The first thing Charlie noticed when he woke up was how cold he was. His eyes stayed shut as he tried to determine whether he was alone or not, whether Zeken would be there if he opened his eyes.

  Given the smell, he had determined that his location had changed since he had fallen asleep in his cell. He couldn’t remember waking up since he had exhausted himself, since seeing Rat’s life get stripped away from him, but he was sure he wouldn’t have slept deep enough to be moved and not wake up. That realization meant one thing to Charlie. He had to have been drugged without someone even getting close to him.

  He heard nothing, not even a hum of electricity in the air or a murmur from another room. Judging by the texture on his back, he was laying down on a metal slab of some kind. It was smooth and cool against his broad back but he felt as if a part of the table was pinched up and pressed into his spine in a very uncomfortable manner.

  Once Charlie was certain the coast was clear based on his other senses, he opened his eyes and viewed the clinical metal ceiling above him. He moved his hand out, placing his palm on the table as he sat up, but stopped short with a wince of pain. It was like his spine was on fire and he couldn’t help but let out a soft groan of pain.

  Charlie didn’t know exactly what it was, exactly, but the part that he thought was an extension of the table was actually attached to him… and it hurt quite a lot. Whatever it was, it was deep inside his skin and had to have been freshly laid on.

  It was like a dozen or so worms were synced perfectly with his insides. He could feel each entry point as his mind became very aware that something had become one with his body. He swung his feet over to the side carefully, not wanting to feel the same pain that took over his body when he had first moved, and looked around to gather a better understanding of the room around him.

  It was sterile looking, all metal, and nothing else besides the table, a mirror, and one chair that had folded clothes on it. At least with the mirror, he’d be able to see what was attached to his back. That was his first and only goal for this room; figure out what the hell was on him.

  Charlie stood then before his eyes looked down over his nude body. At least he had an answer as to why he was so cold.

  With no sound coming from his steps, he went over to the mirror and turned his head to the slide to view what had been embedded into his back. Starting at the base of his neck, a metallic-like machine was drilled into his body down his spine. It had slats at every vertebrae while small, tube-like, offshoots came out at every four slats and dug into the surrounding skin seamlessly. He reached a hand across his body to run his finger along it. It was cool to the touch, colder than the room was.

  He recognized the patterns of the tubes but he couldn’t quite place them to what exactly. The spacing, it was so familiar yet so foreign to him.

  His next goal was to get out of this room, find the surface, and find a way home. He went over to the door then and ran his hand along it. There was no knob, nothing to even get a grip onto. He banged on it once, kicked it even, but it just wouldn’t budge.

  “Please dress yourself and stand by the door,” a happy voice chimed over the room causing Charlie to jump. Light eyes darted around the ceiling but found no speaker that the voice could’ve come from. He wondered, then, if he was being watched.

  “Please dress yourself and stand by the door,” the same automated happy voice chimed through the room again and he held his breath. He went silent, trying desperately to hear where other signs of life could be. However, he discovered nothing at all again.

  Bare feet went across the metal floor before he yanked the clothes from the chair and squeezed himself into it. Tight black pants, a sleeveless black shirt, and shoes that reminded Charlie of water shoes. He thought briefly back to when Winnie had dragged him on vacation, a vacation he swore he didn’t need, and she made him wear shoes very similar to go through some water in a cave. He remembered acting like he wasn’t having fun but, right now, he’d give anything to be back there with her.

  Charlie went and stood by the door, it didn’t seem like he had much of a choice, otherwise. If he wanted this door opened, it seemed he had to follow instructions.

  A couple of moments passed before the door released itself with a hiss and slid open. Charlie took two timid steps outside the room, looking around as he did so to find a long narrow hallway that stretched to his left and to his right. He couldn’t see where it ended as the hallway eventually curled around to form what Charlie guessed was a circle. There were a couple rooms that had people exit with him, dressed the same.

  In between each of them was a guard, dressed in all chrome, blending in with the metal surroundings so much so that Charlie hadn’t even realized in the dim light. Once he did, he looked them over up and down before looking straight ahead. He noted they had what looked like a motorcycle helmet on and each wore a large automatic weapon across their chest. It was the automatic weapon that made Charlie stand up a bit straighter. He did not want to see the power they held in this tight space.

  No one had looked to the side but Charlie and no one, including Charlie, said a word.

