"Ahh!" I screeched horrifically. As I made out the obvious, eerie features, I could not stop staring at her tight limbs. Her hands. Oh god- the gore. I almost hurled. The fuck happened?
She held out one of her sickening arms, revealing trails of dark red and grime. Is it her? Her palm faced forward, as if delivering a message of reassurance. It bobbed up and down. Her hood came tattered, ripped and torn at the rims. I wanted to know. I have to know. What did they do to her?
I still steadied our gap between us, noting all the others coming. They'll find us. Eli, too.
"Puneet?" I whispered.
"I can't explain right now, but...this is not what you think. I-" her voice was slow. Tired, too. Has she slept at all?
"What was going on back there? With you and him?" I caught a few glimpses of her back with the blue-eyed and clothed girl after trying to fight the obnoxious one who almost wore the same colors as I.
"I almost caused...something. They said I angered a few." Her hands shook.
"Look, I don't know what they want from us, something to do with whatever these gods did o-or..." I couldn't conclude anything. Abstaining from staring at her crimson-smeared gauntlets, I impulsively jumped to: "Who did you..murder? Why?"
She pivoted back, stricken from my concurring thought.
"There were already dead people laying there, Kayla," she backlashed, "We didn't do anything to those corpses. Over twenty-six of them. Twenty-six, like he said. I'm not lying. Y-you know I never lie."
I just reached over, grasped her by the shoulders, and expressed, "Please. You're not separating. You can't go off alone, doing...this. We don't know them yet." I hesitated. "We might learn how to do these things, maybe you will soon. I'm here. I'm here." I noticed myself shivering. "We're less shitty than those guys. We're still here, we're not deviating, okay?" I didn't know if she was listening.
"They're coming. I hear...all of them." She whirled, finding Julianna at the front, placing a fake smile on herself, hiding her ugly truths. "He's waiting somewhere. I- I have to get back." She rushed off to the inky slab of stone, but instantly stopped. Her clothes and body flew still. With one quick glance, she passed on a little wave. Seconds later, she entered inside, vanishing before they all arrived. Everything's off. Nothing normal. Nothing normal.
"Oi, Ramses!" A voice dispersed from the little crowd of colors. I couldn't identify who it was, likely that I never met the person myself. I trudged back to my jaded pillar until I was confronted with the very person we feuded on the battleground.
"Didn't know you had it in you, patroness." Her hissing vocals. She already got on my nerves. Can't she just shut up?
"Only you went for the new ones," I spat out against her arrogance. "You can't pull a proper fight." I probably thought I sounded stupid saying that. In truth, I did sweat and burn from those honest hits, though.
She leaned against the opposite side, the crowd dispersing around and mingling in the middle. "Why'd you not fight back? You can't admit defeat?" She cocked her head to the side, making a mockery of concern. "Poor Kayla, under a weak one. We're not even normal. Not even any of you." She chuckled an annoying, exasperating indication of ego. If I could just strangle her into that sparkling lake and clog that mouth-
No, that's too much to handle. "You already know Rowan and Eli's stupid fights?" Were they stupid? It was rather Rowan and her disdaining us the first time we met. Telling us to fuck ourselves and whatnot. "How about this? You could, I don't know, tell him to stop all at once." I couldn't compose her inclination to this plot.
"And what would that do? What do we earn from this?" It shouldn't be a free objective in this place.
"Hmm, there could be more of our representation. We never functioned since you and the other one were gone. Possibly more power."
"No."
She held a refuted feeling, blinking twice as if she didn't hear correctly. "You don't say. You must really hate this place. You don't like anyone, the fighting- Maybe they were right." She gazed upwards to the almost artificial sun, resting in the middle of the possibly fake sky.
I was unsure of her point. "Who?"
"Them, silly," she gesticulated. "Gods? Even everyone here! You're seriously kidding me, right?"
I slowly nodded my head, still concerned and not wanting to continue this discussion.
"There's more we offer than we say. Beyond power."
"And that is?" I crossed my arms in need of the truth.
"Not telling," she retorted childishly with an odd smirk.
As she rambled off into specks of nonsense, I wandered around, mainly staying near the edges to avoid any hard hitters or worse. Did she want to tell me these things? Or was she lying through her teeth? It's best to avoid her for now. In one swing, I accidentally bumped shoulders into someone.
"Hey...you're the one I- I almost got your skull!" It was the redhead. I was still distrustful of her unlikely friendliness. She had on blood-soaked leather, reflecting a bit of bloodlust and aggression from her stance as well. I thought Ares was supposed to be all war and violence. Or I've let my guard down at that moment. "Leon's just busy enough with punching and beating up one of the guys into bits." I gave a disturbed look at Wanda, wondering if it was a true thing. I didn't hear anyone doing such a thing, not even Leon at a far distance. "Jeez, I'm only kidding," she shrugged, looking the other way. "Just wanted a reaction out of you."
We stood neck-and-neck, just viewing the packed landscape. Immediately, I asked, "You fight a lot here?"
"Every day. Our favorite time. We can crush heads, rip guts," she bent near my left, "sometimes kick the men down there." She placed a small smug. No wonder everyone wants to kill each other.
"O...kay," I gave a slow nod and awkward assurance. The area was forming colder and colder moments, shivering my legs every second. Everyone kept their composure, unbothered by it.
