Teen Ink

Life Doesn't Favour Me

Chapter Five
Voices. I could hear voices. But all I could see darkness. I let it envelope me, and I listened to the voices.
“What a great start to the competition…”
“Marriage…” “Vampires, Girly, Vampires…”
“Queen of the vamperic kingdom…”
“You get picked.”
“Ms Hammond?”
“You’ll see, Girly, just wait.”
“Ms Hammond.” Rebecca.
The voices were gone. And there was light. I still had the dress on, but the corset wasn’t tightened. I lay on the bed, but the covers weren’t around me.
“You must get up miss.” Rebecca yanked me up.
“Can’t I rest? I might even be better if you take me home?” I muttered and I mumbled more things. Things that just didn’t register in my head.
“Miss, you must find the clues.”
“What why? I want to go home, I want to lose. I don’t want…” What was this? What are they playing at? Why was this happening? “… This.”
“No, it is the only life you can have now.”
“What do you mean? I want to be sent home?” I whispered, I felt dizzy and delirious. It was a rather nice feeling away from all the stress.
“Darling,” She came forwards and took my hand. She cared, in that moment I knew she cared. She looked at me sympathetically. “You don’t get sent home.”
“I don’t…” I shuddered. I knew what she was going to say, but I needed her to say it. Just say it. Please say it.
“The best you can hope for, if you lose, is a life like mine. The worst…” Her lower lip warbled, and the tears brimmed her eyes. I couldn’t cry. I knew I should. Why can’t I? I can’t. I know it’s because I can’t cry here.
“I can’t say it, but you know… what I mean…” She sniffled.
She grabbed a small wooden box and placed it in my hands, taking my hands and curling them around the box. “This is the first clue.” She kissed my forehead. “Win, don’t die.”
The box slipped open between my trembling hands. A heart shaped pendant draped between my fingers. I had to open, I knew I had.
I threw it across the room; it smashed against the wall and opened. It was quick and I managed to get some anger out. I scurried over to where the piece of paper lay. I picked it up in clammy hands and read it.
The man who makes it doesn't want it.
The man who wants it doesn't use it.
The man who's using it doesn't know he is using it.
What is it? Find me.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
I felt Rebecca’s hand on my shoulder and her confused look on my face. “I’ve read this a million times, it’s a coffin.”
“I’m sorry?” Rebecca stuttered.
I continued throughout sniffles of laughter, out of all the things? Wow these vampires really do doubt our intelligence these days.
“Coffin maker doesn’t want the coffin, man who wants it is usually not the person who’s gonna use it (relatives etc.), a dead person using it won't know he is using it!” I exclaimed. “Do you know where we can find a coffin?”
“Well, why didn’t you know?” Rebecca grasped my shoulders.
“Vampires sleep in coffins!” She laughed.
“Really?”
“No,” She turned deadly serious.
I let out a small ‘oh’. Nobody heard, not even me. In which case I began to doubt I even said it. This is a dream. I’m sure of it now. “It’s a dream!” I chuckled happily. I jumped on the bed and tried to go to sleep.
Rebecca sighed and hauled me out of bed. Her black frayed ends caressing my face. “Come on, everyone else has a head start we need to…”
There was a toll like noise, maybe a bell, sounding through the house. Followed by someone on a loud speaker.
“Contestants Lady Katrina, Ms Angelique and Ms Sawyer are out of the competition. But the women that are through are Ms O’Neill…” Phew. Chastity is safe. “And Ms Elizabeth …”
Then it sunk in. It came at me like daggers spindling, slicing through my body. I had been shot down, and trampled on. I died right there and came back as a ghost. My mind and body was on fire, I reeled, and I felt so dizzy. I am ready to be taken right here right now. Take me.
I dropped to my knees.
I was competing against my best friend for a love I don’t even want. No…
We were fighting for our lives.
“We have also made an exception for Ms Hammond…”
I allowed myself to slip in and out of the speech. Do I win or lose? Die or live unhappily? I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want the breath to be knocked out from my lungs. I don’t want the light to flicker and slip away from my eyes and I don’t want to die unkissed and seemingly unloved. I want to live, and I want to be in love.
“The first to find the second clue will spend the night with me, Kaspar. And don’t purposely try to lose girly, I think you know why.”
Kaspar.
Me?
I don’t know.
I won’t know until I found the second clue first and talk to him