Black Boxes and Love Shacks

Seeta felt her eyes droop. She had barely eaten and was staking out the rest of the players on top of the Black Box. Tallest building in the district, and the top floor had exceptionally polished mirrors in place of walls. They had taken two mesh office chairs from the inside of the building, and she was watching from above while Silvia went to get supplies. Nobody was really making any important moves, and she felt like dropping off slightly.

"You see anything?" Silvia asked.

"What? No." Seeta blurted out, waking up from her daze and seeing Silvia holding her brown paper bags. "Actually, I think that Odebode, Valentina and Cyrus are hiding out in that cinema."

"That it?" She asked, taking a box of cigarettes out of her shopping bag. "Ran into Valentina getting supplies, pretty sure they're just watching a movie in there."

"That it?" Seeta pondered.

"Probably. Or somebody's getting a can of Dingles shoved up their ass, whichever."

"What are dingles?" Seeta asked.

"These." Silvia replied slowly, her eyes filled with a vague sense of uncertainty. She took the purple cylindric can out of the bag, handing it to her.

"Kalreic Beef flavour, otherwise known as the best one!"

Seeta slowly took a few of the starchy snacks out of the can, putting them in her mouth and chewing a little. She stopped for a few seconds, her eyes lighting up. She then took the can, rapidly intaking as many as she could.

"Have you seriously not eaten those before?" Silvia asked, nervously chuckling to herself. "Where did you even come from?"

"West Montez, on Level One."

"Level One, huh? That sucks." Silvia sighed, slouching in one of the office chairs. "Heard it's a wasteland down there."

"Pretty much." Seeta sighed. "Me and my family lived in a metal apartment block right near the top. I could hear buses and people from level two from there."

"Damn, really?" Silvia asked, taking a handful of Dingles.

"And on top of that, every election season the candidates paraded outside it, so I had to deal with that once a year, too."

"Yeah, a couple politicians showed up where I live. Buncha bastards, too. They look you in the eyes as ya shake their hands and it's just blank."

"I hear you there." Seeta groaned. "And that's how Kapil got himself in here."

"Excuse me?"

"He kidnapped one of them."

Silvia choked on her Dingles when she heard that, drinking some soda to force it down.

"He kidnapped a guy?" She croaked, still trying to get starchy goodness out of the edges of her throat.

"Yep. I did some things too, as you could guess, but I don't think I'm allowed to mention them yet."

"Right. But still, kidnapping a politician! Dude's got balls!"

"He…he certainly did. Actually, Silvia. Do you have any ideas on who killed Timothy?"

"None yet." Silvia replied. "Why, ya got a lead?"

"No, I'm just thinking. Kapil was strong. Easily the strongest in the area. So I'm wondering just…how he could die so easily?"

"Ya think someone else did it?"

"Set it in motion, anyway. I'm pretty sure it was a smiler who killed him, but someone could have broken his legs, or something."

"I see. Hopefully we find him out soon." Silvia sighed, lighting a cigarette. "If my brother were to die, I'd be pretty ready to kill someone."

"You have a brother?" Seeta asked.

"Oh shit, did I not mention him? Yeah, I got a little brother. Five years younger. Really smart, too. If we had the money, we could get him into Brickwall Academy."

"Brickwall? That place on Level Four all the politicians say we could go to if we just put the work in?" Seeta sighed.

"That they never mention the price to, yeah." Silvia replied wearily. "But honestly, if I can use this game to somehow get him in, all this bullshit will be worth it."

"Any idea what he wants to do?"

"Law." Silvia smiled. "His goal is to come back and fight the government bastards on the crap they're pulling."

"I really hope he gets there." Seeta replied with a deep yawn.

"You feeling tired? Or can I go to sleep?" Silvia asked calmly

"I can stay up." Seeta replied, followed by another deep yawn.

"Right…rock paper scissors for who stays up?" Silvia asked.

So they played. Seeta choose rock. Silvia chose scissors. And so, Seeta fell asleep against her chair, and Silvia stayed up, taking a cigarette out of her bag and lighting it up. She leaned over the balcony and looked over at the sun setting, bathing the world outside in orange and purple hues in a chaotic mess, like someone spilled their paints in just the right way. So this is what rich dudes got to witness. She hadn't even seen the sky before last week, but this was special. If she had to go through everything and win this game, maybe things like this were good motivation. She reached for her bottle of soda, twisting the top off, and the thing flew out of her hand, hitting her directly on the chin. Her cigarette fell off the balcony, and Silvia sighed, taking another out and taking a drink out of her freshly opened soda.

