Culling

Part I • Chapter VII

"You!" Chet pointed a finger at the steel eyed man, his voice was laced with loathing.

Apparently they knew each other.

"Yes, me." This man was also tall, had soft brown hair, and I noticed that he had a voice that made you want to hang onto his every word. The two men in front of me had relaxed slightly upon his arrival, so I gathered that he was a friend.

"Why are you harassing members of my group, Mr Adair. I don't recall that your expertise included being competent on front line combat. Normally you'd send someone else for recruitment, and for everything else that you needed."

Chet shook with fury, his finger still extended. He appeared to be frozen to the spot and couldn't seem to form a coherent sentence in response to the question. "You!"

A blonde man with short curly hair was standing next to the man Chet seemed to loathe. He was grinning at Chet with a look that said that he found this whole thing highly amusing. "You already said that. You are from the same district, it is not like you didn't know he was here."

"Shut up!" Chet snapped at the blonde and put his arm down. "Of course I knew he was here! I am not a fool. I was just hoping to avoid him as much as possible until I was free kill him with my own two hands. But now he's following me around, insulting me!"

He clenched his fists passionately. "Owen, I swear to god, you cannot just waltz in here and claim all the good people for yourself. That's not fair!"

The object of his hatred seemed nonplussed at the animosity directed towards him - he actually sighed in response.

"What are you, five years old?" The blonde haired man was smirking at Chet now.

Kota glanced at me, as if debating on how much to say, before he stepped forward. He pushed up his glasses, and addressed Chet. "Do you think this is a joke? Mr Blackbourne doesn't steal people away, everyone who is with him is there of their own free will."

"Thank you, Mr Lee, for your vote of confidence." Mr Blackbourne appeared to be done. "But Mr Adair was just going to leave, wasn't he?" His steel eyes locked onto Chet, he silently communicated something before he added. "There's no need to be so hateful. We should at least attempt to get along before we are put against each other in the games."

"Kiss my ass Owen!" Chet spun on his heel and stalked off towards the inner gardens, his three lackeys following, but before he was out of sight he turned back and called out. "Once we get into the arena we will see who really is the better man. Your connections won't save you in there!"

The curly haired blonde waited until Chet was out of sight before he smirked at Mr Blackbourne. "You seem to have a knack for rubbing people the wrong way."

Mr Blackbourne appeared to be nonplussed about the entire ordeal and gave the other man a disapproving look. "We don't have time for this nonsense. Don't encourage him."

"Sang!" Kota rushed toward me while the two others talked. "Why aren't you where I left you? When did you find Silas and Nathan? I was only gone for a few minutes!"

Silas and Nathan had moved aside to let Kota stand in of me.

He held my uninjured hand and looked at the other two. "What happened?"

Nathan smirked and crossed his arms but it was Silas who answered as he looked down at me, a proud glint in his eyes. "She rescued me."

I couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

He continued. "She came out of nowhere and defended me, like an avenging angel. Aggele mou, I think that's what I will call her."

"What?" I was looking at him, confused.