The marble structure that towered up into the clouds started as a speck in the distance from the small carriage window, but as time stretched on and we got closer and closer, the structure seemed to magnify by a thousand. The walls spanned left and right, too wide to see where it ended from the window. My eyes widened as I continued to lean forward, desperate to see it more clearly. I was barely on the seat now, my whole body pressed against the cool door while my nose bumped against the glass. The arena was surrounded by people flooding into the large entrance, hundreds of guards shouting demands and directions.
By now, five other carriages rode in front of ours while six followed behind.
Twelve in total.
Could that mean there were eleven other competitors?
I swallowed hard as I remembered why I was there. What this was all for.
For Rose.
The warm thought was just enough to bury the bubbling anxiety and for me to get focused.
The carriage pulled up to the large, flat concrete area just a few yards away from the crowds of people. All the carriages lined up in an arc and came to a halt in unison. Slowly, the people’s heads turned to us, their attention being stolen. No one was trying to push their way into the arena anymore. Now, all eyes were on us.
I could see a large concrete barrier dividing us from them. It became a race to see who would make it their first, desperate to catch an early glimpse at the competitors. The people shouted, some even waving their arms to get our attention. I stared wide-eyed from inside the carriage, not familiar with all the attention.
“Okay,” the guard spoke up, “you’ll be exiting here and taken to the holding area before the first game. There, you’ll be dressed and fed.”
“Dressed?” I asked.
He looked me up and down with an unconvincing expression. “You think they’ll let you compete in… that?”
I suddenly became self-conscious, my cheeks tinged pink. I never considered what I was wearing to be unpresentable. It wasn’t like we had many options back in Athea.
“Come on now,” he said pushing the door open and exiting. He raised a hand to me. “It’s time.”
The cheering of the crowd was nothing as I’d ever heard before. It was deafening, my eyes ringing, making me stumble as I stepped onto the ground.
To my left and right, all the other competitors filed out as well, looking just as distraught as me. We all stole glances at each other. Some looked as if they were sizing up the competition, while others—like me—looked just genuinely terrified for their lives.
At the last carriage, a small boy stood frozen in fear. He was scanning the crowd, probably shocked at the chaos of it all.
I was too, however. All those people were audience members, preparing to watch us tear up each other for the chance of security and money. These people, families of High Guards, friends of Royalty, and members of the High Class, were all supposed to be proper and composed. Yet, outside of the arena, they climbed over each other, yelled, and screamed, just to get one glance at the competitors.
It was all so foreign.
A woman emerged from behind the large barrier wearing a long black coat, her hair tucked stiffly in a bun. She stopped in the middle of all of us, scanning left and right before speaking with a booming voice that not even the crowd could overthrow.
“Good evening, Competitors.” Her face remained stern. “Today you will be competing in the first of four games. Before we can begin with that, you will all be checked in and registered into our system. Then, you will be dressed and fed. The first game starts in an hour. Let’s make haste.”
All at once, the guards ushered us towards a side entrance, all our bodies being squished into a tight line inside a metal side door.
I watched as the first competitor, a tall girl with large muscles, approached the table. I was too far to hear what they were saying, but I could see them drawing some blood from her fingertip and scribbling some words on a piece of paper.
The guard from my carriage stayed by my side in line, as did all the others. I often found myself glancing his way, his hard expression never leaving from straight in front of him.
When it was my turn, the woman seated at the table greeted me with a smile. “May I have your finger please?”
I held out my hand to her and braced myself for the sting. A small needle pressed into my skin. I flinched at the sudden pain, but it quickly subsided.
“What is that for?” I asked her.
“Oh, it’s just a routine sign-in. Just for security reasons.” She motioned me forward, and the guard began guiding me through the hallway.
It was dark and narrow, nothing like what the outside was. I scoffed at this, even mumbling under my breath, “I guess the Queen ran out of money once the outside was finished.”
Without faltering or looking in my direction the guard spoke loudly, “The Queen pays no extra expenses for dirty competitors. The inside of the arena is much different.”
I almost felt my lips being glued together just then.
