“Oi! He cheated! He must have!”

  “Oh shut it. You just have a terrible poker face, you’re practically an open book!”

  A table away from them, Patrick could see that Justin had, in fact, cheated. He laughed to himself as he watched the drama unfold as they gambled their possessions away. Well, whatever they had left at least.

  Everybody was in a festive mood because of one thing. The final trial was just moments away, and it wasn’t even a difficult one. It was simply up to fate whether they were chosen now, which was practically guaranteed seeing as how few they had left.

  Scanning the area, he could see barely a dozen teams left of the hundreds of people that had been with them before. The first trial had culled roughly half the candidates by day one through the team battles.

  Only those that refused to fight or were just too physically weak had fallen in that test. Then, another few dozen fell during the second trial, unable to solve the riddles to pass the escape room.

  Finally, the one that took most of them was the most recent trial where they had to fight against the North’s convicts. Since the majority of the criminals were skilled killers, the fights had been difficult, despite the 2-on-1 situation given to them.

  Patrick and Connie had luckily found themselves against a Powerless, someone without a Refraction. But despite that, it was much more difficult of a fight than he had described to Leo. Although their opponent had no Refraction, he was still a skill fighter.

  Dual wielding two sabers, to make up for his lack of strength compared to the two, he had been extremely nimble, easily weaving between Connie and Patrick’s attacks. He had even landed a few minor slashes and kicks on the two, catching Patrick off guard after figuring out his short cooldown when using his Refraction.

  Nevertheless, his skill was limited by his starved body and weakened mind. This major difference was what brought the pair to victory. Had he been healthy, Patrick doubted they would’ve been able to kill him. If anything, the fight would’ve most likely been ending with his victory.

  Patrick sighed, leaning his head back over his chair. So many lives were lost. But it wasn’t like anybody knew all of them. Who knows? Some could’ve been enemies.

  Everyone saw it as an unfortunate loss due to unfortunate circumstances. It was unfortunate they had been there. It was unfortunate they had been weak.

  It was unfortunate Patrick couldn’t see it as such.

  Each of them had a life, a story to tell just like his friends here. If they had survived, they probably would be at this very table laughing and yelling along with the people here.

  He looked at his small merry band. Oliver who constantly challenges him at anything, let it be poker, strength or even juggling at some point. Only to lose. Every time he lost, he’d throw a tantrum like a toddler saying he must’ve cheated somehow.

  The image of the sight in his mind caused him to chuckle.

  As if he needed it.

  There was also Joshua who helped contain Oliver’s tantrums as his teammate. He’d always appear whenever a tantrum was thrown, quickly pushing him away to his room as if in time out. Not only that, but Oliver even listened! Pouting like a kid.

  Funny enough, he was a kid! According to Joshua, somehow that beast of a child was sixteen years old! Sixteen!

  Just what kind of diet did he have? No, how did he even have such a diet outside?

  Despite the shock from this discovery, Patrick enjoyed his talks with Joshua. Kind of like Leo, he was pretty calm as he spoke about himself and the others here. Most of the people here were friends already, coming from the same group in the outskirts. It was only by some miracle that all of them had reached where they were.

  It must’ve been a powerful group!

  Those were just a few stories of his friends as they continued playing along with his antics. Of course he knew everybody by now, or at least what they told him. But after his conversation with Leo, he realized he was right. Despite the smiles and hearty laughs, everyone here was burdened by the weight of these trials and what it brought.

  They were all like him.

  He knew it all too well how powerless they must’ve felt, the constant threat of the reprocessing procedure. Patrick knew it well, a little more than he had hoped to know.

  But that didn’t matter now. What mattered now was getting them with him. If what Leo said was true, then he had to get them all out. Or he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

  As he looked around, he saw that the usual guards and staff that would be around the dormitory were nowhere to be seen, the two large exit doors were left unguarded now. He realized it was probably a sign the military was up to something now.

  ‘It’s now or never!’

  His decision set, he got up, the metal seat scraping against the stone floor. The piercing sound of the chair echoed through the dorm, catching everyone’s attention as all eyes fell on him.

  ‘This was…not part of the plan.’

  With an ear covered, Joshua turned with a pained expression.

  “Dude, why’d you have to kill our ears like that? Don’t push the seats back like that again!”

  Following that, everyone agreed as they lectured Patrick, berating him on the ear-splitting sound.

  He solemnly nodded, unable to retort to the constant attacks.

  ‘Wait! I need to get them!’

  He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but not a sound came out. He knew this feeling very well.

  He was scared.

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  But why? Why was he so scared now?

  Noticing the distress, Joshua patted Patrick on the shoulder.

  “Yo, you good? You look like somebody died.”

  ‘Kind of?’

  Closing his eyes, Patrick took a deep breath. Exhaling, he opened his eyes and spoke.

  “I…I need to talk to you guys.”

  It was a quiet voice, too quiet to get everybody’s attention as they all went back to doing what they were before. The ones closer leaned their heads in as if trying to hear him, but were ultimately drowned out by the laughter and banter of the background.

