With a sly smile, Casper reaches for something underneath his suit and pulled it out. “Wear this.” It felt like my brain cells were randomizing as I stared at the foreign object in Casper’s hand.

Lines were forming between my eyebrows, peering down at the laser cut silver phantom mask. Haphazardly, my eyes darted themselves to Casper. “Why do I have to wear this?” I questioned.

“I can also just shoot you now, if you don’t want to wear it.” He said with a stoic face, his words coming out swiftly and calmly, but his tone was cold like frost, sending chills down my spine.

I stilled before letting out an awkward laughter, my trembling hand reaching for the mask that was lying on top of the pale white cursed hand. “I’ll wear it.”

Casper watched me intensely as I wore the mask, my head slightly bend as I was tying the silk ribbon into a knot. Casper smiled, pleased, his hand soothing the lost hair strands back in place that were sticking out of the ribbon in different directions. “It suits you.” The bottom of his eyes didn’t smile, mismatching his lips. He then spun around, facing the big screen, where the crowd of masked men could be seen.

Not noticing Casper’s stare, the men kept on babbling, their sonority increasing, as they weren’t able to contain their anticipation for this mysterious gathering. Their conversation jumbled into one muddy sound, sounding like a flock of dis-harmonized singing birds.

With the snap of Casper’s finger, the screen split in two. One side showed the luxury dressed masked men and on the other side the fuming Mark. Mark, who was about to land a kick on the steel door that was already slightly bend from his earlier aggression work, froze. His head snapped swiftly to look up, the pupils in his eyes shrinking into a pair of dots.

“Kitten?” Mark sounded uncertain, but worry etched his voice, his eyebrows tightly knitted together.

I flinched. He can see us? I pivoted and saw the camera’s that were hanging in each corner of the room.

Mark's eyes darted away from me and instead met the condescending look in the ruby dyed eyes. He glared at Casper in disdain, before he barked furiously, “What the fuck are you planning, Casper!?”

Casper just silently smirks at Mark, before directing his attention back to the men that were clustered next to each other. He received a mic from one of his men and tapped on it twice before an ear deafening shrill sound went across the lobby and into the basement where Mark was at.

All the men reached for their ears, shielding their precious organ from the cursed sound as they let out displeased grunts. Only Mark, who seemed unbothered by the torturous sound, stood firmly in his shoes, thunder brewing behind his navy blue eyes. They all looked up, finally noticing Casper.

With an empty smile, Casper brought the mic close to his mouth. “Before I explain the event, I would like to thank you crime lords, drug lords and owners of the black market economy by accepting my invitation and gracing me with your presence.”

Mark’s eyebrow twitched hearing what type of people git assembled and clenched his jaw, his teeth grinding together unpleasantly. As my face got drained from its color, a dooming pressure exerted on my throat, squeezing a flimsy high-pitched sound out of it. “What?”

Ignoring my pitiful yelp, Casper continued. “You all must wonder why you all had to wear a mask and a white suit to this event. The mask is so that your identity can be kept in discretion and the white suit is because,” Grabbing my arm, he stopped talking momentarily as he yanked me in front of him. I almost stumbled from the sudden force if it wasn’t for the grip that he had placed on my shoulders, keeping me steady in place.

“OOOOOHHH!” all men exclaimed, pleased at my sight and an impending doom crept in to my body. I felt Casper tightening his hold on my shoulders, before bringing his lips close to my ear, whispering low, “Isn’t it great? They all like you.” And proceeded with his explanation. An ominous smile spread across his face.

“It’s because, gentlemen, compared to how we normally play with our new toys, you will be all playing tag with this young lady over here. This lady here is the Black Queen and you are the white chess pieces. She has one hour the time to go find her king or to find her way out of here. It’s your job to prevent her from reaching the goal. Whoever catches her and keeps her away until the time reaches zero will have full ownership over her and can do anything what they want with her.” He explained.

One man stuck his hand up, catching Casper’s attention, making him arch his brow as he mused, “Yes?”

“And what are we supposed to do with her before the time runs out when we catch her?”

Casper chuckles darkly and grabbed my chin, tilting my head to give himself excess to the spot that was connected to my neck and shoulder. I let out a piercing cry as I felt my skin being pierced by his set row of teeth, drawing out blood.

