Game of Dice and Dominos (Domino Series #1)

Smack! Something sent a hard blow to Timo's gut and sent him into a dark void.

A few moments later, he saw Joe, but he looked...sad.

"I'm sorry, son." He whispered. No, he couldn't leave him there. He needs someone now more than ever. He needs Joe!

"No!" Timo called after him as he turned his back away. "No, Joe! Don't leave me here! I need you!" Timo wailed and wailed but he didn't turn back. Not once. He tried to dart towards him but someone was holding him back. Joe was almost at the gates of the church.

He had to stop him.

"Joe!" Timo screamed. "Come back! Joe please! Please don't leave me!" Hot tears trailed down his cheeks. He didn't bother to wipe them for he had bigger things to worry about.

One of them was that the only person he knew as a family was walking away from him.

A screech escaped his throat as he awoke. Timo shot upright, struggling to catch his breath. 

It was only a dream. 

While gasping for air, he heard a fire crackling near his right. A few feet beside him was a woman tending to the fire. It was as if the shadows were hugging her for she was clad in all black. She must have felt Timo's eyes boring into her, so she looked his way and smirked.

"Look, sleeping beauty's finally awake," she said, a cynical glint dancing in her eyes.

Timo opened his mouth to demand freedom, but his throat ran dry. He didn't want to croak at his captors, so he closed his mouth and looked away from the woman's gaze. There was a shuffling of feet, but he did not care to look. Moments later, the woman was at his side, offering him a metal cup with a suspicious liquid. Eyeing the cup, the woman must have caught on to his skepticism.

"Don't worry, Mr. I'm-Suspicious-of-Everything, it's just water," she sneered. When he continued to ignore her, she seized his arm and shoved the cup in his hand. 

He examined the liquid in the metal cup and took a sip. Once the cool liquid touched his tongue, he gulped some more to quench his thirst. Considering his options, he thought that he would rather die of being poisoned than thirst to death. At least poison would be quicker. 

He hoped. Maybe it was a sedative and he would be put to sleep before they would perform their deed and he wouldn't even feel a thing—

"See, what'd I tell ya, nothing happened." The woman cut off his train of thought. Now that he could think clearly, her voice sounded familiar. He had definitely met her before, he just didn't know when and where yet. Of course, her name was Zee. They had taken Timo as a hostage while they escaped. But he was certain he heard her voice before...

Boswhick. Zee is the same girl he met in Boswhick. He searched his memories. What the name she said again, that day? He found it.  

Thunderfang.

"Cat still got your tongue? Don't worry, we'll make you talk just like the other one." She was talking cryptic at him. What could she possibly mean?

Marcus. They took Marcus with them too.

"Where is Marcus?!" he demanded. "What have you done to him?!" He sent daggers to Zee through his glare.

"Oh so that's his name? Marcus."

Oh no. I've said too much, Timo panicked.

"Don't worry, he's in a better place now." She flicked a sideways grin.

He froze. Did they actually kill him? They can't possibly, can they?

"You thugs," Timo growled under his breath but loud enough for the woman to hear him.

She only leaned her to the side and raised her eyebrow. Oh the audacity her expression is showing disgusted every bit of his bones. Once he had regained control of his senses he thrust himself to tackle the girl.

But something held him back.

Translucent, golden chains grappled his wrists, but they weren't there before. He tried pulling to set himself free, but the chains only strangled his wrists more. When he fell-back, the chains started to fade until they disappeared, like they had never been there before.

"Um, what was that stunt you just pulled?" she asked as if she had been sincere with her question. But how could a person like her ever be sincere?

"You're monsters," he growled once more, but this time he let his voice loose. "How could you take a life that wasn't yours to take? How could you—"

"Hey Zee, Dark's looking for..." a man chimed in, cutting off his words. Timo looked at him with a gaze that mixed relief and disbelief at the same time.

"Dark's looking for you." the man who just entered the firelight's perimeter repeated, but in a much more stern voice. The man sent him a cold look. He had it all wrong, Marcus was alive.

But Timo doubted that Marcus was on his side.

Moments later, he felt exhaustion infiltrate his body, claiming him as it's victim. And then a hot, dark liquid seeped into Timo's fingernails.   

Blood.

His hands were trembling and his legs could not hold his weight much longer. Glass shards and debris prickled his knee, tearing away his slacks and finding their way to his skin. But he didn't care. For nothing hurt more than the sight before him.

A girl was being drained of all life at his arms.

But who was this girl? Why did it hurt so much knowing that he lost her? That he could never see her again? His heart ached to know.

