Survival Games

Chapter 3

         Lila had been stuck in the sink for hours now. She didn’t know what had happened, or why her captor had left her here instead of finishing her off. She wasn’t sure what boring had meant, but maybe because she wasn’t putting up a fight? Did he want her to resist him, to give him some sick satisfaction of overpowering prey that couldn’t possibly resist no matter how fervently they tried?
         Speaking of… food. She had had plenty of time to notice that she was extremely hungry herself. No doubt the others in the plastic prison were as well, but what would that matter to their predator? She did another count, there had been twenty of them to start with. One had gone the first night, then two more this morning she had heard after being dumped in here. She found herself hoping that Zek was okay. She barely knew him, but all the same he had seemed nice. He deserved better than this end, a lot of mice did.
         Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t notice the cat come back into the room until he was already approaching the sink. He carried a small paper bag that he sat on the sink’s edge above her, before pulling a chair over from the opposite counter and sitting. Once sat, he simply stared down at her, his expression a look of silent but serious contemplation. She sat up slowly, wondering if he was going to try to instil some kind of fear in her, something to make her resist and bring back the pleasurable sensation he wanted from his food.
         Instead he reached into the bag and pulled out a single grape. He squeezed it slightly, then dropped it into her. Its juices leaked from a small crack in the skin his squeeze had opened, and the scent wafting to her nose made her hunger suddenly all the more urgent. She crawled weakly over to the dropped grape and dug her claws into its cold juicy flesh, sinking her teeth into it moments later and taking a large juicy bite.
          For the next few moments nothing mattered to her but eating, to stop the same growl in her stomach that she would likely soon end in the cat’s own. She stuffed her face greedily, allowing herself the small luxury of not caring about anything else in these few heavenly moments…
         Only after she had slowed down did she allow herself a brief moment of worry about her own immediate future. The grape was half gone now, what might have been a snack to someone larger was more than a meal for a mouse as small as her. She was about to look back up at the cat when he saved her the trouble, gripping her tail between his finger and thumb and lifting her up to his eye level.
         ‘Finished?’ He asked. Taken by surprise, she could only manage a small nod. Smiling at her meek reply, he pulled her closer. His lips parted and wrapped around her top half, enveloping her once more in the humid stench of his maw. His fingers slowly pulled her back out with a slow wet slurp as his tongue curled under her, doubtless enjoying her flavour as it pulled the half grape left from her grasp.
         She gasped the fresh air as she once more dangled before his lips for a few moments. He held her there while he chewed and swallowed the last of it, making sure she heard every sound he could make before he set her down.
         It took her a second to realize she was not back in the sink, but on the counter beside it. She looked back up at him curiously. Was this deliberate?
         ‘Are you gonna talk?’ He demanded suddenly, snapping her focus back up to his glare. ‘I’m curious, but not all that patient.’
         ‘W-what do you want me to say?’ She squeaked in her tiny voice.
         ‘Oh, so you are afraid after all.’ He grinned. ‘I was starting to think you might be one of those fearless types who aren’t afraid to die. There’s no fun in being a dominant predator if your prey takes that rush away from you by not being scared.’
         ‘Well.’ She stammered, trying to keep her composure as she had before but now suddenly it was much harder. ‘I just… didn’t see a reason to fight it. But yes you are still scary…’
         ‘Not scary enough for you to want to fight?’ The same disappointment from earlier was back. She couldn’t find a response to that and he sighed in frustration. ‘This might seem silly to you, but it’s my nature. As much as I feel hungry and want to send your juicy little self to my growling belly, I also want to know that you couldn’t stop me even though you tried.’
         ‘What mouse could stop you even if they tried?’ Lila retorted, not realizing her smartass comment until she had already said it. She froze, expecting him to get angry, maybe swat her or eat her on the spot. Instead he seemed genuinely shocked.
         ‘I…’ He couldn’t find the words. ‘Well I’ll be damned. You’re right.’ Lila was astonished at his reaction, and her minor victory emboldened her.
