Fools Game

The forest was dark. Trees lining in the wake of deathly sounds. A hollow echo across silent windy leaves.

Damon and Bible crossed the paths of endless darkness. All around them, no light anywhere, except for the flashlights in hand.

"The Monster is over this way," pointed Bible.

Damon followed, "how do you know where the monster is? It's pitch black out here."

"My Witch Powers allow me to see in the dark, I'm following a trail of footprints as we speak."

Damon shined his flashlight ahead. The dark green bushes. The hillside leading up a small tree-lined creek. They followed along this creak until they reached the edge of a pathway leading to a nearby cave.

Slosh!

Damon looked down shining his flashlight on a spot of blood.

"It's the monster's blood."

Bible kept walking.

Creek...

Crack...

The creaking and cracking of the forest, it's deathly hollow, a burning smell...

"A burning smell?" pondered Damon as he stepped closer to a smell of a campfire.

He shined his flashlight ahead as Bible stood close, his hands in his military pants pockets, his bright eyes focused on the area of smoke rising to the sky.

"Is it a campfire?" asked Damon.

"It is," confirmed Bible as he stepped behind Damon, following silently.

They followed the path of blood, leading to an open area of-

Bible pulled out a knife.

"You think this is far enough away from the others Damon?" he asked Damon.

Damon turned around, "wha-"

Slink!

He struck Damon in the forehead. His lifeless eyes going blank. He fell back, his brain a mushy mess.

Thump...

KJ appeared from the area of the campfire, "good you took care of the strongest one first, just like I told you to do."

"Are you sure this guy was the strongest? I'd say Aria is, she is much more capable than this lazy slob."

"No-no-no..." KJ took a knife and stabbed Damon in the stomach, "this man is most definitely a powerful Witch. The Dark Witch Bryan said so himself. He said that this man killed Demitri Borodin the Ice Witch, one of the highest cord of the Morozov Family. The single opposition to the Immortal Horses said to have killed hundreds of Lesser Immortals."

"But Damon got taken out with a single stab," said Bible unbelieved by this dead man laying out in front of them.

KJ walked around in circles, his older, rougher, scar-filled body constantly agitated, constantly filled with determination.

"It doesn't matter how strong someone is. It doesn't matter how well they can survive a stab. A single surprise attack can kill an army of a thousand, even a million. This man was just unlucky, and so were his friends."

"So what do you want to do now? You promised me a high spot in the Immortal Horses if I helped you become the next True Immortal. So what's next? I'm at your command," said Bible, his head lowered in respect.

"I want you to go back, then say you wounded the beast but Damon got killed in the process. Then say you need to go in a group. I will blow out this fire and you will lead them all right into a trap. You will then take care of the Gravity Witch first, and I will take care of the other two."

"Are you sure this will work?" Bible asked, still lost in his own mortality of death and decisions.

KJ picked up a pile of dirt and splashed it over Bible's head and body.

"Act defeated and beat up. If your acting is good enough any woman, strong or weak will fall for your desperation."

"Ok, I'll do it!"

Bible ran back out into the forest beyond.

KJ looked at the raging fire, the dead monster crumpled over, sliced to pieces. He then looked at Damon, his head still impaled with a knife. He leaned over to drag the body away-

"So this was your plan huh?"

KJ jumped back, Damon's body sitting up, like a vampire waking to the nightly brigade.

"Yo- You- You!"

He pulled the knife from his head, the knife from his stomach. He tossed them into the darkness, the campfire raging on. He turned back to KJ.

"So, you killed the monster and then pretended to be the monster."

"Your! You're an Immortal?!" gasped out KJ, his eyes twitching, his muscles flinching.

He jumped up. His arms pointed forward. Like a boxer in a boxing ring.

"Are you here to kill us? What is your plan? To watch over the test? Are you a Rouge Immotal? Trying to take out the competition, trying to take out the Immortal Horses?"

Damon sighed, "why do you think I'm evil. Why do you all want to be Immortal so bad? Tests this tests that. Competition this, competition that."

He stood up. He touched his stomach, the tear in his suit.

