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Scar stood still in shock. She was dead, he killed her. Or at least that was what Grian’s voice said. Which was impossible as Grian was dead. They were all dead. Every single one. And he was fine with that. He was the villain after all. They all hated him and look where that got them. Dead. He was happy, he won and he wasn’t lonely at all. Well not any lonelier than he was when they were alive. And now there was no one trying to kill him. He made his way over to The Secret Keeper and pressed the succeed button. He never would have thought he would win, maybe make it to the end but not be the last. Like something that happened before. (No it couldn’t have, he would remember if he had a life outside of this death game.) The button flashed as it did every other time before yet his injuries weren’t healed and he just got another message telling him to win secret life. It was odd. He should be free to leave or something he thought. It dawned on him that they were never told what the prize was, maybe he was stuck here, alone, with only his guilt to keep him company.
He was on his way home when a stray creeper snuck up on him and he, being barely alive after the final battle, died. That probably should have been the end, in fact it usually was. Famously so. But it wasn’t. One second he was sprinting away from a mob and the next he was in some sort of blank room. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. There wasn’t much in the room, only a bed and a door. It felt more like a prison cell than a bedroom but when he tried it the door didn’t seem to be locked. The hall wasn’t much better, having a slightly different shade of grey than the room. It wasn’t particularly dark but he could see a light coming from under a door a few metres away. Before he thought about it he opened the door and looked inside to see someone in a red poncho, more suited to the desert than the grey rooms they were in now. His room was the same as Scar’s but it had been personalised with posters of a tower in a desert and pictures of the man with a llama and someone who looked like Scar (yet surely Scar would remember being in a desert). There was a worn brown piece of fabric over the end of the bed, stained with a red liquid that Scar hoped wasn’t blood. The man that Scar forgot about turned around and Scar realised who he was. It was Grian.
“So you’re finally here,” Grian smiled almost sadly.
“What?” Scar was confused, “Where exactly are we?”
“The winner’s area Scar, you won.”
“Why are you here if it’s for winners, you didn’t win, right?”
“I won the first of these games, I’ve been stuck here ever since,” he paused before continuing, “Well unless they want me to participate in a game.”
“Sorry what? There’s been-” Scar felt a headache coming on from all this information, “There’s been more of whatever that was?”
“Yes.”
“No, no no no, I would remember if that happened before. There’s no way- no, no way.” Scar looked over at the picture frame again, noticing how the man with Grian did seem to be him, the resemblance felt odd to him as he didn’t remember being such a concerning shade of grey.
“That’s Pizza,” Grian had noticed him looking at the frame.
“What?”
“Your llama, in the first games,” Grian smiled softly as if he was remembering a calmer time, “Before everything hit the fan. God you loved that llama, I was sure that you cared for it more than me.” He paused before continuing, “ We won together, you know, even if only in my heart. We were the last two, until…”
“You killed me.”
“Yeah, I killed you.”
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He bowed, “You may slay me and take the Enchanter.”
“No I can’t, no I literally can’t, I can’t do it. Can we just win together?” The other man stood still as if listening to voices only he could hear, “No, the spectators want a fight.”
“If we are to duel, can we at least do it at Pizza’s grave?”
“No armour, fists only?”
“In the circle of cactus.”
“No matter what happens, we can claim this as a double victory, right?”
3
2
1
GO
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“Oh God,” Scar felt his legs give out from underneath him, “I remember, not everything, but the cactus ring, Pizza, the desert, enough. He felt Grian lead him over to the bed and he let himself sit down next to the man.
“It’s alright, take your time, I’ll be here for you, however long it takes.” Grian moved closer to Scar.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”