  The door in front of each of them opened right when the digital clock above the door frame read 11:57 AM. Charlie, still not wanting any wrath of the guards, followed the movements of the people dressed like him and stepped inside the small room.

  The room was no bigger than his body and had no other door. It was a straight tube upwards, and Charlie assumed whatever this room was, he was either going out the way he came or going up. He looked behind him just as the door shut itself, his option of the way he came disappearing.

  It was the darkness that ate away at him, suffocating him for a moment. It was silent, deafening, like all his senses were turned off. There was nothing to smell, nothing to feel, much like one of those deprivation tanks, only this had no water. He tried to take a deep breath in and out before a screen turned on inches from his face. Charlie’s face squinted immediately, adjusting to the light before a pixelated smiley face popped up.

  “Welcome, Game-Piece.” The screen spoke and Charlie noted that it had the same voice from the room. “Charles Brenton Fisher. Your game-player, Zeken Freed, is waiting for you.”

  “What?” Charlie spoke, his voice was more hoarse than he had expected, but there was no answer. He knew there would be no intelligence responding, but it was out of reflex that he finally spoke up.

  “This is a game of Capture The Flag,” the pixel face said, its mouth slightly off with the words. “You’re on the Black Team.”

  He looked down at his clothes then, noting that this was no recreational attire. This was, in fact, his uniform and he was, in fact, trapped in some twisted game.

  Capture The Flag seemed easy enough to handle for him. Sure, he wasn’t the fastest but he had great endurance and strategy, he could beat this no problem and find Zeken to himself the hell out of whatever he was.

  The only thing he wasn’t sure of was the term Game-Player and Game-Piece.

  “Try to relax,” the digital smiley face spoke again in its cheery voice. “Breathe in and breathe out.”

  Charlie stared down the smiley face, a tinge of frustration in his features as it smiled back at him brightly. He did not breathe in or breathe out in a way that was relaxing.

  “Breathe in and breathe out.” It chimed again as the floor below him began to move upwards.

  Once he was on the move, a light started to circle him. It got bigger and brighter in front of his face and dimmer and more worn out when it circled behind his head. Making the tube seem like it was much wider than it was.

  “Breathe in and breathe out.”

  Charlie didn’t know when it happened but his fingers had become numb, his toes unresponsive, and his neck unable to turn. Bit by bit he unwillingly forfeited the control he had over his body as he rose with the tube.

  When tried with all his might to move his head to look down at himself, only his eyes responded. The only thing he could control was his breathing and that annoyed him. It seemed all he could now do was breathe in and breathe out.

  Without warning, the top of the tunnel opened, releasing Charlie into the screaming crowd around the top of the arena and the beating sun. He squinted, blinking a couple times to adjust his vision to the light. If he had control of his body, he would’ve put his hand up to block the beating sun.

  It was then that the pieces slid together in his mind of what exactly was going on here. The ASA had heard rumors of there being a place with bets on people’s lives, he just never expected it to be in Zease, inside of the Cloenia islands.

  Worst of all, Charlie began to realize that his own skills weren’t going to help him here. While the game of capture the flag was easy for him, he didn’t know if it was easy for whoever was controlling him. Which only made him think about who would be controlling him. Charlie thought back to what the voice had said and came to the heart stopping conclusion that he was entirely at the mercy of the one person he hated the most in this world; Zeken.

  The struggle to look up only ended with him settling on moving his eyes again. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get a good understanding of his surroundings.

  There were twenty glass boxes filled with someone hooked up to what looked like a virtual reality suit and headset. To match the twenty boxes, there were twenty people rising from their tubes on the arena floor with him. Five people in red, five people in blue, five in yellow, so he assumed there were five in black since he couldn’t turn his head to count. The area was simple, it was dug into the ground and in the shape of a giant oval. Charlie thought back to Rome and wondered, for a split second, if that’s where this all began. The walls that made the arena were the same as the basement he came from, chrome with nothing for grab on to. There would be nothing to aid an escape if he broke free of this hold.

  When introductions came, the hairs on Charlie’s neck stood up. Zeken’s name received a roar of cheers, as if he was a beloved player here. Because he was. What was more disturbing to Charlie, though, was that his own name received that same applause.

  Did no one question why he was there?

