Checkmate: "Short Story Version"

A Story by Victoria G

Chapter One

“Beginning final test in 3…2…1. Begin.” The woman’s automated voice rang throughout the… space I was in. I couldn’t see a thing. I was blindfolded and cuffed to a chair. I had thirty seconds to gather my wits before I was released and had to solve the final puzzle. I replayed the woman’s voice in my head.

“I’m in an empty room,” I muttered to myself, recalling how the sound waves had resonated off of the walls.

Twenty seconds.

I had taken many tests like this before, to see if I would be in the Election for one of the next Councilors. There were only twenty-four of the five hundred who started with us left.

Ten seconds.

I was allowed to take three objects of my choosing into this one, not knowing what exactly the test would be. I had brought with me a rope, a pencil, and a net. I figured that covered the basics, kind of.

Clink.

My cuffs opened and I quickly untied my blindfold. I absorbed my surrounds with lightning speed and made a plan. My intuition was right: I was in a thirty-by-thirty room with stark white walls and a high ceiling. I assumed that the goal was to get out. But it couldn’t really be that easy, could it?

I walked to the nearest wall and gingerly placed my palm on it. Nothing.

“Come on, what’s the ca-“

ZIIIIIING.

One hundred volts of electricity raced through my body. I fell to the ground, trying to mesh the five floors I was seeing into one. When my vision cleared I stood up, very aware of the smoke curling off of my straightened auburn hair.

“Ok, no touching the walls,” I said to no one. I turned around to try and stand on the chair that I was bound to before, but it wasn’t there. Instead were my three objects that I had chosen to bring with me, plus one more. I walked over to the pile of items and looked at the new golden paper crane. When I picked it up, I felt that it was actually thin metal. Its head lifted at my touch and the creature sprang to life.

“Hello Ivory Carson,” it spoke in a slightly metallic voice. “I have a message for you from Instructor Zen.” It began to speak in Zen’s voice.

“Hello Ivory. I would like to congratulate you on making it this far. Your strategic skill are genius and I have nothing but the utmost confidence in you. Remember that every cloud has a silver lining. Good luck. Oh, right, the clue! Up is down. That is all.”

The crane closed its tiny mouth and disintegrated in my palm. I brushed the fine metal dust off of my hands and pondered my dear friend’s clue. Up is down. I looked up and noticed something incredible for the first time. The room was anything but empty.

As I peered around I could see the faintest silver outline of typical pieces of furniture you would find in a room: a chair, a lamp, a door- A DOOR! But, there was something strange about it all. Why was the lamp standing on its shade? And why was the door on the ceiling?

Wait.

Maybe… I was on the ceiling. I fell forward into a handstand and took a look upside-down. Yes, I was standing on the ‘ceiling’, and I needed to get down to the ‘floor’. But how? I looked over at my chosen objects, and formulated a plan so quickly it would rival Zen. Hey, I was here for my strategic thinking, was I not?

I ran over to the middle of the ‘ceiling’ and folded my net so it looked something resembling a mesh-like ladder at a children’s playground. I tied the rope tightly to one end. I dragged my ladder contraption over to the door on the ‘floor’ and realized that it was a few feet out of my reach.

I tied a loop in the loose end of the rope and figured the best way to get it onto the doorknob was to jump. I walked to the back of the room and sprinted with all of my speed to the other. I wasn’t very athletic, but my abnormally powerful leap did the trick: the rope was around the doorknob. I looked up at my handiwork with pride. Just one more task.

I pulled roughly on the rope and it held, so I began my climb. In fifty-eight seconds flat I was at the top. I smiled in triumph as I quickly turned the door handle, figuring it would probably shock me if I held on too long. The door swung downwards silently and I stuck my head through the new opening, breathing in the sweet relief.

I had done it.

I strong callused hand grabbed mine and yanked me out of the testing room. The man pulled me into a hug before I could see his face, but I knew who it was. Zen.

“That was fabulous, Ivory!” he whispered into my ear, so only we could hear. Because he was an instructor, he was not allowed to have a favorite student, although I knew I was his. Everyone knew it.

“Ivory Carson, you completed the final task in five minutes and forty-nine seconds. Not a world record, but well done. Well done indeed.” I knew that voice. The sound of nails on a chalkboard was melodic compared to the voice of Commander Jackson. I turned to face the governor of Justice’s Outer City.

“Thank you, Commander. I only can give my best.”

“Well, your best just might be good enough this time. You will be contacted within a days time. Congratulations on making it this far. Your parents would be-“ He did not just go there.

“Don’t you dare speak of my parents, Commander. You have no right,” I hissed through gritted teeth. He tortures them to death for information they didn’t even have and he has the nerve to tell me what they would feel for me?

“Ivory!” Zen scolded me. He was my mothers best friend, he understood what I went through. He was like the father I never knew. I looked at him incredulously, but he stared me down.

“I’m sorry, Commander,” I said in a small voice. He smirked.

“Well, we do have to factor incompetence into the scores. Good day, Instructor Zen. Ivory.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the hall. His attendants quickly followed.

The silence that followed was less of an awkward one, and more of a moment to remember my parents. Zen eventually cleared his throat.

“Your parents would have been very, very proud. But you need to hold your tongue sometimes. He is still your superi-”

“I was only two, Zen. He tore my life to pieces. I don’t care who anyone says he is, to me he will always be a murderer,” I replied curtly and walked out of the City Hall. I didn’t want to leave him, but I don’t want anyone to see me cry.

The cold October air practically froze my tears before they spilled over. For once, I was grateful for the chill. I could always think better when there was a nip in the air to keep me on my toes. I mulled over my outburst at Jackson, and I wondered if he would really keep me out of the Election because of one little phrase. Zen was right; I was too unpredictable.

I kicked at a pebble to my left and wrapped my worn wool coat tighter around my lithe frame. The metallic black jumpsuit I was made to wear for the test was not at all weather-proof. I figured that I would hold onto it anyways, maybe I could make it into something wearable. I had been creating my own clothes sixteen years since my parents passed, and I didn’t make any money to buy new fashions frequently. I was a senior at the Justice City Academy, and the Election was the only thing drilled into our skulls there.

“Once every fourth year, three boys and three girls whom are of the proper age shall compete against the six councilors for their highly coveted position…”

I could practically quote the history book, I had read it so thoroughly. I knew the goal for my education. Well, more like the educators goal for my life. Each of the five hundred students in the senior class had a specific Instructor with whom they trained daily for the Tests. The Instructors got to choose their pupils; they could choose anywhere from ten to fifty, but they couldn’t play favorites and only choose one or two. Zen chose me four years ago and my ten closest acquaintances. Yes, acquaintances. I didn’t have many friends. Commander Jackson was my parents’ “friend” and look how that turned out.

I was the only student from Zen’s class to have made it to the final test. I smiled to myself knowing that the other students didn’t even have a chance against me. I was the best, and everyone knew it.

The loud crack from behind brought me back to reality. I knew who it was already.

“Instructor, I really feel like being alone.”

“I know. I just- I had to make sure you were okay. It takes a lot to break you Ivy, but…” Zen trailed off, not really going anywhere with that. I sighed and turned around. I looked up into his chocolate eyes.

“I’m sorry. No really!” I cracked a smile at his shocked expression. I didn’t apologize much.

“Deena has food at home, if you’d like to join us,” he said. No. He was not bribing me with Deena’s cooking. He really wanted me over.

“Wee-eeell, only because it’s Deena,” I said with a smile. He held his left arm out and I slipped my right one through it, and for a moment, I felt like he was my father and I wasn’t actually alone in this world.