The Alpha's Blind Fate
Chapter 292: Door Fifty Two: Happiness

Chapter 292: Door Fifty Two: Happiness

MOON

Fionna was quick to realize that the test in hand was not one she could simply crawl away from if she wanted to. Standing in front of door fifty-two, the door of happiness, behind about seven contestants, with two standing behind her, that fact had become eminently apparent to all of them.

One of the contestants who possessed the same door as her was inside the makeshift room, and not a single sound was yet heard from the room. It was as if the contestant had his ability to speak and make any sort of noise... that was the only explaination Fionna could think of was responsible for the eerie silence.

On her part, she assumed the role of a time keeper, counting the minutes that passed. Was the contestant failing or was he passing? Fionna couldn’t tell. The click clack of her boots against the pavement only seemed to annoy her companions, but her deadly expression meant they didn’t speak to her of a thing.

Finally, she counted a total of thirty-minutes, and as if on cue, the door opened and the contestant was tossed out to the ground while an eerie voice growled,

"Next."

Fionna slowly cast her eyes on the first contestant of door number fifty-two while carefully taking in his now pathetic state. The man who had boasted quite confidently that the test was no more than a hindrance was sprawled on the ground, his face matted against his skin, his form shivering, and his head cowering into the floor as if he was willing the earth to swallow him.

He was muttering incoherent words as if he had just met the goddess of fear itself, and Fionna strained to hear make the words out.

"You should never have left me mother. I... I would give anything to be with you. How could your husband... my father, take your life so lightly. Please, be with me once again."

While the other contestants who managed to make out his words only seemed to frown for it made no sense, Fionna was on guard, straining her hearing to hear more. But besides the same sentence, sometime recycled in random forms, the man muttered nothing else.

"Contestant one of door fifty-two has failed the test and has been henceforth disqualified from the tournament."

"Contestant one of door fifty-three has failed the test and has been henceforth disqualified from the tournament."

"Contestant one of door fifty-four has failed the test and has been henceforth disqualified from the tournament."

On and on went the drowning of the announcement, and at the end of it, everyone realized that for the first round of the test which saw seventy participants locked in the door, only two contestants were making it to the second test.

The ratio of the win was abhorrently outrageous. A two is to seventy win-win situation, this was a dangerous gamble.

For the first time that night, some of the contestants finally had fear in their eyes. A burly man that stood in front of Fionna approached the sprawled figure that still lay on the bare ground, clutching him by the shoulders.

"Tell me lad! What was the test about!"

"You should never have left me mother, be with me once again." The man continued to mutter on and on as if he was trapped in dreamland.

No matter how much the burly man shook, slapped and kicked him, the defeated contestant kept muttering the words.

"Goddess damnit!" The burly man spat, his fingers going through his hair nervously, "I thought this wa supposed to be a combat! What the hell is happening now?!"

Fionna, simply because she was annoyed at the noise while she was trying hard to think herself said, "So now you pretend as though you weren’t aware of the three tests. Just thirty minutes ago you were boasting of how you would take down Lord Yaren in the combat."

"Shut up you wench!"

Another of the contestant turned and furiously glared at the burly man. "She’s a Red Sister you mad man! Tone it down!"

"If I shut up," Fionna drawled, "does it guarantee that you will be able to walk through the other side of the door of happiness on your two legs?"

The man glared at her, otherwise, he said nothing. Not like Fionna planned on sparing him any more attention than was necessary."

Ignoring them, she walked to the man still sprawled on the floor and repeatedly muttering the same words over and over again. She leaned down.

"I can show you your mother," she said slowly, and as she expected that was what finally snapped his attention.

The man unburied his face from the ground, wide eyes on her. "Will you truly show me my mother?"

Fionna smiled. She hated poetry, literature and such. But she was almost tempted to capture this moment in the dark lines of poetic words.

"Yes. But first, you must tell me why you wish to meet her so much?"

For a door that was acclaimed to be a door of happiness, the sad etched on the man’s face was so profound and almost made her knees buckle underneath her. There was absolutely nothing happy about the man’s expression... nothing.

Just an endless vortex of sadness that seemed to drown him on and on.

"It’s of course, because she is the happiest thing that ever happened to me."

Fionna’s breath hitched in her throat. So theirs was a test that would use a persons most happiest wish and memories to trap their minds. What of someone like her? She wondered how they would be able to trap her.

"So that is what will make you the happiest, ugh?" She muttered, trying hard to keep in the laughter that bubbled within her. Finally, she broke away from the restraints and dissolved into full blown laughter that caused tears to trickle down from her eyes.

It was as if fate loved to toy with her for as much as she could remember, there was never anything that made her happy, neither did she wish for anything that would make her the happiest.

She never even chased contentment, her goal in life had become quite simple... to survival.

So she shouldn’t be bothered right? Afterall, that only meant that this test might be the easiest for her if her predications based on the man’s words turned out to be true.

The other contestants exchanged glances, probably wondering how many nuts were loose in her head. Fionna wiped away her errant tears while she stood to her full height.

Once she resumed her position in the line, she never counted the passing minutes again even as more and more contestants were disqualified. They all came back the same, mind scattered mess as they were tossed to the dirty floor.

From Door Fifty-Three, not one person yet made it, and finally, the axe reached her.

"Next!" That eerie command came again, and Fionna’s boots carried her on into the makeshift room while the door was shut firmly behind her.

She was forced to squint in the small space as a harsh light tortured her eyes. Slowly prying her eyes opened, she realized that in every part of the curtains that guarded the room side by side were the clearest mirrors she had ever seen. The red lit candle in the room caused the mirrors to be almost blinding for someone like her who had just stepped out from the darkness outside.

"Contestant nine of door fifty-two, what is your name?"

Fionna slightly startled at the firm, masculine voice. So distracted by the mirror, she had missed the most important person in the room. The cloaked figure in red that sat on a chair that barred the exit of victory from that room.

For her to win, she had to get past the figure... on her two legs nonetheless.

For her to win, she simply couldn’t be tossed out like the rest of the contestants whose embarrassing defeat had not exactly been a model of motivation for her, or the remaining two contestants that still waited outside.

"Fionna." She answered simply.

The cloaked figure pulled down his hood to reveal a brutally handsome man with silver hair and forest green eyes. The kind of green that was so vibrant and alive... just as it was rightfully eerie.

"Your have no surname?" He said, his eyes swirling with mischief as his fingers reached out to an hourglass atop the table he sat on that was customized to accurately time thirty minutes. He turned the hour glass upside down, and the sand started to trickle quite slowly.

"I have no surname." Fionna responded, not understanding why the Night Mage fussed over identity instead of getting on with the test.

"You response amuses me greatly, Fionna." He dralwed, caressing the hourglass.

Perhaps it was her lack of humor, but she didn’t see what was so amusing about it.

"My time has already started running and yet my test has not even started. Don’t you think it’s quite unfair?" Fionna said without keeping the bite away from her tone.

The Night Mage grinned wickedly. "And who says that your test has not started?"

PS: Check Author’a note for VERY IMPORTANT announcement :)

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