Alca Arena

The Group

I’m sitting in a courtroom. My hands are clammy and I’m getting cold sweats, maybe I’m sick, no, I’m just nervous, very nervous. I look forward but my vision is blurry, I feel nauseated. I can make out a judge, looking down at the prosecution. I see a man in a bright blue suit, wearing a red tie and brown shoes. His golden hair is sparkling in the light and his glasses reflecting this light give him the appearance of an angel. Though, his angry scowl makes it seem more like a war angel than anything else. This man is pointing at a man on the other side of the room, the defendant. I can not make out a single detail about the defendant, think he has brown hair, no, maybe black, I cannot tell. Standing above the defendant is what I presume to be the defense attorney. This man is very clear to me and somewhat familiar. He stands at an average height, wearing a cheerful yet cunning expression. The only thing the light reveals about him is the thin mask he wears as he accepts the prosecution’s every argument. His client seems to be trying to stop him but he does not listen. I can see some people in the courtroom shaking their heads, wondering why the attorney would not defend his client. Time seems to fly by and then judge says something to the courtroom and proceeds to bang his gavel. The room sort of goes silent. The woman sitting next to me is crying, and with each passing second the crying grows louder and louder and louder. Then I feel something on my face. I wipe my hand across it and notice that I too am crying. I have an out of body experience when I seem to run after the defendant but the woman grabs me. And as I look at the defendant, everything goes black.

***

Someone was shaking me, I sat up and saw Grey pushing me around. He was smiling and throwing me around the bed.

“ Get up lazy! Jeez, you sure must be a night owl because you suck at getting up. Now get down from there, the dinner bell just rang, its time to go get something to eat.” said Grey, pulling me out of bed and helping me to stand up. This time though, I didn’t really need help. I could stand up perfectly fine, and my eyes had adjusted to where I could see things clearly from about 10 feet away. Before we left our cell, Grey grabbed my neck.

“ Wait up Noah, before we go, I need you to promise me something,” he said.

“ What is it?”

“ About what I told you earlier, about the games. You can’ tell anyone I told you about that, and don’t mention it to anyone else. I can’t explain why, but for certain reasons I can’t tell you anything more about the subject, I wasn’t even supposed to tell you what I already have, if the creeps found out they would --, well it’s not important. Let us go.” he said, a bit eerily, except for that last part. He then pushed me out of the door and, holding on to the railing, I was able to navigate my way to the mess hall just by my mediocre sight and my memory. When we were there, it was even more packed than last time.

“ Damn, we got here late. Lots of these guys have nothing better to do than sleep in late, so they often skip breakfast and lunch and just attend dinner. Now they're rowdy and hungry, be on guard, they might try to harm you, and there are always creeps lurking around and blending in during dinner.” Grey instructed.

“ Hey Grey, what’ a creep?” I asked, having heard him use the word multiple times. Immediately after I asked the question, I wished I hadn’t. He gave me a grimace, the same sort of face he made every time he was about to say something negative.

“ Well, a creep is the name I gave to the guards a while back. They don’t have an official name as far as us prisoners go, they just watch us all the time and if any of us dies then a creep shows up and takes them away. Later, I learned that the guards had spies, people pretending to be prisoners who raid our cells and eavesdrop on our conversations, so they are also creeps. There are more spies than guards usually, so be sure not to say anything important to someone you don’t know, that's how you disappear.” he said.