The Game of LifeWritten By: Clara Hixson-We are all pawns in the epic Game of Life-Part 1: IntroductionsChapter 1New York CityNicoleIt was another normal day at work for Nikki, suspicious stares from hercoworkers, the neverending beep of the scanners at the checkout line, theoccasional woman yelling in her face to talk to the manager. Nothing was everdifferent. Until the day that it had been.10 Years AgoNicole was sitting at home eating breakfast that morning. She had slept inbecause her boss had given her the week off for Christmas. She was going to flyto Seattle to visit her family, who she hadn’t seen in years. She couldn’t wait tosee the smile she had missed so much, appear on her sister Kitty's face again.She finished her oatmeal with a sigh placing her bowl in the sink amongst theother dirty dishes she had yet to do.I’ll get to it later. She told herself. Shewalked into her apartment living room and sat down on the couch. She foragedthrough the velvety cushions to find the remote, and with the click of a buttonshe turned on the news. Something was wrong. Something major. Images flashedacross the screen. Someone was dead. Not just someone.Kitty. Her face paledas she watched the screen helplessly. Someone had murdered Kitty. Her sister,her best friend, her one and only confidant. She couldn’t comprehend it.No!Kitty couldn’t be gone. She saw her just a month ago. No… she couldn’t be dead.All these thoughts ran through her head as days, months, even years went by.Nicole didn’t see her family that Christmas or the next. She didn’t see Kitty.There was no word of who the murderer was, and there never would be. At leastthat’s what the officers had told her.Back to the PresentAfter a long day of work, Nicole decided to grab food on the way and eatat home. However, when she pulled into her driveway and walked up the stepsshe was met with a surprise. A small cube-like package sat on her porch with herfull name,Nicole Aviana Calrissian, in beautiful swan-like cursive. She stared atit for a moment. She hadn’t ordered anything that week, and she had no ideawho would’ve sent her anything. She gently picked it up and carried it inside,before placing it on her coffee table, sitting on the couch, and taking a goodlook at it. She opened the package carefully, wary of its contents. She reached her hand inside and felt something smooth yet shaped, and almost cold, like astone. She pulled the item from within the bag and was confused to see a smallcar with a figure in the driver seat. There were seven empty holes in the carwhere it seemed that more figures could be placed. It was made out of abeautiful ruby stone that glistened as the light hit it. But that wasn’t all. On thebottom of the car was a date. And a time. And an address. It read,Meet me atmidnight, on the 5th day of the second week in October. Nicole ran over thatdate in her mind. But that was next week! She hurriedly read the rest of theinstructions and placed the address into her phone.Huh. That’s weird. Shethought to herself. All that appeared was an open field, blurred so heavily thatshe couldn’t see its contents. She had no choice. It might lead her to answersabout Kitty. And it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.Chapter 2New York CityRobynAs the curtains closed, Robyn was left with a feeling of loss. A feeling ofgrief that he hadn’t felt in a while. This had been his father’s favorite show andthey would go and see it all the time before he died. He could almost hear thesound of his dad’s coughing in another room, while his mom struggled to helphim in all the ways that she could. It wasn’t his fault. Of course not. He toldhimself that everyday. But there was always that ever present feeling of guilt,that his death had left on Robyn. He stood up. No, he wouldn’t dwell on this. Hewould bury himself in the distractions of the world, just to find peace. He wouldcall his friend Nikki, that’s what he would do. He went to his car and as heturned the key, he thought about what he would tell her. Why would he even becalling?Because you’re struggling emotionally and you can’t stop thinking aboutyour dad. A voice whispered in his head. But no, he knew better than to talk toher about that kind of thing. She knew better than he did the feelings of grief,and it would just make them both feel worse. He settled into his seat and calledher. He didn’t know what he would say. He would improvise, that might work,that’s what all the best actors did.Ring…Ring…Ring…”Hey this is Nicole! Sorry I can’t come to the phone right now! If it'sreally important, make sure to leave me a message or call me ba-''Robyn hung up. There was no point