you didn’t. It tricks my phone into thinking that your number sent it.”

“I see. But didn’t you reply to the message? Shouldn’t that have gone to me?”

She stops and considers, “I’m not sure why you didn’t get it. You definitely should have. Did you talk with Rachel recently?”

Talk with Rachel? I don’t think so. Unless…

Uh oh.

“Did you come back to my house after you dropped me off two days ago?”

“No, I went straight home. That must’ve been Rachel’s first move.”

“You asked for my phone. You said that you had gotten a new provider and that you could type your new number into my phone for me.”

Sarah places a hand on her chin, “Rachel must’ve blocked my real number on your phone and given you a fake number that she had control of. That way, she can text me with your number, but when I reply you wouldn’t see it. This strategy makes it so that she wouldn’t be able to see the text I sent either, but since she took initiative and sent me a message first, it was just a confirmation of our date. She gambled that I wouldn’t ask a question afterwards. Although, even if I did and was ghosted, I’d still show up on the date without worrying about it. A confirmation message was sent, after all”

Wow. Rachel’s smarter than I took her for. She always seemed like the smart type, but she never did anything remarkably intelligent. Her cool head was admirable, but her intelligence was hidden.

Sarah, on the other hand, pieced together Rachel’s whole plan in a few minutes! Man, she’s amazing.

As we get closer to Simon’s street, Sarah shouts to stop the car.

She quickly hops out and jogs over to a trash can on the side of the road. A sick looking boy sits behind it, hugging his knees.

Good eye.

“Are you alright?” Sarah asks the boy.

He looks up with a deranged face. His eyes are red from crying and his lips force a crooked smile. The boy’s clothes are all torn up. His pants have scratches and holes all over. His shirt is missing a sleeve and has red stains splattered across it. Oddly enough, there’s not a single injury on the boy's body.

It takes a moment for me and Sarah to realize who the fear stricken boy is. His face is so different from normal. More than simply looking different, it has changed.

“Sarah- no. Are you!?” His voice trembles until he notices me out of the corner of his eye. “Oh… there’s two of you… she shouldn’t be able to split… probably…”

Simon talks like he’s been possessed. The once cheerful boy is petrified. He stares at the two of us with doubt and distrust.

“Simon. We’re here now. Did Rachel get to you?”

“No- No. She didn’t get me. Not me.”

“Can you ride with us? We need to go somewhere safe.”

“Safe? How can anywhere be safe? Anyone could be Rachel. That may not be Allen with you, and you may not even be Sarah. Hell, how do you know I’m me?”

For some reason- no, for a clear reason, he is reminiscent of Kyle. Not his tone, not his voice… but the content of what he’s saying is almost exactly what Kyle would say. His words are filled with distrust and he wears it proud. He’s not afraid to express the fact that we can’t be trusted- that nothing can be trusted.

“Come with us, Simon. Dylan will be there. He’s strong. We’ll go pick up Christina too.”

“No…” His frightened voice has fallen off completely. It’s impossible for him to let out more than a strained whisper. “She died.”

The news doesn’t hit until seconds after it’s heard. Despite not liking how distrusting Kyle is, I can’t believe my own ears.

Two have died.

Luke.

Christina.

“Tell us what happened!” My patience is wearing thin. Sarah’s been talking calmly this whole time. She wants to comfort him, but we don’t have time for that.

“She protected me. I was in pain. The worst pain I’d ever felt. But, Christina used her life to delay Rachel, and I ran. I ran without turning back,” A cruel, evil smile is glued to his face. He talks of the tragic event like it’s a miracle. He talks about it as though all that matters is that he got away.

His voice, his face, his words. He’s pissing me off. He’s talking like he’s evil.

Where did the cute, justice loving Simon go?

Sarah grabs his sleeveless arm and stands him up. The physical contact with that bare arm makes him visibly shake.

“Come with us, Simon. We can help you,” Sarah invites reassuringly.

Without response or resistance, Simon is silently dragged into our car. He doesn’t make a sound on the way to the meeting place with Dylan.

“She killed Christina!?” Dylan shouts in confusion upon hearing the news.

“That’s what it sounds like. She already has four gems and she’ll be coming for us next. We need to fight. She’s evil and dangerous, so we need to kill her.” I propose the only thought in my mind.

Dylan sits in the back of the car quietly next to Simon. He makes a difficult expression, thinking over my words.

We drive to the abandoned school.