Who was she?

He woke up, relieved that it was all just a dream. A nightmare. He brushed it aside, thinking lightly of it. Dreams were like that, Timo told himself; they were always weird. They never mean anything important.

Timo rubbed his eyes and sat up, feeling the soft carpet on his palms. It gave him a sense of comfort, but he also felt trapped, for knew he could never leave its perimeter. Looking around, he scanned his surroundings, the first time he did since he woke up as their captive. 

Near his front lay the woman, called Zee, and the man called Darcy. They both appeared to be sleeping soundly and he even thought he heard one of them snore. He looked to his left and took in the view around them. They were perched on a giant tree in a forest full of giant trees, on a deck which he wasn't sure what the material was. The stars and the navy blue sky blanketed the forest with a promise of a good night's sleep, but somehow he couldn't get any.

"Can't sleep either?" Timo jumped at the sudden voice at his right. It was Marcus, or if that was even his real name. He was sitting a few feet from Timo's carpet, just facing the extinguished campfire. One of his knees was standing, his arm hanging on top of it. The other hand was pressed on the deck.

Timo only looked at him. Marcus felt like a completely different person from the one he met as his senior at the police station. He seems colder now, and more distant whereas the Marcus he met was warm and friendly. Timo wondered if the Marcus he knew was still in this new one. He also wondered what he had gone through to have looked this sad and hurt.

Enough. He scolded himself. He shouldn't sympathize with the enemy, he had to find a way out of this mess and back to the city. Who knows what they might do to him.

"Yeah I get it," he spoke, not looking him in the eyes. "First night away from your home in the city, I bet?"

Timo nodded.

"I figured as much. You looked like it was your first time discovering a place away from the noise and the traffic. But you gotta admit it's nice, huh?"

There it was again. Timo had this strong urge to believe that he could trust him and that Marcus, or whoever this was, genuinely cared for him even though he was their prisoner.

"Who are you?" Timo asked. The question seemed to have grabbed his attention for before he answered, the man he knew as Marcus Vanderfield faced him.

"I'm still the same guy you knew differently," he started. "My name's still Marcus Vanderfield, always has been, always will. It's the name I chose for myself, that way, I don't belong to anyone."

"But you're loyal to them right?" Timo jerked his head to the front.

"Who? Zee and Dark?" Marcus arched his eyebrows and turned his head to look at his companions.

Oh, so the other guy's name was Dark. But why did Zee call him Darcy?

"They've stuck with me through a bunch'a hard times. They saved my life in more ways than I can repay." he said the last words with a tone of sincerity in his voice.

Timo couldn't help but ask, "Can I trust you?"

"That depends if you want to. Trust isn't a matter of can or cannot. It's about deciding what you want and sticking to that decision until the next one comes."

"Okay," Timo decided, "I'm going to choose to trust you. Now it's your job to make sure I didn't make the wrong decision.

Marcus laughed heartily. "Sure, okay."

Timo was still suspicious of these people but he chose to let his guard down just a bit. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he gave them a chance. But despite his own words and his own thoughts, he knew something, deep down.

He could never trust a miscreant.

A shuffle of cloth. It was Zee, who shot straight up from the mat she was sleeping on. Her eyes wandered on Marcus, fear glinting in her golden orbs.

"There's someone—" her frightened words were cut off by her muffled screaming.

A man with a raccoon headdress appeared behind her and his hand grasped her mouth, but it wasn't there for long. Zee thrust her fist backwards, sending the raccoon-man falling back. 

He fell from the ledge but he managed to claw the deck with his other hand. His left hand looked normal but his right had something that looked like sharp nails — claws. Zee stomped on raccoon-man's claws before he could climb up the deck. He bellowed which meant he was probably falling down a few feet below.

"We can't use guns, we might hit each other." Dark said, shuffling through their bags for something they could use.

"Plus, we only have enough ammo for two reloads and there's three of us so one of us is gonna have to Deadpool it and countdown bullets," Zee interjected.

Dark shot her a death glare and demanded, "Enough." She only made a face and rolled her eyes. After tossing a bow staff at Marcus, Dark grabbed a pair of fighting batons, and tossed them to Zee.

"Hey, gimme my knives!" Zee whined as she caught the batons.

Dark clicked his tongue, silencing Zee, "They're just robbers. We only need to stun them and make sure they don't get a hold of our equipment. Just go easy on them." He said the last words as if they were directed at Zee. He peered below the deck and stepped back to face their group.