in trying to call her again. She wasprobably at work, doing normal work things, like he should’ve been. Instead hehad chosen to take the day off and go to a show in town. He pulled into theparking garage and, feeling good about himself, jogged up the steps to hisapartment. He opened the door and before he could put one foot inside, hiseyes landed on a small paper-wrapped package. On it was written his full name,Robyn Jacob Owen. The font was so detailed, he was surprised he could even read it.But…wait. He thought to himself. No one knew his middle name exceptfor his family.Not even Nicole. With a burst of curiosity, he picked up thepackage, careful not to damage it. He grabbed a pair of scissors off thekitchenette counter, and made a small cut on the wrapping. He tore it open,carefully of course, and stuck his hand inside.Weird. Almost like a stone, butmore defined. He thought to himself. He pulled it out and was shocked to see asmall car with a figure in the passenger seat. All seven other spots were empty,and the car was made out ofgold. He turned over the item to see if there wasany information about the sender anywhere, and to his surprise, there was adate, a time, and an address.Why not? He thought to himself. The date waslabeled for next week, and oddly enough, he had the same day off. It wasn’t likehe had anything better to do. He put the small car back in its packaging andlocked it in a drawer. He had lost enough in his life, he didn’t want to miss outon this chance for an adventure.Chapter 3ChicagoSadieSadie watched as people rushed past her, on foot, wheelchairs, andstretchers. This steady stream would continue on for another three minutes,most likely, end and then return another hour later. It was her late shift, and theonly thing keeping her at this hour was the promise of a bed when she gothome. As she watched the people sitting in the waiting room, she turned to seea woman standing at the desk with tears streaming from her eyes, which werebloodshot and puffy. Her heart ached with empathy, and so she handed thewoman a box of tissues and offered her a water bottle. The woman looked up atSadie with gratitude in her eyes.“Thank you s-so much, m-my daughter…” the woman faltered.“Yes?” Sadie didn’t want to press, but she had to know what was causingthis woman distress.“My d-daughter” the woman started again, “was hit b-by a c-car, and I-Id-don’t k-know if sh-she’s even a-alive!”The women collapsed into sobs, and Sadie walked around her desk togive her a comforting side-hug.“Now, would you mind telling me your daughter’s name?” Sadiequestioned. She was hopeful that the doctors would be sympathetic enough tolet this woman see her child, who was in such pain.“M-Melanie A-Anderson” The woman stuttered as she blew her nose,quite loudly, into a tissue.Melanie Anderson. Sadie had heard that name before,but she didn’t recall where. All she could think about now was helping thiswoman find her child before it was too late. She knew all too well what that sense of panic felt like, when she had found out that her boyfriend had fallen,and was in critical condition at the hospital only five months ago. She hadrushed to the hospital and made it there, just to find that she had made it theretoo late. She pushed those thoughts aside and searched the database forMelanie.“Melanie, Melanie, Melanie…ah!” Sadie had found her. She was still alive,thank goodness, in room 314, and was eligible for visits. Sadie looked at thewoman, now surrounded by a pile of used tissues, and spoke up. “Ma’am, yourdaughter is going to be okay and you will be able to visit her, as soon as you fillout this paperwork and give it to my coworker,” Sadie informed her as shehanded the woman a clipboard and pen. Sadie’s shift had finished a minute ago,but she felt emotionally unable to abandon the woman. She walked back to heroffice, grabbed her bag and headed out the door.Huh. That’s weird. Sadiethought to herself. Her bag was heavier than usual. She sat in the driver’s seat ofher car, turned on a light, and began digging through the items in her handbag.Her hand found a cube shaped box and pulled it out. Scrawled in the neatesthandwriting Sadie had ever seen, was her full name,Sarah Penelope Davis. Noone had called her Sarah in over two years. She pried open the box with herfingertips, careful not to damage its contents. Inside, she found a small toy carwith an undefined figure in the second row to the left. There were four rows intotal and two columns. All the other spots in the car were empty for a reason,one that Sadie was unsure of. But the strangest thing was, the car was made outof pure sapphire. She knew this