Nonexistent

ELEVEN- Rogue

DARKNESS. It's everything I see.

Or better yet, it's everything I don't see.

My eyes are soon wide open, yet I'm staring into a never-ending space of nothing. I stretch out my arms, trying to find something--anything-- to help me figure out where I am. For a moment, I think I must be blind. But then my hands catch a cold bar, and I cling to it, afraid of letting go. The sliver of hope in my grasp then leads me to feel the sturdy wood in front of me, and I find the metal bar is a door handle. I pull it open and light showers on me, instantly forcing me to shut my eyes. Squinting, I find myself in a huge arena I've never seen before.

After my eyes adjust quite a bit, I look up to the domed ceiling and examine the round structure. Hundreds of doors, like the one I just came out of, circle the whole arena and many familiar faces barge out of them-- some of the fellow students I've trained with all my life. One face after the other, I soon find something that links all of us. We're all Elementals.

Then I notice a huge glass tube in the centre of the structure, surrounded by a thick barrier of tough ice, and it leads high up to.... whatever is up there. The floor area surrounding the tube is a bright red that resembles the color of my hair. That's when I notice the small holes that cover every inch of the circular wall. I eye them wearily, knowing they're definitely not there merely as decoration. Then I notice the huge rocks and boulders that dangerously wait to roll down a large spiral slide, lining the inside of the arena like a stretching coiled snake. One of those rolling around the place could easily kill half of us in less than a minute.

I have a hunch something terrible will happen to those who don't get out, and it's quite obvious that's where we're supposed to be headed. But it's also quite obvious that it's not going to be as simple as it looks.

That's when I'm forced to wonder how many of these faces won't make it out alive today, by the time I make it out. Then I wonder if I'll make it out at all.

At this point, anything can happen.

Then my head, along with everyone else's, jerks up to the beep of a large, digital clock. It's bold, red numbers start at 1:00:00, and counts down almost tauntingly.

0:59:59... 0:59:58... 0:59:57...

They give us an hour to get out, and I pray its enough. I take a deep breath. This is something I didn't realise I'd say so soon but...

The Finals have begun.