The Pit: My Writers Games Entries

1. The Abomination Puzzle

Twenty-three pairs of eyes I don't recognise stare at me, penetrating whatever small sense of security I can muster in this ugly grey room. The people who belong to those eyes talk to each other in fast murmurs. Some eyes are green-grey. Some have little golden flecks. Some are blue-grey, like my own, or just blue. One boy has red eyes, that match his equally fiery hair. There's a set of twins whose eyes are dark brown with a hint of yellow. Some have really thick eyelashes. Some show fascination. Others show fear, or disdain, or anger. I don't know for sure. Emotions are really hard to figure out. I wish emotions were simpler, like in the scribbled drawings I did as a little girl. Now my drawings are more alive in their 2D world, and sometimes I cannot tell the emotions of the people I draw.
I don't get it.
I suddenly remember when the very colourful man, whose laugh is so loud it stabs my eardrums and makes my chest tighten, said something about me on the television. He said I have Asperger's. I don't know what Asperger's is, but I hate it.
It's unfair to judge things you don't know about, but if Asperger's is something that makes people treat you like a freak and destroy your personal space and make you feel small and scared, then how can it not be hated?
One of the other people in the room, a tall, muscular boy with well angled features and a warm smile approaches me. He's smiling, so he must be happy.
I curl up into a ball when he sits next to me, flinching as I sense his personal space getting too close to mine. "Hello." The boy says, breaking the silence. Everyone else soon starts talking, now that the silence is broken. I don't like the noise. I bury my head in between my legs to block it out.
"Hey. You don't have to be scared of me. I want to be your friend. My name's Ross, what's your name?" The boy tries to invade my personal space again. I slowly lift my head back up and look into his familiar blue-grey eyes. He looks like my brother, Helix, with his kind, angular face and soft eyes.
"Daicellyn. Daicellyn Arjett." I stutter. "You said you want to be my friend?"
"Yes, I do. I want to help you in the games." He bends down even closer to me.
"W-why? N-no one ever wants to be my friend. No one ever wants to help me." I feel something dripping down my face. Am I bleeding? Did he hit me? No, it tastes salty. I think I'm crying. But why?
"Well, I do. I think you're amazing, and those people don't see that in you." Ross pauses. "You know, I have a son at home. His name is Scott, and he just turned three. He's the light of my life, but I might not ever see him again." His eyes go glassy with moisture. Something strange stirs in my chest, something that makes me want to reach out and hug him. If Ross has chosen me to confide in, I think we might be able to be friends.
"So that's my story, or at least part of it. Friends know each other's stories. Will you please be my friend?" He asks in a voice that sounds not sad, but something more than that. I don't know what it is, but my mouth speaks before my brain can.
"Okay, we can be friends." I sit up and look into Ross's eyes.
"Thankyou. Now, I'll be back in a minute." He looks at me and smiles, a contagious smile I feel growing on my face. No, no smiling allowed.
Ross goes over and talks to two other girls, who still haven't taken their eyes off me since we entered the room.
The heavy grey door suddenly swings open with a thud that makes me jump. A middle aged man with dark skin, black stubby hair and almond eyes stands with a young woman that seems to give off an aura of darkness, with dark lips, lots of makeup and oddly styled hair.
"Okay, first up is," the woman consults a piece of paper. Her eyes narrow with distaste as she reads out the name. "District One male, Ross Macaulay." My new friend Ross gets off his chair and follow the two out as the door slams shut. Soon, the people are back, and they call out name after name, person after person leaving, until finally my name is called.
"District Six female, Daicellyn Arjett." The woman's monotonous voice reverberates through the cold, drab room. I get up and shuffle out the room into an equally grey corridor, trailing behind the two people, who have their own conversation.
We go through a black metal door with green lights and an 'Authorised Personnel Only' sign.
In there is another pretty young woman, standing before rows and rows of objects that look like the things we used in the training. The woman starts talking as soon as the other two leave.
"Welcome, Daicellyn, to the 175th Hunger Games. This is your evaluation period. As a change, you and all the other tributes will be evaluated at the same time. You will be given the opportunity to show us your skills and impress us so we might sponsor you. You'll be able to 'kill' other tributes using outer new death-simulation technology. It will enable you to kill people, or make them feel like they're being killed, without actually hurting them. You may now choose your weapon and then proceed through this wall into the evaluation room. Good luck." And with that, she's gone.