  He assumed they had all seen what he was accused of but they had to know that he didn’t even see his trial yet. They all had to know he was not here out of his own free will. His efforts to yell out for help were in vain, he couldn’t say a thing.

  The arena rumbled beneath his feet then, changing before everyone’s eyes. Charlie assumed earth and water Nezulu’s were changing the playing field to make it more interesting, and he was correct.

  Towering hills, rushing streams, jagged rocks, it was a whole new place before everyone’s eyes. The arena had life to it then, like it was taken from a snippet of land that would scream freedom if it wasn’t inside these walls.

  Charlie had little time to take it in before a gunshot sounded and they were off, Charlie not being able to control where he was going or what he was doing. Above all that, he seemed to have no way to commute to Zeken at all.

  Instead of staying near his team, Zeken made a straight shot to a weapons station.

  Up on the street, packing in with everyone else, Rodgers gripped the bars in front of him until his knuckles were white. He stared down at his brother as Brenner watched helplessly next to him.

  “Two teams advance, he has a good shot. Plus, death isn’t required to win.” Brenner calculated as he read off a screen that was hanging in the middle of the arena that stated the rules.

  “Watch!” Rodgers yelled as if his brother could hear him, begging for Charlie to move as he watched someone come up behind him.

  Zeken chose a small axe, forcing Charlie to dodge in a roll before throwing the axe straight into the skull of the young woman on the yellow team that was behind him.

  Rodgers recoiled but was unable to look away from the sight that was displayed close up on the screen. It was the first bloodshed of the game.

  “Not required but he sure doesn’t mind doing it,” Rodgers muttered, his face nearly matching the color of his knuckles now.

  Where Charlie was, he couldn’t see the full layout of what the arena had become. The same went for Zeken in his box, he could only see what Charlie saw through his headset. Rodgers and Brenner, however, could see everything and they noted each flag’s location.

  The blue flag was submerged in a tank to the bottom left, the red flag in a cage set ablaze in the bottom right, the yellow flag was high up on a wooden defense tower in the upper right, and the black flag was against the wall of the arena, protected by thick thorny vines, in the upper left. They were equally separated from each other, but the middle was also a challenge. Thick vegetation, random crevasses, and hard stone walls made it near impossible to cross straight through the center. As the game-players moved their pieces to get to weapons stations inside the organic maze, walls changed. It was a constant whirling and changing center, like it was the belly of an angry forest spirit.

  “They sorted them based on the same element.” Eliesa, who was directly across the arena from Brenner and Rodgers, thought out loud to Winnie next to her. Winnie, with hands partially over her eyes, didn’t say a word in response. She was frozen in what she had seen already. Never in her life had she witnessed a life taken until today and she did not need the second life being her older brother.

  “If they were smart they’d go after the flames; smother it and grab the flag,” Eliesa continued, not taking her eyes off the arena.

  Charlie and a woman, Eliesa remembered they called her Sugar when they introduced her, broke away from their group at the weapons stand. They left three to defend as the two went out to retrieve. A fine strategy, but this left Charlie with a higher chance of being a target for another game player and Winnie did not like that.

  They weaved through the maze in the center with ease, Zeken leading the two through Charlie like he knew the way. Elisa wondered if there was some way Zeken could actually feel what Charlie was feeling, wield his powers like they were one.

  “I think he can sense the maze through the earth,” Eliesa deduced there could be no other way Zeken was moving that easily through the maze without him being able to use Charlie’s element as if it was his own.

  “He is an earth element as well,” Winnie noted as she remembered seeing the files on Charlie’s counter a couple of times. Even if she hadn’t, he was always one to bring Zeken up even when no one would ask. “Maybe Gameplayers can only pair with a person if they have the same element?”

  “Interesting theory,” Eliesa nodded, having never really considered that. While she knew about Zease, she wasn’t one to be on the island much.

  Charlie and Sugar rounded the corner to the bottom right of the arena and the red team’s flag came into clear view. Sugar ran forward, past Charlie, as she went to reach for the flag. It was Zeken that grabbed her and dragged her backwards, saving her from a not so pleasant fate of being burned alive. They jumped back together before a man on the red team blasted a flame towards Charlie’s face, narrowly missing him and burning part of those thick black curls on his head.

