The Pretenders
The 'Trump' Game
THE TRUMP GAME
CHAPTER 1
~*~*~ {T} {H} {E} {P} {R} {E} {T} {E} {N} {D} {E} {R} {S} ~*~*~
~Oh! I think a game will start again my friends…
My ‘Arbiter’ be ready for another exciting game…
The Game is easy…
Yet there is no turning back…
Poor girls… Poor boys…
Being played like a human-game pieces…
By yours truly—The ‘Game Master’ together with my Arbiters~
There’s a silence in the room. From a deep slumber, a cold-hearted princess wakes up, our first pretender. Let’s guess who is next? Adjusting herself, or let’s say their selves to the darkness. Should she, or they, really need do that? If all the things they need to see are blinded with this black silk cloth covering their eyes.
The princess listens to her surroundings. Nothing. Is this the result on her recent mission. *drip, drop, drip, drop* She only hears the pouring of water. Rain she thought. Maybe she’s in a room with a metal roof. At least, she’s not deaf. “What is this? Where am I?” she thought. She didn’t want to scream or to move.
She felt different. She wants to stand up, but to tired try. Or she just can’t feel anything. Then, atlast, her numb hands felt the tightness of the rope. Not just her hands but also her feet. She was tied. But who tied her?
~You have too many questions… Sooyeon? Don’t worry you’ll understand this later on~
She is sitting in a chair, a soft chair, like those chair sited by the emperors and empresses. She rested her head and closed her eyes, as she tried to recall what really happened to her before she got to this place.
~It is not just a place ice princess… This will be your heaven palace if you agreed with me. But if you don’t, Hahaha… This will be your hell ~
She felt a gushed of a cold wind, not as cold as her. “Am I alone? Or am I with someone? Argghh! I don’t know” she said to the back of her mind trying to find the answer to what she just felt.
~No… no… no, my little ice doll… You’re not alone… and forever… You won’t be~
“Hello?” a girl softly said. She seemed to be a little shy. But could she still be the shy-typed one when this game started.
“Hi” a young man’s suave voice replied.
“I’m with someone? “They all thought. Yes, All of them…
At least she felt secured at that very moment. But she also felt a shiver in her spine. There’s something happening here.
“Who are you?” the girl firmly said.
“Who are you?” he mockingly answered.
“Seriously I wa—“
“Oh please you two. Shut up!” said by a stranger voice, a girl’s voice.
~ Oh! What a bossy girl~
“Haha. Whoever said that, thank you” another voice butts in. A guy’s voice, I guess.
“Ahhh, you mess it up! I want to listen to their conversation.” whined by another voice.
Seriously, who are these people?
~Do you really want to know?~
Then a dead silence engulfed them. Not sure if they are still safe talking to each other.
“How many are we in here?” A deep voiced man questioned.
“Are we playing query in here? I want to join too.” Another new voice excitedly said.
“Ohh, You’re so excited little boy. I like that.” Another girl seductively said. Biting her lips and smirking in the darkness, as if she sees everything. Ironically they are all blindfolded.
“Oh please! The first question of the earlier man, the answer is I, or we, don’t even know. The question by I-like-query-guy, the answer is w-e’-r-e n-o-t playing here!” The bossy girl said.
“Owww, bossy-sissy-sassy girl.” Another smirk escaped to the other girl.
~Like to , do you? Let’s see if you can still after this~
“Uggggghhh---“
What a nice conversation…
“Please before you started a fight again, let’s just count ourselves” Another young man’s voice said as he emphasized the word ‘again’.
“Oh, a new boy! Tell me how lover boy? How can we count ourselves when we are all blindfolded and tied?” that girl again? I think she really loves to seduce.
~Seduce? Good Idea…~
“Easy! First, the boys then the girls!”
Good idea… or maybe not? All I want to do is sleep in my room and forget this nightmare.
“I will start…1” the boy who suggested started. Then another dead silence.
“2” said by the first man who owned the suave voice.
“3, I guess” said by the second man who butts in earlier in what the bossy girl said.
“4!” shouted by the I-like-query-guy.
“You don’t need to shout. 5” The deep voiced man boringly said.
So there are 5 boys…
“Okay next is us, 1!” said by the girl who whined earlier.
“I want to be 1. Well 2 said by these y girl” said by the seductress.
“3” the bossy said firmly.
“fo-four” The first girl said shyly.
