29. Infected
Chapter 29
Infected
Raven
Present Day
M y hands trembled as I buried one into my sweatpants, the other still clutching the podium to keep me steady. I attempted to stand on my own two feet as my platform continued its incline, but searing pain shot through me, pulsating around my side where I had been sewn up.
Needing to see what the source of my problem was, I lifted my shirt and gulped down my nausea. The skin around my stitches was red and swollen.
It’s infected.
That would be a problem for future me, but right now, I needed to figure out what I was going to do.
While I wasn’t overly close to 197, he had risked his life to save mine in the mancala round. And besides that, even if 195 was the smallest of their group, he was still bigger than me . And he wasn’t injured as I was.
The rule kept bouncing around in my skull. How was I supposed to get him off that bridge?
The siren blared.
So wrapped up in my own anxiety and nerves, I hadn’t realized that it was already time to begin the round.
My head jerked up, and I found that 195 was creeping across the metal bridge. Quietly, carefully; reminiscent of a feline.
What am I supposed to do?
“I am not going to hurt you. I just want to talk first. Please,” he purred, as he continued his careful movement closer.
The bridge creaked but held.
Standing up to my full height as steadily as I could, I jutted out my chin and discretely leaned further against the podium.
I wasn’t sure if I trusted 195, but this wasn’t our first game together, and in the last one, he hadn’t hurt me.
He hadn’t exactly helped me either, but that was neither here nor there. His chestnut eyes bore into mine as he took the last few steps onto my platform.
Tensing, I expected him to attack, to lunge at me, but instead he fell to the ground crossing his legs.
“Let’s talk.” He patted the spot across from him.
“Why should I trust you?” I asked warily.
“Because I know who you are. I know that your sister stabbed you. I know that you survived it. And I know how.”
Staring unblinkingly at 195, I tried to understand what he was saying. He gestured for me to sit again and the biting smell of poison suffused the air. It clung to him, but I found that I didn’t despise it. If anything, it drew me towards him.
My legs refused to hold my weight any longer as I dropped unsteadily to my knees, still doing my best to stay out of his reach. I knew that at any minute he could change, that he was lethal, deadly.
But his words had been genuine, his tone welcoming, and my gut, for whatever reason, trusted the practical stranger before me.
“At the end of this game, one of our teams will be dead,” I said plainly. “No matter what you say to me up here, it won’t change that fact.”
195 bent forward quickly, his hands reaching out, his long fingers splayed.
I didn’t jump as he cupped my face, his thumbs landing on my lips.
He dropped his hold on me, breathing in and out a few times slowly. “That doesn’t have to be the case, but before I tell you my plan, I need you to trust me. To understand that I will do what I must to protect you. Even if that means sacrificing myself.”
He was lunging further forward before I could process his words, his hot mouth pressing against mine. His harsh lips, leaving no room for escape. One of his hands tangled in my hair, the other gripping my neck with just the edge of pressure.
I swallowed down the poison he breathed into me. The stinging flavor was oddly delicious, and I panted under him as he continued his assault on my senses.
Panting, I managed to push him back.
“What…what is this?” I watched him through my lashes. My nerves danced under his touch, goosebumps prickling up and coating my skin in a sensitive array.
Inclining his head, he whispered into my ear, “You may not remember me, Raven. But after you were stabbed, I stumbled upon a man clutching you. I offered him my help. I took the both of you with me as far as we could go. And when we were stopped by Government Officials, I offered myself up. To save you.”
Shock. Stabbing, piercing, dumbfounded shock was all I could feel. Whatever I had expected when I rose up on my platform with 195 as my opponent, it wasn’t this.
“It’s nice to meet you, Raven. My name is Oleks.” He withdrew from my space.
Why do I feel like I’ve heard that name before? Yet even still, I don’t recognize this man at all.
He watched me carefully as he murmured, “I know exactly how to make it through this round alive. Together .” His lips quirked. “There is more than one way to get someone off. ”
It only took a few seconds for his words to sink in. To understand them. My face heated as I realized what he meant. How it actually did make sense. This is exactly the type of fucked up shit I would expect from the Creators and Sponsors.
This reminded me of the game I was forced into with Levi. Fight or fuck. But now we would be over two hundred feet up on a thin platform.
A series of questions spilled out before I could help myself. “Who was it? Who were you with? Who saved me?”
195’s–correction—Oleks’s attention flickered around as if he were searching for something. “That I can’t disclose, but I promise you will be reunited soon enough. Trust me.”
I wanted to argue, to scream, to demand he tell me. But he had already offered more to me than what I had to him. And if he were telling the truth, I might not be alive at all if it weren’t for Oleks. For this man before me.
I examined him in a new light. My lips still tingling from his, my belly fluttering uncomfortably, my body an even more wobbly mess.
Maybe we can both make it through this after all.
“Okay,” I agreed, shifting closer to him and putting my hands on his knees. “I will trust you…for now.”
Oleks inclined his head, his mahogany hair falling forward over his mask. Barely audible, he whispered, “I don’t deserve it or you, but thank you.”
Sinking back to my side of the platform, I analyzed the man before me.
Questions stabbed at my psyche.
Who exactly is Oleks? How did he end up here?
Shoving them down as far as I could, I pushed a wall up between me and my emotions. It was time to complete this game.
It was time to get each other off.