《Balance》 Ch. 1 Our hero stands outside a slightly rundown house. It seems more ramshackle than it otherwise should as if some unforeseen force was making it into a more structurally unstable specimen of Australian construction than it otherwise should be. However I digress, the house itself with its peeling paint and termite-ridden wood isn''t the important part of this scene. That honour belongs to the gangly white teenager desperately trying to pull shoulder length blonde hair out of his face as he vomits into a weed infested flower garden. Yes, humble beginnings I know and yet as he tries to rid himself from a growing headache caused by the thumping bass that emanates from the inside of the house he does not yet know that the fate of the world hangs on his sun-bronzed shoulders. Just watch as he braves the symptoms of an overindulgence of liquor and bravely heads back inside to face the greatest challenge of his young life, girls. God help us all. --- I got up, stumbling back from the decrepit flower bed taking in some steadying breaths of the cool night air. I stood on moist grass that glittered tantalizingly in the moonlight and stared at the sky and watched the wheeling of fruit bats as the took to the days harvest. "Ah fuck fuck fuck," I muttered nervously under my breath jumping up and down in place, feeling the slight drag as the corse fabric of my jeans moved over the flesh of my legs. It was a grounding feeling that brought me back to reality. Ok, I thought, time to go and do it. I moved briskly from the side of the house, dodging a spot of torn ground where a tree trunk had been removed, I did this by hugging the wall of the house. I felt several flakes of the off-white paint scrape away from the weather-beaten wall and turned the corner to the side of the house that faced the front porch desperately trying to brush the paint off the shoulder of my white shirt. The old Brooksen Farm had been a hang-out for older kids since before I could remember, we kept it running with the pooling of funds from part-time jobs around town and in return, the place was the venue of many parties such as this. The base was thumping as I jogged up the ragged old wooden steps that led to the front porch of the house, they very nearly drowned out the slight creak of the wood as it bowed under my weight. Not that I was fat by any means, I was fit, lean muscle though. I was a swimmer. It was just poor wood. I pushed open the double doors and the music reached a new height in volume, the sound seemed to transcend into a physical force and I could feel the techno rhythm deep into my bones. I stooped slightly as I passed under the threshold and looked over the heads of the throngs of people that lined the inside of the house. "Dammit, where is she?" I muttered exasperatedly. It was then that I saw her the cascading blackness of her hair stood out like a beacon as she stood languidly against a poorly painted wall at the divide of kitchen and living room. Eve, the subject of my affections for about 5 years, we had been in a relationship for three of them. The key word there was had. She broke up with me moments before this party began, thus the copious amounts of alcohol. I pushed roughly through the throngs of gyrating teens. Moving steadily toward my target like a guided missile. She saw me seconds before I broke through the crowd and approached her, my feet leaving slight imprints on the thick, stained carpet. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. When I had finally pushed through the protective shell of people that surrounded her and managed to gain an unobstructed view I was as mesmerised by her beauty as I was the first day we met. She had tanned skin and full, red lips framed by a shapely face and ornamented by a pair of large, dark eyes. And yet the experience was different, for when first I first looked upon her those many years ago what I took away was pure admiration and joy, now those emotions were mixed with a dangerous cocktail of longing, loss and shame. I walked up to her stumbling slightly and saw the revulsion in her eyes as she looked at my dishevelled form. The look in her eyes hurt more than I can express. I was undeterred however and pointed a finger accusingly at her chest. "Who the fuck do you think you are!?" I slurred angrily over the music, several people close by turned to stare at me warily and I saw Eve looking from side to side at the people close by in an apologetic manner. I was hurt once more by this display, deep down I knew what I was doing was wrong. But I was drunk, angry and ashamed. She had left me for another. "Law, can we take this outside, you''re causing a scene." She hissed scathingly at me, I had never before heard such venom in her tone and with it my face contorted into a mask of anger. How dare she talk to me like that, I was the wronged party here. "Don''t talk to me like that you whore! You cheated on me you have no right. No right." I devolved into anguished sobs as the crowd of drunk teenagers that had formed around us began to look to each other, each feeling slightly more awkward than the last. None more so that Eve who at this very moment had, had just about enough of my shit. "No Lawrence, it''s you who doesn''t get to talk to me like that! 3 years of your possessive bullshit and then, when I finally get the courage to leave you, you''re going to play the victim. You''re a damn coward Lawrence." She looked at me from over her perfectly sculpted nose, trying to inflict as many wounds as humanly possible with her gaze. And it was in that moment that something within me snapped and with eyes still stinging with tears I launched a fist straight into the bridge of her perfect, pretty nose. I''m not sure what prompted the punch, I had always had a temper but until now had never laid hands on another human being. Yet something she said had irked me in a truly spectacular manner. Still, though my anger was not enough to burn away the shame I felt as I watched her delicate form