Rachel locked Sarah up there, but Sarah proposed that she wouldn’t return. Why? Because if someone is at the building, everyone is. Rachel is a coward, too afraid to tackle more than a single opponent at a time.

We text Kyle but he doesn’t respond. It was obvious when he didn’t respond to the first message, that bastard is just going to abandon us. What happened to him saying he’d continue to respond to his phone and help us out?

We silently take our seats in the meeting room. The other classroom was now boarded off. That must be where Sarah was kidnapped.

Simon sits in his regular seat, still wearing that twisted expression on his face. Four empty chairs surround him. Sarah and Dylan sit beside me, in front of the doorless doorway.

Despite coming here to talk, nobody says a word. The atmosphere is eerie and dark. The empty chairs threaten us to stand up. They threaten us to leave the room and never come back, like those who previously sat in them. If we leave our chairs, no one will be left.

The empty chairs silently watch on as we all attempt to cope with the new situation.

Only half of the club's members remain.

Luke was incinerated.

Rachel betrayed us.

Christina sacrificed herself.

Kyle ran away.

Who will be next? Us, or Rachel?

One side needs to die. It’s unavoidable now.

“Could you explain her abilities to us, Simon?” Sarah asks calmly, as though speaking with a child.

Reluctantly, he does, “She can transform into any shape. That includes strengthening herself with muscle and altering her shape to be more suited for speed and attacking. And, she can heal any injury in moments… It’s hopeless.”

“Any injury?” Sarah ponders. “Perhaps if her head was destroyed, she wouldn’t be able to continue healing? If that’s the case, we would have to take her out in a single hit.”

I speak up and voice my best plan, “Me and Dylan won’t be able to defeat Rachel alone. At least, not without major injuries or a sacrifice. A head shot is probably impossible. Rachel has four gems already. Honestly, I don’t think we stand a chance-”

Everyone remains silent. Sarah watches the table while Simon’s eyes dart around the room, vigilant. Dylan watches my face as he listens.

“-There’s only one way we can win this… we need another gem. Between the four of us, only two can fight. One gem here is going to waste. To maximize our chances of winning, of surviving, we need to kill Simon.”

Simon sits still, staring daggers at me. His eyes are merciless.

The way I see it, Simon is as much of a traitor as Luke. Simon selfishly let Christina die and for that, he needs to be punished. His continued existence will get us all killed. Me, Dylan, and Sarah.

Not to mention, his ability to heal is useless in the middle of a fight. He needs direct contact, but if he puts himself into the fray, he’ll be killed instantly. He’s just a kid. Even though he can heal us after our battle, we just can’t win with our current fire power.

Sarah looks shocked at my suggestion, but continues staring at the table.

Dylan immediately raises his voice, “No! We can’t do that. We can’t kill Simon just for our sake!”

“No… not just for us. For Christina, too. He let her die! Are you just going to forgive him!?”

“That’s not his fault! She sacrificed herself so that he could live!”

The temperature notably rises. Of course, Dylan isn’t the type of person who can control himself. He’s like me, in that regard.

“Then what do you suppose we do!? We can’t let ourselves be killed like this.”

Dylan’s anger shrinks as he glances to the side.

He responds quietly, “I’m not sure but-”

“We need to kill Simon! It’s our only hope! You can have his gem, and together, we can defeat Rachel.”

“That might work, no, it probably will. But we can’t just kill him! It’s just too selfish! I already killed Luke, I won’t accept any more needless death!”

***

I sit in the corner alone. Who knows when this could fall apart. A fight might break out at any moment. I need to keep my distance.

Somewhere along the line, I sat down in a seat far from the door. It’ll be hard to escape from this position. I only chose this seat because at the moment I wanted to be as far away from them as possible.

The empty chairs surround me. They whisper threats. At any moment, I may also die. I may run away. But, I won’t sacrifice myself. No matter what, my life will never be the same.

Allen seems different to me now. Not in the same way that Christina felt different when she was an imposter. Allen feels more confident, but it’s a confidence that will surely hurt him. He also feels like an enemy. He doesn’t feel like an enemy because he wants to kill me, it’s something else. I don’t blame him for wanting me to die. For him to survive I can’t live. Still, that confidence only welcomes misfortune. He’s going to make a grave mistake in his sinful pride.

“We need to kill Simon! It’s our only hope! You can have his gem and together, we can defeat Rachel,” Allen yells violently.

“That might work, but we can’t just kill him! I already killed Luke, I won’t allow anymore needless death!” Dylan’s words carry a wave of sudden heat.