"Woah, what's this?"

Lloyd witnessed the cigarette fall to the ground and turned to Aurora.

"Seems somebody's up there?"

"Any idea who it is?"

"Well, who here smokes? Any ideas?"

"Well, Amber doesn't. And the only person I know who smokes is Silvia."

"Which means her and Seeta are probably up there watching the others. And I think it best to avoid Seeta, at least. You wanna head to the love shack?"

"Woah now, I'm taken."

"Very aware. But it's the only place with locks in this joint, and I feel that privacy is key for the night-time, you know?"

"I mean, whatever you say." Aurora groaned.

The two of them made their way to the love shack. A small pink hotel building with a smiler manning the desk.

"You wannn rooooom?" It asked, it's head slipping just a bit too unnaturally.

"Yeah. How much for two people?" Lloyd asked.

"A hundred fifty per persoooon." The smiler droned.

"Yeah, we'll take it." Lloyd nodded, paying his share of coins. Aurora took her watch out and gave her share of coins.

"You neeed love asssistance?" The smiler asked.

"We'll be fine, sir." Lloyd yelled back as they went up the stairway to the room. Bright red walls, the same colour as the hotel. As they expected, there was only a double bed in terms of sleeping arrangements, alongside a few framed pictures of vaguely human shaped creatures in variety of strange positions. Fuel for ideas, perhaps.

"So, who are gonna need to kill?" Aurora asked.

"Straight to the point, I see." Lloyd replied. "Well, the ideal kill would be Gemma, but somebody in this room lost track of her."

"Right, right." Aurora replied, staring at one of the pictures to avoid meeting his glare. "Nothing stopping us from doing it tomorrow, anyway."

"Every minute we can't get her is a minute she's out there working with somebody!"

"Yes, because the stammering mess is gonna be able to make an alliance to take you down." She scoffed.

"She has the star power to do it." Lloyd replied, moving a stray strand of blonde hair from out of his eyes. "And besides, the whole Kapil thing was…not the best course of action."

"You think?" Aurora asked.

"Yep." Lloyd groaned. "Going out of my way to kill someone who'd probably have died later on wasn't exactly the smartest idea. And now I've got a target on my back."

"And all this is going towards your plan of killing Gemma?" Aurora asked.

"Well, that wasn't. My goal is to make sure that me, you and Amber survive this. The whole Gemma plan is just a side thing."

"And why are we killing her, exactly?" Aurora asked, her arms folded. "You said you would, but I don't think I've heard a reason."

"Revenge." Lloyd shrugged. "That murder she did? Happened to be a good friend of mine."

"Wait, was it…Tobias? That was her?" Aurora asked, her eyes widening.

"Yep. So she's gotta pay. If I can't do that, am I even worthy of the Clifton name?"

"I mean, accomplished actor who survived a criminals gauntlet. I'd imagine that's worthy enough, right?"

"Well, this isn't the first gauntlet I've been through, exactly." Lloyd chuckled.

"Wait, excuse me?" Aurora asked, eyes widened. "You've done this before?"

"Well, my father has a bunch of kids hidden from government registration. A bunch of different mothers, and a couple adopted kids thrown in for variety. And every fifteen years, all the children over twelve are put into a gauntlet, and the victor gets a chunk of his wealth for whatever they want."

"Wait, you won this?"

"Well, what I went through wasn't as brutal, mostly just old basements and things like that. But thirteen-year-old Lloyd made it above the seventeen others. And five years on, I think I did pretty good for myself." He finished, grinning to himself.

"You sure did." Aurora replied softly.

"You're thinking about the incident with your dad, aren't you?" Lloyd sighed, losing the smile. "Look, I got Amber to take care of him, you're fine now."

"Have I…thanked you for that?" Aurora squeaked out.

"More than enough. Hell, I only got to where I am because of you. But I'm gonna need you to do one more favour for me."

"Kill Gemma?" She sighed.

"You kill her, and I get somebody nearby to take the fall. Sound good?"

"Absolutely."