  Zeken looked around in his glass box, turning Charlie in the field, before using him to put up a wall of dirt, toppling it over to encase the fire element. Sugar, locked in to getting that flag, ran around before Zeken noticed another man running after her, charging up an attack. With a toss of the axe Charlie had in his hand, the newcomer crumpled to the floor with a hit to his side. For a moment, WInnie thought she could hear him scream on his own accord. Like the pain was so great it had allowed his brian to reconnect to his body for a moment.

  The man he had buried alive blasted his way out,with a surge of fire and wasted no time in tackling Charlie to the ground. A solid punch to the jaw sent a cracking sound throughout the arena and Charlie fell to the floor with a solid thud. As the prince was straddled quickly by the other player and arms went protectively above his head thanks to Zeken.

  “If Charlie had control he would’ve seen that coming.” Brenner spoke, mostly to himself.

  While he heard him talk, Rodgers didn’t say anything in return. He stood locked in while watching the game, unable to look away as he gripped the railing in front of him.

  Zeken took Charlie’s hands up off of his own head, pressing on the face of the other player as he pushed him away, trying desperately to regain control of this fight. He brought one arm down and hoisted himself with one big push, flipping them over. Zeken locked the guy with Charlie’s legs and got one hand to hold the man down by his throat.

  His jaw pounded from where he was hit but Charlie had no control to soothe it. He felt his own fist, the arm that wasn’t holding the other down, lift up and punch downwards.The sounds of bones cracking under their force stained Charlie’s ear drums. He closed his eyes in an effort to not see the damage he had done, it was the only thing he could control.

  Any kill Charlie needed to do in the ASA was done painlessly and only if it had to be done. Usually, they were trained to only debilitate, not kill. In some situations in the field, it was just simply unavoidable but it was never as brutal as this. A knife to the throat, a gun with a kill shot. This was a whole new type of torture for both him and whoever was below him in this moment. This was raw, barbaric, primal, and horrifying all at once.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Suddenly, the man below him started to scream, like the device had released him just as it had done when the other was hit with the axe. The red team member began to gargle with the blood pooling at what was left of his mouth, which wasn’t much. Charlie opened his eyes and wished it to stop, begging it to stop in his mind, as he watched the life leave the man’s eyes. They stared each other down, both begging in their own ways.

  Charlie, begging for forgiveness. This stranger, begging for his life.

  As the soul lifted away, the gunshot of victory rang for the black team and Zeken turned Charlie’s head to see Sugar with the red team flag in her hands.

  Had Charlie been of right mind, he would have assumed they had to go back to their base to defend their flag still. Those would be the thoughts of a man in the field, at work, but this was not his work and his brain was pulling apart inside his head to make sense of what he had just done. Zeken got Charlie to his feet, leaving the body of the gamepiece in a puddle of his own bones and blood, and it was then that the second gunshot sounded, announcing the yellow team’s victory.

  All players still alive stood still while the arena’s maze and landscape fell like they had never existed, and the yells of the crowd turned to applause. There was one scream in agony that Charlie could hear in between the cheers and Charlie had wondered if they knew the person on the ground beside him. Winnie, being close by, noted that the person wailing had fallen to the floor as they cried.

  Without taking the time to explain what she was doing, Winnie broke away from her sister and went over to help the woman up.

  “Are you okay?” She asked as she took her forearm in her hands.

  “My coins!” She screamed, looking at the princess and grabbing her with both hands as her biceps. “Lend me some! Lend me some and I can pay you back after the next game. I’m due for a win!”

  “Your–” Winnie looked at her, saw her sunken in eyes and missing teeth as she screamed about herself and not the life that had been taken down below before her.

  “Lend me it! I see your badge, you can afford it!” The woman went to rip the badge off WInnie’s wrist then and Winnie stepped back. The princess didn’t suffer long as Eliesa was right there behind her then, yanking her away from the woman who fell to the floor once again. She begged as Eliesa walked the two of them away with haste. Winnie heard the women gag in her sobs, like she had cried so hard so could vomit.

  While Winnie had gone to help, the game had been wrapping up below them. While most of the players lived, bodies of three game pieces lay on the ground where they had fallen during the game. Lifeless and battered, like they didn’t matter at all. No one came to get them, no one came to care for them and ship them home to their families.

  Charlie counted in his head as he started to walk against his will that two out of the three deaths were done by his hands. The game players walked each of their game pieces back to their platforms and, after pausing for applause and taking a bow, down they all went like they were pieces of a chess board being tucked away after a friendly match.