"I underestimated their numbers. There are about three of them waiting for us on the ground and about five hiding in the trees. There could be more."

The odds are two against one.

Dark went back to the pile of their things and pulled out three pairs of goggles and something that looks akin to a bomb. He tossed the two goggles at Zee and Marcus, then wore his own goggles.

He faced Marcus, "On my signal." — they exchanged nods then he turned to Zee — "You go last. Shoot some tranquilizer darts before you jump down." With that, Dark pulled off the pin and dropped the bomb on the robbers. Timo ducked and covered his ears expecting an explosion, but he only heard an aggressive puffing noise.

It was a smoke bomb.

Timo sat up just in time to see Dark jumped from the deck. He peered over the ledge to see the action, but all he saw was smoke, fog and the darkness of the night.

What was once the serene star-filled landscape is now the play field of mayhem.

Smoke found their way into the air above them and caught into Timo's eyes. He reflexively looked away, water flooding his eyes.

Zee was on the ledge, her body crunched down for better aim. Darts are flying out of her gun at a steady pace. He couldn't see her eyes because of the goggles but he imagined that they were immensely focused. 

Marcus appeared beside her, blocking Timo's view. Marcus and Zee exchanged nods before he jumped off the ledge to join Dark. As Marcus left Timo's sight, he was not looking directly at Zee again. Her eyes lingered at him, but not for long. She tore away from his gaze and proceeded to fire.

When she ran out of darts, she dropped the gun to her side and snatched the fighting batons. She tightened her goggles and braced herself for the jump.

"WAIT!" Timo stopped her, standing up to try and reach her. She turned her head sharply. He took it as a ticket to speak, "What about me? I can help! If you would just--"

"No." she said firmly. Her usual jolly tone morphed into something dark that Timo hardly recognized as her voice. She marched towards him at a steady pace as she spoke, "Don't you think you've betrayed us enough for the week?" As she inched towards him, he stumbled backwards, to the edge of the mat. Her eyes lingered, shooting daggers at him with her glare. Timo blinked.

And she's gone.

It was quiet. Timo found it strange that he hasn't heard any hitting or groaning. Maybe the smoke has muffled the noise? But it can't be. Timo stood up and let his questions linger while he tried to search the fog for any signs of the other people in his group. He can't exactly do anything else, he was bound to the ground -- err whatever magic that was keeping him chained to the carpet whenever he would try to step out of it.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from the center of the smokey arena below. Timo shielded his eyes with his arm. When he felt the winds calm down, he slowly peeled his eyes open. Steadily bringing his arm down, he widened his eyes as he identified the scene.

At the center, where the gust of wind blew, a knife was threatening to slice Zee's throat. It belonged to a lanky man with long, floppy, ears at his head and boots that resembled rabbit's feet.

What is it with these people and odd clothing?

Timo hastily looked around for someone who might be able to help her, but Dark was pinned to the grass by three oddly clothed men, and Marcus was pinned to a tree by two. Surely, Timo knew that Zee was a criminal.

But she did not deserve to die.

No, her misdemeanors did not deserve a capital punishment.

"NO!" a bawl escaped his mouth before he could stop it as he rushed to the edge of the carpet. The man jerked his head to where the sound came from, not daring to loosen his grip on the knife. Timo stood his ground. He bore his eyes into him, and if his glare could throw daggers, that man would surely be dead.

Or, well, be severely injured.

Timo had lost count of the minutes that had gone by with his staring contest with rabbit-man. He didn't even hear what Zee had said.

"What did you say, runt?" the rabbit-man grumbled at Zee, tearing away his gaze.

Zee sighed and chuckled, "You guys are unbelievable--" she choked. The rabbit-man must have tightened his grip at her. "Woah take it easy there Long-ears," she chuckled some more. But uttered her next words in a dark tone.

"I said 'Zara Rebell Fauser'. Yeah that's my name." her jolly voice returned with the last sentence.

All the robbers let go of their hold.

Then, they all dropped a knee to the ground. 

~**~

[Word Count: 2717]

Yes, I know this was a, relatively, short chapter. I didn't do well in describing a few scenes and stuff, but I'm working on it, I promise.

This is only the first draft tho, so alotta things will change in the next drafts. Definitely. 

What do you think of this chapter? Did it bore you to sleep, or did it knock your socks off? :D

Who do you think the robbers were? And why did you think they stopped attacking them at the mention of Zee's real name?

Feel free to comment down your thoughts!! I'd love to hear them (err, read them XD)

Thanks again for stopping by!! See you in the next chapter!!

-axeli ❤️