Killing (And Other Games)

(Forty Four)

(Forty Four)

We are running and fighting. I shove someone, we slam the door open, people are calling after us as we run after her. She's so fast and everything is so dark. The lights in the stadium, the huge ones on the roof, are flickering back into life though and every step I take I see her more. She's like lightning as she glides down the stairs, her black mane trailing behind her like a flag. Lights turn off as she runs beneath them. She is powerful.

I have nothing to fight with. No gun, no knife, nothing. Gray won't fight. But then, as we stumble down the stairs after the woman who has been controlling everything this whole time, I see a glimpse of the pits.

Ryker and Zane are facing each other, either ends of the pit. Zane stands in a ready position. There's so much hunger in his eyes that it scares me. Ryker runs towards him slowly, then faster, until he collides at a huge force. I nearly bite my tongue as they slide across the ground, the dust and dirt swirling around their feet. Zane flips Ryker over his head, sending Ryker into the wall behind. The audience screams and a rationality bursts inside me. All this time, why did I never consider trying to help them escape? Or just lying, stalling? Why was my first reaction to play by the rules that had long ago been discarded by all the other players?

"We have to stop the fight," I yell, I sob, and before Gray can even comprehend the statement I am running down to the pits below.

There are no lights on in the dungeon corridors. The crowd is a muffled roar, the idle dripping of water louder then I could imagine. It is too cold, too dark for her not to be here.

"Danika?" I yell. "Danika?" Danika and Charlie must be near but the halls are winding and I've lost my location.

"Here," Danika calls. "Immy?" I turn to where her voice is coming from and run, forcing myself to sprint.

"Where are you?" I call, glancing every way despite the darkness. I am at an intersection and each entrance just leads to a blacker black. But in the corner, in a lighter area, something is moving. "Dan...Danika?"

Aster leaps onto me, my body slamming into the ground. An inhuman cry escapes my mouth as a wound opens on my back, a rock or a piece of metal imbedded in. Aster laughs.

"Let them fight," she coos, her angelic voice mingling poorly with the venom in her words. All I can see is the darker circles that are her eyes, everything else is a hazy blur. "Let the natural order take place."

"Natural?" I wheeze, my chest expanding painfully as I gasp for air. "There is nothing about this that is natural." A sharp dagger, some perfectly sharpened weapon, slices my forearm. I scream as the blade goes deeper, deeper, more blood coming out then is possible...

The weight of Aster is lifted off me, some unseen hero there for me. The adrenaline lifts me, guides me, to Danika and Charlie's cells. I don't know where Aster has gone. My mind jumps to conclusions.

"Immy?" Danika gasps as I fumble with the key around my neck, the blood of my arm making my hands slick. "Immy what is going on?"

"They're fighting, we have to stop them," I state, sliding open Danika's cell. She hugs me briefly, her lithe arms around me in a silent thanks, and then she pauses. Even in the nothingness I can see where she looks. "Will he fight for us?" I ask plainly.

"For me," she whispers, "he'll fight for me." So I unlock Charlie's gate as well and he shifts into some strange creature with glowing skin. It's not much light but we'll take it.

"This way," I point, "the pits are this way, I think." I start, then stop. "By the way, Aster is the one who set this all up. She's here now to see Zane die."