Chapter 60
Chapter 60
There is the clanging of weapons and people walking about. It was a horrible night with people snoring. Two
men in the other cells started
arguing too, waking
everyone up. And even if that wasn’t happening, I was not going to be able to sleep with the splitting headache
that I still had and the damn
smell of bodily fluids, blood, piss, and shit.
The pain in my head has gone down just a bit but the
side of my temples where the bolts dig into the skin are tender. At least it stopped
bleeding but my dilemma is that the top bridge of my nose itches…and it is inside
the mask.
I grab a little stick I find on
the floor and slide it in
through the top where I scratch and sigh with relief.
A girl from the cell next to us
comes close to the bars. She
leans on them with her arms
through them and looks
comfortable as if she has
been here for a long time. I
can only assume she is not a
werewolf since the silver on
the bars doesn’t seem to hurt
her. She has blond platinum hair but the dark roots are
already an inch long on the
top of her head. Her hair is curly but looks crunchy, stiff, and dirty. Her light skin is
covered in dark dust and I
also can see some bruises.
Her dark eyes examine me with curiosity. “What’s with
the mask?” She asks.
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
I have no intention of telling
anyone about who I am.
“F**kers don’t know what
else to do to make this shit
show more interesting.”
Kanda’s voice echoes.
Behind me, opposite from the bars that face the arena,
there is a stone wall with a door that leads to a very tiny pit latrine. It has a concrete
slab with a hole in the
middle of it where you sit and do your business. There
is no door so it is opened for whoever walks by to see and
those who are stuck in the
same cell. That is where
Kanda speaks from as she sits
on it and pees.
“Mh, looks stupid if I am
honest. Wouldn’t want to be
stuck with something like
that on my face. Can’t even
see your eyes? Can you see
from that?” The blond girl
says.
“Yeah, I can even see your ugly toasted hair from here.” I reply.
She smiles. “Touché.” She
touches her hair. “Washing
day is in four more days. So I
have no choice.”
“How long have you been
here?”
“Sheril has been here even
since before I arrived.” Kanda
says walking out of the Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
latrine room.
“You’ve fought?” I ask Sheril.
“Yep.” She responds.
“You are human.”
“Yep.”
“Have you been against other
humans only?”
“Nope.”
“Then…how-”
“Am I still alive?” She finishes
my sentence.
I nod.
“I’m a hunter and a damn
good one.”
I look around feeling a bit
confused about all of this.
“How…who are all these
people and how and why are
they here?”
“The majority here are
rogues but there are many
others who are normal
people and creatures who
have been caught,
kidnapped, or sold.” She
throws a nod at me. “What is
your story?”
“Sold.” I say.
“You?”
“Same. Someone in my hunter’s guild got pissed that I was doing too good of a job and was having recognition. So, they took me out of the board game.” She suddenly looks pissed. “When I get my damn hands on him I
swear…” She stops and takes deep breath.
“Breakfast!” A guard shouts as a few other guards start sliding trays in with food.
I wanted to keep the
conversation going because I
wanted to ask Kanda about
herself. She smells different.
even in between all these
other nasty smells, I can
smell her scent and it is
different from humans and
werewolves, just like that girl that keeps sleeping though they have different scents.
Putting my questions aside,
we eat and even the
no–name girl who was
cuddled up in the corner
joins in.
“When do these games start?”
I ask as we eat.
“Late afternoon when the
sun is starting to go down.”
Kanda says. “So relax all that
you can, we might not live after tonight.”
That does not make me relax
one bit.
spend the day sitting and watching people. There is not much to do after all and
everyone else does the same
or talks with each other until
early afternoon when we are
taken out. We are chained
and led to the market area.
Kanda doesn’t seem
bothered by this so I can
assume that we are safe for
now. We are taken to two
cages in the middle of the
market not far from the
cages that we spent the night in. Those that are fighting
are put in these two giant
cages and displayed to the public.
“This is one of the new ones that will be fighting today.
Number one hundred and
thirty–three.” A guard says, showing me off.
The men and women stare at
me as if I were an animal in a
zoo. It goes like this all day.
Random people come and
look at us as if we were items
to be bought and start
making bets about who they
think is going to win. I hate
1. it.
If there was a clock here, I would be staring at it
nonstop but the sun going
down in the distance could
be counted as the same
thing. The anticipation is killing me and soon, guards are walking around looking scattered. A few of them walk in front of our cell and open
1. it.
“Persian Princess, come.”
“1
One of the guards holding a list in his hand says pointing
at me.
“Persian princess? What the
f**k?”
“They are big on gimmicks. I am the Nubian Pharaoh.”
“Stop talking!” We are all
taken out and shackled on
our hands and legs as they continue to call by these
weird titles.