  Joshua patted Patrick’s back, giving him an encouraging smile.

  “If you want to talk to them, then you need the chest out!” He slapped his back hard, pushing his chest out.

  Patrick cried out, “Ow! That hurt!”

  “See? You can talk!”

  “No shit!”

  Angered, he put Joshua in a headlock and started rubbing the top of his head with his knuckles, causing him to squirm.

  “Ahhh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I thought you needed it! Stop giving me a noogie!”

  Releasing him from his bear-like grip, his angered face quickly turned soft as he gave a smug smile.

  “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

  With a strong step forward, Patrick basically shouted in the entire dorm.

  “Fellas! Gather around! I got something important to announce!” Unlike before, his voice echoed around the dormitory, practically forcing the others to acknowledge him as everyone turned to each other as they slowly gathered around him.

  The closer they got, the more he could hear their murmurs and confusion.

  “What game is it this time?”

  “Who knows, but I’m up for it. That poker game was getting stale anyway.”

  “Yeah, because you were losing.”

  “You ‘oughta shut your mouth sometimes.”

  Finally, the group formed one giant huddle as Patrick finally spoke.

  “Let’s go somewhere else, it’s too stuffy here.”

  Patrick turned around, leading them to the long hallway leading to the Medbay, his back facing the barred windows as the sun slowly began to set. He leaned on the wall as he supported himself on a window ledge with his arms. His once cheerful, smug expression quickly slipped off as his true feelings of dread surfaced. The cold wind snuck in through the bars, giving everyone a small shiver.

  He glanced down at his shaking hands. He was barely able to limit the shaking to just his hands, his mind was already filled with erratic thoughts of panic. But he knew he couldn’t show that, not in front of them. The last thing they needed right now was a hysterical crowd running about.

  He took a deep breath as he spoke to the confused group in a shaky voice.

  “Guys…Before I talk, I want you to promise me you’ll stay and be as calm as you can until I finish. Can you guys do that…?”

  Everyone around him began to grow concerned as they looked to each other for answers, finding none. Joshua emerged from the crowd as he carefully approached him.

  “Uh, Patrick? You okay?”

  He hesitated for a moment, contemplating on what to do. He had never spoken to a group like this before, especially not in such dire times. He didn’t know if what he’d say would cause everybody to panic. But he had to try.

  In response, he slowly shook his head. “Not at all, Joshua…Not at all…”

  Joshua moved closer to speak but was stopped as Patrick’s hand rose.

  “Everyone, can you all hear me? Please, listen to what I have to say.”

  The crowd grew silent as they heard him, listening attentively as they were desperate for answers.

  He pointed at the dorm. “Somebody close those doors please.”

  A few people closer to the door hesitated but complied, still confused at what was going on.

  Once the doors had shut with a loud bang, Patrick finally spoke to everyone.

  “Remember, you promised to stay as calm as you could. Just listen before you start yelling.”

  He fought the shaking in his hands, trying to maintain his confident facade. Barely keeping his arm still, he pointed at the closed doors. “Behind those doors is danger. Not from the soldiers, not from us, but from something far worse.”

  Oliver couldn’t help but blurt, “What could be so dangerous, huh?”

  “There’s no other way to say it, but there’s a demon in there.”

  The group looked at him puzzled. Somebody from the crowd asked, “Um, what’s the big deal about that? It’s just one demon.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not just a demon. According to my sources, it has enough power for a colonel to deal with a body of it.”

  This drew a much larger reaction as eyes widened and murmurs began. It appeared to be common knowledge for most as to how strong a colonel was. Some that were unaware stood confused for a moment before being enlightened by those nearby, quickly losing their composure much like their compatriots.

  Joshua asked, “You said a colonel dealt with a body. That means it’s dead, no? So that should mean we’re in the clear then. Unless…”

  Joshua didn’t even need to finish his sentence as the rest quickly caught onto what he was implying. The possible revelation made their hearts drop, their faces showing the dread as they were horrified at the thought of it.

  Patrick raised his hands as he grabbed everyone’s attention. “I’m being as honest as I can be right now. This demon, indeed, has multiple bodies. Not only that, it gets bodies through possession of some kind.”

  “Possession!?”

  Those words were enough to drive fear to the hearts of many around them. But fear wasn’t the only thing that grew, but also suspicion. The fact that the demon could possess meant anybody could be the demon.

  It could even be their friends.

  Somebody from the crowd asked in a quivering voice, “Um, how exactly does it possess people?”

  All eyes were now on Patrick, waiting for this critical answer.

  Patrick looked back at the despairing faces, all contorted with fear with the gripping reality that they could very well die at any moment now. Even now, Patrick truly had no idea what the full scope of the plan was, let alone what the others would be doing on their end.

  He regretted not asking for more information, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered now was the need to answer these angry, but scared people.

  He racked his brain trying to come up with an answer, but it was all blank. How did the demon possess? Through touch? Eyesight? By the Stars, what if it spread like an airborne disease?

  “I don’t know…”