She said to choose a weapon, so I wander amongst the racks, where rows upon rows of weapon hilts rest. They have everything from the training. I didn't like most of the weapons there. In fact, I didn't even realise we had to hurt people. You shouldn't hurt people, or anything, for that matter.
My footsteps echo in the silence as I reach for a long, slender pole made of metal. I learnt it's called a spear. The pointy bit at the end is missing, though. Maybe someone will give it to me after I choose my weapon.
Before I have any more time to think, a section of the wall at the far end of the room retracts into the wall next to it, revealing another room.
This room is blue. Only blue. A blue just like the blanket on Dustan's bed in the bedroom he shares with Esther when she came over. I liked to come in and drag the blanket off their bed and hide under my bed with it. It smelled like both of them combined, reminded me of Dustan's strong arms wrapped around me and Esther's soft hands stroking my hair. It made me feel safe.
I cautiously take a step forward in the tiny blue room. My foot seems to sink into the floor. I bounce up and down on the squishy material, the sound of laughter filling the room.
Not long later, the sponge-like wall once again retracts back into the other walls, revealing yet  another room, this one being all black nothingness, like the sky at midnight. I look around from the safety of the blue room, for the fear of being swallowed by the pit of darkness outside.
There's a sheer precipice that slopes down into a massive bowl-shaped pit. It's barely distinguishable in the darkness, but the rim around the edge doesn't look very big. There's lots of large grey shapes that look a little like puzzle pieces being held up by rocks stacked on top of each other. I like to play with puzzles. We had one of all the district logos back home. Looking up, I can just see the sphere-like ceiling against the blackness. In the centre of the room is a floating platform that has a glowing red flag on it.
Wait, how is that island floating? What's the point of all this? Why must I play these games, and not be home, in the safety of my brothers' arms? Why didn't Easton come back?
I see all the other people from that grey room step out from their own blue sponge rooms out onto the rim with their own weapons. Their fists are clenched and their eyes are angry, I think. Why are they angry?
"Welcome to your evaluation, tributes." A computer-like voice I can't see starts talking.
"Your goal in this test is to reach the flag on the stationary island in the middle of the room by crossing bridges. You can use our death-simulation technology that will show you what death feels like without any physical harm coming to you. If this happens to you, you will be transported back to the start. If you fall off a bridge, you will be trapped down the bottom until you either kill or get killed. As soon as you hear the air horn, you may go. Good luck, and remember, Sponsors are watching, so be sure to impress." The tip of my spear is back, though in glowing blue hologram form. How will this do anything? Everything goes straight through holograms.
A few seconds later, a terrifyingly loud noise breaks everyone's stillness, people running everywhere in complete and utter chaos. Everywhere I look people are hurting, and it makes me hurt. I back up against the wall so I am as far away from the hurting as possible, maybe that'll stop me hurting, too. No, doesn't work.
I see Ross runs across the rim to me, holding a knife-looking thing. Is he going to hurt me? No, he's my friend. Friends don't hurt each other. He holds out his hand, and I grab onto it.
"Hello friend," he smiles, pointing at the closest bridge. "You ready to jump?" I focus on the bridge and nod. "Ready, set, jump!" For a moment, I am flying, only feeling air beneath my feet. The bridge is hard on impact, my feet struggling to plant themselves on the uneven surface. We leap across a few more bridges, avoiding most of the angry, hurting people. They come close, but not too close, which is good.
One girl, a dark haired girl with pale skin and cold green-grey eyes comes close. Too close. Even when Ross pulls out his knife-looking thing and tries to attack her with it, she stays too close. She pulls out her own weapon and dives at Ross, a look in her eyes that I can't comprehend. It's more than anger, more than any emotion I know of. It's fire.
I curl up into a ball, unable to watch, to react, to think. A scream fills the air, soon joined by a second scream. I open my eyes to see the fire-eyed girl convulsing on the ground, her face twisted in pure agony. Two more girls approach us, one of them kicking her off the bridge. They're both tall, one with ginger hair and blue eyes, the other with glasses and blonde hair. Ross smiles when he sees them. Has he forgotten what just happened? I tug on his hand to remind him they're dangerous. Everyone here is dangerous.
