The Law of Life

Scarlet.

“What do you believe in?”, a familiar tone of voice resonates within Xess’s mind, immersed in a vast, scarlet ocean. At the time he heard these words, he did not know the meaning of the question, much less his own answer. Yet, he looked into the eyes of the one asking the question and felt an answer was important. Why? Why would Xess’s answer have so much importance for a stranger he had just met at the time? There was no way to be certain. Still, a promise was made. What made Xess understand the importance of the question?

Curiosity?

Boredom?

Attraction?

…

Fate?

…

The Fifth Hunt had long passed and Xess finds himself back in bed staring at the now familiar ceiling. The room was dark with an empty bed across the room. Nothing can be heard coming from outside the room, as Xess determines that most of his injuries have healed. How? Flashes of how he got these injuries go through his head as he slowly searches for them on his body. However, only the sensation of an overworked body is found. The answer to the recovery must wait for another moment. For now, it is in this darkness where Xess so desperately tries to find the light. “Was I hallucinating?”, he asks himself while recalling the latest events of the hunts.

“I lost my cool. I don’t even know how I am still alive”, Xess thinks to himself as he slowly grabs his left forearm while recalling the scarlet color that suddenly surrounded his body at the end of the hunt, “If it was not real, how come I am here now?”. With his body still recovering, Xess gets up from bed. As it happened after the first hunt, he goes outside to find the answers that no one can give him. What else can he do? Who could he turn to? These are the doubts that go through his mind while he opens to the door to the hallway. There, he finds someone standing in front, as if waiting for Xess to come out.

“Took you long enough, roommate”, says Cross with his back against the wall and arms crossed. He pierces Xess’s eyes with his gaze as he asks, “I assume you want to know who brought you in this time, huh?”

Xess does not answer. He closes the door behind him as he looks around the hallway, however, there is only Cross.

“Don’t worry, the only one who is crazy enough to get close to you is me, since I am the one sharing the room with you”, says Cross as steps away from the wall.

Xess goes through his Tracer to find the information of the last hunt, specifically the members of his cluster. He goes through the names one by one, “Alexandra, Cross, Evangelica, Helen, Jeremiah”. To this sight Cross says, “Didn’t bother to look last night, I see. Although considering what you did, I can somehow understand you wouldn’t need any of us”.

“’What I did?’, you mean…”, says Xess as he closes his Tracer and approaches Cross. “All of that was… REAL?”, concludes Xess as his eyes widen in an attempt to cope with Cross’s comments.

“I hope you’re as good playing possum as you are killing people because you’re going to need it in a few minutes”, says Cross as he grabs Xess by his left shoulder. “Some people want to have a word with you… and by some, I mean everyone in this shithole”, concludes Cross looking straight into Xess’s eyes.

“Oh, so now they want to talk”, says Xess.

“They’re waiting at the forest entrance”, says Cross.

As both head to the entrance, Xess’s mind starts to dwell on the current situation. Considering what Dantes had told him and the level of animosity geared towards him ever since the first hunt, Xess wonders if he is walking right into an ambush.

“Now that I think about it, there was never any mention about violence within the group.”, Xess thinks to himself as he continues to walk while staring at Cross’s back. “Are we allowed to kill each other? What happens if we do?”, thinks Xess as he recalls the moment the final target from the previous hunt got his arm blown off when the Tracer disconnected from his body, “What can these Tracer do to us?”. This is a scene Xess is able to recall very well, driving up the speculation behind the functionality of the Tracers. Lost in thought, they arrive at the entrance. Cross steps aside and looks back at Xess who approaches from behind in a clear sign to ask Xess to move forward.

Xess leaves Cross behind and sees all the participants of the Hunts of the Hollows gathered in a semicircle. They immediately stop speaking as they see Xess arrive at the scene, leaving the entire place in absolute silence. Some are separated from the group, like Sid, Mayu, and Kane, however, they all pay attention to Xess’s arrival. The sun can be seen setting outside in the forest. Here, Xess notices that the remains of the third target lie in the middle, between him and the rest of the participants. This obviously, catches his attention. He turns his head towards Cross, who replies by agreeing with his head alone and serious look. Xess turns back and slowly approaches the body.