  Charlie was, once again, gone from his rescuers’ sight.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Rodgers muttered, already bent over with hands on the bar in front of him still. He had yet to let it go, his fingers nearly numb with the lack of blood.

  “We need to watch where Zeken goes.” Brenner had his eyes fixed on the man exiting his glass box, not wanting to give him a chance to slip away. While Rogers was processing what he had just seen, Brenner was focused. He was trained so that little phased him.

  People surrounded Zeken as if he was their god and they were awaiting his Sunday service. They were all cheering and praising him as he thrust his hands upwards in a cheer of his own. He seemed pretty pleased with himself, even Brenner could see the pure euphoria coursing through him in that moment. It was as if he had waited years to play this one single game with Charlie. As if all the teasing and breadcrumbs of his case, the cat and mouse game they had played for years, had come to an end and Zeken was the sole winner.

  Across the way, Eliesa turned and hugged Winnie tightly. It was much to Winnie’s surprise, but she instinctively hugged her back. It had come on so fast, with such real relief in Eliesa’ body, that Winnie felt inclined to believe that she was just here to help. Through it all, their brother lived to see another day.

  “She won’t let him bring Charlie back out, there’s no way,” Eliesa tried to assure Winnie that this was a one time event. She hoped her word of this stunt got to her mother before he was able to re-register Charlie for another game. They separated slowly, Eliesa putting a hand on the each shoulder of the small princess. “We’ll find him, he’s got to be where they keep the game-pieces or somewhere with Zeken.”

  “Then we need to follow him, we need to see where he goes,” Winnie whispered to her sister, moving to her side as she watched the man greet his adorning fans.

  “He’s leaving,” Brenner grabbed the collar of Rodgers’ jean jacket and started towards Zeken’s gamebox, yanking the bartender off the railing for the first time since they took their spots.

  Brenner pushed through the crowd all while hoping to not lose Rodgers to it. He did not need to lose him now, not when they needed to stay so close to Zeken’s tail. It was a squeeze through the funnel of people to the bars, and he turned to look at his unwanted companion.

  “He looks like he’s going to cash in his winnings.” Brenner updated him before looking back ahead. One perk of being as tall as Brenner was, was the ability to see over a crowd.

  Rodgers nodded to him, but allowed his eyes to wander as they went along. He noticed that the crowd was unevenly split in their moods, and most didn’t seem too happy with their outcomes. Some sobbed, some hit themselves on the head, and others took to yelling at the game-players of the dead game-pieces as they tried to exit their gameboxes. Rodgers noted one woman exiting with private security that wept like she had just been fired from her job, not like she had just gotten a man killed.

  When they were about halfway to him, Zeken had found himself at a kiosk by one of the bars. He scanned his bracelet that looked more put together than the scrap on Brenner and Rodgers’ wrists, and a number in the thousands appeared on the screen before counting down into the account. When it reached zero, a smiling pixelated face popped up and congratulated him before it darkened. He turned, facing his adoring fans.

  “LET’S DRINK!” It was like that awoke something inside the entire game crowd. It seemed everyone, whether they had won or took a loss, could agree on getting a drink.

  Still pretty far off, Brenner and Rodgers were pushed to the side as numerous people flocked to the surrounding bars. Those that were happy, drank. Those that were sad, still drank… if not more so than the happier patrons. In all the commotion, Brenner hated to admit that he lost sight of Zeken and, as the streets were emptying out into the bars, he looked back to face Rodgers.

  “Let’s split up.” Rodgers suggested before Brenner could suggest differently.

  “Are you crazy?” Brenner scoffed at the thought, “What if you’re a target too.”

  “Why would I be?”

  “Probably because we broke in and stole all of their information!” Brenner reached forwards and jabbed Rodgers on the forehead. “Whatever immunity you had that night in the bar, with the horseman, is probably gone.”

  Rodgers had conveniently forgotten they had done that. He had honestly been banking on the fact Giovanni still believed he could fall to their side. He supposed Brenner may have a point in that opinion being squashed.

  “You have your phone and I have mine. We’ll cover more ground if we split up,” Rodgers pressed, “I have my gun, I can fend for myself.”

