JANUARY
To say the next week was horrible would be putting it lightly. So many people had reached out to Elijah about the games, but the most disturbing messages came from the random New Yorkers begging him to choose them as his partners.
He ignored all of them and holed himself up in his room. He ate little and refused to talk to anyone. His dad and sister had tried to coax him out a few times, but Elijah refused to engage in any conversation. But although he hid in his room, he could hear them in the hallway screaming their heads off. His dad was calling anyone and everyone he could, trying to find a way to get Elijah out of this. His sister was calling on all her fans to reach out and shut down the fights.
Elijah knew it was futile.
The only person who he had let come see him was Cecilia. Even when she was there, they didn't speak. She didn't make him talk. All she did was hold him as he cried on her lap while silently stroking his dark hair. She brought food with her and made sure he ate and slept.
Sometimes she would just talk though. She told him about her family's holiday and how things went at Christmas. Or Cecilia would even just rant about her day and tell him all the good and bad things that popped up.
But while the whole world was trying to connect with him, Elijah noticed there was one person who couldn't be found.
Ever since she ran out on New Year's, Rachel hadn't been heard from. Her clothes and bags were all still here, but she was yet to be found. Nobody brought her up, trying not to worry him, but he could hear Cecilia talking to Iris silently in the hall about how nobody could get through to Rachel. It was like she vanished off the face of the earth.
He had tried texting her, asking if she was safe, but she never responded. It made his insides twist even more. Elijah didn't know what Rachel was doing, but if there was ever a time he needed his best friend, it was now. But she was nowhere to be found. Elijah wasn't sure if he could go through this without her by his side providing moral support.
But while he was more depressed about the fact that Rachel was nowhere to be found, Cecilia was furious. Although she liked to pretend, she didn't notice Rachel's absence, when he finally emerged from his cave of a room, he found her in his living room calling someone.
With her foot anxiously tapping and waiting for whoever to respond, he silently watched as she threw her head back.
"Rachel," Cecilia groaned, rubbing her eyes. "This is me. Cecilia. For the hundredth time... Look, I know New Years was a shock. It was for all of us, I get it. But we need you here right now. Okay, Elijah needs you. You once told me that you would do anything to protect him. If that's true then you'll come back, okay? Please just... just come back."
Taking a deep breath, she hung up the phone aggressively before tossing it onto the couch. When Cecilia turned around, she jumped at the sight of Elijah standing there. Her shoulders slumped and she held out her arms to him. Without argument, Elijah slowly made his way over so she could hug him.
He rested his head on top of hers as she said, "She'll come around... don't worry. It'll be fine."
Elijah didn't respond. He just wanted to enjoy the moment with his arms around Cecilia. But when he shut his eyes to contently just hold onto her, the moment was broken up by the sound of the door slamming open.
His eyes went wide as he saw three men in suits enter followed by a beautiful woman in a pantsuit looking quite bored and his exasperated father who was yelling at them.
"... and another thing, Miss. Ernest-!"
"Oh, be quiet, Jack." The woman rolled her eyes at his dad and said coldly, "You can't argue your way out of this one."
The woman turned to face Elijah and immediately, he began to panic. The woman was extremely tall with her long black hair tied up in the back. Her skin was deathly pale, almost as if it had never seen the sun before, but the most bone chilling part of the skinny woman was her prominent jet-black eyes.
The grimace wasn't helping his fear either. "You must be Elijah Meyers?"
"Yes?" He responded hesitantly while studying the other men in the room who were all armed. "Can I help you?"
"Mr. Meyers, we're here to escort you to the annual debrief before the games along with your two volunteers." The woman, Ms. Ernest, announced. "The fights begin in two weeks and you, and your team need to be prepared."
Elijah could feel his stomach tumble and the voice in his head was screaming an astounding "No thanks!" But no words came out of his mouth and instead, his knees began to shake. Even with Cecilia's hand in his to comfort him, Elijah was afraid he might just pass out again which definitely wouldn't look good in front of whoever these people were.
Iris poked her head out of her room and Elijah desperately wanted to shout at her to go back to her room, but his lips were frozen. Looking around, she asked, "What's going on?"
With a small smile, Miss Ernest cocked her head to the side as she stared at his sister. "You must be Iris."
"Yes? Who's asking?"
"The FFAF Representative of New York." She responded, her eyes scanning Iris like a cat. "I've seen your work, Ms. Meyers. Where you lack in reason, you make up for in drive. You would do well in politics."
Narrowing her eyes, she gave Ms. Ernest the once over as well. Elijah begged her in his mind to just stay quiet, but then she decided to respond with, "Not when I'd be working with murderers like yourself."
By some chance, Ms. Ernest wasn't fazed with his sister's accusation. Instead, she smirked and said with a low chuckle, "You have to do what you can to survive in this world, hon." The amused expression vanished though as she turned to Elijah and asked, "Have you been receiving my emails?"
Elijah still didn't have the words to respond at first, so his dad beat him to it. "Kind of hard to do that when he's getting hundreds of messages from trained killers to take them onto his team!"
Ms. Ernest's confident aura faltered for a second, but she quickly shook off the shock and asked in a scarily calm voice, "You haven't chosen your teammates yet?"
"Not easy to trust criminals and killers, Lonnie!" His dad exclaimed.
Ms. Ernest stood up straight, her eyes narrowing as she sucked in a deep breath trying to remain calm. "Funny how I came here to speak to Elijah and yet you all are doing the talking for him...," She turned to her bodyguards and stated, "Get them out."
"What?!" Cecilia exclaimed as one man walked over to her to escort her out.
His dad, in his fury, yelled as another dragged him out. "You can't do this, it's my home!"