Another dead silence engulfed them.
“I guess we’re 4 ---“
“…5…” I finally said. “We’re five”
Then again a dead silence engulfs all of them.
“So… I guess we’re ten then.” Said by the girl who seemed to be shy
“Seriously, this is bull! My body really hurts. And… Argghh! I can’t remember anything before I came here… here in this… place seems like hell!” She said to her mind as she tried to reminisce what happened. And for Pete’s sake she felt like an asylum patient right now! Or even worse than that!
Finally, she heard a sound. Not something came from the other nine people there. ~Are you sure it’s nine people only, Nine pretenders? ~ A sound of a light that was opened. How did she found out? You don’t know her identity. And everyone will know it’s a light because on those silky black cloths, they still saw something bright that lit up the darkness that their eyes had just experience, in addition, its switch sound and flickering sounds.
At least, someone this light bulb light. But who turned the light on?
`~Me~
“Who the light?!” the seductress panicky stated.
“How could we know, if the ten of us are all blinded?! My Goodness! Duh!” growled by the bossy one.
~Taeyeon, still bossy ah? Still calm? My dorky kid leader… ~
“Shhhhhh”
“Okay, I am serious who sheesh in my ears?! Like seriously!” She said again this time they imagine how she got crazy.
“No one sheesh in you. I think we’re all tied up here. So, none of us do that. Right guys?” said by an energetic calm voice.
~Still energetic ha, Miyoung~
“Yeah…” They all said.
~Hahaha… You really think so…~
“Ouch…” Someone pulled her hair or her head. She said as she let out a whisper high-pitched growl. “Aahhh!” she tried to adjust her eyes from the bright light bulb on top of her, them. She wants to rub her itchy eyes. Adjusting your eyes from darkness is hard to do, you know. But for her, it is something that she was used to; especially it’s her requirement to her job, her past job.
As soon as her eyes adjusted from the contrast of the light of the flickering light bulb and the darkness of the room. She travels her eyes in the room, even larger than what she thought. She saw the other nine still adjusting their eyes, while some of them still closed their eyes for them not to see the bright light. They are in a circle formation sitting in their thrones. She let her cold eyes examined the faces of the other nine. She doesn’t know any of them.
Around her left corner, she caught something moving. Or let’s say she sensed something… ‘heavily breathing’.”A person with a black mask covering its face in black suit and cape” she analyzed. How?
~Using your old job here Sooyeon? A good tactic!~
Then, just like she said in her mind, a person, with its still undefined gender, step out the dark towards them which visible his or her figure. The mysterious man is exactly in her left side, about two thrones away from her. The ‘person’ walks towards the in a likely feminine way. She looks to him directly. Yes your right… him. “That person is a guy” she smirked still not removing her eyes to that ‘person’.
She looks at her companions; they are also looking at him, except for the girl wearing white clothes. “A nurse…” she thought examining the innocent nurse. “A stiff-neck…” she chuckled and said to her mind, still checking the girl. Well…
“Wh-who are you?!” Oh that voice, the seductress. A charming-looking lady…
~You don’t need to be afraid Yoona, it doesn’t even start yet. But Arghh! Your high-pitched voice is so annoying at the same time excites me~
“…”
“She said who you are?!” a boy in suit nervously, but at the same time determinedly shouted.
~Oh Kibummie my dear, who loves to mock, defending his childhood crush… ehh?~
“! Are you mute or what?! Who are you?” said by another man in manly suit.
~Tsk… tsk… Oh please Jung Su… the boy who always butts in and curses. But behind those dirty tricks are a dumb heart and mind~
“Mister, Can you tell us who you are?” finally, our ice princess said something.
The mysterious man smirked inside his black mask.
“Ehh?! He’s a guy?! But girl in black leather jacket, she walks like a girl!”
~I though being a gamer will make you an intelligent boy, Kyuhyun… I never thought that you’re also dumb, being fooled easily by what you see~
She smirked at the guy who seemed to be a little childish, and then switched her empty-looking eyes to the mysterious man. “Smirking under that black mask ‘Mister’? Enjoying what you see? You can’t fool me, you know?” she calmly said.
~Seems to be you’re very confident? Ahhh… of course, you are!~
“Tsk” that’s the only word (but it seems like an expression) that escaped the covered face of the mysterious man. “You always impress me, ice princess…” he added.