         ‘Hmph. I hope you never enjoy your sick game again.’ She turned her back on him, a mock show of defiance but also a tactical move to survey more of his kitchen from this unique vantage point. There was a door that led outside, the tell-tale crack of daylight shining through from underneath. It’d be tight, she’d struggle to get through and she’d never make it with the cat so close behind. But if she could catch a break later? Maybe.
         ‘Oh no, the game just needs to be revised, that’s all.’ The cat’s suddenly sinister voice snapped her back to the reality of her situation. ‘And I think I have it all figured out. You may be almost fearless with your own life, but what about your friends in that tank over there?’
         Her heart skipped a beat at what she thought he was suggesting. ‘W-what?’
         He smiled and scooped her into his hand, carrying her to the small two person dining table that sat not far from the archway of the kitchen. An empty glass vase sat in the middle of it, which he dropped her into before heading towards the staircase. ‘Just sit still, I’ll be right back.’
         She righted herself with some difficulty, the bottom of the vase was extremely narrow and the thing was far too deep to attempt any kind of jump with the awkward foot space. Similar to the sink, the glass offered no purchase for her to try climbing. It seems she was left with no choice but to follow her captor’s advice and sit still. She glanced through the glass towards the plastic prison that held her fellows. It was too far to see anything but small vague shapes and there was no way her voice would carry far enough, but she found herself hoping that Zek was still in there. A row of mouse heads watched with curiosity, perhaps envy, that she alone had been spared the cat’s merciless stomach when all others to leave so far had not.
         After a minute, the cat came back downstairs with what looked like a box. Sitting it down on the table, he pulled off the lid and began setting up the contents. A flat checker pattern board, followed by a bunch of small carved wooden pieces.
         ‘Chess?’ She squeaked up at him incredulously. ‘You want me to play chess for my life?’
         ‘Oh no, not at all.’ He grinned. Heading over to the tank, he gazed across the face of the terrified prisoners before reaching in and lifting one of them out, squeaking and squirming in the matter he had professed to enjoy. As he walked back to the table the full extent of his game dawned on her. It was confirmed moments later after he had emptied her onto the table beside the chessboard and dumped his new prisoner in her place. ‘You’re playing for hers.’
         ‘W-what…?’ She stammered. This was sick. It was one thing playing for her own life, but to have someone else’s life in her hands like this? It was too much. ‘You can’t expect me to-‘
         ‘Here’s how it’s going to work.’ He cut her off. ‘You are going to play me at a game of chess. The stakes will be this poor mouse’s freedom. Tomorrow we’ll do it again. And again. And so on.’
          Lila breathed deeply and thought about the offer that was being made. She could… save potentially all of them. Or she could single handedly usher all of them to their deaths. She knew how to play most board games well enough, but how good was the cat? After a few moments she settled the matter in her mind. Without this chance, all of them were doomed. The fear of failure would weigh heavily on her conscience, and the reality of failure would even more so, but she had to try.
         ‘Okay…’ She nodded. ‘Is that all there is to it?’
         ‘Almost.’ He smiled. ‘For one, the game will not always be chess. Also, if at any point the guilt of failure gets too much for you, you can offer yourself in the place of that game’s prize. However, if you do that the games will be over and any still in the tank will be forfeit. This offer is pen to you, and ONLY you. Understand?’
         ‘Oh great rodent goddess…’ She almost cried under the weight of the feline’s proposal. He had indeed found his game to play with her, well and truly succeeded in making her an interesting challenge. ‘Will you… will you give me your word that if I win she and the others who I win for will go free?’ She glanced at the trapped mouse in the vase looking back with her own pleading eyes, before turning her doleful gaze back up to the cat.
         ‘Of course.’ He nodded simply. ‘As you said, what good is the game if I can’t lose?’ He began setting up the board, even being courteous enough to give her the box to stand on so she could see the board over the pieces, most of which were almost her height.
         She watched him patiently, trying her hardest to think back to when she had used to play these games with her friends and siblings. Chess had never been her favourite, but it had been the favourite of her closest friend. They used to play all the time until… she had been lost.