rebound against the off-white walls. To erase the remorse I felt as the cartilage of her nose crumple under my knuckles. "Oh, shit Eve I''m sorry," I said rushing over to her and brushing the hair from her face. My voice was quivering as I spoke and I could feel the palpable tension in the room. I''m not entirely sure of what I would have done next. Maybe I would have run from the house in a selfish act of shame leaving Eve to fend for herself. Maybe I would have stayed and faced my actions. More likely the former. The decision, however, was not mine to make as a blunt force impacted the back of my head and I fell to the ground. Retribution for the attack against Eve. The last thing I remember seeing was the hopeless plight of an outdated ceiling fan as it tried in vain to shift the feted air caused by the sweat of 60 odd young adults. Then blackness claimed my vision and I faded into nothingness. Ch. 2 Jack Nolan had come to the party expecting a good time, a couple of drinks and maybe to spend the end of his evening in the company of a pretty girl. And when he had rolled out of his parent''s garage in his beaten down Toyota Ute dust swirling and eddying lightly on the ground around him because of the morning wind all had seemed to be par the course. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and he was feeling good about the night to come. He sure as shit wasn''t expecting to be clubbing some crazy fucker over the head with an old lamp. This was not how he had planned his evening. Jack had been spending the evening in the company of Zoe Briaas a girl he had known from school. The same however could be said for each and every one of the partygoers, they were celebrating their high school graduations. I digress, however. Jack was looming over the poor girl, failing to notice in his inebriated state how terrible his breath smelt. This was when he heard the violent rapport of flesh impacting flesh. Jack had then wheeled about like a frightened herd animal, fearful for his own safety when he saw a pretty girl go down blood spewing from her face in a profane fountain. The poor boy didn''t know what it was but before he could think he was on his feet and charging to the raven-haired beauties rescue. And like a knight in ripped denim Jack with his unruly mop of orange hair held his mighty weapon high and struck down the offending man. Sending him sprawling into the shag carpet, a relic from livelier times. The boy then knelt down and began to aid the pretty girl whose name he could not quite remember. It was after several seconds of polite fussing while waiting for someone who knew what they were doing to come and help, to no avail when he was about to turn around and give his audience an ear full, that he realised he was kneeling in the remnants of the man he had hit, or he would have been if he was still there. It was also about the time that the rest of the partygoers realised that approximately 1/4 of their number had inexplicably disappeared there was no fanfare, no flash of light or smell of sulphur, they were just gone. This coupled with the alcohol and the other stresses of the day finally proved too much for Jack and in good order, he had fainted from the mental stress. --- "Good evening Pam." Speaks a man with a smile that could blind the vision back into blind people with its brightness just for the sole purpose of blinding them again. "And good evening to you too Matt. Today we come to you with some breaking news." Says a woman who looks vastly more exasperated than her male counterpart. For example her usually immaculate hair is bedraggled and she had just breached news reporting etiquette by not stating the name of her network. Heresy. Nevertheless, the duo went on. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "That''s right Pam today we report to you with heavy hearts the disappearance of one-quarter of the population of the earth. Vanished in the blink of an eye it is truly quite a conundrum Pam, what are your thoughts?" He said smiling openly. This was in complete contrast to the woman known as Pam however, she just stared at him with dead eyes, wondering how he could be so nonchalant about the whole affair, she was only holding it together for the public, maybe if they saw them calm it would help them in their struggles, she couldn''t hold the illusion however. Pam stared at him for several more moments before shaking her head and leaving the stage in broken sobs, she had gone to pick up her children earlier to find them missing. It was not her best day. Matt with the eagerness of a vulture on a fresh piece of carrion moved into the middle of their shared desk, his smile seeming to widen to an even more impossible length. Matt stared at the camera for several seconds longer, his eyes watering from a lack of blinking before he drew a pistol and splattered his brains against the green screen backdrop of a bustling street. He had just received the news that his daughter had died after her surgeons had disappeared midway during the most critical part of her operation. She was all he had. The cameras were never rolling, Matt had just convinced Pam they were, he wanted a semblance of normalcy before he went off to meet his daughter. And considering what would happen in the next few days many believed he was right to do so. --- It was three days after the incident that had been dubbed the disappearing that order finally descended onto the earth. It was not in the form of people however but in men from the stars. They came from distant galaxies on glowing ships of ornate design and craft and within weeks they had restored the human race to order and prosperity. No-one had to work any longer, the aliens had provided robots to perform tedious tasks for them, the people of earth were told it was a gift for their ''uplifting'' a custom that is upheld each time a new sentient species is fond and welcomed to the universal fold, all in the name of the God-Emperor. It was a life of luxury and plenty in which