Chapter 41:  13:30– A Countdown to Third Death [10:30am]

Seungho POV

The black walls receded like paint dripping, melting and giving way to the light of a new level. What would this new floor give birth to? More secrets? More death? More entertainment for the Ringmaster?  I dreaded to discover the answer.

[LEVEL FOUR] the Ringmaster spoke, dragging out the vowels as if he was savoring the taste of the word. [WILL BE A SIMPLE GAME]

I raised my head from where I knelt, in the same position throughout the entire box-elevator journey upwards. My legs ached, but the dull pain in my chest throbbed worse. The image of Byunghee’s cooling body still burned on the back of my eyelids every time I closed my eyes.

Who in times like this could think of games?

“Say it,” Thunder spoke quietly. His tone was soft, but firm. Like a thinly shaped knife, needle-shaped and barely visible, yet deadly once used. “What goal must we complete?”

[EAGER ARE WE?] The Ringmaster chuckled. 

Thunder replied with silence.

The Ringmaster sighed and pointed to the ceiling. I looked up and for the first time properly soaked in my surroundings. The previous floors had fluctuated in size from the tiny flooded chamber to the never-ending maze of chairs and wooden stage. But this floor was simply enormous. The floor was sandy like that of level 3 but whereas the floor below had been ringed with empty stone spectator seats, level 4 was draped in a striped red and white fabric with tall, wooden pillars that towered over us. 

“It’s a tent,” Thunder said simply. 

[THE PROPER TERM IS THE ‘BIG TOP’] The Ringmaster informed us. 

And then it struck me. Those huge tents which held the main carnival shows, tall and proud and regal. Only we were inside the tent, and judging it’s the scale was difficult, but the thick fabric stretched for miles. From here even I could not make out the tip of the tent.

[THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: REACH THE TOP OF THIS TENT USING WHATEVER METHODS NECESSARY. AT THE TOP IS A GOLDEN STRING. PULL IT AND YOU COMPLETE THIS LEVEL]

“How do we climb this thing?” I stared. “Fly?”

Thunder shook his head. “There are ladders." He pointed to the pillars, and to the fringes of the tent. "And if you squint, you can see ropes and platforms further up. It’s seems more like an obstacle course to me.”

I squinted. “Ah.” A spindly white ladder was attached to one of the long wooden poles that stretched up with the tent. It didn’t look sturdy.

“It sounds too easy,” I frowned.

“You think climbing those ropes are going to be easy?” Thunder commented and pointed at the tensed rope that spanned the length of one pillar to another.

“Are we tight rope walkers or game players?” I grumbled. Thunder walked over and held out a hand to me. I grabbed it gratefully and he pulled me upwards, my stiff legs protesting. “Where’s Mir?”

“There,” Thunder pointed to my left.

Mir was still kneeling, staring at his hands. He looked shell-shocked.

“Mir,” I walked over and tapped his shoulder. He didn’t respond. “Mir, we’ve got a game to play.”

I bent down to look him in the face. Despite being eye to eye, I could tell he wasn’t looking at me.He was looking at something more distant, more unattainable. 

“Mir, let’s go,” I urged him. “You promised Byunghee you’d continue one, didn’t you?”

His eyes refocused at Byunghee’s name. “Hyung…” he whispered.

“Please Mir,” I tapped his cheek. “Let’s go.”

“Hyung…” he said. “How could we leave them behind? Their bodies…” He looked down at his hands and it was only then that I realized they were encrusted with Byunghee’s dried blood. Mir must have spent the entire trip up with the smell of Byunghee’s death all over him.

“Mir, we can’t do anything about that anymore,” I said gently, tearing a scrap of my shirt off and using it to wipe Mir’s hands. “We can only look forwards.”

“I can still see him if I close my eyes,” Mir whispered. “The moment where he slid his knife into his own chest.”

“I see him too,” I said simply.

“If- if I could change things…”

“You would what? Die in his stead?” Thunder spoke in a tone of iron and steel. “Byunghee wouldn’t have wanted that. Everything he did on level 3. That was to ensure you would live.”

Mir raised his head to stare at Thunder. His eyes were rimmed red.

“Stand up Mir,” Thunder spoke in a commanding tone. “Stand up and fight.”

It was my turn to stare at Thunder. Where had that soft-spoken side of him gone? Then it struck me. That side of him hadn’t vanished; rather he had originally been like this. My memory flickered by to the first time the five of us met and his initial response to the Ringmaster. Soft snarls, eyes like chips of hardened diamond. His innocence had masked it later, made me forget that this boy was originally capable of violence. Both sides belonged to the boy called Thunder, and both sides were equally foreign to me right now. 

“Ringmaster,” Thunder spoke in a calm, but firm voice. “I want to make a deal with you.”