  Brenner sucked in a breath like he was a stressed out parent that had errands to run. He stood in silence for a moment, thinking and not saying a word to the Fisher he was stuck with.

  “Well?” Rodgers pressed again.

  “Twenty minutes. Set a timer, then we meet by his box.”

  “Twenty minutes.” Rodgers nodded.

  “Don’t get trampled—“ Brenner warned as he started to walk away.

  “I’m not small!” Rodgers was a confident five feet, nine inches. He wouldn’t call that small, he would call that average. If they had the time, Rodgers would’ve said something about Brenner being just too freakishly tall.

  They split rather fast from each other, Brenner towards the box to start on the far side of the bars and Rodgers scurried into the nearest entrance. They seemed to be all mostly connected from the inside, like one long tube around the arena so walking them from the inside and then heading back out seemed to be the best bet.

  Rodgers, however, didn’t comb the place. He didn’t look for Zeken. He rubbed his face in an effort to get what he saw out of his mind as he walked in and took a seat at the bar.

  There was this desperate and debilitating need for a drink after what he saw.

  Shamefully, although he didn’t really blame himself all that much, a drink was his main goal of suggesting that they split up. If Zeken was in this connected strip, Rodgers was sure that he wouldn’t take long for Brenner to find him and Brenner had a higher chance of being able to stand up to the guy, anyway.

  His order was taken rather fast even with the sheer amount of people around him. He had gotten a glass of Rum, neat, as was usual. He settled on the barstool then, trying to get his hands to stop trembling. He wasn’t sure if it was the lack of Brew or the sight he had just witnessed. He let out a long breath and, as the bartender moved away from him, he saw him.

  That same ghost across the train platform from the brew, Richard. Only, Rodgers wasn’t on the brew. He felt like shit enough to know he wasn’t.

  Rodgers blinked a couple of times before he confirmed it, Richard was right there. Looking at him. He didn’t have that resting smile on his face, he didn’t have that relaxed posture. He was upright, staring him down with his one eye, his face grave.

  Rodgers took a breath in and then let it out as they looked at each other from across the bar. Richard opened his mouth, his voice ringing inside of Rodgers’ head as he spoke one word to him: Leave.

  “You’re stepping into things you won’t be able to step back out of,” A woman spoke up, taking a seat next to Rodgers just as his drink slid into his hand. When the bartender moved, Richard was gone.

  The voice was familiar, but there was no way someone like her could be in the Cloenia Islands. He knew that, even in Zease, her kind wasn’t welcome inside the barrier. Rodgers stayed staring at his glass, refusing to look at her, before taking a sip.

  “Rodgers,” She moved in her seat then, turning her body to face him. “Look at me.”

  Slowly, almost lazily, he finally looked over and locked eyes with the woman. Piercing hazel eyes, tanned skin, and long brown hair stared back at him. A hundred memories passed through their brains and Rodgers couldn’t say he was all that fond of her.

  “How’d you get here?” Rodgers asked, keeping it short.

  “How did you?” She countered, looking down at his drink before looking back up to him.

  Rodgers’ didn’t answer. He had no answer that he wanted her to know. There was no trust between either of them, there was not an ounce of care in their eyes. She leaned in, their noses close as she took her time to look into each of his eyes. It was like she was searching for something that Rodgers may not have even found, himself.

  “You’re being watched,” the woman whispered.

  Rodgers' head didn’t move but his eyes flicked around to catch whoever she may be talking about. He found no one of interest to him, no one he recognized.

  “Are you here to warn me or scare me?” Rodgers whispered to her, not moving in their closeness.

  “I’m looking for a sign to see which side I should be on,” She whispered in return.

  “You’ve never been on my side before, Benito, I don’t think you’ll start now.” Rodgers remained level-headed, remained cold. “I’m just here to get my brother and go.”

  “I’ve never been on your side because you always had Richard to be there. It was fun against you but now that you’re alone, it’s just sad.”

  Rodgers grit his teeth and tightened his hands around his glass. The whisperings of what was left of Richard, the ghost of what the brew had given him, was now behind Rodgers. Based on her lack of reaction, Benito couldn’t see him but Rodgers could feel him. He could feel that he was there.

  “Leave his name out of your mouth,” Rodgers spat, sitting back away from her.