no one wanted for a thing. It was a utopia. But nothing is given for nothing, a fact that the people of earth questioned at every opportunity, they wondered after their missing friends and family. But every time the question was raised with the universal community they were told to wait. Told it would all become clear soon, so they waited. But the bill always comes due. A fact that approximately 2 billion people were coming to terms with, in a most visceral manner right now. The bill comes due. A fact that would haunt the life of Lawrence Bright forever more. Ch. 3 I thrashed my limbs defensively as I awoke. Lashing out in a directionless manner. It was only after this that I opened my eyes and took in the scene around me. I was standing in a field packed full of a variety of wildflowers. The world around me exploded in colour and depth as I began to examine it, stalks of green ending in bright starbursts in a myriad of colours. Bees buzzed diligently through the sky, going about their work. I looked at the before sky and found it a bowl of blue. Without a cloud to mar its perfect surface. My vision began to swim as two details came back to me with all the gentleness of a freight train. One, I suffered from terrible hayfever and two, that it was night time when I left and none of these flowers was native to Australia. My vision began to blur as my eyes watered and I stumbled away from the flowers in an allergic haze. Bad move considering that they surrounded me, I tripped and fell over a slight ditch in the field concealed by wild beauty and was sent tumbling into the waist-high flowers. I hit my head again as I fell and discovered that the wound I had incurred that afternoon stayed with me. Eventually, the surroundings, the implications of them and the carryover of emotional turmoil from the night before had me crawling into a ball on the fields floor. Striving desperately and futilely to shield my nose and mouth from the pollen. "I''m sorry Eve, but I don''t deserve this. Please God, help me." I wailed into the empty void of flowers and bees. Hoping someone would hear my plea and pluck me from this hell of colour and natural splendour. "Um, am I interrupting something here?" Spoke a criminally unoffensive, androgynous voice. It didn''t seem to come from any one direction however but emanated from each and every place simultaneously. If I was asked to describe the cadence of the speech I would do so by saying it was the auditory equivalent of a British queue. At that moment I hated it. "Go away demon! Let me suffer in peace." I moaned into my hands trusting that the disembodied voice could hear me. Wouldn''t have been the strangest thing to happen today. "Oh you poor thing, here let me help you." The world seemed to swell for a moment before it let out what one could only describe as a cosmic sneeze. After it was complete I found I no longer suffered the effects of last nights drinks, the bruise on my head or my hayfever. I sat up warily and stared and the field to my left and right in an accusing manner. "What have you done to me?" I spat toward the voice, no matter the fact that the change had altered me in a positive way and I probably would have asked for something similar later. The being had changed me without permission. It added to my already confrontational mental state. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. "I fixed you, have to give you a fighting chance." I could feel the voice smiling at me with its nonexistent features. "Fighting chance for what! Where am I?!" I roared into the sky, standing up with a start and kicking several of the flowers in a targetless moment of rage. "You are in the staging area of the Gods, and if you would let me talk you would already know what you''re doing here." The voice said frustratedly. Like a phone salesman after they''ve been hung up on for the 100th time. "Don''t want to." I sat back down and crossed my arms sobbing quietly at the injustice of my situation. "I''m sorry, excuse me. You don''t want to listen to me. Boy, I am a literal God and you''re going to ignore me?" The voice said in the most frustrated voice that I had ever heard. As if it was on the verge of either tearing its hair out or destroying the realm in answer to this insolence. "What''s the point, I''m dreaming anyway," I muttered into my arms before looking up as I heard the crack of thunder. Storm clouds began to billow above me. Lighting scarred across the sky in a patchwork of divine might. It was awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal measure. It was obviously a figment of my imagination. I lowered my head once more, no way this shit was actually happening. "Listen well child for I will say this but once. You and many others have been chosen to become a sacrifice for your peers. For them to leave in peace and luxury you must suffer and struggle for them, know that the fate of your world and your people lie upon your shoulders." And with that, the voice sent down a bolt of lightning. It struck me straight in the centre of the back. The pain seared through me as if a stampede of firey buffalo were trampling across the nerves of my entire being. I felt my hair burn away and smelt the char of my flesh. My eyes burst from the heat and within the split second that this happened in I was gone, vaporised of this plane by the power of a god. "That insolent piece of shit." Swore the god silently as it fumed on the past few events. Sure it was meant to have told the human more about its situation, but it could learn that from others. Or maybe not if its social skills were anything to go by. Either way, it sure was going to be fun to watch. The god bustled its way out of the staging dimension in good order. It wanted to get back to the pantheon and watch the start of the festivities. This species chosen were just about to start their first trials. It wouldn''t miss this for the world. Ch. 4 I thrashed myself awake again, flailing wildly and only being dimly aware of the sense of