Mir POV

I could only stare at Thunder’s spectacle. He stood, back straight and eyes like fire.

[OH?] The Ringmaster who had been watching us with the eye of an amused spectator spoke. [WHAT SORT OF DEAL?]

“I don’t know what sort of wish the old me asked for, but I’m asking you to grant a different wish now. That if we complete all seven levels, you will give us back the bodies of our comrades and show your true self to us.”

[AND WHY WOULD I HONOR SUCH A GREEDY REQUEST?]

“Because maybe then I won’t feel so inclined to kill you,” Thunder snarled, uncharacteristically vicious. “I’ve had it with you. You half-grant our wishes and then you claim you own our lives? Are we that cheap that we’re so easily bought?!”

[YOU ARE THE ONES WHO AGREED TO THE CONTRACT I OFFERED] The Ringmaster said levelly. [ARE YOU SO CHEAP SO AS TO GO BACK ON WHAT YOU ONCE AGREED TO?]

“We are when a half-assed offer is made with more than honesty on the line, yes.”

Where had this Thunder come from? The Thunder I knew was one who had always lingered in the background. Given Changsun’s death and subsequently Byunghee’s sacrifice, I hadn’t given Thunder much thought other than for his safety in those thorny cages the level before. Like clouds, he was slow to build up the electricity, the crackling and the sparks background noise until his full fury was unleased, a godly white arc of pure anger.

[I THINK THUNDER,] The Ringmaster replied slowly, slow with lazy calm rather than for an unwillingness to answer. [YOU MAY CHANGE YOUR MIND WHEN YOU DO FIND OUT YOUR REAL WISH]

Thunder blanched.

I stood. “Thunder, enough,” I put a hand on his shoulder. He turned, his eyes dark with something unidentifiable. “I’m climbing with you guys. I don’t know what my wish is either, but right now it’s to continue living.”

The corners of Thunder’s mouth tilted downwards, in disappointment or sadness I would never know, but his shoulders drooped and I took it as a sign of assent.

I turned to the Ringmaster. “But I agree with Thunder’s request. If we complete the Coliseum, can we have Changsun and Byunghee’s bodies back?”

The Ringmaster looked intrigued. [WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH MERE BODIES?]

I frowned. “Bury them of course. They deserve that at least.”

The Ringmaster remained perplexed. [I DON’T UNDERSTAND…] he murmured. [VERY WELL. IF YOU COMPLETE ALL SEVEN LEVELS I WILL GRANT THIS WISH. BUT ONLY IF THAT REMAINS YOUR WISH AT THE END OF THESE GAMES]

It sounded like he thought our minds would change drastically once we found out what our original wishes were. Did he believe them to be that focal that everything else would pale in comparison once we remembered?

Had that been the case for Changsun? For Byunghee?

Had Changsun’s desire for revenge mattered more than his love for his brother? Had Byunghee’s wish to repay what he owed to Changsun towered higher than his own life?

In that case, would my wish matter more than giving those two the respect they were due?

[IF THAT IS ALL, YOU THREE HAVE A GAME TO FINISH] the Ringmaster interrupted my thoughts brusquely. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said his hologram eyes were filled with amusement, as if he thought our attempts to go against our wishes were futile. [CLIMB TO THE TOP, PULL THE ROPE, AND SHOW ME THAT YOU CAN INDEED COMPLETE THESE GAMES]

And in a swirl of blackness, he vanished.

“Let’s go,” I said determinedly. I would not let the Ringmaster win.

“Right,” Seungho returned my nod. He stared at the closest pillar. Steel pegs were embedded in equal distances up the pillar, forming a rudimentary ladder. It was one of the many one each of the supporting stands that held this tent up. To the sides were thin, gossamer rope ladders. They looked fragile.

Seungho put one foot to a steel peg, testing its propensity for holding our weight, and it held. “Let me go first,” Seungho said and started climbing.

He got about one meter up when a growl game from behind us, and Thunder and I turned to see a pair of luminous gold eyes appear out of thin air. They glimmered, and the remaining body formed. Miles of velvety butterscotch fur ending in a slim, lashing tail. Muscular limbs that gave way to finely padded paws tipped with lethal looking black claws. And the eyes that led to a strong, angular snout.

A lioness.

She gave us a long, lingering stare and paced back and forth, swerving but never taking her eyes off Thunder and I.

 “Guys, what are you waiting for?” Seungho looked down to see why we were still on the ground. "Hurry up-" Then he saw the creature and stopped speaking, but it was too late. The lioness snapped her attention to him. She let out a roar, revealing dark pink gums lined with sharp, jagged, white teeth.The sounded resounded across the large space, shaking me to my very core. 

Then, she snapped her maw close, tensed her leg muscles and pounced.