“Here we go…”, he whispers to himself. With every step he takes, Xess recalls every single scream of agony from the final target. The scarlet smoke coming from his body. The injuries he suffered. Something had happened while he was unconscious that saved his life… and took the life of another. Finally, he reaches the body. Xess, with a serious look to his eyes, moves his gaze from the body to the crowd glaring at him. He goes through most of them, recognizing a few faces along the way. To Xess’s surprise, most of the sentiment can be described with one single word.

“Fear”, Xess thinks to himself.

After scanning the crowd, Xess gets on his knees and turns the remains of the body.

“…!”, as soon as Xess notices, he feels a strong pressure on his chest. The corpse had burned so much it hardly resembled a human being. The area around the eyes was the one with the most damage with no signs of a clear face whatsoever. Of course, the corpse’s left arm was completely missing, but the body had suffered so much damage it made it completely unrecognizable. As Xess examines the body, a voice is heard coming from the crowd.

“Could you explain that?”, the female voice says.

“Eva…”, says Xess as he identifies her.

“You would need some kind of bomb to leave a body in that state”, replies Eva as she steps forward from the crowd. She, unlike most of the crowd, does not have any sort of expression on her.

“Well… you can believe me or not but his arm exploded”, replies Xess.

“So… you mean to say you were not the one who did this to him, then?”, says Eva as she stops, “It might be as you say—hard to believe—but you were the one who killed all three targets. You’re saying you got credit for killing him, yet, you had nothing to do with his death?”

Xess stares at Eva as she says these words without answering.

“Care to explain how this is possible?”, asks Eva with an expressionless face. Xess looks around the room in silence. You could hear a teardrop hit the ground in this silence. It is in this moment that Xess understood where the previous hate had gone to. After the events of Hunt #5, that hate has turned into fear. A fear of the unknown that Xess is to the rest of the group. Finally, Xess responds.

“Since the very first moment I killed Reese back in the first hunt, I had been the subject of hate for most of you. Some have pointed it out to me very clearly…”, says Xess with a strong tone of voice that resonates in the entrance of the facility. “You have hated my guts for making that one decision by myself… because no one else in here wanted to do what needed to be done”.

Eva seems to have a very gentle smile as Xess says the words.

“You have wasted your time judging me, meanwhile failing to understand what it is we are supposed to be doing in here!”, speaks Xess in a loud tone before following up, “If any of you dies out there because you refuse to take part in this fucking madness, tell me, what is even the point? Ah? Are you going to feel satisfied with being admired once dead? Admired by the people who did take that step, who did decide to take control of their lives by their own hands? Admired by someone like me? Damn it! I don’t think so!”

The crowd has no rebuttal for Xess’s argument. Most stand there with fear and confusion. Xess continues his speech.

“To answer your question, Eva, I don’t know”, says Xess while now pointing his attention towards her, “I don’t know what happened out there. I got knocked out and when I woke up the third target was being burned by something I had no idea what. Was it I who did it while unconscious? Well, can you blame me for considering it with shit that has happened to all of us until now!? Yes, some things have happened to me that I can’t quite put my finger on it.”, says Xess as the entire crowd listens to him speak with a tone of defiance and authority. “Want examples? The third Hunt, I knocked out a tree with single punch and I did not even used my whole strength”, says Xess while Cross seems to start paying more attention when he hears this.

“What did he just say? Did he… did he just imply a think he just did?”, thinks Cross to himself as Xess continues his speech.

“He’s not lying…”, says Dora out loud from the crowd, “I saw it with my very own eyes. That’s how I was able to kill the target”, she concludes. After her comment, Xess continues.

“And it’s not just my strength; my speed, my willpower, my tolerance, my awareness… ever since I killed Reese something changed…”, says Xess as he points to someone behind the crowd signaling to a single person, “You can call my bullshit all you want, but you can also ask Mayu over there! As far as I can tell she, too, must have felt something has changed, as well. I can attest to that”

Everyone turns to Mayu, who is somewhat separated from the group, as she does not answer to Xess’s remarks. She has a very unfriendly expression looking over at Xess.