deja-vu that my actions elicited. It was then that I realised I was no longer in the field of flowers and bees, in fact, I wasn''t entirely sure where I was, this was because I could make out a grand total of no scenery through the roiling mass of humanity that pressed in upon me. I stood up groggily and used my height to take in the immensity of the crowd about me, we covered all ends of the horizon like a plague. Everywhere I looked my vision was filled with fearful and confused faces. This was the largest group of people I had ever seen assembled at one time and this fact led to some vast realisations. The first of them being that people are hot. Not in the sense of attractiveness, however, but in body heat and something that is never taken into account with large gatherings is just how intense that combined force can become. With this many people all crowded together I could soon feel the cold dripping of sweat rolling down my brow and face. It stung my eyes and as I looked at the sky the sweat compounded with the heat haze to create a wavy, distorted visage of blue. My other realisation was just how loud people can be. Imagine every time you''ve entered into a large gathering of people without supervision or a noise limit, crowds can be deafening. Now times that feeling by 1000 and you have the truly mind-numbing force that I was now experiencing. I had once thought that the music at the party that now felt so far away was loud, that it had transcended into a physical force. That was nothing compared to this. Sobs and moans and demands for answers roared into my ears and sent my mind reeling from the cacophony. I just wanted to go home, I thought meekly as tears again began to well up in the corners of my vision. I pawed at my eyes to dry them before wiping my brow, becoming passingly aware that my waking outburst had injured some of the people next to me. They were giving me dirty looks and I resolved myself to move away from them. I forced myself through the crowd of people, cutting into the mass of bodies and flesh. And it was only after several minutes of travel and one heated argument with a man on whether or not I had touched him inappropriately that a sense of order was given to the situation. It started as a low hum before becoming an all-consuming whine that had everyone doubled over and clutching their ears. I could feel the vibrations of sound in my head and my teeth began to shake in place from the force of the noise, then suddenly it stopped and the silence was only slightly less deafening than the noise that proceeded it. Words than began to swim across my vision, I wasn''t sure if the letters themselves were English or if they were even from any language from earth, I just knew the meaning instinctively as if the language was hardwired into my brain. It read. ''Attention Chosen. As you already know you have been chosen at random to represent your species for the betterment of them as a whole. Balance is the law of the universe, where there is plenty there must be a loss. Where there is complacency there must be fear and struggle. You will balance your species and allow them to live on the universal stage. Good luck. Your first trial shall begin now. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Trial One: Make it alive to any of the castles marked by the system.'' I looked around after the flow of information had subsided and saw that, in what I assumed where the compass directions, three diamond waypoints hovering in my vision in a translucent manner. I stood dumbstruck for several long moments staring at the waypoint titled ''Castle North'' this was when the shooting started. It started as a weak staccato of cracks before transcending to an avalanche of harsh pops like the crack of a bullwhip or the sound of a stick dragged roughly across a corrugated iron surface. I dropped low and flung my arms over my head in a primeval form of defence for the most vital areas of biology. Then with almost startling rapidness, the mass of humanity began to move. It started as a slow hobbling pace with only several people trying to move but being blocked in by their neighbours. Then as the full brevity of the situation became clear to the horde they began to move with a fervour that only fear can create. I was shoulder checked by a man as he passed me and saw a knot of people approaching me at a startling speed, I gulped nervously. In these situations to fall was to die. Trampled by countless frightened feet. So I ran. I started a slow loping pace, moving just fast enough to stay clear of the people around me whilst still conserving my energy for the trek of unknown distance, All the while the guns made sweeping passes over the crowds of people. Shooting at head level. I was doubled over as I ran, arms flung over my head. Although it may have been counterproductive to balance it felt right and was proved so as I was showered with slivers of bone and scraps of brain matter as the person next to me''s head exploded in a red cloud. I wanted to vomit. It was the most unadulterated scene of violence that I had ever before experienced in my life. Watching a life so cruelly taken, I wanted to fall to the ground and cry. I wanted it all to be over. The only thing stronger than this emotion, however, was my fear. A fear that kept me at pace with the hordes of people behind me as we rushed for the promised safety of Castle North. It was several seconds later that another event of note happened in my panicked run. An old man doubled over ahead of me and tried desperately to drag out the wheezing breaths caused by a lifetime of smoking. He was in my path and if I were to stop or even slow I would be trampled by the people behind me. I am not proud of my actions but as I came upon him I shoved him roughly, pushing his frail form into the throngs of oncoming people. God help me for I saw his eyes as he fell under the feet of the horde. God help me for at that moment I felt no remorse, only fear. Fear that if I slowed, that would