The Lobby

TW: mentions of blood and murder

I knew something was wrong when I realized there was no sound of a clock ticking.

Just silence.

I pried open my eyes and winced from the bright light. It seemed brighter than even the sun, but then my eyes adjusted. I was in a room of sorts, and I didn't recognize it from anywhere on Limited Life.

So where was I?

I'd won, hadn't I?

I remembered the feeling of the hot lava bucket in my hands as I poured it out at Scott's feet. I remembered the feeling of the cold hilt of my enchanted diamond sword as I slashed at Scott's burning body, and seconds later stabbed through Impulse. I remembered the feeling of one extra hour of time, delicious time, oh, that had felt good.

I couldn't remember much after that. I remembered... panic? An hour and a half isn't really a lot of time when you think about it. But not much else. And then...

I woke up here. Wherever "here" was.

"Martyn?"

Same voice as... yesterday? Last time? I had no concept of the time that had passed, and that kind of scared me.

I propped myself up on my elbows and looked to my right to the voice. And made eye contact with a man with cyan hair, bluish red eyes, and a floating crown of red stars around his head.

"Scott?" I asked in a hoarse whisper.

He smiled awkwardly. "Hi."

I let my elbows give out from underneath me and I fell back onto the bed. "What," I began, "in the world is going on?"

"Well," Scott began, then a new voice cut in with, "You won."

It was Grian. I turned my head to look in his direction and froze. He looked like Grian, but also it was completely wrong. He had his usual red sweater with ripped black jeans, and sandals instead of his usual tennis shoes. A light brown, red, and green desert poncho lay on the floor by his feet. But as I looked, there were purple undertones everywhere... and what looked like extra eyes floating around his head. And I couldn't tell if his wings were actually out or if I was hallucinating.

He reminded me of the Watchers. I hated that. I looked away. "I what?"

"You won," Scott said. "You killed everyone else."

"Yeah, I did," I said, absolutely no remorse in my voice. It was a death match for a reason. "So?"

"When you win, you come here," another new voice said. It was female, and I looked behind me. It was Pearl.

Looking at Grian made me uncomfortable and, I hate to admit it, a little scared. Looking at Scott made me mad, because I'd just betrayed him and killed him. I felt no remorse, but the adrenaline was still strong from that one-sided fight.

But looking at Pearl didn't make me feel any different. We'd had some ups and downs in Double Life, but most of that was water under the bridge, at least on my end.

I settled for looking at my hands. My gloves were stained with blood, I think. I didn't know whose it was. "Do you get to leave?" I asked.

"No," Grian said.

"Then how long are you here for?"

"We get to enter every game, but once that's over, we're back here," Scott said.

"So basically we're here forever, as far as we can tell," Pearl finished.

"What?" I asked after a pause to make sure they were serious.

"Forever," Scott repeated.

"You're joking," I said, looking up and meeting his bluish-red eyes.

He shook his head with a sad smile. I felt like everything was closing in on me. The voices in the back of my mind were getting louder. I shook my head once and laid down on the bed so that I was facing away from all three of them.

"This isn't happening," I whispered to myself.

A pause, and footsteps. "Martyn, look-" Scott began.

"Leave me alone," I muttered.

A hand on my shoulder. "Martyn, this will-"

I tested at the contact and shrugged it off aggressively. "I said," I growled, glaring at Scott, "Leave me alone."

He looked confused, but Pearl stepped up and pulled his arm backwards a little and he backed off. I saw Grian give me a concerned glance as I rolled back over and curled into a ball, away from the three of them.

I didn't need their pity, or their help, or their concern. If there was anyone I wanted to be stuck forever with, it certainly wasn't these three.

[Word Count: 768 words]

Summary: Martyn wakes up for real. His memory of his final moments of Limited Life are spotty. He sees that Scott, Grian, and Pearl are here with him too. He's not happy about this. He finds out that they're stuck here forever. And he's not happy about that, either.

See y'all in the future!

~ Matteo