“She hit me so hard, I was thrown into that wall in the back and should have had all my ribs broken… yet, I stood up… in pain… but not as hurt as I should have been. I can guarantee she did not have that sort of strength before and she knows it. It’s impossible”, says Xess as he continues to have all the attention, “So, if you want to judge me, I suggest you take a hard look around you…”, says Xess as he stops his comment and turns to look at Cross behind him before following up on his idea, “What do Mayu and I have in common? We both have killed at the hunts…”

Everyone sits cold, as listening to Xess’s words seems to have unleashed everyone’s insecurities regarding the true nature of the Hunts of the Hollows. The level of uncertainty is palpable. The doubt cast on Xess has now been cast on the rest with his arguments. After a moment of silence, Xess concludes, “If you fear me for what I have become…”, says Xess as he stares down at the corpse in front of him.

“Then start fearing yourselves as well”, he concludes.

The room falls silent once more. Xess has made his position clear. The rest simply stand with fear and confusion as to what to do or say on the matter. Noticing this, Dantes decides to step in.

“I believe his words to be true”, says Dantes out loud while raising his right hand, “After killing a target, the very next day I immediately noticed my body being different. I thought I was just overthinking it, maybe because taking a life for the first time will most likely impact anyone to their core. In the next Hunt I participated in, however, I knew it wasn’t my imagination”, Dantes concludes.

Then, another participant comes out, this time being Alexandra from Xess’s first cluster. She speaks loudly from the crowd, “You can count me in with you all...”, she says while looking down to the floor, “Waking up… right then and there, I knew I was not the same. You can call bullshit al you want… but, sadly, I guess, it’s the damn truth.”

Finally, a male from the crows speaks with a joyful tone, “Well, I am glad I am not the only freak out here, let me tell ya! Hahaha”

To this comment, Cross replies, “So you weren’t sick that day after all? Jeremiah…”

“Nope, it seems not. Although I don’t feel like I can kill people on my sleep yet, that I can tell ya, pal!”, laughs Jeremiah as he looks around the crowd. Then, as soon as Jeremiah speaks, several other hands are raised. Among them, Xess’s previous cluster teammate, Kane. This clearly indicates that everyone who has killed a target has somehow been affected by the events in one way or another. Noticing the hands, Cross sees that Sid, who is behind the crowd and away from the others, has not raised his hand. To this sight he says, “Sid, you’ve killed two targets, right? How about you?”

“That’s not of your fucking business. Talk about yourself if you want”, replies Sid with an extreme animosity. Hearing this, Jeremiah replies back, “Yo, Sid, come on, man, it’s a fair question. The more info we have the better for all of us... Cross, you got one in the first hunt, right? You must have felt something by now, pal”

Cross does not reply back immediately. Instead, he seems rather concerned. After a few seconds he mentions his experience.

“I… I have not felt anything”, replies Cross. Everyone glances back a him as he mentions this, “Who knows? Maybe I wasn’t lucky…”

“Hmm, trash”, whispers Sid to himself. Mayu who is the one closer to Sid, is the only one who notices his comments.

“You probably will notice eventually, man, it figures we all have some kind of-- ”, says Jeremiah from the crowd as he gets interrupted by a very familiar voice.

‘Children...’

The voice appears once again, freezing everyone on the room. The sound of the voice petrifies almost everyone, as they immediately are returned to the first day of the hunts. Like before, the voice starts to speak from inside their heads.

‘All of you have been able to survive the first five hunts.’

Everyone remains silent, paying extreme attention.

‘By now, we believe you have fully immersed in this new environment. Considering the circumstances you have been placed in, it is gratifying to see that you have all survived. This will definitely enhance the results obtained from Phase II.' 

“What? Phase II? What the fuck does that mean? What else could there be to do?”, thinks Xess to himself with angry expression.

‘We will now put into motion such phase of the Hunts of the Hollows.’

