Chapter 38: 14:19 – A Countdown to Second Death [09:39am]

[TIME REAMAINING: 13 MINUTES]

Mir POV

I hastily skidded to the right as Byunghee lunged, the sharp blade aimed at my jugular vein. The silver flashed under the dim yellow light, blinding my eyes and my thoughts.

“B-Byunghee!” I spluttered as I skittered backwards, tripping and sprawling on the floor. The knife skittered to the floor, spinning.

Above me I could hear the shouts of Seungho and Thunder intensify.

“What are you doing?!” I blurted. “Y-you’re attacking me!”

“That is what it seems to be, no?” Byunghee replied dryly. He raised the blade again and pointed directly at my heart.

“Why?”

He answered with a raised eyebrow. “I thought the rules were simple Mir.”

“Byunghee! Just a few minutes ago, you were saying the complete opposite!”

“And now I’m singing a different song Mir,” he replied casually, flicking the hand with the knife back and forth like some cavalier preparing to fence. “Both you and I know that Thunder and Seungho have no fault. They do not deserve to die. The only ones involved in the matter of Changsun’s death – the only ones with a reason to care – are you,” he flicked the knife upwards at me. “And me.” And he pointed at himself.

“What are you saying Byunghee?”

“I’m saying let’s fight,” he said matter-of-factly. “Let’s decide between you and me, who deserves to live and who deserves to die.”

“B-but, how about no.”

He laughed. “Why Mir? You want to find Changsun’s killer right? And that person could be me. Or at least it’s most likely to be me, seeing as I was the last person with Changsun right before he was killed. Provided we take the Ringmaster out of the equation, there’s only me left.”

“B-but, there’s no other evidence.”

“No there is not,” Byunghee agreed, bowing my head. “And that’s why you haven’t killed me yet.”

“That’s because,” I gave me a plaintive look. “If you really didn’t kill Changsun, how can I kill you? For one, you’re my comrade. For another, you’re Changsun’s childhood friend.”

“And that’s exactly why we should fight,” he finished.

“That’s exactly why we shouldn’t!” Why couldn’t he understand? I didn’t want to kill him, I didn’t want to kill anyone.

Byunghee lunged and I threw myself backwards as his knife sliced a fine path right in front of my face.

“Byunghee!”

“Fight me Mir,” he said in a voice of eerie calmness. “In the event of indecision, we should let fate takes its toll. If we both fight with everything we have, the one who truly deserves to die will be revealed as an outcome.”

I felt my breath shorten. My heart race.

This shouldn’t be how it ends.

“Fight me Mir,” he continued. “Fight me unless you want to die.”

G.O POV

Fight and show me your resolve.

I swung my knife down, and Mir snatched his own knife off the floor, lifting it just in time to parry my blow. Our knives skittered off each other, a metal ring resounding in the air. He straightened onto one knee, eyes gleaming with untold secrets.

What was he thinking?

“Are you really trying to kill me Byunghee?” he asked in a half-whisper. His face looked so pale. I couldn’t blame him though.

“I am,” I replied and lunged again.

He back stepped, leaning out of range and as I swept forwards, motion carrying me, he brought him knife down on me. I barely had time to twist my body to the left to avoid it. Even then I felt the knife slice through the thin fabric of my shirt, the cold metal kiss skin. Goosebumps rose.

He had found his resolve.

Or at least he was beginning to.

“Finally found the resolve to fight?” I taunted him, getting to my feet again.

“I-I’m not going to die,” he said.

“But can you kill me to do so?” I asked with steel laced in my words.

“I-“

I swerved so that I was behind him and my knife was flying out again. Mir turned at the last minute, his own knife inexpertly coming out to block. My blow had too much force behind it and it pushed Mir back. He staggered a few steps, the knife coming loose in his hand. And I saw my opportunity. I took the step forwards and swung my right arm upwards so that the blade slashed a fine red line up Mir’s throat.

His eyes widened, not in pain, but in shock.

He hadn’t really thought I would try to kill him.

But I was. I was going to kill him.

Because this is what Changsun would want.

Mir POV

My hand crept up to my throat. It came away wet with blood and the realization that Byunghee really was going to kill me.

He wanted to kill me.

Could I kill him?

“Fight me Mir,” he commanded, a wild grin plastered on his face. His forehead gleamed with sweat, but never before had I seen him look so alive. So alive in trying to kill me.

I glanced down at the knife in my hands. What would Changsun want me to do? Fight and kill his brother? Let his brother kill me?

I felt the blood trickle down my throat, warm and viscous. Down my throat, down my collar bone, right over my heart.

I’m not going to say I’m sorry, I had said. Lee Changsun, I love you.

My hand gripped the knife hilt.

Seungho POV

Why were they fighting? The two of them had no bad blood; rather they should have been joined by Changsun. They should be holding hands, shaking hands, not exchanging knife blows.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard the Ringmaster’s rules.

Fight, or Thunder or I would die.

One of our cages would drop, and from this height, there would be no getting away with just broken bones.

We would be crushed under the weight of gravity and those iron bars, impaled upon the thorns that formed the cage and utterly decimated.

There would be a death by the end of tonight.

And right now, it was a death match between those two.

Thunder POV

Why were they fighting?

I mean I know why they are fighting, but deep down why, why, why?

Changsun’s death wasn’t either of their faults. Changsun shouldn’t have died, but neither should either of them.

My hands gripped the iron bars so tightly that they were white, but as I pulled them away, stiff fingers that refuse to part, they came away flecked with blood.

“Stop fighting ,” I whispered. Revulsion grew like bile in my throat as I stared at the blood on my hands, the blood on the bars, and the blood that was being spilt on the floor below.

Blood and death.

Blood and bone.

Too much blood everywhere.

“STOP” I yelled, but no one heard.

Mir POV

My knife swung a pretty path over Byunghee’s chest. He hadn’t seen it coming and a line of red prickled. I didn’t feel guilty. He was hiding something, there was no other explanation.

There were too many uncertainties still lying around.

Why was Byunghee trying to kill me? He would have no reason. Changsun had tried to kill Byunghee because his memories of his past was mixed up, and he had thought Byunghee had betrayed him.

If Byunghee had then been the one to kill Changsun, it would have been easy. Two people on a stage of darkness. One with a knife in his pocket. Another a second later with the knife in his back.

But why? What would possess Byunghee to kill Changsun. They were blood brothers, closer than any kin wrought of actual lineage.

Then a thought came to me, words the Ringmaster had said. Your memories will return, and the wolf will realize who he is.

And he will kill us all, one by one.

“Byunghee,” I dared letting my knife hand drop limply to my side. The thought of this possibility made me sick to the core.

“What Mir?” he asked warily, his eyes tracking the knife and not my eyes. He didn’t see the fear in my eyes or the tremble of my lips as I tried to voice my question. “Speak.”

“Byunghee,” I swallowed. “Are you the wolf?”

Only then did he look up, and in the silence that filled the room, you could have heard a pin drop.

[TIME REMAINING: 5 MINUTES]

Happy 2014 everyone!