Chapter 1
Neila
Their hands were reaching for air. Who knows how long they’ve been submerged?
Jake.
It took too long to get here. Lights above buzzed orange against the blinding yellow sand. My pants were drenched and dripping from wading through the swampy forest. I knew I had been running for a while, but not enough time to transcend regional climates.
The sight in front of me was horrible. All of the runaways who overcame the first challenge before I did were in front of me. Some were still running. A majority fell victim to the quicksand. It swallowed them.
My head was pounding hard in my ears and my muscles tensed to start running. I didn’t have time to waste standing and staring at the hopeless scene. I took a step and then fell to my knees.
I couldn’t possibly run knowing that the same decision caused this. The kids swimming and drowning trying frantically to get themselves out though they know it’s impossible. Eventually the sound of my wheezing overcame the beating in my head.
Gryffin was right. These games were going to kill me. I never stood a chance. Gryffin was nowhere to be seen. Already succeeded, no doubt, standing smug and confident right before the finish line, relaxed just like the unfazed runaway was.
That word “runaways” made me clench my teeth. If I didn’t play by their rules, they’d only continue harassing us. They’d never leave us alone. By subjecting myself to this hell, I was officially indicted. I was one of them. The council of Runaways aimed to eliminate the weak. Only those who survived became clan leaders. Only those who completed the challenges could take a seat at the council.
Sticking around meant earning the title of runaway. If defacing myself publicly and watching helplessly as kids just like me disappear beneath the surface without a trace, then I don’t want it.
A cry disappeared behind a scream when I saw a hand no bigger than Cara’s poking out of the smooth sand surface. My heart beat once, twice, and the disembodied hand lost all semblance of life.
It wasn’t my choice. I vividly remembered being thoughtless when I did it. I crawled on all fours towards the hand just as I felt the ground beneath me turn into liquid. My elbows sank in first, before my fear dug my knees painfully into the sand behind me and I pushed with all the strength in my body to get back out of the vat of water masquerading as sand.
Panting, I stared out at the feeble hand. I cried in defeat when it was clear I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t save her. I rolled over on my back and gazed up at the humming orange lights suspended by the ceiling.
It’s devilish how these kids can think of the most inventive ways to kill each other.
My wounded gaze turned into a glare as determination surged through my body. I turned my head towards the lifeless hand, and I knew what I had to do. What I had to sacrifice.
I reached out for the hand with my own. My hand dipped into the water. It was no surprise that nothing happened, nothing changed.
Then, I saw trickles of water running up my hand and my arm, the way it does in the shower but in reverse. I pulled at something invisible, and the water followed. The more I exerted myself, the more the water moved out of the quicksand and ran away down the dunes of sand. The vat began to empty and dry out. Everyone inside was pulled down with it.
I looked away. It became clear to me that I invoked something I didn’t know how to stop. The water ran over my skin past me, but it had a different plan. Just like I pulled and yanked at the entity, it began to pull back. I asked for a favor, and now it had one of its own to demand of me.
The water wrapped around my wrist like the grip of a victim of drowning. It felt as real and hard as a living thing. The water stopped running off. I ordered it to vacate its previous vessel, but here I was, as good a vessel as any.
The water covered my entire body, spreading out frivolously until it ran out of room, and then my skin welcomed it in. It wasn’t moisture like lotion or cream, but it sank into my skin faster than any product for sale.
At first it felt refreshing. It was replenishing what I’d already lost, but when those were recovered it began searching for more places to bury itself in.
I imagine the bodily pain was akin to that of a parasitic worm, making your body its own. My organs moved around and bumped painfully against themselves when they grew bloated beyond measure and everything internal became compact with liquid.
I squeezed my eyes shut. If I could have screamed, I would have. The veins under my tan skin grew blue and began to bulge. My appendages grew swollen, and my skin stretched and tore under the pressure. I was a balloon, but not one that could float away.
When I thought I reached capacity, I was sorely mistaken. I gasped for air because of everything weighing down my lungs, and then the water took them too. Like the break in a dam, all the water came rushing in.
I struggled with the internal battle waging war inside my body. I was alone. I was helpless. I was panicking.
I knew I wasn’t one who could grow old, but I didn’t think I would die young. I feared dying by suffocation. Now that I know I died by drowning, I could verify my fears were as bad as I anticipated.