be me. Ch. 5 I had been running for approximately 10 minutes when the ground began to rise at a slight incline. It started out slow, just a gentle slope before eventually, the trek became a gruelling uphill battle. I began to feel the fire in my legs as they fought to keep pushing me further up the hill, my throat was parched, not from thirst but from nerves and I thanked God that I had chosen to wear runners to the party that night. The path was a dusty, dirt track and with the horde of feet that ran up it, it began to spew a brown cloud of disturbed soil into the faces of those still climbing, my eyes stung with the irritants and I blinked with fearsome frequency as I tried to relieve myself of them. It was at this moment that something amazing happened, for the first time since arriving here my flanks weren''t surrounded by people. It seemed the crowds had been bottlenecked as they soared up the track causing a much thinner stream of people. Coincidently this caused me to be open on my right side to the air and the view. From the height we had gained in our run I could see the tops of a vast forest that bordered a flat dirt field. Or what I could assume was one as only the centre was visible as people still obscured the outer edges as they ran toward one of the compass pointed castles. I was mesmerised by this vista for a brief moment, this was before terror gripped me as I took in another realisation. I could see small jeeps doing sweeping patrols of the outskirts of the horde, spraying wildly into the mass of bodies, not even having to pause to aim their shots. This brought me to the realisation that although less gunfire was directed at the ascending parties we were still under fire. And I was open to it, without the cover that the mass of bodies provided. The thought was punctuated by a sharp tug on the side of my shirt as if someone was attempting to gain my attention. I drew my eye away from the ground and noticed a gaping hole in the fabric, I had been narrowly missed by a stray bullet. I gulped in fear. I charged back toward the mass of bodies, adopting a diagonal gait in an attempt to merge once again with the traffic. I met the flow as a knot of middle-aged people began to run beside me and I slipped between their number to gain cover. My move was proved advantageous as moments after I had left my previous spot bullets tore into the group of adults. A choked sound caused by grief left my throat as I forced my way further into the crushing press of bodies. Later, after several more panicked minutes of frantic running Castle North finally came into view, it stood like an unforgiving titan against the steely blue sky. It was composed of one large, central tower and then ringed by a large wall punctuated at three intervals by towers, smaller than the central spire but still breathtakingly large. It seemed to be a scaled-up version of a basic European castle. As when one looked at it, even from a distance they could see the truly indomitable size that it was built with. It was as if it was built as a citadel for a race of giants. Though even with its size I doubted the castle''s ability to house the vast throngs of people that rushed toward its gates. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Gates that now upon closer inspection were closing. Swiftly. I forced my body into overdrive, burning every once of energy that I had left in my muscles as I launched into a dead sprint toward the lowering portcullis. People were yelling all around me, begging the people at the gates to stop, I could see them now, the desperate movements as the cranked the wheels that would seal our fates. Not mine I thought grimly as I dived under the last 2 feet of the gate, sliding to a stop on the rough, packed dirt floor. I stood up and began to brush the dirt from my clothes with sweat soaked palm, partially form nervousness and partly from exertion. The gate slammed to a close and people pressed themselves against the metal grill of the portcullis, pushing their arms through in a vain attempt to get help. Then I started to notice another problem, people behind them could see the obstacle and added to the press of bodies, crushing the first couple against the metal. I saw them, how they bled at the eyes and the mouth from the pressure before going limb, still grafted to the metal by the force of their companions. Their screams were haunting. In my head, I knew that the decision to close the gates was the wisest cause of action as even assuming that some people had left the central courtyard and gone to find refuge in the castle the number of people I could see still looked as if they could fill the castle twice over. Still, though, this rationalisation could not take away the pain I felt in my heart. I didn''t help however, I was ashamed. I turned away, I couldn''t face all of the dead and dying. Instead, I took to the task of finding myself accommodation for the night. I walked around the courtyard before finding a man-sized door built into one of the immense perimeter towers it was comical in its inadequacy in size compared to what it was built into. I didn''t laugh however and I was grim-faced as I entered the roughly built stone tower. It was filled with many levels, each containing rooms from the outside inward with the centre being home to a truly immense spiral staircase made of stone like the rest of the tower. It was only after I had torn several flights of inclination away from the tower with weary legs that the screams faded out of earshot that I settled into one of the nearby rooms and drifted into a deep and troubled sleep. Fraught with nightmares of the day''s past events. I was only dimly aware of the task completion message that passed through my field of vision. I faded into blackness once more. An event that was beginning to happen with scarily increasing frequency in my life. Ch. 6 My dreams found me floating in a black void, or at least I hoped it was a dream, as with the current state of my reality I wasn''t