Free Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) by Christopher Skliros Page B

Looking up the walls seemed to be infinitely high –
there would be no way to climb out. I felt like I was in a
solitary confinement cell, with sheaths of rock replacing the
padding.
But what was this?!
In answer to my question, I heard a congested, almost
nasally, pre-pubescent voice begin to speak… B3ast.
“Xander, Xander, Xander – by far not you best move,” he
said. I couldn’t even locate in which direction the sound of his
voice was roughly coming from. “In case you haven’t seen it,
yet,” his tone became condescending, “I made that fissure
myself - with my power.”
And then, as if he was trying to make a point, something
began to wind its way up my legs. “EUGH!” I couldn’t help
but yell out, sending an echoing sound travelling straight up.
Tentacle things began to coil around my legs and with speed,
they managed to completely bind both my legs and hands.
They were vines – and B3ast had controlled them.
And then I heard B3ast stomp his feet and a thousand, tiny
rock-spikes emerged from the ground beneath me. It was
now painful to stand – but impossible not to – this was
torture.
It was very effective and yet a testament to his twisted mind
that he even managed to think of something like this.
“You just wait here,” B3ast said, the sound of his voice was
fading. I contemplated attempting to spit at him over the
walls – this was the first time I’d ever actually felt hate for
someone. Unlike Grace who had been attempting to kill me
outright, B3ast was sadistic. He was torturing me. I felt a
burning rise up in my chest, stronger than when I first
connected with my power.
Whoa – the intensity of that emotion was extreme – how had
I gone from Xander, best friends with Jacob Clarke, to
Xander, guy who wants to kill people?
Oh yeah, Jacob. This whole time I hadn’t thought of him
once – not since leaving my dorm… I wondered what he was
doing now…
B3ast’s voice snapped me out of my daze - “I’ll just go, er, get
Stefanie,” he said, “I’m sure that would brighten up your
day…” It was almost as if I could hear him smiling, he was
going to bring her here, to do what…? Kill her while I
listened?
“Don’t you touch her!” I yelled out. He just laughed.
Utter hatred is what I felt. And I wasn’t one to ever hate.
“Oh, and just before I go…” he sneered.
A shadow passed over the tiny opening that was the roof of
my prison. It was now completely dark and after a few
seconds, I began to feel water dripping… raindrops; he had
formed a cloud directly above me.
The air seemed to rumble and the sound of B3ast’s footsteps
faded away.
I then heard hundreds of low-lying clouds whoosh into the
clearing. It began to bucket down.
Right from escaping Grace to being trapped by B3ast. It
was terrible and now, tied up as I was, I couldn’t do anything.
There was no way I would be able to shatter the rock-walls
around me – I could just sense that they were meters thick.
And, of course, my power was fried right now… This sucked.
Maybe if I just kept a clear head…
And then my heart skipped a beat; somehow the water was
pooling at my feet aching feet – and steadily rising. Over my
toes, up to my ankles, my calve muscles, the backs of my
knees.
The rain that was pouring into my prison had no way out,
and so it just began to build up.
It didn’t take me long to realise that eventually I would
drown. I was going to die. Again.
The vines were tying me to the ground, stopping me from
even moving and tugging against them was impossible.
Speaking of the vines, I began to itch where they touched
my skin… reaching down as far as I could – I felt welts. The
vines were also giving me a rash. Then I realised that
amongst the rain, I was sweating a lot and finally, I could feel
my face begin to swell. It was like an allergic reaction – and
there was only one thing I was allergic too.
Poison ivy.
I blacked out – water still