We were told the second and third games were to be held tomorrow, and that we were to be stuck here overnight.
We were each assigned rooms with a single roommate. I chewed my lips and the inside of my cheek viciously as I waited for my roommate to be selected.
My body was riddled with anxiety thinking about sharing a room with someone I very well may have to kill. What’s keeping them from smothering me at night with a pillow, lessening the competition?
What’s keeping me?
My roommate was the girl I had viewed from afar many times before. Her bulging muscles and angular face made her hard to miss. I never saw a smile on her, only a scowl.
A lump formed in my throat.
I followed her to our room—or more like our cell, given its condition—and complimentary pajamas and a pillow were waiting for us on our beds. Both made from smooth silk, nothing like what we had back at home.
I ran my fingers over the pillow again and again, slowly easing my nerves.
The muscled girl took the bed on the left, so I set my stuff down on the one on the right.
The bed squeaked beneath me as I sat on it, bouncing a little. The mattress was way thicker than mine, and the sheets were smooth, with no tears or imperfections like the ones back home. The room was completely grey, and the concrete walls were claustrophobic. The mattresses sat on metal frames.
The girl immediately began stripping her clothes off and sliding on the pajamas, not seeming to care about the wide-eyed look I had accidentally shot her.
I decided to do the same, quickly pulling my clothes off and tossing them at the foot of my bed before sliding into my pajamas.
An unfamiliar, robotic voice suddenly came over an intercom, “Attention, competitors. It’s officially lights out. There is no talking, yelling, or noise of any kind tolerated through the night.”
When the voice stopped, all the lights above us snapped off with a click. The sound echoed through the hallways, telling me all the rest of the lights went out too.
A small red circular light above the door slowly turned on, flooding the room with a dull red light.
The girl climbed into bed, throwing the covers over herself. She was still sitting up, her back to the wall when she stared at me.
I suddenly grew uncomfortable with her gaze and decided to break the silence. “What’s your name?”
“What’s yours?” She quickly shot back, crossing her thick arms against her chest.
“Violet,” I answered after a moment.
She scoffed at this, rolling her eyes slightly. “Violet. Weak—like a small little flower fluttering in the wind.”
“I bashed a man’s skull in today.” I’m not sure why I said this—whether it was to finally admit it to myself, or to prove to her that weak was a term I was never described as.
Her lips snapped shut at this. Her eyebrows rose and she frowned a little, but through the soft red life shining on her face, I almost could’ve sworn she looked… impressed. “Winning the first game is always easy. It’s the second and third where the… weak links get weeded out.”
I perk up at her seeming knowledge of the games. “Have you… competed before?”
“You think I’d be alive to compete twice?”
The reminder that there was a possibility of death churned my stomach. “It just seems like you know so much about them.”
“Look,” she began, shifting a little on the bed, “I’ve seen three games in my lifetime. Each time… it’s a bloody gruesome mess. And you know who comes out winning every single time?”
I shook my head.
“A large guy or girl whose biceps are the size of their component’s heads. Not some… little flower like you. Trust me, you don’t stand a chance going forward. You’ll be snapped like a twig.” She snapped her fingers, causing me to jump.
“You obviously don’t know me then. You don’t know… what I’m fighting for.”
She sat back a little, suddenly looking interested. “Fine, then. What are you fighting for, little flower?”
“My sister,” I began to tell her. “She’ll be banished if I don’t win this. And me… well, let’s just say it won’t be good for me either.”
“What happened? What did you both do?”
I sighed, too tired to get into such hurtful memories. “It’s a long story. Much too long for a stranger.” It falls quiet for a moment before I speak up again, “What about you?”
“What?”
“Why are you here?”
She looked almost offended at this. “Are you kidding? I mean, look at me.” She motions to her fit body. “Winning is practically a guarantee.”
I laugh dryly. “It takes a lot more than muscles. It takes skill, precision, and weapon skills. Those muscles will do you no good with an arrow flying at your face.”
We both shared a small laugh, but our smiles quickly faded.
“Actually,” the girl began, “I’m here for a much better reason. A reason bigger than me. Bigger than both of us.”
I tilted my head to the side, confused by what she had meant, which warranted her to continue.
“I was born into a group of people who… believe the world could be so much better than this one. Who believe the person in power has made too many mistakes for redemption.”
“A group? I don’t understand.” My attention had peaked now, and anticipation for more was bubbling up from deep inside me.
She hushed her voice while glancing towards the door for safety. “We’re called the Scarlet Rebellion. But I just call us people who are trying to fix our kingdom. We’re almost like an… army.”
“So, you guys come together and… do what?”
“I can’t say too much here.” She glanced up at the ceiling then leaned close and whispered, “The walls have ears.”
I leaned in close from my side of the room, desperate to hear more about this group. It was an amazing concept. People who would fix our kingdom. It was no secret there was so much wrong with our conditions, living off hunted meat and loaves of bread was nothing compared to what people had here in the far past. The thought of renewing that old world made me feel… rejuvenated. Like I had been sleeping for so long, drifting away in a cloud of ignorance. And now, I felt reborn.
“If you win this… what do you plan to do?” I asked her, my eyes filled with optimism.
“Infiltrate from the inside. Send important information back home. The Queen’s schedule, the layout of the castle. Everything. It would be the final pieces of the puzzle we’d need before…” She suddenly went quiet.
“Before?” I asked her breathlessly.
She shook her head. “I just met you. Apologies, but I’ve already said to much. The only reason I’m saying all this to you now is because I know soon you’ll be dead. I can’t afford to make friends here… not like this.”
All the light seemed to dim from my eyes. The wind swept from my body.
The girl shifted in the bed, finally laying her head on the pillow and staring up at the ceiling.
“Amelia,” she said, her eyes trained on the ceiling.
I furrowed my brows. “What?”
“My name. It’s Amelia.”
A small smile spread across my face.
“Well, Amelia. You are the single most interesting person I’ve met in this whole experience.”
“Yeah?”
I blew out a long sigh. “Yeah.”