Young Writers Society

The prisoner, Jacob, pried at Skull’s hands and tried to roll out of his grip, whimpering and making vague sounds of protest as he did.

Another android game a little too close and he panicked, slamming his open palm into its face. It’s head snapped backward and it stumbled a few steps before falling dead on the ground, almost falling on top of Fidel, who was yanked out of the way by Megara.

They got up the stairs into an open hallway with rooms branching out on one side, and a view of the top of a great haze of steam with the occasional tower or floating airship out the windows on the other.

Megara slipped past with Fidel in tow and motioned for silence as she pressed her ear against one of the doors before opening it.

Inside was an extravagant but not large bedroom, decked out in lacy black and red with an ornate vanity and a four poster bed.

She went inside.

Kirux and I followed her, the guy in my arms struggling all the while. I dropped him down onto the bed with renewed gusto - the quicker I could get away from that incredibly strong hand, the better.

Kirux looked down at him, and then up at me.

He was giving me a disapproving look. If it had come from Asmira or Nathaniel, I wouldn't have regretted the makeshift rescue operation for even a second. But seeing that look on Kirux's face made me feel genuinely guilty for not trying to explain things more to the prisoner - there was just something so innocent about it.

I went back beside the bed, towering over the guy I had saved.

"We really aren't the bad guys here," I said, offering him my best, nonexistent comforting smile. "I don't even look like this normally. You saw me earlier, actually - I was the guy who touched your shoe, possessed you, and then hopped onto the guard next to you."

I thought for a second.

"Speaking of which, can you put my body down?" I asked Kirux. He hesitantly did as requested, setting it down on the bed next to the prisoner. I took another metaphorical deep breath and touched my body.

A second later, I was myself - looking up at a robot guard that definitely hadn't shut itself off. I started to give a word of warning, but then Kirux stopped it with his giant key.

"There," I said, rolling over so I was facing the prisoner, "you see?"

Jacob started at him in shock and terror.

Megara sat down on the bed next to him. She had put her knife down on the vanity, so she now looked as harmless as any little blonde girl in a frilly black dress could.

“Allow me to explain,” she said, her voice suddenly innocent enough to match her features, “I’m Megara,” She gestured to Fidel, “That’s Fidel, he’s a doctor,” she gestured to Kirux, “That’s Kirux, he can’t speak but I promise he’s sweet. And the robot is Skull,” she didn’t bother gesturing to him, “I have a few personal problems with him, but he’s not going to hurt you.”

She offered her hand for him to shake.

He took it hesitantly, “I’m Jacob,” he said slowly.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Megara responded with a genuine-appearing smile, “You see, all of us are from different worlds -save Fidel and I-, so would you mind explaining, exactly, where we are and, if you can, how we came to be here?”

Jacob stared at her, then Skull, then the others in turn until his eyes landed back on her.

“You are in the palace,” he said, a thick and unfamiliar accent flavoring his voice, “You appear to have been arrested. That is all I know.”

"That's helpful," I said - still secretly seething at how she was portraying herself. I was older than she'd ever be; she was trying to play the innocent damsel while making me the villain of the group.

I crossed my arms and rolled over, gaze drifting over to the row of pillows on my side of the bed. "I'm the one who thought of rescuing you instead of leaving you with all of those robots," I said. "Just wanted to point that out before you start thinking I'm some horrible robot."

Jacob took a while to process...well, everything.

“Thank you,” he said to Skull, “But your efforts are in vein. I’m scheduled to die tomorrow, and I mustn’t be late.”

Megara stared at him, unable to form a response to that.

Fidel stepped forward, “Sorry to interrupt, but Meg? I have to check your bandages. You were fighting pretty hard out there and I’m not sure how your wounds fared.”

In keeping with the character she was portraying to be herself, she gestured for Fidel to sit next to her. He did so and halted suddenly, looked around, and got back up. He grabbed Megara’s knife off the vanity and used it to cut down the drapes that adorned the bed, and then again to cut it into long strips.

“Bandages,” he explained, sitting back down and laying a row of the newly cut cloth neatly across his lap.

Megara nodded and he got to work unwinding the bloodstained bandages that were already tight around her arm.

I rolled back over and stared at him.

"And why do you want to die tomorrow?" I asked, giving him my best robotic look of disbelief. A short distance away, Kirux stared at the three of us on the bed with wide, shocked eyes.

Jacob shook his head, "No, you don't understand, it is scheduled, so I must go."

Megara hissed in pain as Fidel pulled on the bandage where the dried blood had stuck it to the wound. "Sorry," he muttered and tried to be more gentle.

A moment later, Fidel sighed and placed a hand gently on Megara's shoulder, "Please, relax."

Megara resisted the urge to glare as she did as she was told. Unfortunately, her eyes fell onto her still-shackled wrists. She quickly looked away.

Kirux, seeming to notice that Megara's wrists were still shackled, made his key appear again. There was the same light as before, and then her shackles suddenly fell off of her wrists.

I would have been questioning his magical key a little more if I wasn't so appalled by Jacob's insistence on needing to die. Joke as I might have with Lucy about letting her friends and clients meet their untimely demises, I didn't honestly mean it - I knew she'd always ignore what I said. It was what we did - I'd banter, and she'd ignore or retort.

