Gloria Gedlock looked at me like I was some sort of demon. Her ice blue eyes drilled into my consious, I could feel it starting to smoke as she drilled a hole in my mind. But I resisted. A shield, a shield of mud brown and yellow emblished with a deer was blocking her every move. Her frusteration was causing her focus to crack. The cracks grew bigger and bigger, and wider and wider, until finally the tension broke and the struggle was over. I had won. And she knew that. And I knew that. But no one else knew, and there was no chance that Gloria was going to reveal that to the rest.

“You are strong,” she admitted. However, her face gave herself away. It must be admitted that Gloria Gedlock was good at keeping a straight face in any situation. The skill of a poker face is a very desirable trait in any situation, but Gloria seemed to be convinced that everyone else must be far less intelligent than her. And it must be admitted that very few were aware of the one way to truly tell what someone is thinking. Gloria knew not how to mask herself, and I could see very clearly that she was shaken. Strongly shaken. She hadn't expected me to succeed. Resistance had been prepared for, strong resistence had not.

“You are strong,” Gloria continued, stroking the valient mane of the ice blue lion laying in ease at her side. “But you are not powerful. In truth, there is not much chance of you achieving anything, much less greatness. If you think I am defeated you are sadly mistaken, to be sure. Yet I will not kill you, no, you could be of far more use to me for that.” What was she playing at? What had she in store for me? I was almost frightened to find out. But I let loose no trace of my fears, as that would only let her know that whatever the plan was, it was working. Best to gve her the benifeit of doubt until I could think of a reconclusion to this predicament I had somehow ended up in.

“Oh no, I have much larger plans for you,” she was making it up as she went along. It was so obvious now to me, Gloria Gedlock had no large plans for me, not even medium, or small plans. But her mind was working, the gears were turning in her mind like clockwork.

“Your plans fall weak as I see a stitch in your quilt of mind, Miss Gedlock,” I said, smiling up at her. My smile unsettled her, and I believe I caught what no one else caught. I single twitch lifted her cheeck. I was gaining. But still, this was a battle that with just one small slip, I could very easily lose.

“Ah, so the prisoner speaks,” she said, concealing her mind with a clever smirk. “I was beginning to think that you must have lost your tongue. Either that or your wit, although as it is there sure seems to be very little of now, and yet you dare smile so gladly, as if you know that you will surely win this little game of ours.”

“ Then surely you must be aware that this little game, if you must call it that, for surely it is more a journey than a game otherwise, this must be the longest game ever played, has rules that we must follow or be disqualified without hesitation.”

“We are indeed record breaking like that, as longest game musn't be the only record we've broken thus far,” Gloria paused and looked at me for a moment. “What rules dost you say this game has?”

“There are many rules we are binded by, and surely you must know at least the basics. I wouldn't think someone such as youself wouldn't abide to the rules though. As well as all the rules you've already broken, there are the rules that you must be yet to break. The bands of time and space have nothing on Gloria Gedlock. Oh no, rules aren't good enough for her. Yet, you are so completely unaware of the new rules you have already created simply by your destruction of the old ones.”

“Ah, you blather on so about nothing in particular. Rules are rules, and we are ourselves, we cannot change that. So I do bid you adieu as you may leave me now,” she hopped off her tall throne, the ice blue lion close behind. Her confusion was evident from the proud look on her face. She approached me and lifted my chin with her finger, gazing at me with those harsh eyes of ice. “By may, I mean of course that you must, as you do not have much choice at the moment, seeing as every blink of your eyelids, every beat of your heart comes with my permission.” She let my chin down, and I dropped the look of coolness into a look of pure hatred. “You dare call me by my name? It is a pretty one to be true, as well a suited one, as I am Gloria as I am Glorious. Ah, our discussion grows thin, as much has been said, but truly, I prefere actions to words anyway.” I looked her straight in the eyes and said the two words that truly threw her.

“Me too.” And with those two words I saw her slip, a slight shift, a ripple barely noticable by anyone not looking for it. She was getting herself in position. She was preparing. But nothing came. I left Gloria Gedlock look foolish. Gloria Gedlock hates looking foolish.