“CASPER!!” Mark roared, slamming both of his fists against the door as the vein on his forehead was throbbing; the sanity in his eyes quickly diminishing away.

Casper retracted his teeth and, with a venomous smirk, lapped the blood from his lips. “You can do whatever you please with her. I never said that she has to be kept alive or sane before the time runs out, did I?”

The entire room in that lobby fell quiet, their demeanor changing from curiosity to predatory. Their body filling with excited jitters as they couldn’t wait anymore for the game to start.

“I see how everyone is eager, so I will not hold you up any longer.” With his one hand still latched onto my shoulder, he used his other hand to rummage around in his pocket and pulled out his phone. On the display of the phone was a timer that showed one minute. “An alarm will go off after one minute. That’s when the game starts. May the best one win.” He concluded and shut off one side of the screen, leaving only Mark’s side on.

Mark’s face was completely crimson as his mouth kept on spewing death threats. “I swear to God Casper I WILL mutilate you so badly that your blood will finally bring some color to your skin, you motherfu-”

Casper groaned, annoyed, rubbing his throbbing temple “Be quiet and just enjoy the show will you, your vulgarity is giving me a headache.” And with the snap of his fingers, the TV shut off, cutting off Mark.

“Finally, some quietness. Really, that man got no tact.” He exasperated, raking his white hair with his fingers and turned his gaze towards me, tilting his head to the side as he smiled eerily. “Right?” He asked, but I didn’t respond as my body was still struck with shock at what just happened. My eyes were quacking, my body was shaking, and I was breathing elaborated; feeling the cold sweat exuding through my pores. I slowly bring my hand to the stinging place on my shoulders, feeling the bumps and loose ripped skin- letting it go over it. Jolting from the pain, I retracted my hand, staring at the blood that was smudged over my palm.

He bit me? He really bit me? Are those men going to do even something worse to me? My mind was swallowed by lamenting thoughts not even being able to register Casper’s face that was now right in front of me, his eyes peering down at my hand.

He whistles at the damage that he had orchestrated and pointed with his index finger at my bite-mark. “You might want to disinfect that wound, unless you want that to be permanent.”

Brought back from my thoughts, I snapped my blazing eyes at Casper, glowering at him as I gnashed my teeth in frustration. “You fucking sicko.” I gritted out.

He hummed amused, raising his brows. “I see that you also have a potty mouth.”

Dropping my hand back to my side, I turned my eyes into a pair of slits. “You’ve kidnapped me, dressed me up as a doll, forced me to take part in a fucked up game and even fucking bit me. For what!?” I yelled.

He scoffed, rolling his eyes at me. “Revenge against the Chess Player, of course. He would be devastated seeing his precious kitten being ripped to pieces, while he is in confinement unable to do anything and,” He leaned forward, closing the proximity between his and mine face. “That my darling is utterly ecstasy.”

“How is that even revenge!?” I questioned incredulously. “He can’t even see me!”

The corner of Casper’s lips pulled into a lopsided-smile. “Oh, he sure can see you. He sees you even now.”

“What do you mea-!?”

“Ssh,” He cut me off by hushing me into silence and then follows to silently point his finger up, pointing at something. My eyes followed where his finger was pointing at and saw the camera that I saw previously. He then points at all the other cameras present in the room.

“In every room there are cameras, there are even some in the hallway. That way our dear friend Mark doesn’t have to worry about not being able to see you and missing all the actions.” He explained.

It mystified me. My jaw slack as I didn’t know how to respond to this sick bastard. No… why should I even say something? This man is planning to let those men do whatever they want with me. Unwittingly, I wrapped my arms around myself to make myself feel a little safer. They can hit me, shoot me, cut me and even ra… God, I don’t even want to say it. I could feel my stomach churn at every dark prospect that could befall on me.

I glared at Casper, opening my mouth as I wanted to scream at him. “You-!”

“Ah, ah, ah~” He sang, cutting me off as he drew out the last “ah”.

“Are you sure that you have the time to lash out at me?” He smirked as he pulled out his phone. I gasped as I saw that there were only ten seconds left before the start of the game.

I twirled my head around, looking at the door before looking back at Casper again. After a moment of hesitation, I spun around and opened the door, running down the hotel hallway as fast as I could.

From behind me, I could hear the evil cackle of Casper as he yelled at me. “If I were you, I would wipe the blood away. They can smell that!”