As the voice says these words, the faces of the participants drastically change, reminiscing those expressed during the first day of the hunt. However, with the conception that this was in fact real, the sensation of terror is definitely higher. The voice’s calm and collective tone increase the level on uncertainty felt throughout the ordeal. For some, this is absolute torture. The voice continues.

‘Most of your previous targets have been criminals judged for theft, scams, or rapes. Among the potential criminals you could have hunted, these have definitely been the lighter ones. It was not until Hunt #5 that you were exposed to criminals judged for murder, albeit these also fell in the lighter category.’

Xess’s mind is taken to the first target he killed, the one he found next to the pond. He recalls the target behaving similar to the previous ones, asking for some sort of understand and dialogue. To this memory his mind wanders for possibilities.

“Was he truly a murderer? Was I being played when he wanted to talk it out?”, Xess thinks to himself. As Xess finds himself reminiscing, the voice continues.

‘This has been by design.’

The tension in the facility increases dramatically in expectation of the voice’s following words.

‘Even so, we underestimated some of the participant’s skills. As you all know, all three targets from Hunt #5—murderers— were killed by one single participant.’

Most participants glance at Xess as the voice mentions this. Among them, Sid looks extensively annoyed. The voice continues.

‘Phase II— starting in Hunt #6 in two weeks— will include criminals convicted of the most horrific acts of murder. Make no mistake, what now follows is nothing short of the most feared criminals in captivity. Take the time before then to grasp what you have learned. What you have seen. What you have obtained… Effort and sacrifice shall bear fruit, as those who shied away from duty in Phase I…’

Every single person in the room has a clear sign of despair. Yet, among them, there are those who look more panicked than others. None of the participants, however, were ready for the voice’s following words.

‘…will most likely die in Phase II.’

A familiar feeling of silence fills the room. Yet, this time the environment feels like unlike ever before. The dread sensation coming down from what is being spoken has bathed the small world these children are force to live in. Xess’s previous words seem to have foreshadow what the voice has just told everyone. This realization has made the floor the most common point of view of the room. The voice, nevertheless, concludes his message.

‘… What are you…?’

…

‘Survive and find out…’

…

…

‘Newbreeds’

…

As their already broken world comes crashing down upon the group, Eva approaches Xess, who still stands alone. Like the day of the first hunt, she continues to have an expression very difficult to read by Xess. He cannot predict her intentions at all. Unlike with the rest of the participants, Eva’s unique demeanor shakes his normally-confident state of mind. Maybe it’s the fact she does not look shaken by the turn of events. Maybe is her enigmatic aura that makes Xess’s heartbeat just a bit faster. Xess cannot make up his mind what it is about her before she finally gets close to him.

“So, you’ve found your answer, ‘stranger’?”, asks Eva with sad smile to her face.

“Was all that necessary?”, asks Xess, referring to Eva’s rather public inquisition earlier.

“Conviction is trait measured best through public scrutiny”, replies Eva.

“You have a dangerous way of communicating”, says Xess ironically, as both stare at each other with no regards to the rest of the group.

Eva continues to smile with a sad tone to her face. After staring for a few seconds, she asks, “So, what does this new ‘Xess’ believe in?”

It is in this moment when Xess finally understood Eva’s questions from when they met. For the Xess in the past, those questions meant nothing. However, it was the person asking those questions that somehow made him promise an answer in the future; not knowing how or when he would be able to answer them. Nevertheless, it all has become clear for Xess. That future moment is now.

“No expectations will bound me… Even if I have to walk this path alone…”, replies Xess while glaring back at Eva with one his most murderous and ominous expressions yet. On the opposite side, she glares back with her eyes piercing back at his, as if wanting to digest all of Xess’s complex emotions through her eyes. Finally, Xess concludes.

“I will follow our real nature… and survive it all.”

Chapter 06 – The Law of Life: END

...

...

...

As the dim light shines far below in the vast darkness, a question is asked to a numb Xess.

‘What is your role… in humanity’s extinction?’

After initially struggling to answer the question, finally, Xess answers.

“My role is… that of the harbinger.”