  “Leave it to you to fall in love with a human companion,” Benito smiled at him but Rodgers knew there was no friendliness in her face. Rodgers didn’t respond. Rodgers didn’t want to respond. He felt no need to explain or to justify his feelings to someone like her.

  “I know you met him, the horseman,” Benito sat back in her own chair then, waving away the bartender that came to take her order. “I know you can feel that something is coming. Deep, churning out there in the waters. The tide is changing, the wind is blowing harder. She’s already won over half of us and it’s the half that didn’t like you to begin with.”

  “I’m just here to get Charlie and prove his innocence. I’m not here to be bought.” Rodgers took a sip of his drink then, facing forwards once again.

  “They will call you back,” she threatened. “You will face more than Zease if she has anything to do with it. She wants you to wake up and realize that you should be at her side, not opposing her like you’re doing now. You may be here for Charlie but she lured you here with him, as well.”

  “I refuse to play whatever game has been set,” Rodgers sighed, “Leave me alone. This is not my fight.”

  “This could very well become everyone’s fight,” She stared at him, her gaze fixed on his unwavering body as he had no more to say to her. They remained in silence for only a moment before she nodded once. “I think I made my decision.”

  “Then leave.”

  “Until next time, Roe,” she got off her seat, gave the bar a solid pat, and left him there without another word to him.

  Rodgers watched her walk away before turning back to face his drink. He stared down the liquor, his emotions finally bubbling up inside of him. His grip on the glass tightened until it began to turn red with the physical heat of his anger. He released it fast and took in a breath to calm himself down but it was no use.

  He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the small brew he had stolen from Sethrin’s shoppe in the crash landing. He looked behind him, checking to see if anyone was watching, before pouring half of it quickly and swirling the glass to mix it together. So long as Brenner didn’t catch him, he could just say that he got drunk to fit in. That would work, wouldn’t it?

  He tucked the bottle into his jean jacket and took a sip, then a gulp, then downed the glass in one. The sweet nectar on his taste buds never failed to wash away what nerves he had. All the turmoil with Benito ran off of his mind like water on a window pane.

  But something was… off.

  Instead of tingles, he felt drowsy. Rodgers blinked slowly, shook his head, but everything moved in slow motion; including himself. His breathing shallowed, his heartrate slowed, and he looked to his hand that was no longer trembling. He raised his hand off the bar, turned it over in the air, and through his fingers, like a man behind bars, he saw him.

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, but Zeken was smiling directly at him. The game-player raised a drink to him, tipping his head in a cheer, and took a sip.

  That was the last thing Rodgers registered before the world went black.

  Back on the other side, Brenner was completely unaware of what was going on as he pushed his way through the crowded bar. He got to the second compartment before he was shoved out by the sheer amount of bodies packed into it. Before he was able to register it, he stumbled backwards and accidentally stepped right on a woman’s foot.

  “Watch it!” The woman yelled.

  “I’m sorry, It wasn’t my fault,“ Brenner jerked around, lifting his foot, and looked down at the very familiar little lady.

  Winnie, the woman he had just stepped on, sucked in her lips at seeing the agent.

  “Brenner—“

  Anxiety bubbled up in Brenner’s chest at the sight of her, enough to make him nearly grow an inch in posture alone. He grabbed her by her shoulders and took her off to the side. His eyes darted around to see if Zeken was there, if someone was watching them, before he looked at Winnie.

  “Your highness, with all due respect, what the hell do you think you’re doing here alone?”

  “I’m not alone!” Winnie clarified as Eliesa ran up to them unnoticed.

  “Leave her alone!” Eliesa immediately latched onto Brenner and yanked his arm. He easily threw her off of him, but he also let Winnie go. He looked between the two women, crossing his arms as he couldn't place a name to Eliiesa’s face.

  “Who the hell is this?”

  “I’m,” Eliesa went to speak before Winnie clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “She’s my guide. I’m paying her to help me find Charlie.”

  “Do you think I was born yesterday, Winnie? How would you have known to come here? Give me the truth.” Brenner was frustrated, to say the very least. He now had three royals, he actually wasn’t sure if Rodgers counted, in a very dangerous location within the reach of a very dangerous man.

  Eliesa grabbed her sister's arm gently and released her mouth, “my name is Eliesa. Yandy Fisher is my father; I came to Winnie to help her free Charlie.”