As the sounds died down and my vision blurred, I had a moment of clarity in death. This was a sacrifice, but I didn’t know if I helped anything. Was anyone able to climb out and rescue themselves? If these were all runaways I was saving, were their lives even worth bartering over mine?
I didn’t ask to be kidnapped and forced to participate in the Rite of Runaways. I didn’t want to be a runaway, but here I was, dying for their cause.
But, even so, I’ve always been frustratingly myself. I didn’t believe what the runaways believed. I didn’t believe anyone needed to die, so I couldn’t just sit around and let it happen.
Jake knows I was living on borrowed time. Maybe life was just catching up with me.
I coughed and a trickle of water spit out and ran down the side of my face.
The pounding in my head never rested. I heard voices that didn’t belong to me bounce off my skull like an echo chamber. I saw the faces of the people I loved and the people I was leaving behind. Cara’s lifeless eyes. The view of Elion’s broad shoulders full of sorrow, just like the last time I saw him. The girl on fire. I had to survive all that tragedy just to end up like this.
Just like my brain, my heart was panicking. There was no more oxygen, but my heart was strong and just as stubborn as I was. It was working hard to no avail. My fists clenched as though clinging on to life with everything I had. At least, everything I had left.
In an out of body experience, I saw my poor lifeless body sprawled out on the sandy surface. One hand was laid out at my side and the other draped over my stomach. There was no rise and fall of my chest. I looked like a body washed up from the river. I looked grey and my lips were blue.
A hand reached out and shook my dead body tentatively, then with more force. Anyone with sense would have taken the cue to leave me and run off to fend for themselves. This one foolishly hooked onto a reason why it could not let me go. Not let me fall into nothingness.
Mumblings.
Mumblings were keeping me from resting. It was all so lost to me. The sounds were shapeless and unformed, as though overhearing a conversation through a closed door. It could not be opened. The path was ahead, and the door was not an option. Whatever sounds they were, they must not have been meant for me.
Neila.
I could hear it clearer now, even with my back turned to the door. On second glance, the door was cracked. The sounds were loud enough to draw me back. The name was calling me back.
Neila!
The blissful nothingness of life beyond the door was wrenched from me. I was taken like a hook through my pants and yanked back through the door and into my body. The pain was immediate, but I couldn’t scream because I was vomiting buckets of water.
The hand had rolled me over to my side to urge the water out. Smart girl. My lungs were on fire once I could finally wheeze. My throat felt like it was bleeding. If not, then it was definitely chafed. I rolled, exhausted, back on my back and gasped for air. The hand patted my cheek, making sure I didn’t drift past that glorious door.
My eyelids were heavy when I opened them to identify my savior. The hand I had mistaken for Cara’s belonged to Noah; the runaway I’d only just met hours before in line. We shared the bond of first-time competitors, lost and scared shitless upon enlistment.
I knew well the clan she represents weren’t expecting her to make it out of this alive. They all doomed her to fail, like offering a sacrifice to buy them more time before the same happens to them. All other competitors vying for a spot on that runaway council have been through this before. Noah’s my only kindred spirit, the only one who had as much to lose as I did.
I groaned. I thought I knew the limits of my mind, my body, and my resolve. After today I could confidently say that I was sorely inaccurate. My limbs had taken on excessive weight. Now that the water was running out of me, I felt like boiled noodles. I chanced a glance down at the sand under me only to find myself looking at the cast of my body molded into the granules beneath me.
I would have thought to feel embarrassed if I weren’t in shock over the fact that I was still alive.
Noah hoisted me onto my feet, perhaps too soon. I almost face planted both of us from my dead limbs and lack of balance, but Noah pushed back before I could drag her down. Now that I was standing, I was finally witness to just how many souls I’d saved during that selfless act of mercy. The runaways had dug themselves out of their early graves and were running straight towards the third and final challenge with no obstacles in their way.
After the mass slowdown at this junction, people who had little to no chance of scoring a seat at the runaway council were now filled with the newfound energy of feeling invincible.
As the two of us heaved forward, water continued dripping off of me. Noah surely noticed but said nothing. She was as serious about finishing this Rite as I was. Although I seemed to have survived the impossible, drowned while nowhere near the quicksand, she didn’t question it. Her focus was set.
I was astonished when I studied her expression. Surely that much generosity couldn’t all fit in such a small package. She was doing this without expecting anything in return. Lucky for her, too. I don’t take selfless actions lightly. Noah had no idea what possessing a favor from someone like me could buy her.
I’d tell her later. I still had a marathon to finish.