quite sure. I looked around and found myself hurtling directionlessly through a black void. Then suddenly from a point far of in the distance light exploded outwards in a psychedelic rush. Exploding outwards with points of dazzling brightness and smears of glowing nebulas. It was the most captivating thing I had ever seen and was brought to tears by the splendour that played out before me. That was when I felt a tugging on myself, not dissimilar to what I had felt back on that mountain but instead of it being focused to a single point the sensation was dispersed out across my entire form. Before I could so much as blink I was hurtling violently through what I assumed was the universe, shooting at a truly unimaginable speed toward an unknown destination. It started as a small pocket of orange light glowing in the distance, nothing setting it apart from the other stars, but as our approach became more and more rapid I soon realised that this was my sun. Not from any defining feature of its own however but instead from the planets that surrounded it. Most specifically Earth. I was left orbiting the planet for several long moments, moments in which I had naught to do but take in the breathtaking sight that is earth from space. I could see the swirl of storms and the azure blue of the ocean. It was a spectacular vista. But once more I was cruelly torn from these amazing sites and rocketed down onto the surface of the planet. From the scene, I had entered into I gathered that it was still the modern day, yet still a little in the past. It was a familiar scene as I remembered the house in which I had entered. It was mine. I stood as a spectator, however, a visitor in my old family home and I could see the small form of younger me cowering under his bed. I winced as I remembered this moment. I saw the rhythmic flinches in my younger self as he heard the ponderous sound of approaching footsteps. I saw how he covered his eyes and drew his knees closer to his body. I crossed my arms over my chest as the door to my bedroom burst open. There stood a powerfully built silhouette. Light shone from behind the figure from a ceiling fixture and his features were obscured. Before I was torn away again I could see the outline of a drink in his hand. I awoke with a panicked fluttering of lashes, the last thing I could recall of the dream was leaving the room that held both my younger self and my father. I shuddered bad memories. I stood up and began to pace around the room I had picked at random last night. It gave me a time to ground myself and think about what the fuck was going on. I slumped into a sitting position on the far side of the room near a window. I grabbed the sides of my head and let out a wordless scream of frustration. I choked back tears, I wasn''t going to see my family again. This registering of this detail took some time and even with the baggage that came with being around my parents leaving was still a bitter pill to swallow. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I stood up and rested my shoulders on the window sill, looking out over the forest tops and the dirt plain. My blood chilled as I saw the black dots of dead bodies carpeting the path to each of the castles. That''s not going to be me, I thought. It was then that I noticed a small flashing light in the corner of my vision, and on my notice of it, it began to explode outward until it covered my thoughts with a flood of information. It told me of completion of the task, and also informed me of several of the castles fixtures. There were weapon stores and places to buy armour and other things. Places and directions forced themselves into my mind with the brashness and disregard for personal space of a ''hands-on relative'' and in a brief time, I somehow knew each and every place of Castle North intimately. Next was a fleeting notification about task completion rewards, asking me if I wanted to access the shop. I blinked as the request lay waiting for confirmation. Access the reward shop? Is like some fucking sick game? I shook my head, damned if I don''t. I thought the affirmative and the shop opened up before my eyes. It was like an online shopping screen, starting off with lists of categories such as implants, augmentation, abilities, weapons, vehicles before descending into subcategories for each. At the corner of the screen was a number, I assumed it was the amount of whatever currency this went by that I had earned. I sighed, something to think of later. I spent a couple short minutes scrolling through the weapons sector before coming to the realisation that most things were far too expensive for my meagre funds. I closed the window without buying a thing and stared at the ceiling for a time. It was stained with a light smattering of moss and lichen in places as if liquid had long ago been spilled on the ceiling. I stood and rolled my shoulders, feeling them pop satisfyingly I then proceeded to flex and stretch my body, feeling the annoying ache in my legs caused by the death march the day previously. I winced, more memories to internalise. I then proceeded with a ponderous gait to walk toward the rough-hewn arch-shaped door. I clasped the handle firmly for several seconds. Grounding myself for the ordeal of facing a large crowd of people. Before this day I had never found this prospect daunting, in most cases, I relished the attention. But that was after a mirror and stable emotional state. Both of which I was fresh out of. So I was understandably annoyed when the first thing to be visited upon as I left the confines of my room was someone being thrown bodily against me. I flew back into the centre of the room feebly gasping for air to replenish my empty lungs. The first thought to come to my mind when I was back in a place of coherent thought was. Some shit is about to get fucked up. I would later lament just how right I was in that moment. Ch. 7 I was thrown to the floor in a storm of flailing limbs and entangled torsos. When I came back to my