RED HOOD ✔

GLADIATOR

He had gone on and on about what a good day he was having and how much he loved catching us for about an hour, I just considered everything as rubbish, apart from the part about Apsychos fighting, it seemed true, Apsychos didn't oppose to it, I felt like there was so much I didn't know about him, and there was, he is a puppet with a sword, I need to find out more about him,

"Apsychos... You were a gladiator?" He nodded tiredly "yes... And I was the best one" he admitted to it, "but... You worked for Marshall, and, doesn't that mean you killed people?" He nodded... I became angry and disgusted "how much did he pay you to kill them, those were people, probably had a family, you killed them and you didn't even..." He interrupted me angrily,

"I had no choice Vincent!!!" His temper then began to dial down, he was even almost sobbing "I came here after the fight with my dad, Marshall told me that nobody judged people like me, and I was accepted here, I was part of this family, soon Marshall told me that we were running low on cash and he needed me to do some rounds in the arena, I agreed, but I fought things like ogres and lions, not humans"

He looked sad, his brown eyes secreted what looked like tears, is that possible, he wiped  it off his face and continued "the last fight of the day was a human, I remember him perfectly, I remember all of them... it was almost over and he had given up, but Marshall ordered me to kill him... I didn't want to, he told me to look to my right and I could see Anna with a knife at her throat"

Anna? What did this have to do with Anna "Anna was the only good thing there, she was the best, she fed me, she brought me clothes, she tried to make me as comfortable as possible, she was like my little sister, Marshall knew I thought of her that way,  I had to do it, I didn't want Anna to die, I killed him..."

There was silence for about ten seconds... He then continued "After that it continued... It just got easier and easier, then came my last battle, it wasn't a human but I'd wish it was... It was a giant bearing the name 'boulder crusher' it was a long fight"

"he hit me with his club and I was down on the floor, it used my sword and stabbed me right in the chest... I thought I was dead... Thought it was the end, but instead I was still OK, I pulled the sword out and cut off his head, those were 80 confirmed kills in total, Marshall was celebrating that I had never lost a fight, and that's when the name 'Apsychos' was given to me... It means lifeless, they couldn't kill me because I had no life to take away, I'm a soulless object... Just like the monsters..." He paused

"During the distraction, I took the opportunity and ran, I saw Anna crying and begging to follow, I couldn't leave her, I left with her and we were gone."

I felt bad for him, he just wanted to save Anna, if not for him, I couldn't have imagined what had happened to her, "Apsychos your not a monster, you are more human than most of the humans I know, I should've known that you couldn't have done the things you did of your own will, you didn't want anything to happen to Anna, but... You should have found another way"

"There was no other way!!!" He yelled and I did not know it was possible, but he even began to cry, "I am just a sad replica of real life, these tears are just a sad imitation of the real thing, am I even alive, I'm a toy that can think, how I crave to be human like you, I bet if I was like that, my father wouldn't have hated me"

It hurt me seeing my friend in this state, I wanted to comfort him but I couldn't, I didn't know what to say. It was cold, dark and we were bound to chains, but at last we were able to sleep.

My dream began like this, it was cold and foggy, there was fire everywhere and giants raided the village... Wait... I've had this dream before... This was the dream that my mother died in, but it looked different this seemed like early, like they had jus begun the raid,