The Game - 32. Chapter 32

What they have all failed to realise... what every player has always failed to realise... what century after century end players have had to learn when they came into play.... right at the end.... is this... simply this... there is only one possible end move. There has only ever been one end move, one simple choice.

The gate is opened, can be opened in only one way.... by sacrifice. The choice that the end player has to make is.... which team are they prepared to give up their life for. In my case it is neither... but that’s okay because my plan has worked... perfectly.

In refusing to give me up to my own team, in sending me to my death... that team has broken one of the fundamental rules of the game... and in a game with very few rules the penalty for breaking them is severe... automatic disqualification. From the moment the Professor injected the drug into my body that team was no longer in the game.

Another fundamental rule of the game is that there must always be two teams... and only two teams.... and so, without them even knowing... without anyone knowing, I had gathered my own team, a team I am more than happy to give up my life for.... team Annie.

The light is painful to look at, painful to think of, painful to be in the presence of... but I am used to pain by now... and the one I am running from is a crushing, defiling, violating pain whereas the one I am heading into is clean and pure, the kind of pain that is almost pleasure. I am being drawn into it and as I get closer my body is expanding... no, not my body, I no longer have a body... it is simply my awareness, my consciousness, flowing outwards, like a stream of gold, drawn inexorably towards the light, mingling with it, becoming part of it.

I have no idea how long this process takes... could have been moments could have been eons... time has no meaning here. I am power, every atom pulsates with it. I have no body, no mind, but somehow I retain my individual awareness... somehow, even here, even where I am nothing more than pinpoints of light in a sparkling golden glare, I am still Adam.

“Who?” It was not a voice. It was a breeze blowing through wind chimes, the chimes being my scattered consciousness and I found it difficult to draw together enough to answer.

“Adam.”

“Why?”

“The game.”

“What?”

“The power of the gate.”

“Where?”

“My team.”

“When?”

“Now.”

And I was falling, particles of gold spinning and spinning, like dust motes caught in a beam of light. Tumbling over and over, gathering together, becoming a stream, a flow, a torrent, a form, a body. The body is surrounded by the light, burning, searing, renewing. The body is floating at the centre of the light although I can feel hands on it, the light flowing down into the bodies that are attached to them. I don’t think about that, I don’t need to.

And then.... and then.... and then the light faded and is gone. If I reach out with my mind I can touch it, I will always be able to touch it, we all will. Now I become aware of my body, I feel so heavy, so solid, so....