Masterpiece

[Brackie]

"And now, to perform the final act of the evening, give a warm welcome to Miss Clio Gabriella, who will be performing Fantasie Impromptu.

The crowd applauded as the young girl, with dark hair and an elegant young dress on, walked onto the stage. Taking her seat at the grand piano, the young girl grimaced as she almost slid off of the shiny leather stool seated next to the piano. With the muttering in the crowd starting to die away, young Clio started to perform.

Her fingers slid around the ivory keys like rodents dodging a meat cleaver, whipping around the piano like there was no tomorrow. The sweat glistened on her face, as she tried, oh so tried, not to muck it up. Everyone was watching her for the first few minutes, the hardest part of it all. Even though she wasn't expected to do it, she NEEDED to be the best she could be.

Finally, after several minutes of extensive playing, she came to a close. Her forehead was pouring like the Nile, her eyes wide with anticipation as she hit the final broken chord as softly as she could. But even that was absorbed by the echoes of cheers and applauding that filled the hall. She did it. She finally did it. She performed Chopin in front of everyone. She was almost too shy to turn around, and face everyone praising her, applauding her. Finally, with a smile on her face, she gave in, and whipped her head around to the people. Her family would be proud.


*

And as she turned to face the crowd, she felt reality rush back at her in the form of swamp water.

*

G-069: Clio Gabriella - Start...

Choking and spluttering, Clio had turned herself around in her sleep and taken a mouthful of swamp water as reward. This woke her up instantly, and before she could register what was going on, checked her surroundings.

Swamp? What the....

And then it came back. The bustrip, which she mostly spent staring out the window meaninglessly like a gothic girl on her way to Hot Topic, was interupted. She was tied down to a chair with everyone else she knew. She had been one of the sole few who had started to cry. After all this, after everything she had been through, it had come to that moment in time that decided her life.

She was simply a statistic now.

Feeling around her, she found her smooth, shaven legs were submerged in filthy water. Instincts told her of the danger of doing that in untrained wilderness, so she yanked her legs out, losing her shoes to the depths of the swamp instantly.

That wasn't a good start. Lucky she had a second pair, though.

Pulling her legs close to her, she tucked herself into a ball and started to weep again, left hand fingering the cold, metal collar on her neck.

After all this time, after everything, my whole life is just supposed be meaningless?....it's going to end like this?

"But...I don't want to die...."

Her mumblings were hopeless, idle. She was a smart girl, though not the smartest, and knew that it was just stupid to waste her breathe. Taking up this valueable time was meaningless.

Trying to maintain herself, she stayed silent, and rummaged through her bag. There were meaningless things she couldn't care less about; food, map, a book, and...Clio's delicately manicured hand touched metal.

Her eye's shot her bag a second look, and, uncurling from her ball, leaned into the bag further and pulled out the metal sensation.

It was a gun, no doubt about that. Somewhere inside her assigned bag also was ammo. Guns needed ammo. And manuals as well.

Realising she had a fighting chance, she started to calm herself down just that little bit more. If she had a gun, she was ever so more likely to survive.

Getting up, she got a better glance around the swamplands, and found a patch of the driest land she could. Emptying the bag, she took count of everything; Food. Map. Compass. Her gun. The manual that came with it. A torch. A book labelled "Mr Danya's Guide to Survival". Her own bag. A first aid kit.

So is this how it was, was it? She was supposed to get off alive with all this?

Ignoring everything else, even the food, Clio took the Survival Guide and started reading.

*

Several minutes passed as Clio read through the sadistic book written for only this occasion. And several more passed by as she sat by the bottom of the large contorted tree reaching for the sky, with her gun in her hand, ammo in the other, and the guide plomped at her feet. She's read it almost three times after that, and she spent double that time contemplating her life so far.

Pain.

After pain.

After pain.

Those guys who decided that her parents were too risky.

The little girl who just wanted to be better than her.

Nathaniel.

She was a girl who's life was simply a stepping mat for everyone's selfish, stupid needs. When she spent all that time alone in the ice-rink, did anyone care where she was? Did that stupid French bitch show her the LITTLEST amount of respect? Did Simon really want to be with her that night?

No.

No no no no no.

What was the point in trying to be her nice, naive self anymore? No use in this game anyway. Her classmates, all scared, lonely people who would kill her as soon as look at her. So...she was going to be selfish for once in her life. She was going to WANT to live over everyone else. That didn't make her a bad person.

It made her human.

Grinning, she loaded her gun with every slug possible. No point in being caught unawares here of all places. Soon, her bags were packed, her shoes were changed, and she was ready.

Ready to take down every stinking little pissworm called her classmate.

Young Clio Gabriella found herself on the map, or rather, found the area, and started to head away, strolling, gun at the ready.

By the end of this game, she would be the winner. She wasn't about to let some silly little morals get in the way.

Today, Clio Gabriella would come out on top.

It was her island now.

((Clio Gabriella continued in Testing Faith....1...2..3))