senses I was assailed by the sharp pain in my lower back and the protests from my arms and legs at the ways they were twisted. And there, cradled safely from harm in my arms was a girl. Or what I assumed was one because of the halo of luscious dark hair that was cast over my face and that veiled her and the situation from my view. She was soft and warm in my grasp and my arms instinctively tightened against her slim waist. A primaeval instinct of protection. That was until one of her slender arms lashed out and pistoned an elbow into my left kidney. I released the girl like she had the plague and curled into a ball cradling my midsection and groaning. "Fucking skank," I muttered in pain and was passingly aware of the sound of my door slamming shut. My eyes were beginning to tear up in pain as I huffed in some final desperate breaths before looking up to assess the scene in front of me. The girl who I could now see clearly had her back to the door and was currently straining to keep it closed. She was wearing a bomber jacket, a relic from older times and a pair of faded jeans. She seemed to be of Hispanic descent and noticed my stare as she aggressively flicked her hair over one shoulder with a jerking head motion. "Sorry ''bout that." She spoke with an American accent whilst smiling glibly at the state she had left me in. "Look, I can guess that might have hurt but can you come here and help me." She gestured with another jerking head movement toward the door. I just stared at her accusingly. No fucking way I was helping her. "Look, lady, I just met you and you haven''t left a glowing impression. So how about you do you and I''ll do me, cool?" I hissed out through gritted teeth as I still pressed my hands to my chest. It felt like I had been hit once more by lightning as if my chest was on fire. It was also at this moment that the door exploded outward with an impressive amount of force. It swung furiously on its hinges, slamming into the opposite wall with enough force to knock the reverse side of the door handle straight of the hardwood surface. The girl to was also launched with surprising force, flying through the air for several feet before slamming forcefully into the ground about a metre to my left. It was then that I looked at the figures standing on the threshold of the door. They were three in number, the first was a slight waif of a middle-aged woman. She was tall with a mop of straw-like blonde hair. She was thin to the point where I believed a small breeze could blow her away. The two others were both male but polar opposites in appearance. Where one was large and brutish, resembling a gorilla in build with the visible matting of corse black body hair to boot. The other however was tall and thin much like the girl. In fact, he resembled her enough that I would have assumed they were twins had they not just kissed after the opening of the door. Hell they still may be, I had already met one American today why not make it three. The blonde girl walked up to the other and straddled her before slapping her full across the face, hard enough that the reverberation made me want to shield my ears. At the same time, her two male companions came to me and restrained my arms behind my back and dragged me to a standing position against my will. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. "Jesus Christ I''m not with her, you threw her into my room remember." I railed at the two men holding me and then to the woman as I was almost certain at this point that she was the ringleader of this whole debacle. "Look buddy just stand by and this will all be over." She spat the words toward me condescendingly. And I, disregarding the hurt feelings at being dismissed so thoroughly, slumped into the grip of the men holding me and resolved to wait for this whole thing to be over. No way I was going to win this fight, and even my guilt at hitting a women hours previously didn''t demolish my sense of self-preservation. "Still feel like fate now you whore!" Yelled the blonde girl into the others face before spitting into it and slapping her again. I winced in sympathetic pain, looked like it hurt, the blonde was really doing a number on her. Not that the other girl was just lying there and taking it however, she seemed to be fighting against the other woman just as hard as she was to keep her prostrate. I supposed there must have to be some deceptive strength concealed in those wiry muscles. "I lost my son, this isn''t fate. This is hell." The fight seemed to leave the blonde woman as she spoke those words and her and the tall man holding me began to fall into a shared bout of silent sobs. I stood on awkwardly as if I was intruding on a private moment between the two. And with those words, the blonde woman got off the other and left the room, signalling for the other two to follow. They did so diligently and pushed me roughly as they released my arms. I stumbled forward toward the tanned woman. She mistook my involuntary movements as a move to help her up and reached out her hand toward me. I reached out reluctantly and helped her to her feet. Not that I had anything against her however it was just that she had already seemed to have made several powerful enemies. People whom I did not want to alienate by association. I helped her to her feet however grudgingly before walking and shutting the door in my room. When I turned back the girl had slumped against one of the walls and was tenderly nursing a split lip and some bruising on the side of her cheek. I wasn''t quite sure what to do. I wanted to help, and yet I didn''t, I was conflicted, part of me wanting to help the injured girl and another part was fearful of any repercussions that this action may cause. Thankfully for me, the decision was taken away from me, for at that very moment a loud proclamation was made from the courtyard facing window on the far side of my room. It was spoken was a robotic twang which made me think of a school PA system. It spoke. "Uh, hey. My name''s