This is so stupid and all I want to do is punch the
smirk out of these men’s
faces. In the big cell next to us, they take some of them out and they are also called stupid names. This is just
ridiculous.
We are taken to two big rooms deep in the arena,
more like big cages. The
women are put in one room
and the men in the other.
When we are unshackled,
the girls start to look through the armor and weapons in
the room, picking and
choosing what they want to
use.
Only me and one other girl
stand there watching. She
looks at me and seems
scared.
“What are we supposed to
do?” She asks.
“I take it you are new here
too?”
She nods. “I’m Musa.”
“Musa, I’m Cass…or
apparently, The Persian princess.” I roll my eyes. “I guess we are supposed to choose our gear?”
I should be scared like this
poor girl but I am not. I am
angry. I shouldn’t be here,
none of us should. This is
bullshit!
I stride to the armor area.
There are so many metal
armor and they look heavy.
I won’t be able to move in
these. I don’t know who I am fighting but my best bet
would be to rely on my
speed and this will not do. I
move behind the rack of
armor and see the leather
pieces. I quickly take a leather padded chest armor and leather padded pants.
Then I go to the boot
area–which would be the
shoe area but all they have
are boots so the boot
area—and pick something that fits me.
After putting everything on, I look around and see Kanda
has a huge double–sided axe. She swings it in the air with skill. Sheryl swings a metal spear around with ease making it seem easy and they don’t look scared at all.
I look at the weapons, from different types of swords to flails, hammers, and sickles. There is a good variety to
choose from.
But I have not trained with
weapons. Victor was training me with my fists and b*dy first but it would be stupid to go out there unarmed.
I eye the daggers. They are curved and shaped with an
embroidered hilt and a few yellow gems. The metal is shiny as if they have not
been used at all. I think that I
could use these as I would
my fists. I feel like a sword
would require much more
skills and I have none with it
so I choose the daggers.
I give a few swings. I like how
light they are and I can easily
maneuver them.
This will do.
We can hear a crowd outside
now cheering. All the girls
start to huddle in front of the
door where you can look out through a small square opening that also has iron
bars.
“That is a lot of people.” Musa mutters with a jittery voice but she is right. I take a look and I am surprised to
see so many.
“They imprison us and make
us fight to entertain those
bastards. This is ridiculous!”
“Keep that fire for when you are out there.” Sheryl says. “I
won’t go easy on you.”
“Wait, will we fight each
other?” Musa asks.
“Most likely.”
“It depends on that f**ker
Zao’s mood. He calls the
shots.” Kanda says.
Just great. I look at her and notice the golden crown on
her head, like a circlet but it
has a snake coming out in
the middle.
“What are you wearing?” I
ask her.
“Oh, this thing, Zao wanted me to wear it to tie the whole
Pharaoh thing. To enhance
the gimmick thing.”
“Oh.”
What a weird man.
We suddenly hear the
stinging and bussing sound
of a mic.
“Ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready for tonight’s
entertainment?!”
The crowd screams.
“Yeeeess!”
“Today we have the females
versus the men! A battle of
the s*xes!”
We all look at each other.
“We are going against the
men?” The girls whisper.
“They sometimes do this.”
Kanda says.
The announcer continues.
“Who will win tonight!? Will
it be the women?!
The crowd–which mostly
consists of men–boo and
put their thumbs down.
“Will it be the men?!”
The crowd goes wild
cheering and clapping.
“Then leeeeet’s begin!”
A guard abruptly opens the door and his eyes skim the
room. There are only seven
of us.
“You-” He points at Musa.
“Start it off.”
“What?!”
“Go! You are first!”
“NO! Please no!” She shouts.
“Hey! Leave her alone!” I
shout but immediately the man points a gun at me and a few more guards rush in. I back away knowing that it is probably not a normal bullet in that gun. They take Musa by the arm and pull her out
of the room as she screams
closing the door behind him.
“Don’t be a hero. You won’t live long here.” Sheryl says,
giving me a pat on the
shoulder.
“And we are starting off
people!” We hear the
announcer. “The Blue Snake
against the newly arrived
Sprite. But I have to say it
folks, I don’t see a good
outcome for this tiny
woman. The Blue Snake has
three wins already.”
The girls huddle at the door trying to watch but I just
can’t. This is so unfair. If
they are pining us against
men, they should make it
even at least.
Soon all I hear are the
agonizing screams of Musa.
Then she makes one last
gurgling sound and that is it.
The crowd cheers.
It disgusts me and pisses me
off beyond belief.
“We have a winner! I’m sure
many of you weren’t
expecting any less!” Says the
announcer.
The door opens and guards walk in again. Two of the girls scurry behind the
others as the man skims the
room just as he did before. His eyes land on me and my
heart starts to beat fast.