Post by wordy on Jul 31, 2011 21:09:17 GMT 10
A Day in the Life of a SMACKDOWN Couple: Circlecest
by rachy
We were awoken by the knock on the door. Dodging Briar’s flailing arms as he yawned, I slid out of the large bed and walked across the cold floor, opening the door to find the familiar purple and gold envelope, the same elaborate SMACKDOWN written in a corner. I opened the envelope and grabbed the small piece of paper inside.
“Final,” Daja read, resting her chin on my shoulder. I looked at the others. Briar shrugged, and Tris just tucked her final braid into her hairnet.
“I guess they’ll just come and get us when they want us. Like they did before.” Briar sprawled back onto the bed, and Tris grimaced. It seemed she didn’t want to remember the strange room with the tally board, like we were knights in some tourney of trial by combat in the histories of long ago, and nor did I. It would be our fourth and final time in that room, and I could only hope that we would get to go home soon.
The final summons came quickly, and walking through the hallways was a grim experience.
***
I could remember the first time, thinking this was just another palace, another diplomatic visit. The room we were seated in was warm and friendly, and I had not thought anything of the tally board, blank as it had been, and only looked curiously at the two pretty women sitting directly across the room. Screens descended around us then, and images began to flicker to life. In one I shared Briar’s bed, another I shared Daja’s. After the images slowed, the two women were suddenly on our screen, and I winced as they died at our hands. Briar was the one to point out that the blank board was now tallied in our favour.
The next summons came, and I took more note of the two handsome men, one tall, broad and commanding, the other curly haired and with an enviable moustache, before more images flickered, and the men appeared on our screen as before, until they too were slaughtered, the tally grimly shown in our favour again.
The third summons was more intense, and I took more notice of the images, finding them less unsettling, showing Tris at Lightsbridge or at dinner at Discipline, or on another diplomatic visit. I was almost beginning to enjoy myself, until the two women appeared on our screens again. The fight this time was more intense as well, and there was an air of urgency in our fighting, and less of feeling like an instinctive puppet. We defeated the women, bearing only a few scratches, and it was our final team that awaited us now.
***
It was an apprehensive walk into the room, to sit in the soft chairs and gaze coolly across at our competition. The screens descended quickly around us, and the flurry of images started again, the lingering air of urgency thickening with the fervour of images. Quick flashes of beds and boats, the roof and the forge all gathered around us, and I closed my eyes, clenching tightly on Briar and Tris’s hands. As quickly as the images gathered, they disappeared, and we stood frozen in the middle of a bloody warehouse, the boom echoing through our ears.
Do we get to go home now? I wondered, and Daja shrugged. The room exploded, the scent of smoke and burning filling my nose. I choked, batting away arms that sought to restrain me, and opened my eyes.
Daja sat in the chair next to my bed, Tris at my feet and Briar next to me, his hand firm on my shoulder.
“I had the most frightful dream....”