Page 153 of Cursed Lifeline

I try to grab for Alfred, but just as I reach out, he slips from my grasp, and the faint footsteps of an intruder grow closer.

“I was told midnight,” I hear him insist, demanding answers from a stranger I can’t see.

“Viktor thought three a.m. would be more appropriate.”

The devil’s hour.

“That has left my opponent less time to be fresh and prepared,” Alfred sighs.

Opponent?

I’m here to compete?

Against who?

“Not our problem.”

“The rules were set...,” Alfred starts to say, but he’s cut off.

“The rules are subject to change.”

“Says who?” Alfred and I yell at the same time.

I turn toward his voice but still can’t see my watcher through the blindfold.

“Says he who makes the rules.”

The devilish smirk in the man’s voice causes a fearful shiver to rush up my spine. I start to step forward angrily but Alfred’s hand jolts out in front of me and stops me.

“Where am I?” I demand.

“Has her challenger been notified?”

Challenger?

What the hell is going on here?

“He has?” the stranger smiles. “He agreed with his brother almost immediately once the suggestion was made.”

Brother?

I move quickly, attempting to dart around Alfred in a blind rage, but he anticipates and holds me back in a deathly grip.

“It’s five to three,” Alfred says, manhandling me into submission.

“You’re right. Prepare your player for the ring.”

The man walks away quickly. Deathlygrabbing hold of Alfred, he finally turns, reaches behind my head, and starts to untie my blindfold.

“If you don’t tell me what the hell is going on…” I start to insist.

“There is nothing more any of us can teach you, or give you, to help you, Esme,” his eyes fall grievously to mine and he shakes his head. “I didn’t want it to end like this.”

“Like what?” My breaths rush out in panicked waves as the crowd's noise down a concrete tunnel grows louder.

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he whispers, “But, break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.”

“Alfred, where is Felix? What is going on? Does he have a plan? Or am I just royally screwed like every other life I’ve been cursed to live?”

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