"What did you say?" Her eyes darted and creased around the edges. Her mouth carried a scowl. Irritation. Annoyance. A few people in pink and violet strolled by, conversing with one another. One of them, a girl around my age, held a little cylinder at the tips of her thin and veiny fingers. One side came black and burnt, releasing smoke the same time the girl exhaled a gray cloud into the air. "I'm talking to you, demoiselle."
"Did she just-" I glared near the purple girl, no one batting an eye at her impolitic gesture.
"Emm? What about them? They're- tsk tsk terrible. Wait-" She peeped and scanned over me, taking a long, hard look near my face. "Right, I almost forgot yer' with Eli, that lad." I clearly wore the colors and had the inked mark. How could she not notice at that point?
"What about him? Eli, I mean?"
She gave another grin, yet more genuine. "Leon and him are pretty good. Not much fightin' between the two of them, but Athena-" Her eyebrows lowered. "We just had a reputation of hatin' evry'one but you guys. Even the previous formers."
The formers...
"There's been a lot of wars in the past. The world wars, revolutions somewhere in France and many other countries, all painted red around the globe. Some formers have rebelled and did that here, too. It's a cycle of blood for blood. We might even be the next in stock."
Her odd fixation on barbarity and manslaughter were comparable to my friend. Staining blood, tearing carnality, and other unspeakable obscenities.
"I gotta get goin' with the afternoon shooting. It'll be more gratifyin' later on." She wadded over to the footpath adjacent to the end of the trail. "Just watch until I pluck those brains out of their thick skulls," she imitated with a handgun aiming to the minor flock.
Where was Eli? He hasn't been around for a while, which meant he was far. It was a startling situation, appearing and disappearing one area to the next. Vanishing and emerging in fluctuating lengths of time.
I would pop into random fights between the others: Leon against someone in rusty orange or copper, Ramses shooting at a guy in pink, and lots of others without attempting to kill myself in the middle.
I returned to the grand colosseum, the cool, yet jaggy aspects of the confinement. Another point, at the top close to the thronish seats. Finally, I subsided near the massive edifices, taking more gleaming measures of the carved, feathery flowers. A hint of indigo luminosity layered over the flat edges, appearing the figure who I had to meet.
"What were you doing with her?" he placed rigid inflection.
"With who?" I turned, finding the same, harsh graveness coating his face.
"La otra nueva." He came about in profound opposition. The other new one.
"Oh, her," I figured my best friend.
"They're trouble. Associated with hell itself," he replied. "Todos dirían eso."
A god for hell? Wouldn't that be the devil himself? Satan? I though Puneet once tried to distinguish this, yet I didn't know enough.
"There's nothing wrong with her, though. Maybe how the other guy probably does something she doesn't want, or..."
He discontinued with, "No. They're untrustworthy. He doesn't even pick a side, or anything for all we care."
"What side?" I queried as I followed his gaze.
"It's us against them." He twisted his head to the thunderous, chalky structure, implying those irksome patrons to Zeus. What lengths did the past patrons go for this?
"Are there others involved in this? Cuz' I heard from a little glimpse with Pu-" I caught myself once more, almost releasing her name in the atmosphere.
"I can't answer all your questions on command. I can see you trying it."
I couldn't respond to what he meant, yet I still came about three- no, hold on...five days ago? Either way, a feud infused, with or without the outer mayhem.
"I can tell, and it doesn't work much on each other if we both can convince. No one's a friend here. Not even you or I, yet. There's the rosados, muertos-"
"What is it with nicknames? You keep using them over real names."
He peered to his right, staring at the vivid, vibrant patterns of orange and green edifices. "It's a sad place. I just insult people with these simple labels. Whoever we don't know or trust." He tried not to smile, hiding the hint of comedy and minute delight. It collided with the ambience of this place. Were we missing something?
"Why don't you trust...the muertos, what you call them?" I narrowed.
"Recuerdas?"
I almost remembered but didn't know it in full detail. He gave a long-lasting sigh. "You and her were late comers. Every other girl was here, even the two with Atenea. This never happened before, since the world is shit now. Harder to find good recruits. Soldados. We never talked or anything, even though he's right to my left up there at the gladiatorum. He's always doing something near the lake. No one goes near since the rumors."
He walked over, increasing speed the more he proceeded. I followed behind, discovering his motives and notions.
"They never say the god's name for some reason, saying they die trying that. I don't even know their names, so what's the point? They're underneath. It's hell."
"I only heard their god called 'Lord of the Underworld.' Are they that superstitious?" I wasn't big on those things, but there were a few I believed logically made sense.
"He's still dangerous. That 'friend' of yours might be gone, soon. Joining his ways, doing what the formers always done."
"She's not a threat. I know her too well. We knew each other for so long."
"It doesn't matter. Every decade is the same. It repeats over and over."
"How do you know this?"
"The formers themselves. They warned us, and we warned you. Rowan and Julianna already hated me from the start, even with a crowd on their side." And we drifted into the warehouse for the second time, the artificial sun ticking every time.
"We could change that." A glint in my eyes appeared. "She would agree. I-I can persuade her, or whatever you said we could do."
He gave a stern glare. "No matter what, you can't convince them to do biddings. They only judge what they think is right. Just like the other four."
"But maybe there's a chance."
"Kayla-"
"Didn't you look at the way they acted? They were rude. Disrespectful to the both of you. You knew. You know. You will know."
He kept a quiet bearing in the quiet infrastructure, retaining his self-will. "No es posible."