Truth
“You know what…” You replied with a tinge of regret and shame in your voice. “I want to be honest with you.” The two of you shared some pretty sincere eye contact for a moment as you continued. Still the talkative dog gave you a moment to continue. “I just wanted you to know that I’m not who I said I was before.” You could see a spark lighting up the old canine’s eyes.
“Then who are you?” He asked in his coarse gritty voice.
“Well…” You took a moment to gather yourself, the guilt of your lies starting to grip at your stomach. “I’m with the National Government. We were deployed to stop you from your mission, but I just had to infiltrate your platoon to get your trust, get myself here, then… Well I’m not too sure what’s next.”
“What’s next was a betrayal.” Duke replied. “It’s either us or you. That one’s clear.” He said in a somewhat sad and solemn voice. “Y’know, I didn’t trust you from the very beginning.” He broke eye contact with you and for some reason it stung like a wasp’s poison.
“So… I’m being honest with you now because I’ve decided to help you and your mission.” For a moment, you didn’t know how honest you were in that instant but there was something about the time you had spent with everyone that seemed to impact you and your actions. You enjoyed the time spent with everyone and a part of you truly wanted to be able to help them out.
“Really…?” he asked with a questioning tone to his response. “How can I trust that when you’ve lied to me and my people for so long beforehand?” The old dog raised a valid question and at that point you even questioned yourself. You were shoved into a moral situation, completely unsure about what you had to do. Still, you remembered that the only thing you can control were your own actions. You knew that you had to betray someone and it was a tough decision, what it burned down to was whether you were going to betray these complete strangers, which have been absolutely kind and loving towards you- other than Duke’s suspicious tendencies- or if you were going to go with the idea of pleasing your higher ups.
Of course, you weren’t sure which one to choose, but at this point you felt like it was the best choice to work with the dice roll of misfit military men you were given.
“I just wanted to make up for what I’ve done.” You walked over to the coffin, opened it up, and brought out the prize buried inside. “Here.” You offered up the transformative suit to Duke, allowing him to take it from you without considering the consequences.
Before you knew it, the light was starting to dim and you both steadied yourself as the ground beneath your feet started to rumble. The door was beginning to open up and as the lights started pulsating slower and with less luminescence you two thought you’d make your escape.
You and Duke slid through the door before making it back out into the main entrance. Both of you managed to escape and only at the cost of your future transformation. The group quickly recounted what happened and before long you could see Duke sliding around to his platoon members whispering something into their ears.
Before long, you all started making your way back through the pyramid but now something seemed different. Everyone watched you with sideways looks and before long you started noticing the rest of them keeping their distance with you. Yeah, something was definitely awry.
“Hey. Why don’t we take a rest out here for a moment.” Duke said as you all made your way into the main entrance. The rest of the platoon agreed before starting to set up for the night. You watched everyone doing their thing before deciding to get some rest yourself, before long, you found yourself dozing off to sleep. That night, you couldn’t seem to get rest due to the horrifying nightmares you were experiencing- every moment felt like suffering to you as you tossed and turned in the night.
Suddenly, you woke from your sleep completely alone. For a moment, you thought it was all a dream but once you fully realized what was going on, your stomach sank. It felt like a massive block of ice settling deep in your gut when your mind comprehended what was going on– it was a betrayal. You looked around the room for any indication of where they may have gone and almost instantly noticed the door sealed shut. You tried everything you could just to get it open but the darkness of the pyramid felt like it was engulfing you. Now, the pulsating lights had completely ceased, so it was particularly difficult for you to find your way around; despite your night vision eyes.
It didn’t take long for you to realize that they weren’t coming back for you, that they had completely abandoned you, and that you were alone- trapped in this tomb for who knows how long. You realized that maybe you deserved it. You were finally paying for the repercussions of your actions. Now, you were left with no team and no costume- you had lost the game.
You wondered for hours what you could have done to escape but it seemed as though you were out of options. Evan after hours of isolation, you couldn’t seem to find any way to get yourself out of this predicament. You had no other choice but to sit there for who knows how long until something happened- though you highly doubted that anything else would have happened.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 18 February 2022
The end (for now)