"I guess your death will free a little bit of my boredom."

KJ pointed out his right fist. A pink and purple energy started surging across his body.

Power Spell: [Muscle Enhance x10]

"What type of Witch are you?" asked Damon.

KJ cracked his neck, his fingers, his ligaments. He stepped forward, sweat and steam running off his pink muscled-up body.

"I'm a Power Witch. Instead of sacrificing our skin and blood, we sacrifice our energy. We turn our bodies into weapons, living, breathing, powerhouses of muscle and power. And with our training, we can even outlast Immortals."

"Can you?"

"Yes, we can!"

"Then let's test that out."

---

Bible ran back to the remaining three.

He reached the lit-up lanterns. Aria, Luna, and Bryan. They were all standing staring waiting as the dirtied-up Bible reached them.

"He's dead... The Monster killed him... He... He sacrificed himself for me... But I... I know where the monster's lair is-"

Aria stepped forward.

"Did you see it happen?" she asked bluntly.

"Yes. He was ripped to shreds. I saw him die. Right in my arms... I'm so sorry but-"

Bang!

Aria shot Bible in the stomach.

"Wha-"

He fell back clutching his stomach.

"Aria why did you do that?!" asked Bryan confused by her sudden murder.

Bang!

She shot again.

Bryan reached forward grabbing her gun from her hand.

"Aria stop! Stop killing people whenever you feel like it!"

"Did you tell me to stop? Are you on his side?"

She stood opposite of Bryan, the two staring at each other, intensely.

"Aria why would you do that?" he asked confused by her radical choices.

"He's a liar. Damon would never get killed like that."

Bryan pointed the gun back at her, "how can you be so sure?! I was warry at the first meeting, the way you killed Jill. Just because she glared at you wrong. I can't... I can't trust you... You are a bad person! A heartless, emotionless... You kill without any second thought, you are..."

He stopped himself from going any further. He stopped himself from becoming her. He stopped himself from realizing that he was like her.

---

Five minutes later.

Damon walked back through the forest. He held KJ's decapitated head in his right hand.

He walked through the darkness. His eyes wandering to the silent sounds of the echoing crickets and crackles. The swaying branches in the soft cold breeze. The birds and bugs. He looked toward the midnight sky. The full moon.

"Why did I act like that?" he asked himself. "Why did I get so worked up...? Why...?"

He thought back to what KJ said. To what he said about his friends. Aria, Luna, Bryan.

"Why...? After all these hundreds of years... I haven't killed like that in a long time. Does this mean... No... No... I forgot my sister. My own living blood. I can't... I can't... Lov-"

Rustle...

He reached the camp.

Everyone turned to Damon's sudden presence. He walked out. His whole body covered in blood, with the head of KJ in his hands.

"You're alive?" questioned Bryan.

"Of course I am." He looked down at the dead Bible, "oh good you already took care of the traitor."

"Wait... So... How did you know, Aria?" asked Bryan confused.

"I know Damon is stronger than any monster or any human. I have... Trust in him..."

They looked at each other. An odd feeling in both of them. Not love. Not hate. Not anything abnormal. Just a feeling of change. Trust.

Luna stepped up, "I knew Damon was alive the whole time!"

"Yeah shut up Luna."

---

Three hours later.

"Congratulations. All four of you get another point," congratulated Miss Eiko, as she sat opposite the four Witches in a coffee shop.

People all around. Talking. Bustling. Moving. Ordering. Drinking. Kissing.

She looked at all the decorations, at the counter, the way the place lit up, the wooden floor, the wooden floor. The machines in the back. The soft smell of coffee.

"You see this place?" She stood up from the table, "it was fifty years ago that I opened up this coffee shop. Now I can't remember why I created it or why I wanted to create a coffee shop in the first place, but every time I step in here, everything I smell or taste the coffee, I remember just a little bit of what that felt like."

Damon understood exactly what she was talking about.

"But that's beside the point, my new friends. You four really did go above and beyond today. You killed the monster and your own fellow contestants. That takes guts. I think it's time for your last test. For one of you to be picked to be the next True Immortal, the sixth True Immortal. Just like me."