But this was different.

"Do you know what happens when you die, kid?" I asked.

Jacob shook his head, "Does not matter. It is scheduled."

Megara rubbed her wrist with her free hand, sighing in relief.

"Thank you," she said to Kirux, then turned her attention to Jacob, "What do you mean 'it's scheduled'? Why does that mean you have to go through with it?"

He looked at her. His eyes locked on her arm.

They widened, "What did you do to your arm!?" he exclaimed.

She grimaced, "I asked you a question first, answer me and I'll answer you." That was a blatant lie, but she sold it perfectly as the rest of this act.

Jacob calmed down, glancing occasionally at her wounded arm as he spoke, "It is scheduled," he repeated, "I follow the schedule. It is the rules."

"The rules?" Megara winced as Fidel removed the last of the bandage, revealing the gruesome sight that was her arm.

Jacob became again distressed, "Your arm!" he reminded her, louder than was comfortable.

She flinched, earning a look from Fidel. She glared, thinking she'd earned it at this point.

"I got in a fight," she said, which was true-ish, "It got ugly, I was thrown out a window, blah blah blah. I'm fine."

"You're not fine," Fidel corrected her as he finished examining the wound and wound the fresh bandage around it, just tight enough to be uncomfortable.

"I'm fine," she insisted.

"You were half dead when I found you. You would be dead if I hadn't."

She rolled her eyes and turned back to Jacob, "What were those rules you were talking about?"

He hesitated.

"What rules?" I hissed. My voice had been lacking emotion ever since I ended up as a robot, but I liked to think I conveyed some of my irritation with the way my voice rise and fell.

"And it does matter what happens when you die," I said. I leaned a little closer to him. The air - unintentionally - grew just a bit colder as I looked right into his eyes. "Do you want to be stuck between life or death, kid?"

Jacob swallowed hard and shifted away from Skull, fear again flooding his eyes.

"The rules!" he exclaimed, again, far too loudly, as if they were supposed to just know what he meant. As if he were saying something like 'the shop' or 'the road'. Like it was supposed to be common knowledge.

Fidel finished patching up Megara's arm and shifted back to lean against the bedpost, "Alright, that'll work for now," he said to her, "How does it feel?"

She looked at him and frowned, "Fine," she said simply and turned to Kirux.

They weren't getting anything out of Jacob at the moment, and she had questions for the mute.

"You said you knew me earlier," she said, trying not to sound accusatory, "You called me something else, not my name. What did you mean by all that?"

Kirux's gaze dropped down to the ground, and the key disappeared from his hands as quickly as it had appeared.

"I thought that was your name," he signed. His movements seemed almost sad, but I couldn't quite explain why. "That's what you said it was the last time we met..."

I cleared my throat.

"We can worry about that later," I interrupted. "We have bigger fish to fry - like why this idiot over here wants to kill himself."

I jabbed Jacob's scrawny body with a finger. If he wasn't set to already die, he looked like he was going to kick the bucket any day now-

I stared at his thin figure.

He wasn't just scrawny - he was malnourished. I felt a pang of sympathy I wasn't supposed to feel for him. I had been stupidly loyal back then, too, and look where that had gotten me - more than a century of haunting my skull while it was stuck in a jar.

"What are these 'rules' you keep going on about?" I asked. I sat up. Seeing that he was still laying down - probably too scared of me to sit up without my approval - I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up, too. "We're not from this world, remember? We don't get why you have to die - but I can tell you right now that whatever reason you have for it is stupid. You don't just waste the life you're given - you don't even have a gray hair yet!"

Jacob was still visibly panicky as he shook his head again, more vigorously this time, "The Rules. The King's Rules. I am a servant. I am a traitor. My death is scheduled!"

His voice rose and rose until Megara was sure someone outside the room could hear him.

Her knife was still next to Fidel. She was tempted to grab it and silence him permanently, but she refrained from doing so. She didn't want to get possessed again.

Instead, she took on a soothing tone and tried to calm Jacob down.

"You can break the schedule, you know," she said calmingly, "You don't have to die."

She wished he would. Dead men didn't bother her. Dead men didn't tell loud enough for the guards to hear when they were trying to hide. Dead men were convenient.

I groaned.

"What kind of a traitor are you?" I asked. "You can't just traitor and then go back running to the guy you traitored for forgiveness. What did you do to anger your king?"

Jacob flushed.

"No no no," she shook his head wildly, "I mustn't say. Mustn't tell. The King says so. Traitors are to be silent. Traitors are to die. It is the rules. It is scheduled."

Megara considered the knife again. Slashing his throat wouldn't even be that hard. That arm of his would be a problem if she gave him time to respond, but she planned to do no such thing.

"Breaking to rules isn't so hard," she said, her soothing tone wavering, "Just tell us what you did. You're already scheduled to die, your fate can't get worse by breaking more rules." It could. She knew it could. For a lot of people, she was the reason it could.

Jacob calmed down again, slowly, he mulled it over.

He bowed his head, "I tried to take the young prince," he admitted quietly, as if afraid the gods would hear.