Chapter 9 #2
I shook my head and placed the strange object back beneath the drawer. Even though it was still quite small, if it got too much bigger, I’d have to find a new hiding place for it.
I replaced the cabinet drawer and stood up to finish removing my clothes. Then I turned the temperature to warm and stepped into the shower to let the water wash away the dried blood on my body.
I didn’t think a shower ever felt quite as good as this one had.
I stayed in the shower for a long time, and I really savored the feeling of the clean soap all over my body and the shampoo that washed the sweat away.
When I got out of the shower to dry off, I felt fully refreshed, and I’d just finished getting into a freshly laid-out bodysuit, when there was a knock on my bedroom door.
I moved to my locked door, but I didn’t immediately move to open it. My first assumption was that Kyle was on the other side, and he wanted to get some revenge for my actions in today’s trial.
But then I heard a soft voice on the other side of the door.
“Liam, are you awake?” Sadie’s familiar voice asked. “Can we talk?”
I quickly opened the door, and Sadie was on the other side with a nervous look on her face.
“Um, hi,” she said with an awkward smile. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“Hi,” I replied in the same awkward tone. “No, not at all.”
“Could we talk for a minute?” she asked, and her eyebrows scrunched together.
“Of course,” I said quickly. “Yeah, uh, would you prefer to speak out there, or…”
I gestured out toward the common area, before my arm fell awkwardly at my side.
Holy shit, what was my problem? I was acting like this was the first time I’d ever talked to a woman before.
“Actually, could we talk in your room?” she asked sheepishly. “I don’t want anyone to listen in or interrupt.”
“Of course,” I repeated, and this time my voice came out more steady.
Thank god for that.
I stepped aside to let Sadie enter, and once she passed me, I shut the door and instinctively locked it again.
Just in case Kyle got any ideas.
Sadie slowly sat down at the edge of my bed, and I moved to join her, but I made sure to keep a couple feet of distance between us at all times to ensure I didn’t make her uncomfortable.
I practically burned with curiosity, and I so badly wanted to ask her what she wanted to talk about, but I held my tongue and waited for her to speak.
For the first few moments, she didn’t say anything, and she kept her gaze on my bedroom floor as she fiddled with the diamond ring that was still on her finger.
“Are you alright?” she finally asked as she glanced up at me.
I was surprised by the question, but I quickly cleared my throat to answer.
“Yeah, I’m alright,” I said simply, and I wasn’t lying.
I felt like the more sensitive part of me had gone numb a while ago to cope with the horrors I’d witnessed.
“I watched everything that happened,” Sadie whispered. “And yet, I still can’t imagine what you must have gone through while down there.”
“Zade and Annabelle didn’t deserve that,” I said.
“None of us deserved what happened,” she corrected me.
I peered up at Sadie’s face, and her dark eyes were warm and knowing. I suddenly felt like I’d known the woman forever, and that she knew me. And I knew I didn’t have to say anything more about it because she truly understood.
“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say.
We fell into silence again, and Sadie fingered her diamond ring.
“So… we matched,” she said with an awkward half-smile.
“We did,” I agreed with a grin of my own.
“How do you feel about that?” she asked, and I noticed a slight flush bloom across her cheeks as soon as the words left her mouth.
“I’m not sure, if I’m being honest,” I admitted. “I still don’t fully understand what matching even means, or how the aliens determine what qualifies as a match.”
Sadie nodded, but I could see a twinge of disappointment in her eyes.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I matched with you,” I quickly amended. “I’ve always really liked you, and I even spent the last several years that we’ve known each other working up the courage to ask you out on a date.”
“Really?” Sadie asked, and her disappointment completely disappeared.
“Yeah.” I nodded, and I could feel my own cheeks grow warm with my admission. “I guess what I was trying to say was, as thrilled as I am about the match, I don’t care what the aliens say, and I only want to be together if it’s a mutual decision between the two of us.”
“That makes sense,” Sadie mused. “I guess we don’t have to rush into anything just because we were told to.”
“Exactly,” I said with a nod, but then I paused as I thought of something. “What about you?”
“Hmm?” Sadie looked up at me with distant eyes.
“How do you feel about matching with me?” I clarified.
“Oh, that.” Sadie ducked her head again, and her cheeks grew even pinker. “I was really happy when I realized I’d matched with you. I just wasn’t sure if you were going to be pleased with it.”
“Why is that?” I frowned and cocked my head to the side.