         ‘Ready.’ He said. He had given her the white side, meaning it would be her turn first. She gave another look to the mouse girl trapped in the vase beside her before taking a deep breath and trying to focus on the game at hand. The girl in the vase looked younger than Lila was, and the prospect of dying at such a young age was nothing short of terrifying.
         She jumped down and moved her first piece, the pawn in front of the king. He grinned and moved one of his own pawns in a way that would foil her strategy. Clearly he’d seen this one before. It’s okay, she told herself. She still knew plenty more. She tentatively moved another piece, a pawn on the far end of her side. He hesitated, thinking on her move before eventually making her own.
          She restrained her urge to grin, he had not seen her play. She moved one of her knights at random, trying not to give off any sign of her strategy until it would be too late.

         For close to another hour the game went on. The first piece to fall was one of Lila’s pawns, followed soon after by the same knight she had been using to distract him. She came back soon after, managing to take down both of his knights and a bishop. When the half hour mark had passed, the moves became slower and more calculated All the pawns were now gone but one each. Only two pieces were lost by each of them in the thirty minutes that followed. The cat lost his left rook and his last pawn, while Lila lost her own right rook and her queen. The cat grinned as he made the last move, but failed to notice the positioning of her other pieces. Shifting her remaining rook across the board, she looked up at him and proclaimed ‘Checkmate!’
         His grin faded as he realized that she was right. The mouse had deliberately set her queen up as a tempting target to distract him from the placement of her bishops which would trap the king when she moved her rook.
         ‘Well played.’ He nodded, clearly impressed. ‘I guess this one is… free to go.’ He upturned the vase, dumping the young mouse girl onto the table before replacing it beside her, and begin to scoop the chess pieces back into the box. The mouse was visibly stunned, perhaps too afraid to move in case this simply turned out to be a cruel trick.
         ‘Go.’ Lila said, crawling over to her and giving her a hug. ‘Don’t worry, I’m gonna get as many of them out as I can… Just go, please.’
         ‘She’s right.’ The cat told them. ‘She won, you’re free. I wouldn’t make a point of hanging around here. Offer expires in one hour.’
         ‘T-thank you….’ The still shivering mouse whispered and scrambled to the edge of the table. Using her claws carefully, she climbed down and started looking around for some way to escape the house. After a few seconds she found the same door Lila had spied earlier and squeezed out underneath. Lila hoped there was a way to safety out there, it would be so horrible for her to escape outside only to wind up prey to a less forgiving predator. And speaking of…
         ‘Thank you.’ She called up to him.
         ‘Don’t.’ He said. ‘This was an interesting experience to be sure. But it also means I’ll be hungry tonight. You can bet your furry little rump I won’t so easily lose tomorrow. Like I said, not every game will be chess.’
         She had no further opportunity to speak as she was scooped back into his hand. He wasted no time, opening the lid to the tank and dropping her inside. It was a heavy fall that drove the breath from her lungs and jolted her old shoulder and head injuries from the failed rescue attempt that had gotten her here.
         ‘Here little mousies. Eat up.’ She looked up at the sound of his voice, only to squeak in surprise as a pile of nearly a dozen grapes fell and piled around her. A few of the mice inched forward, while a handful of others stubbornly refused to move from their corners. The cat noticed, and leaned in close with a sly grin. ‘I have no doubt that ending as cat food isn’t a pleasant end. But neither is starving to death.’ He stood up and began to leave, but first gave them one last piece of advice. ‘And while they’re both pretty painful ways to die, I assure you that starvation takes a LOT longer. So eat up.’
         Only when he was gone upstairs, leaving the kitchen in the dim fading daylight of the late afternoon did the mice embrace their hunger. The grapes were demolished in minutes, but straight away after, Lila was the centre of attention. Every one of them had seen what just happened, and now they had to know why.
         All of them would try to befriend her now. All of them would try to be on her good side so she’d work extra hard for them. She’d be torn, unable to refuse but also unable to save them all. And she knew her captor had put her back in with them for exactly that reason…