I was overwhelmed.
Trying to be better is way harder than it sounds.
All of these developments hitting me at once felt like too much. My head was already full, and it kept getting fuller. Liam's betrayal. Thomas's group. Sarah and Null. The factory. The trap. Everything had happened so fast that it all started blurring together into one giant mess.
I looked around at the others and realized I wasn't the only one who was done with it all.
Mel looked broken. Not crying. Not panicking. Just... empty. Soulless, almost.
Melanie looked like she was still trying to think of a way out, but she couldn't find one. I could see it on her face. She was working through possibilities and rejecting them one by one.
George looked about half a second away from trying something violent, but even he was aware enough to know that it wouldn't help. Not here. Not surrounded like this.
Leo looked like he'd given up.
I couldn't even blame him for that.
And Sarah...
Sarah was calm.
But was she actually calm because Null was nearby and ready to help? Or was she bluffing? I couldn't tell anymore. That was the worst part. I couldn't tell anything anymore.
None of us had anything else to say.
We gave up.
And somehow, that confused Thomas.
He looked between us like he was waiting for one last desperate move that never came.
"So..." he said slowly, almost awkwardly, "uhm... what should we do about these guys?"
He pointed at us like we were a problem he hadn't expected to still have.
Liam didn't know either.
"I mean, we can just send them home," he said. "Not like they can do much anymore. If they try to stop us, we can just fight back. Look at their faces, they already gave up. It's just Sarah I'm a little worried about."
Send us home?
Just like that?
They really believed we wouldn't interfere anymore?
That was stupid.
Dangerously stupid.
And right then, a plan sparked in my head.
It wasn't a good plan.
It wasn't clean.
But it was something.
"Yes," I said quickly. "Please send us home. We forfeit."
Liam narrowed his eyes almost immediately.
"Hm?"
Did he catch on already?
His intuition is terrifying.
But after a second, he just smiled.
"Okay, yeah. We'll do that. Everyone but Sarah is free to go. If we see you again, though, I won't hesitate to fight."
Sarah tilted her head.
"Why do I have to stay?"
"Because you're our only random variable right now," Liam replied. "In case members of Null are nearby, you're basically our hostage."
"Oh," she said. "I see. Okay."
She still wasn't worried.
Not even a little.
Did she really have a plan?
Well, it didn't matter right then.
We were getting out.
And once we were out, I'd make sure we didn't stay out for long.
We left quickly.
No one tried to stop us. No one followed us. No one shouted after us.
The bike ride home was completely silent.
Not one word.
The air felt cold, and every turn of the wheels felt heavier than it should have. No one even looked at each other. We were all just pedaling through the dark, carrying whatever was going on in our heads alone.
But I had an idea.
I didn't tell the others.
I figured it was best.
Actually, I figured it was necessary.
After everyone split off to go home, I stopped Melanie before she went inside.
"Hey," I said, trying to sound casual. "You go on home. I forgot something. I'll be there soon."
She stared at me like I had personally insulted her intelligence.
"Don't think I'm stupid. I know you have a plan."
"Yeah," I said. "I know. Figured I'd try anyway."
She crossed her arms.
"Wanna join? It won't be fun."
"You know I do," she said. "What is the plan?"
So I explained it.
And the second I did, her face changed completely.
"Th-that's insane!" she snapped. "No way! You can't do this!"
"Sorry," I said. "It's all I've got. If Sarah is bluffing, this is the best way to beat them."
Melanie sighed, facepalmed, looked me dead in the eyes, and then gave a tiny nod.
She knew she couldn't stop me.
So we got back on our bikes and headed to the arcade at the mall.
It was past midnight, but the place was still open. The mall itself was basically dead, though. Most of the lights felt dimmer at that hour, and the whole place had that weird empty feel big buildings get at night when they're technically open but not really alive anymore.
The arcade was one of the few places still making noise.
There was only one problem.
They didn't allow minors in after ten p.m.
So we had to sneak in.
Well... "sneak" is generous.
We mostly just walked in like we belonged there and hoped no one cared enough to stop us.
And no one did.
We looked around the arcade floor first, weaving past blinking machines and adults who were way too old to be playing rhythm games at one in the morning. But we didn't find what we were looking for. Unfortunate.
Melanie glanced down the hall.
"Hey... isn't that karaoke?"
I looked too.
"Hm? Yeah. What about it?"
"What if it's there?"
That made me grin.
"Ooh. Maybe."
So we started checking the karaoke rooms one by one.
Most of them just had random people in them. Drunk couples. Loud groups of college kids. A businessman horribly murdering some pop song.
Then we got to the last room.
And there it was.