"Let me go!" Iris shouted as one grabbed her arm. He let go of her quickly as she glared. "I can walk by myself, you manhandler!"
As they all were ushered out by the men, Cecilia gave Elijah one last look over her shoulder before exiting. He tried to be brave and give her a reassuring nod, but part of him thought it might have looked more pathetic with his sad eyes and quivering lip as he tried not to break down.
Once the door was shut though, Ms. Ernest's shoulders relaxed as she sat herself down on the couch. Looking at Elijah up and down, she examined the boy she had to work with. With her inquisitive eyes, he knew that this scrawny guy wasn't the type of fighter she had been looking for.
He had been looking into other states' chosen fighters. While some were even worse off than him with one kid being partially blind, other states had college athletes or body builders. The girl from Washington was trained with an ax and he had found some scary footage of her online chopping wood with one swing and throwing her ax perfectly at targets.
Elijah was praying he wouldn't be on the other side of that girl's blade.
"Why don't you sit down, son... you look like you might fall over if you stand there any longer."
Part of him wanted to just spite her by standing up, but if he actually did faint, that wouldn't look much better. So, he slowly sat down on the couch and stared at the ground, so he didn't have to face her and her critiques.
But those harsh remarks never came.
"I'm sorry this is happening to you."
His head jerked up and was surprised to find that the cold exterior that Miss. Ernest had adorned, had cooled down and turned soft. She stared at him with pity as she asked, "You go to Columbia, right?"
"Yeah... yeah I'm a sophomore there this year." Elijah said, his voice hoarse. "I'm... I mean, I was supposed to go back in a few weeks."
It was silent again as she stared at Elijah. Rubbing his hands together, Elijah finally worked up the nerve to ask, "There's really no way to get out of it, is there?"
The representative gave a tentative shake of her head, causing all of Elijah's hopes to survive this to crumble.
"Look... I know this isn't ideal. Not many people would want to go through this. Trust me, I know. I'm very close to someone who understands this exact pain... in fact, she's the reason I took this job. To help kids like you." Ms. Ernest explained, trying to make Elijah feel better. Although it wasn't really helping, he appreciated her words. "There is a chance you can make it through this."
"How?" Elijah snapped with tears pricking his eyes. "I don't know how to fight! There are people going into this game with trained killers on their side. Some of them already know how to fight pretty well! And I... I got nothing. I don't even have a team."
"Well, that's what I'm here for." Ms. Ernest explained as she stood up. Pulling out a small cube, she set it on the desk and Elijah stared at it curiously. She pressed a button on the top and a hologram appeared above with the logo for Hope Vincent's company. She swiped her fingers up and immediately, hundreds of profiles showed up on the screen.
Turning to him, she said with a smile, "We're going to find you the right people, Elijah, I promise. And you'll get to meet them and train with the best fighters in New York for two weeks. No decision has to be final until all three of you step onto the mat at the game."
Staring at the faces shown on the screen, Elijah couldn't see one person that stood out to him. While most didn't look like the type to stab him in the back, everybody had their own agenda. These people's goals were to win. If he died, then the wish would just transfer to them. They wouldn't protect him.
"I can't trust them though." Elijah finally responded and her smile vanished. "All these fighters are here for themselves... They won't protect me or each other. How do I know they won't be the one who stabs me in the back?"
With a sigh, Ms. Ernest walked over to sit beside Elijah. Kneeling down, she stared the boy in the eyes and said, "These are the best of the best. I trust them completely and so does my friend."
"Who's your friend?" Ms. Ernest's gaze went to the carpet as Elijah questioned her. "Do I know them?"
"She's... let's just say, she wants to help." Ms. Ernest said with a tight smile. "She came to me as soon as you were announced to be the next fighter and asked me to do what I could to help you win."
This only deepened his own confusion. "Why would she want to help me?"
"Because she was once in your shoes." She said sadly. "She was in the games and barely escaped. If it wasn't for the people she knew around her, she wouldn't have. So... she's asked me to do what I can to help you."
A past fighter wanted to help him? He didn't know anyone that had ever been recruited to the games before. As more and more questions filled his brain, Ms. Ernest stood up and cleared her throat, indicating that the conversation was over.
"We have to head out tomorrow morning." Ms. Ernest said as she scrolled through her watch. "That way you can meet the other candidates who will fight with you, and you can be given more detailed instructions on how the fights work."
He didn't want to enter the fights with random people who he didn't trust to have his back though. Cursing himself in his head, Elijah wished he had stopped pouting so much and looked through those texts and emails. Someone had to be willing to fight with him, but the question was who. Especially now that the games were so deadly.
But then a light bulb went off in his head as he recalled a person who he might be able to count on in the fights. Standing up, he said "Give me until tomorrow night."
She looked hesitant and he quickly continued, "I think I know someone who would be willing to enter the fights with me who actually might be able to."
"I don't think you get the fact that these other candidates are picking deadly-"
"I get that," Elijah said, but stubbornly argued, "But that won't help them if someone decides to stab them in the back. I need someone I can count on in there with me... please, just give me until then. If they say no, I'll do it your way, I promise."
Ms. Ernest sighed and tapped her foot anxiously. With a shake of her head, she shrugged, "Alright. You'll miss the dinner with the other fighters on the East Coast, but that won't matter much. I can debrief you and whoever you choose about the plan for the next few weeks on the plane..." Her eyes narrowed as she stared him up and down, still studying the kid. "You sure you know what you're doing?"
With a deep breath, Elijah honestly wasn't sure about it, but he didn't have much of a choice. Besides, there was no one he knew besides Leo who liked the games so much. Hopefully Cecilia could help persuade him.
So, with a determined nod, Elijah told Ms. Ernest, "I think so."