Killing (And Other Games)

(Thirty)

(Thirty)

They're like animals trapped in cages. It's the only parallel I can draw and I nearly start crying just at the sight of it. The rooms below the stadium are medieval-like; concrete cells with thick metal doors. Strange runes are drawn into the metal--I assume this is what keeps them from escaping. I don't think they would escape even if they could, though. Never has that felt like an option.

"Wait here Gray," I instruct quietly. The whole place is strangely silent other then the gasped, hysterical breaths of someone.

I walk down the corridor slowly, looking into each cell. There've put two to a cell and every single set of eyes stare out at me. The looks they give me make me turn away. I get to the end where the newest, most secure looking cells are and I find my housemates. Zane and Ryker share a cell whilst Danika and Charlie have been thrown into the opposite one. West is nearby, standing still and staring at a wall. Clearly I'm not the only person who has snapped.

"Immy," Zane whispers, rushing forward to the bars of the cell. He puts his hand out and I squeeze it, trying to keep everything together.

"Do you know yet? Do you know when?"

"Tonight," Zane informs. I'm glad to hear that he's not emotional and hollow like the last time I saw him although the thick black veins on his arms are nearly all the way up. Somehow, I know that isn't a good sign.

"Tonight," I repeat. Tonight. This night.

"But it's better then we thought it would be," Zane says in the quietest voice anyone could ever use. "They're insisting on making this the event of the year so they're prolonging it. We're fighting against each other progressively. One on one."

"Like tennis," I blurt out. "Please tell me you're fighting one of the randoms."

Zane nods and the amount of relief that goes through me feels like a swim in the ocean it's so refreshing. I let my shoulders sag a little, not realizing I was holding them so tensely until now.

"I shouldn't say it but this is good, really good. Clearly the Light creatures want it to be us five as the final five so they've put us against the weakest employees." Zane is obviously thinking in the extreme short term because chances are it will end up being them as the final five. But for now it's put off and I can breathe for ten more seconds.

"And you're only fighting once tonight?"

"Once every two days." So that means the first time one of my housemates will go up against another housemate is in two days from now. At the very, very least it's possible it'll only be that one fight that day--and maybe the Light creatures will make it that way on purpose--so we'll have four days until...I can't even think it. And if that fight is Charlie verses someone and he loses...I could live with that. I'm not sure about Danika though.

"You guys will all win the first battle, right?" I ask, biting my lip. I'm not afraid for Zane or West or even Danika, and clearly not for Charlie, but Ryker isn't one of them. Ryker is human. He doesn't have supernatural strength or super speed. He doesn't even have sharp nails.

"Yes," Zane confirms after a slight hesitation. His glance at Ryker, who sits on a concrete bench behind him, is enough to tell me he's thinking the same thing.

"Who is he up against?" I ask in the tiniest whisper I can muster.

"A Bellyworm. They sound ridiculous but they've got sharp teeth and a couple of hundred kilos on him." Zane points subtly to the cell diagonal to his, indicating the Bellyworm. When I see him I don't need much indication. He's a grotesque looking thing with a slug like body except with ten or so arms and feet attached. It's face is some sort of caricature of a human being. I look away, horrified.