Sarah remains staring at the table. She’s just as bad as Allen if she doesn’t decide to help me. As far as I’m concerned, she’s an accomplice.

I need to take this into my own hands. I need to get out of here.

Allen’s trying to kill me, but Dylan is closest to the door. If I walk out casually, maybe they’ll be too distracted with their arguing?

What if they notice? Will they attack me? I need to be ready, but I can’t fight them. It’s impossible.

Watching Christina, the most important person to me, sacrifice herself was painful. It hurt so badly I thought I might die from the pain. Somehow though, it didn’t hurt quite as bad as having my arm torn off. That pain which shot through every inch of my body with concentrated agony, the pain of my imminent death, that is a pain I never want to feel again.

My perception of reality, my perception of myself, has changed.

As I try to brainstorm ways to escape, my fingers wander over something in my pocket.

“Dylan! We need to do this! We don’t have a choice!”

“We can’t kill him! I can’t accept that! I won’t let another one of our friends die!”

Sarah grabs Allen’s sleeve without looking up.

She whispers, “I don’t know what to do anymore. Is it really okay to kill him? I know it’s our only chance but-”

Nonchalantly, I stand up and begin to walk around the table and through the door. Slowly and casually, I pray that they don't try to stop me.

Dylan abruptly stands up and blocks my path to the door.

He towers over me menacingly. My eyes stare straight forward, only about halfway through his chest. I’d need to bend my neck completely upwards to see his face. His arms are the size of my head. If he wanted, a single punch would surely knock me out. He could torch me alive in a moment.

“Hey, Simon, I’m defending you here. Trust me. Still, you need to stay here for this discussion. It involves you as much as-”

Now, my escape!

Dylan loses his voice. Air struggles to escape his lungs to speak as he slowly reaches down to his stomach.

My hands feel a warm drizzle run down them. I grip my pocket knife with all of my strength and firmly pull it from his belly. My first obstacle is down.

Sorry, Dylan. You were defending me, but I can’t die here. I’ll do whatever I can to escape.

Before I can realize it, Allen launches across the table in a blitz.

That speed is inhuman!

He slams me against the wall by my shoulders. My head bounces off of the wall. The whole world goes dark for a moment. It seems like I blinked, but my eyes never shut. During that brief unconsciousness, my knife slips right out of my hand. The blood which coated my hand served to easily disarm me.

His grasp on my shoulders presses tightly into my skin through my shirt. The back of my head stings from the impact with the wall, but the pain doesn’t last.

Allen looks down on me with his much taller stature and slides his hands to my neck. He lifts me off of the ground by my throat, with my back against the wall. My feet can’t reach the floor no matter how much I try. I attempt to kick at his body but there just isn’t enough room to put any weight into it.

Desperately, I dig my fingernails into his forearm. I scratch and claw as deeply as physically possible. Warm blood and skin wedges itself between my nails. Still, he refuses to let go.

I can’t die here.

As his grip tightens, my breath grows faint. Drawing a breath is impossible.

Let me go! Let me go! I can’t even scream.

My head starts to feel light as my ability to think fades away. My feet stop kicking and my arms fall to my sides. I can’t move. He won’t let me go. This is the end of the line for me.

But… I don’t want to die…

Snap.

***

Simon’s body dangles from my hands. His neck gave out its resistance, violently snapping backwards.

He scratched up my hands and arms, covering them in Dylan’s blood.

I give his neck a final squeeze before dropping his body.

He’s dead.

I killed him…

I had to. I needed to do that. It was our only chance. Not to mention, he killed Christina and stabbed Dylan. He had it coming.

Simon changed. He used to be the kind of person who would sacrifice anything to protect someone. Now, he became the kind of person who would sacrifice anything to protect himself.

What could change him to such a degree in less than a day?

Even I know that a person won’t change that fast, no matter what they experience. No, Simon must’ve been like this the whole time. He lied to himself as much as Rachel did. He masqueraded as a person who hated conflict because he cared about those around him, but deep down he was selfish. Masqueraded might be the wrong term. He was truly convinced that he cared about others. That was his delusion.

Simon only hated conflict because he didn’t want to get caught up in it. Even he must not have known that until Christina died. That’s when he and everyone else saw his true colors.

Serves him right.

Sarah sits down next to Dylan on the floor without so much as looking at Simon’s body. The sound alone was enough to make her pale in the face.

Dylan’s laying down and breathing heavily. Sweat falls down his face.

