As if it were in slow motion, Dominic’s outward flow of blood gushed from his uncertain expression. Spilling the sands and feeding the grains.

With a loud cheering–the crowd screamed with neutrality. Standing–I was unable to move nor decipher that my comrade had defeated an opponent who outweighed her in every regard, yet she still stood with conviction.

It was then Dax sat down and silently chuckled; without a word he looked at me and I glanced at him before looking back at the arena. Spotting the motion in which Alaine stood I soon realized her attention was somewhere unreachable, undetectable to my clearance of vision. Her face filled with annoyance and irritation; she spoke loud but not enough for me to hear–until.

ALAINE: Isn't it obvious? I’m not going to kill this man

I gained confusion–I stood and carefully paid attention to whom she argued with.

ALAINE: Can’t you all see that killing-is just wrong?

Speaking with confrontation and seemingly righteousness, her eyes gleamed ever bright towards the top. Only seconds later an unknowing voice presented itself,

VOICE: It seems like..you don’t understand–Miss Sue.

VOICE: Because in this world..Only the strong have power..

The sound of his voice quickly fainted and the look upon Alaine’s face churned into a smirking scoff.

ALAINE: Then you shouldn’t mind me talking.

With a while pause–the sound of chuckling from the silent crowd could be heard. After a clear snapping of fingers, two people in a green and purple hooded sweater came from entrances of the arena, on the other side–another pair came out of the other end as well. All four with their own certain weaponry.

To my relief, Alaine studied her situation and quickly dropped the chain which wrapped around her fist.

Poom

Hearing a softening thud, the dust surrounded the item–engulfing it within its greedily grasp. Alaine starred up towards the sky before being taken towards the entrance which she entered.

I stood and only watched–unable to lend a hand nor try to reveal relief.

DAX: So..did she make it?

I stood for a moment.

LINDEN: Tell me..why didn’t I learn about our equipment?

Dax turned his head–confused to my question.

DAX: What..do you mean?

DAX: We trained with replicas back at the site all the time..

DAX: Ah but you were…

Almost mumbling under his breath his voice faded and we both looked at each other for a while before turning away. His ‘cough’ excused the past we shouldn’t talk about.

DAX: Ahem, anyway…we need to make up a plan before they-

Click.

The lock of the door shifted as its rusting hinges appeared three men, all athletically built and scarred.

VOICE: I heard we got a tagion this year but..

VOICE: All I see are weakass bunkies on their last limbs

In a prominent red color code the man proudly exclaims his presence.

VOICE: Well either way, mocha is mocha.

VOICE: Bois, cuff the black haired fuck and leave the other.

With a quicken gesture he signaled the other two towards me and Dax, Approaching with heavy metal handcuffs, the man with most of his skin flared off by fire–as well as the missing piece of his left hand replaced with a metal scratch had glowing eyes of hatred. Finding solace in his creaking and cracking metallic hand, he spoke with a venomous glare.

SINGED MAN: Ay, if you don’t want your friend's skull smashed in–you better put these on

He stared at me with intensity. I didn’t speak–only looked upon my choices.

I lifted my hands hesitantly and before I knew it–the man fastly cuffed the heavy metal weights onto the bane of my wrists–tightening my possible momentum for escape.

SINGED MAN: You’re lucky you even get a choice–scumbag

The man's eyes glared a familiar glint that flickered the tips of my fingers. Without a choice except following orders, I walked out of the room along with the three men.

Soon enough we arrived at the entryway of the arena where all men either die or live to die. Without the will to go back nor the will to move headstrong ever forward, the joints of my legs trailed along the beaten path which led towards only sands.

Flinching my eyes at the minute light which pierced through the clouds, I lifted up my cuffed hands to try and block that which hindered my comfort.

Finding the sense in the roaring of the crowd, their beating voices bleed and echoed my ears. Their smirking and smiling faces of deranged ignorance. My bones grew with a chill as the cheers drilled themselves within consciousness. Chuckles of laughter and disappointment; the definition of insanity.

Sounds of the masses split my skull and I stood still–in shock, in disbelief at my bold appearance in their presence,

VOICE: Linden!

My surroundings stilled themselves for a moment, but only a moment. Wreaking the hinges of my neck towards her voice–my eyes lock with anxiety.

LINDEN: A-

LINDEN: Alaine-

[VOICE]: The final event you’ve all been waiting for!

[VOICE]: Let us welcome our conqueror or as you all knew him by, our previous champion.

[VOICE]: Conquering Kendrick!

With that the crowd pitched and cheered; their mountainous screeches echoed throughout the arena–piercing the skies of clunking clouds and shifting the grains of the sands.

Making a certain signal with his right hand–the crowd went silent before roaring and supporting its symbolic meaning.

VOICE A&B: Yeah go helms!

VOICE C: Hell yeah long live the devil!

Grasping silence, the crowd waited for the moment of reckoning.

[VOICE]: It’s settled!

[VOICE]: On your marks!

[VOICE]: Get set!

[VOICE]: KI-

Twoom!

Kendrick’s footsteps were heavy and his smile was sinister.

He was going to rain over my corpse.

With a thunderous but fastened pace his arm reached out to something reflective within the sands and soon a sharp swing striked the brunt of my cuffs.

Clank!

Sparks flew, within the range of my eye–my concentrated thoughts only stumbled on hesitancy LINDEN: (O-Oh..I’m..going to die?)

With clean swipes across my chest and the front of my stomach I only embraced the sensation of excruciating pain; but the pain never came only heat.

ME(??): Don’t go closing your eyes now..

Opening with the senses of my vision being restored, the bandages across my chest fell onto the gluttonous sands as it revealed the scars hidden within my front. Bullet holes–bullet holes I don’t remember gaining but bullet holes that are all too familiar. I stood, my mind confiscated by.

LINDEN: (Who?)

I can’t move my body.

LINDEN: (I can’t think..!)

ME(??): For myself?

Feeling the thoughts of my infested mind I trouble myself with thoughts and thoughts–and thoughts and thoughts!

My eyes blurred still. A voice cleared to me for only a second.

ALAINE(?) NO! LINDEN!

I looked up with perfect sight.

A headstrong lumbering of death based the front of my skull.

CRACK!