I felt Tattletale move. Her hand was fumbling at her belt. Was she going for the gun in the largest pouch? No. A pouch near there, just as long, but thinner.
Hmm…?
Removing something made of glass, maybe?
“Sundancer,” I hissed, “Help her.”
Sundancer did. There were pens in the pouch.
Right.
“Help her find the paper,” I said. Jack and his team had wrapped up and were walking away.
Ahh, I see, a message. I suppose she can’t exactly use her face to talk right now.
It was a notepad barely larger than a pad of post-its. Tattletale took the pen that Sundancer held for her, clasping it in a closed fist. She scrawled out one word. ‘Deal’.
…what? Deal… with it? Make a deal?
Then she looked up at me, her eyes wide.
“No,” I whispered. “We have to get you help, and I have to go warn-”
Oh, could she tell what dilemma Taylor was in?
Also that better not be “deal” as in “deal the finishing blow”. Probably better ways to write that, though.
She stabbed at me with the pen and clenched her teeth against the back of my hand, which must have caused her incredible pain. I wasn’t sure if it was her pain and mine, but Cherish turned and gestured for Jack, who was already walking way, to stop.
She might’ve also sensed the despair caused by the dilemma.
“A deal,” I called out, “I don’t-”
Sundancer had ripped off the first sheet, and Tattletale was writing the next message.
What do you have in mind here, Tattle? This better be good, you’re not exactly in prime condition to be doing this if you don’t think it’s important.
I swallowed, “She wants to know what happens if… if more than one person is left at the end.”
Oh yeah, that’s a question I asked a while back. Askers told me in that scenario, there’d probably been opened another slot during the tests, but that can’t always be the case.
“We pit them against one another,” Jack said.
Ah. Well, that makes sense. That was how I initially thought the whole thing was going to go.
The next word- I could barely make it out. ‘Game’.
Deal… game… what, are you challenging the reaper or something?
“She, um. I think she wants to play a game?”
You’re welcome.
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