Sarah applies pressure to the wound and tries to calm him down. The stab is really deep. If the wound was in a slightly different location, he could have been killed. Even now there’s a chance he doesn’t make it.

I can’t help Dylan, I don’t have the knowledge or the ability. Right now I need to take care of Simon.

I fish through Simon’s pockets, searching for his gem. If it’s anything like Sarah’s, it should be clear now. I’d guess that on contact it’ll switch ownership. That’s what happened with Rachel.

Found it. It’s in his right pocket.

Wait, that’s not right.

His gem continues glowing green. Is… he still alive? I broke his neck!

A bloody hand shakily rises up, grabbing my wrist which holds his gem.

Simon’s deranged eyes stare into my soul as he slowly stands back up, trembling.

“I… won’t die that easily.”

Damn! His ability must have changed from healing others. He can regenerate himself now. He’s realized how selfish he is and chose to embrace it.

Sarah looks over at us from the ground with teary eyes.

“What should we do?” I ask Sarah desperately. I’m really at a loss. The feeling of snapping his neck was disgusting. I already killed him once. Do I just… keep hitting him? “What do I do?”

“I hate this. I hate the idea of killing, too, but we have no chance against Rachel. She promised that she wouldn’t kill me, but I don’t want you or Dylan to die,” Sarah looks down at Dylan while she speaks.

Desperate, I look towards Simon. It would be so much easier if he understood us. It would be so much easier if he just agreed to die.

“Simon… we need to kill you.”

“Yeah. You do. In that case, I need to kill you.”

Simon dives for the knife on the floor.

It’s almost pitiful. His Delusion doesn’t allow him to fight for his life. All it does is make sure he doesn’t die. How can I fight that? He’s a weak opponent, it feels cruel.

He grabs the knife as he rolls over. Immediately, I kick it out of his hands and stomp his fingers. The knife flies from his grip and slides beneath the table.

He grunts in pain and I feel a few fingers break.

Not even a full second later, his fingers have already healed.

Simon tries to stand up, so I kick him as hard as I can, throwing him back to the floor. My inhuman strength has faded. I no longer feel like I’m protecting anyone. I feel rotten. But, we need to do this.

Simon lays on the floor for a second, he got the wind knocked out of him from my kick.

It doesn’t take more than a couple of seconds before he attempts to stand again.

I kick him, but he tries to get back up. The cycle continues for many rotations.

Every single time. He tries to stand, I kick him in the stomach, then he cries out in pain. Then he stands again.

Why won’t he just lay down!?

A radiance of pain spreads through my foot and as soon as I think that, Simon lands a punch on my face. I only dropped my guard for a moment, but he took the opportunity.

Even a weakling who throws a proper punch can do some good damage. That’ll definitely leave a bruise. Right on my cheek, I feel cuts inside my mouth where my skin impacted my teeth.

In response, I furiously throw the best punch at his face that I can. I aim for the exact spot he did too. Pain spreads through my arms from the various scratches he made earlier as I strangled him.

My superior strength sends him stumbling back into the wall, but moments later, he’s completely healed.

My jaw still hurts.

“See now?” Simon taunts. “You can’t beat me. I’ll fight all day, but I won’t die.”

This fight isn’t going anywhere. Actually, it’s heading towards my loss. I’m the only one who’s sustained any damage.

He can’t be immortal, can he?

I’d guess his regeneration works the same way as Rachel’s. The only way for him to die is for his brain to take enough damage to stop him from thinking. As long as his brain works, his Delusion will keep him alive.

What should I do?

Simon punches me again while I think. Same spot.

That cocky little…

Is he trying to make me want to kill him!?

My fists hurt from punching him and they’re covered in scratches. Dylan’s blood still stains my skin.

Simon stands before me in a boxing stance, clearly one that he’s never had to make before. It’s a clear imitation he must’ve seen in passing on television. I corner him against the wall, but he doesn’t break eye-contact. His goal isn’t to beat me, it’s to run away. He only wants to survive.

Simon doesn’t have a scratch on his body. Despite the stains of blood and roughed up clothes, physically, he looks like the fight hasn’t even started. Yet, I have a red cheek and scratched up hands. Simon may be the worst opponent to face. As long as he has the will to live, this fight won’t end until I’m on the floor.

Dylan stumbles on his words from the floor, “Allen, don’t kill him. We still need… t-to talk this out.”

Simon screwed over our only chance to beat Rachel. Not only did he wound our strongest fighter before the battle, he selfishly protected his gem.

He needs to die, before he can cause anymore harm!