"You're welcome." The blonde girl smirks, waving the bow in her hand around. "I'm Skye, by the way, and this is Saralee." She nods to the ginger haired girl, who smiles. How can she be happy here? The smile doesn't seem happy, though. How can a smile not be happy?
I prepare to jump to the next bridge, but Ross stops me. "Don't worry, they're our friends. They saved us from the bad girl." Ross tells me in a gentle voice. The girls give reassuring nods.
"Okay, friends." Friends, something I never thought I'd have. But of all the places, why here, in this place full of angry hurting people.
We jump to the next bridge, when suddenly I'm thrown off balance as the whole room takes a terrifying lurch. Soon, everything, everyone is spinning. Around and around and around. I try to get back on my feet, but I can't move without losing my grip. My spear digs into the bridge
My friends are all on the ground, too. Pinned to the bridge with their limbs at odd angles. Dizziness and nausea are inside me, invading my stomach and my brain. Around and around and around. I must hold on, I must hold on.
After a long, long time, the room stops spinning, although my head still is. Ross grabs my arm and helps me to my feet. I still don't like it when he touches me. When anyone touches me, friend or no friend.
Ross opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off when something hits me in the chest. A holographic arrow. Who hit me? It wasn't Skye, she's my friend. Saralee points at a boy with a bow a few bridges away. He's laughing. Why is he laughing when he just hurt someone? Skye draws back her bow and shoots the boy. Everything around me freezes for a few seconds, my ears ringing and my vision spotty.
I hear my friends talking, but I can't tell who's saying what.
"Daicy, can you hear me?"
"Oh no, now what?"
"Nice going, Gamemakers."
"Are you okay?"
"Well she's screwed."
That's when the pain sets in and takes over my body. Pain, pain, pain, pain pain. It's all I can feel, all I can think about. All I can hear is screaming, my screaming. The edges of my vision go blurry, and I can't remember where I am. What happened to Ross and Skye and Saralee? Who cares, when all I feel is pain?
It feels like something's ripped my heart out and replaced it with poison that's being pumped through my bloodstream. It feels worse than people invading your personal space, or saying you have Asperger's, or eyes piercing right through you and into your soul, or having one of you brothers leave and never come back without a single memory of him. This is worse than all of those things combined. This is pure, agonising torture.
After what feels like forever since I got hit by that arrow, the pain in my body subsides into total paralysis. I can't see, I can't hear, I can't move, I can't talk, I can't even feel myself breathing. Maybe I really am dead. I can only think. I'm pretty sure dead people can't think. But even now, I can only think of the pain I feel.
The darkness is welcoming, after all I've seen today. Did Easton have to go through all this? Did he ever feel the way I do now? Does he remember me? What's the point of all this? Why do people have to hurt each other like this? Why?!
I've been submerged in darkness for a long time now. I feel something come over me as my eyelids flutter open. Wait. I can see again! I can hear again! I can move again!
I'm back in the blue room, the door to the all black room wide open. How'd I get here? Where's Ross? Where's everyone else?
I take my spear and stand out on the rim, trying to find Ross. There's a lot less people now. I guess they reached the flag and left. I jump onto a few bridges and keep looking
I see Ross! He's near the flag, in a fight with two other boys, who are both wielding spiky club-looking things. He's losing, the mace swinging closer and closer each time as the boys get closer and closer to the edge of the bridge.
Ross!
Without thinking, I take my spear and launch it at one of the boys. It hits the grey haired one, who falls to the ground in agony seconds later. I still don't get how the spear can hurt when it's a hologram. Ross hits the other with his knife thing. He turns and looks at me, a look of immediate relief.
"I'm glad you're okay." He says after I reach his bridge. "Saralee and Skye already reached the flag.Come on, there's not far to go." We fly over the bridges, and reach the island without any more trouble.
"Would you like to go first?" I look up at Ross.
"Let's do it together." He grabs my hand and touches it to the flag. Will he ever learn not to do that?
A tube comes down from the roof and encases me in it. I'm flying! Flying to Easton.