Carl, I kinda found the PA system and decided to send out a message," I could almost feel him rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Anyway I wanted everyone to gather in the centre courtyard or as close as you can get so we can try and sort this whole thing out. Pooling information and all that." With that, the message cut off and I was left once more alone. In a foreign room, with a stranger. Perfect. Ch. 8 The girl and I shared a look before making toward the door. After leaving the room I was able to take in the majesty of the building we resided in, in a way I missed in my tired stupor the night before. Its vast walls were covered with decorative black iron sconces, each holding its precious bounty of fire, chasing the darkness away. I looked to my left and right and saw that the entire tower was punctuated at irregular intervals was doorways and alcoves. It was reminiscent of a bee-hive and all along it, I could see people leaving the room and moving like zombies toward the courtyard. Not because of any built-in charisma that Carl possessed but because of a lack of purpose. Drowning people will cling to anything. But then who was I to judge, I was as desperate as the rest of them for a purpose, something to do. Someone else to figure this out for me. And so I once more merged into a faceless horde. Yet this time instead of bullets picking us off it was hopelessness. It could see clearly on some faces where it had already landed and taken root. I studied the face of my companion and was surprised to see her wearing a completely different and starkly opposite expression to the men and women that walked beside us. She was hopeful, and even with the wounds on her face, I could discern an optimistic expression. It took us several minutes to descend the vast tower in which we were housed. In that time I did a lot of thinking, primarily about the girl next to me. She was an enigma in my otherwise crazy life. The strange in a crazy situation, I was curious. And just as the cat my sense of paranoia was soon overridden by this baser instinct. "So... Do you like jazz?" I asked before going red and falling behind in step, not what I had meant to say. "Um, I meant what''s your name?" I asked again picking up the pace and falling back into step with her. She looked at me like I was mad and wore a small contented smile on her face, placating the otherwise harsh expression. Her smile was contagious and before long I had let out a small chuckle, the first I had in a long time. Her smile grew after making me laugh and she let out a long guffaw of her own before answering in her Spanish accented American accent. "Viviana. My name is Viviana." She finally spoke through smiling lips. The people around us looked on with dead eyes and for the first time since coming here, I didn''t feel the same as them. I was about to press her about the incident that led to our meeting but was cut short as we entered into the morning sun. It was annoyingly bright and the light scalded my dimly adjusted eyes. I shielded them as I stumbled into the courtyard, banging into someone before my eyes finally allowed me to see once more. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I blinked several times as I looked at the mass of people that had come out to see what Carl and others had to say. We stood in a shapeless crowd and at the head of it was a raised platform. On said platform stood a man at a lectern and from his voice I recognised him as Carl. Slightly behind Carl but still on the platform above the masses were a row of chairs and their various occupants. People whom I couldn''t make out from the distance. I looked to my left and found Viviana still there. "So yeah, that''s basically it if you have anything you want to share or say, you can come up here and say it as long as it''s constructive. I think we''ve all had enough doom and gloom for a lifetime." It was then that I recognised the clipped English accent that Carl spoke with. It helped to refine my mental image of the man. From my spot at the back, I could see a figure rise from a chair and move to the lectern making me think. How had a chain of command already have been set in one day? I then berated myself for sleeping through its foundation. Pride makes monsters of us all. The figure walked to the centre of the platform before picking up where Carl had left off. "Alright everyone, I know you all want to get out of the sun so I''ll keep this brief. I want to clarify the information we know. I think it''ll help to ground ourselves so can everyone bear with me?" She spoke with an expectant tone, I was also able to discern the gender of the speaker. Female. After the crowd mumbled the affirmative she began to speak once more. "So around 8:00 am EST last night we all went missing from wherever we were at the time, yeah?" We all nodded the affirmative, I wasn''t entirely sure of the time when I went missing but trusted everyone and nodded along. "Alright so then we appeared in a random environment and we were told by some voice what was going on. For anyone who wasn''t listening when it happened, I''ll tell you now. We were taken from the earth by some strange phenomena that the universe knows as ''the disappearing''. Apparently, this happens to balance out the plenty that the other three-quarters of the world live with. Like it or not we have an important job to play because they can only have that for as long as we survive. For when the last one of us dies so too does everyone in the outside world. We hold the fates of the world in our hands. Let''s not let them down." She said with enthusiasm as if she was trying to liven up the dead staring crowd. She probably said more but I wasn''t listening. Fuck I wasn''t even standing anymore, I had collapsed to the ground in a sitting position and was silently coming to terms with what was happening. Am I going to be forced to fight and die for no gain of my own? I began to cry. It wasn''t fair. There was no balance to this. Why me?