“Because there are a lot of other, potentially better options,” Sadie explained. “A lot of really beautiful women are here, and I felt like some of them might be better suited to you than I would be.”
“Really?” I furrowed my brow. “Like who?”
“Parker,” Sadie said. “She’s gorgeous, adventurous, smart, and she seems so brave.”
Sadie talked about Parker with a note of respect and admiration in her tone, and I didn’t hear a single note of jealousy or resentment toward the woman.
“I just can’t really compete with that, you know?” Sadie continued with a sigh.
“You don’t have to compete,” I argued. “You’re perfect exactly as you are. You’re intelligent, talented, levelheaded, and compassionate. You don’t have to be exactly alike to be equally amazing.”
“Thanks, Liam,” Sadie said with a warm, genuine smile.
We fell back into silence as I thought about everything we’d just talked about. I still needed to speak to Parker and make sure she was alright, but who knew when I’d actually get a chance to do it?
“So, what happens now?” Sadie’s question pulled me from my thoughts. “We matched, but now what? Wasn’t that the point of the games? To find your match?”
She voiced the very same question I’d been mulling over since the last trial ended.
“I have no idea,” I said. “One would think a match meant ‘winning the game’ or whatever, but clearly that didn’t happen.
So, there’s got to be more to it than that, but I’m not sure what.
I have no idea what the aliens’ end goal is here.
There has to be some sort of purpose to participating in these games to begin with.
I’m just not sure what that purpose is yet. ”
“How many of us will even be alive by then?” Sadie asked softly.
I didn’t have a good answer for that.
“Whatever happens, I promise to do everything in my power to keep you safe,” I assured her.
“Promise me that you’ll keep yourself safe as well,” she said in a stern tone. “You have no idea how worried I was today, being forced to watch you from afar while you were thrown into danger over and over again.”
I’d been so concerned about how my victory would affect Sadie that I’d never stopped to consider how much stress the situation had caused her.
“I promise,” I finally said, and the dark-eyed woman looked reassured.
“What do you think the next ‘game’ will be?” Sadie asked.
“I’m not sure,” I replied with a frown. “But they’ve steadily gotten more difficult and dangerous, so I’m not looking forward to finding out.”
Sadie nodded, and the worried crease between her eyebrows appeared again, but after a long moment, it smoothed out as she looked back up at me.
“Have you gotten any points since the games started?” she asked.
I tapped the side of my collar twice to pull up my status screen for her, and I was surprised to find three new points there. One in each category: body, mind, and senses.
“Oh, wow,” Sadie said in surprise, and her eyes widened as she stared at the holographic screen. “That’s a lot.”
I chuckled as I looked at my status screen. Along with the new skill points, there were four new, glowing marks next to the word ‘favor.’
My new favor points.
I still needed to figure out how they actually worked, because I assumed it wasn’t as simple as just requesting an item and having it magically appear. Though, that’s how the explanation had made it sound.
I tapped my collar again to make the screen disappear.
“I’m still not exactly sure how the points are earned,” I said. “But I’m slowly forming a theory about it. We’ll see if it holds up.”
“You’ll have to tell me if it does,” Sadie said with a smile. “I only have one point in mind. I got it yesterday when we had the beach day, and I think I earned it because I listened to you when you told us we needed to take shelter.”
I remembered seeing that point on her screen, and I’d had the exact same thought myself.
Suddenly, Sadie let out a soft sigh.
“I suppose I should head back to my room so we can both get some sleep.” Her expression looked wistful. “I have a feeling we’ll both need all the rest we can get for tomorrow.”
We both stood up, and I walked her to my door, unlocked, and opened it for her. She paused in the doorway for a moment and glanced at me.
“Thanks for taking the time to talk to me,” she said with a grateful smile.
“Of course.” I returned the grin. “You’re welcome anytime.”
“Goodnight, Liam,” she whispered.
“Goodnight, Sadie.”
She returned to her bedroom, and I shut and relocked my door before I went to bed myself.
That night, I dreamed I was back in the supermarket, and I kept seeing flashes of Sadie and Parker’s faces ahead of me as I ran for my life away from a pack of twenty viscerids.
The next morning, I woke up feeling like I hadn’t gotten much sleep at all, which didn’t bode well for me.
Assuming the aliens had more sick games in store for later.
I took my time getting out of bed, and by the time I wandered out to the main room, everyone else was already up and eating breakfast, though the mood had noticeably shifted from the morning before.