Losing the Game

The man stared back at him, his answer obviously somewhere along the lines of 'No way' and 'I don't care'. Ender was getting annoyed now; his soldiers were probably waiting for him to arrive.  

"Listen, sir, can you please just tell him that Ender Wiggin needs to speak to him?"  

The man perked up at the sound of Ender's name, but he simply sighed and crossed his arms. "Colonel Graff is currently unavailable."  

"Where is he?" Ender asked, hoping to get a straight forward answer.  

"He's in a meeting." The man answered, making it clear with the expression plastered upon his face that he was done being questioned. Ender did not like this man. Even so, he nodded and thanked him, walking slowly in the opposite direction. He checked behind his shoulder as the man turned back around the hallway he came from, and Ender immediately started sprinted towards the center of the Battle School.  

There were different conference rooms set up towards the epicenter of the ship-- they tended to discuss important matters when meeting there. Ender ran quickly, picking his way through small crowds of people. He knew that he would miss the start of the battle, but he had faith that Bean would handle the situation well. Once he reached the hallway of conference rooms, he got down on his hands and knees. If he was to be seen and suspected of eavesdropping on a top secret meeting, he was sure that the consequences would most likely be severe.  

Ever so slowly, he lifted himself up so his head was just barely visible through the small window pane in the door. Surveying the area, he found that it was empty. So he moved onto the next conference room. He looked, found nothing, and quietly moved forward. This process repeated until he reached the very last door, which was open just a crack. Crawling on the ground softly as if the floor was made of thin glass, Ender stared into the room.  

There were three men sitting around the long desk; the one who sat at the end of the table that appeared to preside over the meeting was none other than Colonel Graff. They were talking quietly, as if afraid someone might hear them. Ender pressed his ear against the opening and listened intently.  

"Only the second death in the history of the school," One of the men sitting a few chairs down from Graff said. He was tall and frail, his skin wrinkled with age.  

"At least it wasn't a suicide this time." Said another. 

Ender's breath caught in his throat and he struggled not to start coughing or choking. A second death? Ender knew about the first death, the suicide of one of the students, but since when had someone else died here?  

Colonel Graff spoke this time. "How is murder better, Major Imbu?" 

Ender became very confused-there hadn't been a murder in the school, and if there had been someone would have noticed a missing person by now. Unless it was the death of a careless technician performing maintenance, then they wouldn't have been notified. 

"It wasn't a murder, Colonel." The third man sitting farthest away from the others and closest to Ender was speaking now, his voice low and scratchy. "We have it on video from two angles. No one can blame Ender." 

Ender? When had he murdered someone? There was no one who he had killed, and most certainly not anyone in Battle School-and that's when it hit him. 

Bonzo. They were talking about Bonzo.  

Ender thought he'd only hurt him badly; he never would have guessed that the fight would actually kill him. As the words began to settle in and absorb into Ender's mind, the walls around him seemed to close in around him. The lies they had told him about Bonzo going home and reuniting with his family back in Spain circulated through his thoughts.