of course because, when she and her previousboyfriend, Nathan, had started dating, he gave her raw sapphire earrings thatcomplimented the blue in her blue-green eyes. Grief over Nathan filled her headas she started to tuck the box away, but it was quickly replaced by the newinformation on the underside of the car. A date, a time, and an address.Whowould want to give me an address? She wondered. She looked at it more closelywith curiosity, before tucking it away for good and driving homewards. It wasn’tlike she wasactually going to go.That could be dangerous! She warned herself,but she couldn’t shake the feeling that this was destiny, and that there was noother option.Chapter 4ChicagoXanderXander took a deep breath as he sat at his desk alone in an office. Thelight in the day was fading, and it was almost time to go home. Home. If thatwas even a real word for him anymore. It hadn’t been home to him for a longtime. 10 years to be exact. Today was the 13th anniversary of his mom’s death, orwhatever it really was, and his father still hadn’t told him what had happened. One day she was there. And the next… A loud banging on the door interruptedXander’s thoughts. He didn’t even realize that he had been crying, he wipedaway the tears and held his water bottle against his eyes in an attempt toremove any evidence that he had been…Again the door shook from the force of ahand ramming into it. “Hold on a second!” Xander yelled out. “Jeez…” hemuttered to himself. He pushed back from his desk before walking towards andunlocking it. He opened the door to see his coworker, Rebecca, standing in thedoor frame.Oh my gosh, not again. He thought to himself. This was the thirdtime this week that she had shown up at his door after work hours. This time shewas twirling a piece of her strawberry blonde hair in between her fingertips, andblinking at him with herheavily mascara-covered eyelashes. “Hey Rebecca, whatis it this time?” He asked her, already annoyed.“Yeah,” she started, “I was wondering if you wanted to come eat dinnerwith us.”Xander, wanting to be a respectable person, declined this offer as politelyas he could.“ButXan!”Xander flinched inwardly at the nickname Rebecca had given him.She isthe most aggravating person in the world! He complained to himself. “Sorry!”Xander apologized, “I have a lot of work I need to get done,” not true “and I’mreally busy these next couple nights,” also not true. Xander had absolutelynothing scheduled, and he had absolutely no idea what he would even be doingthe next couple of nights.“FINE” with as much melodrama as one could, she let out a sigh, andhuffed herself out of the doorway, and down the long, tiled hallway.He closed the door and turned around to see a small box sitting on hisdesk. On it was inscribed his full name,Alexander Ryan Torres. That was weird.He didn’t remember anyone putting a package on his desk, and itdefinitelyhadn’t been there earlier. He opened the lid of the box to find a small toy carinside. The car was made out of pearl and had seven empty spots in it. Onespot, the one on the second row to the right, had a small figurine in it. Helooked at it in confusion, before turning it around in curiosity. On the bottom ofthe car he could make out a date, a time, and an address. He popped theaddress into his phone to see that it was only a five minute drive from his house.Perfect! However, the satellite image showed a grassy field, unlit and empty. Hedecided that he might as well go, since there weren’t any big sports events thathe would be watching with his friends. He tucked the small trinket into hisbriefcase, before leaving the building and heading back ho…to his house.Chapter 5 DallasGwenGwen stared at her computer screen in frustration.Solving mysteries isn’tsupposed to be this hard! She told herself. Gwen had spent the last three daysstuck on one piece of a single crime. None of the evidence was fitting together.She took a deep breath and stood up from her chair. She pulled open hercurtains and looked outside. It was a beautiful day.Wasn’t it always in Dallas?She shook those thoughts aside and stepped into her kitchen. She was adetective, and had chosen that Wednesday as her work-from-home day of theweek. She looked to her oven, reminding her of the cookies that she had yet tobake for her neighbors. Gwen stored the thought on a mental to-do list in herhead and walked out the front door. Sure enough it felt amazing outside. Shetook a few careful steps down her walkway before turning onto the mainsidewalk on her street. She could smell fall in the air, and could see the effect ithad on the trees all around her. Piles of leaves in front yards