  “That is way too much information to unpack right now.” Brenner shook his head in disappointment. His jaw was clenched as he tried to hide all his emotions; it wasn’t working out. “Rodgers is here with me.”

  “Rodgers came with you?” Winnie questioned as she grew concerned.

  “We are meeting back up in five minutes by Zeken’s game box. Let’s move.” He ushered them towards the now empty suite with his head on a swivel, not happy at all and he made no effort to hide the emotions on his face.

  The three walked swiftly and silently as Brenner ran over every possible way to convince Winnie to go home, along with this long lost sister she somehow found, in his head.

  “Bree.” Winnie tried to speak to him as they got to the box, turning to face him. She figured a nickname would help soften his heart. It didn’t.

  “Don’t—” He put up his hands. “—don’t say a word. You knew I would handle it and you’ve gone and thrown yourself right into the line of fire.”

  “I told you, I’m not made of glass—“

  “I know that!” He turned to her. “But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you. Especially on my watch. Rodgers, sure, I’ll get over that eventually; but not you.”

  There was no bit of that sentence that Winnie liked. She didn’t swoon, she didn’t feel flattered, she just felt insulted. She folded her arms over her chest.

  “Why?” She spoke with a snark to her tone, like she completely forgot about being sweet to get her way.

  Brenner squished the air in frustration as he left out an aggravated noise Winnie had never heard him make before. He needed to take a deep breath before forcing a smile on his face.

  “Because you’re the crowned princess of a very powerful kingdom and I am an agent that’s job is to protect,” Brenner was nearly speaking through his teeth but he tried to sound polite.

  “That’s all?”

  “Yes. I’m doing my job.” He turned back to face the bar exits.

  She bit her lip and decided to not bother him further, for now. As Winnie gave up, she walked over to her sister and kept her mouth shut as it sat in a pout. Eliesa had watched the two as she leaned against the wall to her backside. She had been picking at her nails to distract herself from the awkward interaction before her, not wanting to intrude on whatever deeper conflict there clearly was.

  “He’s late,” Brenner started to rub his fingertips together.

  “He’s always late,” Winnie reminded.

  “He was normal late five minutes ago. Now he’s late-late.”

  Winnie’s shoulders dropped at the sound of that.

  “Late-late,” She echoed him.

  Eyes went to meet Winnie’s, Brenner nodding his head.

  “He’s probably just ordered a drink,” while he didn’t like that, it was the most likely reason.

  “But he’s sober.” Winnie retorted out of habit. Like she was back in her home arguing with Charlie and not in the middle of Zease.

  “He’s about as sober as you not being in Zease right now. Let’s go.” Brenner started walking as he spoke, not wanting to even attempt to argue with her again.

  The two women were quick to follow, not wanting to get left behind. They entered the crowded bar that Brenner had watched Rodgers walk into originally. He spotted him almost immediately sitting at the bar, causing Brenner to shake his head in disbelief.

  “Really? I should’ve known better than to allow us to split up,” Brenner yanked his shoulder only to come face to face with someone who wasn’t Rodgers. He let go quickly and backed away.

  “Mind your own business,” the stranger spat at Brenner.

  “Sorry, I thought you were a friend.” Brenner dug through his pockets and pulled out his phone as he walked away. He tried to call Rodgers and it rang as he walked around, eyes darting all around to scan each patron of the bar. There was no answer from the call.

  Winnie and Eliesa had split up from Brenner but remained close, Brenner keeping his eye on them, as they each looked for the lost bartender. Brenner went along the back wall, spotting a back door exit as he rang Rodgers’ cell once again.

  This time, he had no service. The call went dead.

  “Winnie! Eliesa! Come,” He quickly shoved his way out the exit and dialed once again. It rang, but the crunch at his foot is what turned his head down.

  Brenner squatted down as the two women came outside. Picking up Rodgers’ phone from the ground, he flipped it around in his hand once before gripping it tightly. His heart felt like it sunk all the way down to his stomach as he stood, placing it in his pocket. His eyes looked at the footprints around, noting the struggle of two men, before the shine of the old revolver caught his attention from down the alleyway. He walked over, reaching down and picking it off the floor and opening it to check the number of bullets.

  One was missing. He scanned the floor, no blood. While letting out a defeated breath, he spoke his thoughts out loud to Winnie and Eliesa.

  “I’m such an idiot.”