Before I could breathe again, we entered a room with the other competitors. The walls were lined with racks of what looked to be the same outfit. It was deep green with black detailing. More and more competitors filed in, blocking me from getting a closer look at them.
We all stood elbow to elbow as the women from before re-entering the room.
“Behind you, you will see your clothing for game one. You have fifteen minutes to get dressed and to meet down in the dining hall.”
Everyone flooded to the racks, all searching for their name tags. I pulled mine free from the hanger and glanced around.
A boy spoke up. “No dressing rooms?”
The woman looked at him with a disappointed and disapproving look before exiting into the hallway.
Most of us looked at each other hesitantly. One girl, however, stripped her t-shirt and jeans off without another word, standing before us in her underwear. At first, everyone stared, but slowly, we all began following her lead. I pulled my pants off my legs and pulled my jacket and shirt off.
“Hey,” a guy mused across from me. “I like what I see.”
I cringed as a few of the men around him chuckled with him, and picked up the new outfit quickly, desperate to cover up. The outfit was a skin-tight silicon material. It was a dark green with black vines twisting throughout.
It took a few yanks and pulls to get it up my thighs, but once it was on, it felt like a tight hug. Before I could, the same guy reached around me and pulled the zipper of my suit up, making sure to wink before letting me go. I shoved him back slightly, which warranted harder laughter from the people around him.
The girl next to me tapped me on my shoulder, spinning around. “Zip me,” she said. I pulled the zipper up. “It must be water,” she said, out of breath from the work out of putting it on.
I stared at her, puzzled by what she meant.
She scoffed at my reaction. “The arena, dummy. It must be water. These are wet suits.”
“Water?”
She knitted her eyebrows together, looking me up and down. “Did you get hit in the head on the way here? Do you know what water is?”
I shook my head, embarrassed. “No, no. I know what water is. But I just don’t understand what the game could be. What could water have to do with anything?”
She shrugged and threw her old clothes in the bin with everyone else’s. “No clue. Come on, let’s eat.”
The dining hall echoed with the clanking of metal trays and chatter. A long table sat in the middle, each seat with a meal set perfectly in front of them. Noticing they weren’t labeled, I took a seat next to the girl who I came in with.
“What’s your name?” she asked, picking up a plastic fork and digging into the foreign meat on the tray.
I clasped my hands together in my lap and stared down at the food in front of me. “Violet. Yours?”
“Brianna,” she replied between bites.
With my stomach grumbling, I picked up the fork and began eating. It wasn’t overwhelmingly good, but it was enough to satisfy the ache in my stomach. To that- I was grateful.
Brianna held out the plastic fork and knife in front of her. “Bet they gave us these so we don’t kill each other before we get into the arena.”
I suddenly noticed how close we were sitting, and I shifted my body further away a small amount, not enough to be noticeable. The last thing I want is to be on her bad side.
The meal went on silently. Only the clicks and clanks of metal filled the room.
Finally, a large buzzer sounded from above. Guards filled the room, lining the walls, as the same women entered.
“The games are about to begin, everyone. It’s time to line up. Good luck, competitors. May the best prevail.”
We abandoned our trays, and all filed back down the long hallway. Half of the competitors branched off and continued down a separate hall while my half stayed put. In front of us, a tall metal door remained closed.
My heartbeat pounding in my throat as I rubbed my sweaty hands down the silicon of my pants. The six of us remained dead still in the line. My ears seemed to ring as my thoughts were invaded by horrible possibilities.
Coming from such a poor village, we have never been allowed to watch the previous games. I had no idea what to expect beyond those doors. Even when competitors from the past would come from our village, they never returned home to tell the stories. Mother said even if they lost, they got to work somewhere for the Queen. That’s why they never returned. My father would scoff at this and bury himself back into his woodworking.
I was last in the line, which meant I had to wait what seemed like an hour for it to be my turn. Each time, the metal doors would screech open, and all I would see were the thousands of rows of people seated in the stands. The bright sun from above blinded me from seeing anything more.
I was the last one, and the hall fell eerily quiet. The guards beside me leaned against the wall, presumably tired of waiting.
A jolt of fear struck my body as the doors screeched open once more, the alarm blaring above my head once again.
Only this time, it was my turn.