were slowlyinvading the street, being blown around by bursts of wind, and blowing her darkchestnut hair directly into her face. “Ugh!” Gwen spat out strands of her hair infrustration, before securing the temperamental strands with a hair tie. As shewalked, thoughts of the case filled her head. What made it worse was that “thecase” was a cold case and had been for ten years. A woman had been murdered,shot actually, and they still hadn’t found who did it or how. She ran through factsin her head; they were what grounded her. Truth. Truth was always the answer,well at least it was in her department. Her thoughts were interrupted by apainful shove to the shoulder that caused her to fumble. She turned around,annoyed to see a man of about twenty-six running down the street. He lookedback at her and she glared at him, only to be met by sad, brown eyes. Shequickly looked away, embarrassed and continued on her walk.That was sostupid! She reprimanded herself. She wondered how she had gotten sodistracted, that she hadn’t even seen a literal human walking, no running downthe sidewalk towards her. She decided to turn back around and head home, inhopes of baking the cookies that she had been meaning to. That would help hersolve the case, she knew it would. Keeping her eyes ahead, somehow Gwenmade it to her porch without any more incidents. A small bag hung from herdoor handle. That was curious. She looked at it more closely. On the bag waswritten her full name,Gwendolyn Amelia Jones. No one had called her by herfull name since, well since her best friend’s death.Stop yourself. Now is not thetime to be thinking about that. There are more important things to do right now.She reminded herself. She gently pulled the bag off of the door handle and wentinside, placing the bag on the counter. She opened it to find a small car, made of…diamond. The small car had seven empty cylinders carved into it, and insideone cylinder was a small diamond figure. It was seated on the third row to theleft. She didn’t understand. Who would've sent that to her? She didn’t even likecars all that much. She rotated it in her hand, inspecting it, when she found aninscription along what would’ve been the undercarriage. It was a date, a time,and an address. She scribbled all three down on a notepad, before placing thefigurine in her closet. She didn’t know what to do with it. She thought for aminute.Wait. She hesitated,it could have to do with my case. She knew at thatmoment that she had to go. She had to know if it connected to that woman.Kitty.Chapter 6DallasNicholasNick’s day had been going fine, until he had decided to go on a run. Afterthat, everything was…well different, that was one way to put it. He was proud ofhimself actually, he hadn’t thought once about Marion. He had gotten his workdone and finished the plans for his next big project. He’d even surprised himselfby planning a bike trip with a couple of his friends.Maybe things will finally beback to normal. Is what he had thought to himself that very morning. Things didnot go back to normal. At all. He had gotten home, and decided to go on a run,because after all, it was a beautiful day. He stepped outside and let the Dallassun shine on his face for a second. Fall was here, which meant that swimmingseason was over, but it also meant winter was coming, and winter was a bit tooemotional of a season for him. He shook those thoughts of and began on hisrun, enjoying the crisp autumn air as it rushed past him. His pleasant thoughtsdidn’t last long. He began to think of Marion, his best friend, who had diedroughly five years ago. It wasn’t that he missed her necessarily, he just didn’tever know what to do with himself anymore. Ever. He often found himself sittingon his living room couch, just thinking about his life before she had been killed.Well he didn’t ever really learn what had fully happened to her, but all he knewwas that one day she was there, and the next she was found dead in White RockLake. Everyone had told Nicholas, it was probably an accident, she probablydrove off of the road. Butno, it couldn’t have been, he refused to believe it all,because he knew Marion never would have left him to face the world alone. Hewas shaken from his thoughts by a sharp push by his side. It was an actualperson, and he had almost knocked her into the street. He looked back to makesure that she hadn’t, and he was met with a harsh glare. The glare came from awoman, who looked to be about…twenty-four or so. She was relatively shortcompared to Nicholas, and had medium-length, straight, brown hair. She lookedalmost shocked for a second when she saw him looking towards her, but she