"Hah!" I whispered. "Good idea, Melanie. Wait outside for me, though. It might get a little messy."
She didn't like that, but she listened.
I stepped inside.
"Well, if it isn't the Monarch of 24!" Andrew barked the second he saw me. "What the fuck do you want at this hour!? Can't you see I'm busy on a date!?"
He was, in fact, on a date.
Or at least he was sitting in a karaoke room with a really good-looking girl who was way out of his league.
That didn't matter to me.
"Hello, Andrew," I said. "How would you like to team up?"
He stared at me for half a second, then immediately swung.
I dodged it easily.
The punch was slow.
Way too slow.
Was he drunk?
That would make things harder.
"Woah there," I said. "You almost hit me."
"No shit!" he snapped. "Get the fuck out! I'm done with all that Factory 24 nonsense."
"Damn," I said. "Are you really? Seems like you still hold a grudge."
He swung again.
Missed again.
That was actually kind of pathetic.
Maybe he was just a bad fighter and I'd never noticed because I'd only ever seen the aftermath of what his group did.
"What are your thoughts on Liam?" I asked.
That one got him.
He flew into a rage.
He kept throwing swings at me, but every single one was slow and sloppy, like his body had already decided it wasn't keeping up with his anger.
At some point, the girl he'd been with got up and ran.
Didn't say a word.
Just gone.
I kept talking.
"Damn, you suck at fighting. But I can help you. You see, Liam betrayed me, and I want revenge. You in or out?"
"Shut the fuck up!" Andrew yelled. "Get out of here already."
I smiled.
"Are you in, or are you out? Final ask."
"Fuck you."
I waited.
Let the silence sit there.
Then, finally:
"...I'm in."
Good.
"Good to hear," I said. "Finish up whatever you're doing and I'll be waiting outside. We need to hit them back tonight."
"Tonight?"
"There's no better time for it."
And with that, I left.
When I told Melanie he agreed, she looked at me like I'd just sold my soul.
Maybe I had.
But then we had to wait.
For an hour.
A whole hour.
The bastard actually made us wait outside the arcade for a full hour.
Then he finally came out.
"Those your bikes?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "Where's yours?"
"Hah. I drove. Get in my car."
"Huh?"
"I won't ask twice."
"Yessir."
Melanie looked at me like this was the worst idea I'd ever had.
Which, fair.
But I reassured her anyway.
"We'll be fine."
I wasn't actually sure about that.
Then we got in.
And instead of driving toward the factory, Andrew took us the complete opposite direction.
We swerved into a diner.
He was definitely drunk.
"What are we doing here!?" I asked.
"Get out."
We didn't want to push him any harder than necessary, so we did.
The second we stepped inside, I understood.
His whole group was there.
What the hell?
Not just a few of them.
Almost all of them.
Melanie said it out loud before I could.
"What is your whole group doing here!? Also, we thought you were weakened after the last attack!"
Andrew laughed.
"Hah! Like that could slow me down! We've grown three times bigger!"
And yeah, we could see that.
There were nearly eighty of them crammed into that little diner.
I actually felt bad for the employees. Imagine working the late shift and having to serve this many high schoolers at once.
"I didn't make you guys wait outside the arcade on purpose," Andrew said. "I was calling them all here."
What the hell!?
This was insane!
Then he turned to his group and threw his arms out dramatically.
"Okay, everyone! These here are the Monarch of 24 and one of the founders! Let's give a big hand to them for being so retarded!"
A few of them laughed.
Retarded? That hurt.
Well... maybe we were, just a little.
Not like we've actually won anything on our own so far. We've mostly just been saved by other people.
Even now, we were about to be.
Andrew, Axel, Melanie, and I ended up sitting at one of the tables while he made me explain everything.
And I did.
Everything that mattered, anyway.
Thomas.
Liam.
The takeover.
The positioning.
The fact that they had the factory now.
Then Andrew leaned back and asked the obvious question.
"And you want us to help you get the factory back? What's in it for us?"
"Hm?" I said. "Oh. I don't want the factory back this time. I just want you guys to make sure Thomas and Liam don't get it."
That got a reaction.
Not just from Andrew.
From Melanie too.
"Eh?" Andrew said. "You don't want it back? That's all you've been fighting for."
"It's alright," I grinned. "You guys can have it."
Melanie's eyes snapped toward me.
She definitely hadn't known I was going to say that.
She looked worried, but she kept her mouth shut.
She knew me well enough by now to know I wouldn't say something like that for no reason.
Andrew stared at me for a second longer.
Then he smiled.
"Sounds like a deal. Let's get going."
And just like that, it was done.
We had made a deal with the devil.