~Oh! It seems like all your blood got drained, ice princess. What happened? Got shocked from what your ‘Arbiter’ stated? Why? Isn’t it the truth?... Poor ice princess…~
‘Ice princess’…
‘Ice princess’…
‘Ice princess’…
Did he just call her by her nickname, her codename? Even though she was shocked and silently nervous, she remained calm, poise, restrain, repose and emotionless. She looks directly to those two holes in the black mask, which lets the man’s hazelnut brown eyes be clear to be seen. Those looks are not just looks; those are her famous cold but deathly glares. Her heart… beating like she just ran a kilometer. *thump, thump… thump, thump… thump, thump…* She still heard those loud thumps. “” she thought.
“Hmmpp… It seems like our ice princess locked her jaw.” Once again they smirked to each other. Is this a smirking battle or what?
A tensed atmosphere, that is the only thing they felt. If I am not mistaken, the darkness of the room in contrast with the brightness of the flickering bulb, mixed with the one-word ‘silence’ adds the tension to the place. It feels like hell for some of them.
Even though he is mask, he still managed to do a lock eye contact with her. At last! They stop glaring and smirking to each other. He just gave up, but it doesn’t mean he wants to. He just want to stop they’re infinite eye contact, because if he continue it… he don’t know if he can control his feelings anymore.
This stupid feeling, he kept it for about ten years already. But that is another story. This is not his story. He just wants to protect her that is why he agreed with the ‘Game Master’.
~My ‘Arbiter’, is being betrayed once again by his weak-minded emotion… Poor you, I guess~
“Ehem…” a new voice echoed the room. “A recorded voice…” The owner of the voice came nearer, together with its tippy-tappy sounds. *tip, tap… tip, tap… tip, tap…* “Who is it? Is it even a she or a he?” thoughts of the newcomer mingled their minds. They don’t know.
They tried to find the owner of the voice and the sound. They look to their left, to their right… everywhere. But only she didn’t bother to do so. Why should she bother? She is sure that it will be visible in just a snap.
But the sound still continues. *tip, tap… tip, tap… tip, tap…* “Don’t bother to look for her.” She coldly said, who else the ice princess.
“Her?” the owner of the suave-voice said.
She remains her posture and takes a look the person who just spoken, without bothering to turn her head. She doesn’t need to do that, if the boy, who talked to her, is in her right side. “She’s walking about three meters radius from us, encircling us actually. Don’t need to look for her. She will appear don’t worry. She’s just observing us, she’s watching us if we will react to what she’s doing.” She once again replied, with her monotonous voice.
“Eh?” They said in chorus.
She deeply inhaled, and let out a deep sigh. “How can they have such a narrow mind?” she said. “She’s watching us. She’s trying to deceive us by making a trick. A trick… she’s encircling us to let us hear her shoes sound, her heels tippy-tappy sounds. And let’s us thought that this is a very large room. When this about approximately 1000 square meters, and the light can only lit at a radius of two meters from the center, which is the light bulb. And we are at 1.2 meters radius from the light bulb, and that mysterious masked man is approximately 1.5-1.6 meter from the center. That explains the logic of her trick. Isn’t it, mystery girl?” she said looking straight ahead of her.
~Hahaha… You caught me once again Sooyeon…~
“Hahaha” she let out a medium-toned sinister laugh. *claps, claps, claps* “You surely impress me darling. That is why I don’t think twice in letting you join my ‘game’” she once again said in somewhat a recorded voice and she let out a dark chuckled. As she step out the darkness directly to where she is sitting. Smirked escape the mysterious girl’s lips, while her whole face is covered with a mask… a mask like those in masquerade parties. Glittering as the light strikes its designs with feathers in its end… it looks like a mask in masquerade mask but her whole face is covered unlike those parties’ masks. Her elegant dress flowing freely to her body, but a large black cape covers her dress with its large hat. She looks like a creepy queen… a scary princess… an evil witch… and a night baroness.
Still clapping, seems like she is really impressed by the cold girl’s statement.
“I’m flattered… now tell me, who are ‘you’?”
“Yours truly the ‘Game Master’ and he is my ‘Arbiter’.” She said as she pointed to this so-called ‘Arbiter’.
“And you are my human-game pieces…
“I’ll call you…”
“The ‘Raven’…”
“Describing your darkest past life…
“Your evil doings…”
“And your black disguises…”
“So, Raven…”
“Are you ready for the…”
“‘Trump Game’?”
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