Yagrax Read online

  "What do we do?" I asked him.

  "Shhh." he remarked and a doorway lit up in the distance, about 100 meters away. I get to my feet and walked towards it, assuming that the job has been done.

  "What happens if we stay here?" I asked him.

  "They come into sedate you and trust me you really don't want that. The beating they'll give is horrendous." he said to me and I nodded as I tailed him closely. I felt the unexplainable need to grab his hand and place it into mine. I watched as his fingers dance along his thighs while he steps forward and I feel the inclination to grasp that large grey hand of his. My fixation came to a close once he reached out to me and patted my shoulder.

  "Drop the weapon too. If you take it they'll have to confiscate it which is not going to end well." he said to me and I nodded as I let the spear go and it fell onto the ground. I murmured before smiling while looking ahead to the glowing doorway.

  "Shouldn't they have told us the rules first?" I asked.

  "They rely on us to do that. For the first batch of combatants they give the scoop, same with a group of two new combatants but if it's just you and me then...well it's up to me to tell you if I want you to survive and make it to the next round. You dropping your weapons and following me is to ensure that you don't get a beat down from the guards that will take longer to heal than necessary, sometimes they even kill you so we wouldn't want that." he said and I nodded with a small smile dancing across my face.

  "Thank you." I squeaked and he rolled his eyes.

  "Told you i'm not doing this for you. Only for my own amusement. I want to see how far you can get and it's been a long while since I’ve had a real challenge." he stresses.

  But deep down I knew that he didn't feel that way.

  We step inside of the elevator-like room and it shoots in a litany of directions once more. I had a firmer grasp on it now and was able to calm myself as we made our way to the next room, the cleaning room. The metal door in front of me opens and I stepped through to see a concrete room. I looked over at Yagrax to confirm that this was what was supposed to happen and he nodded. I stepped out and the metal door shuts behind me before I feel a light mist dance its way across my back and my cheek.

  "Ahhh!" I said and he laughed at my surprise.

  "It's cleansing fluid, don't worry. It's only there to clean off all the viruses or microbes that may be on your body during the fight. To prevent a death by infection because no one likes to watch that." he said to me and I shuddered as the cold fluid danced over my skin.

  "Doesn't make it less unpleasant." I groaned out before an air dryer shot across our faces, we were blown dry and I looked over at him during the entire process. His shirt was off and the fluid was pooling on his chest, all of his muscles shone due to the fluid and light that shone down on us. He looked absolutely magnificent, so powerful, so strong, like he could rip apart steel with his bare hands. Those red eye shine and that black hair was slick from the cleansing fluid, I see his abdomen tensing and his calves tightening as he shook himself off. After the dryer was done doing its work we were led into another room, this time it was a tiled room with a pair of towels and two bags laid on a table in front of us.

  "Is that for us?" I asked him.

  "That is our reward for winning, clean clothes and a shower." he said to me and grabbed his clothing, lifting it up as he emptied the sack onto the table and picked out the simple white t-shirt that would have looked more like a dress if I had worn it. He slipped it on and was about to tug his pants off as well before glancing over at me and realizing what he was about to do.

  "Oh sorry, right." he muttered.

  He walks behind this stone wall that split the room in two and I waited on my end with my own sack. I empty it and it has the same clothes as his, khakis, a shirt, and some black boots that fit me perfectly. If this was what we got for winning the first game then I wondered what we would be receiving if we won more...

  #

  Yagrax

  I had to say she was improving quickly.

  During the second round which was set in the Earthling grasslands she was able to avoid the Kasorian that kept on flying after her by ducking into the grasses whenever he would approach, I took him out with a well-placed toss of a spear and eliminated his friend, a rather frail Earthling that was also hiding in the grasses, by stomping on his neck. During the third round on the Jorathian shoreline she was able to hide behind the massive trees and avoid the large, lumbering Earthling that was walking around with a large blunt weapon in his hand as well as the Neboran that was floating around with a knife attachment on his tentacle. I took them both out using a series of throwing knives without much trouble,.

  And now we were enjoying the fruits of our labor.

  "Mealtime!" shouted out a voice and I sprung up from my spot near her bed and grabbed the trays as they landed on the floor. This time they were actually warm.

  "Here." I said and handed them to her, she shot me a questioning look.

  "You aren't going to heat it up first?" she teased and I shake my head.

  "Don't need to. Feel them." I said and she grabbed the dish from my hand and placed it on her lamp on the bed. She lifts the lid and what is revealed is a delicacy when compared to what we have been eating. Kokurin meat from Jorathia served with root stir fry. I looked at it with hungry eyes and quickly dug in while she could only stare at the array of colors and lick her lips.

  "What is this?" she asked.

  "Just try it." I said and she slipped a spoon full of the dish into her mouth.

  She takes it in and smiles as the savory and sweet flavors etch their way into her tongue. Her eyes shut and she shakes her head while clapping her hands.

  "I don't know why you've never tried to win that much before!" she hollered and I only smile.

  "Well...it's just kind of pointless but I do have to say. I did miss this. Usually these gifts don't really do anything for me anymore but I enjoy them when I can." I said while munching on my meal.

  "Yeah and that's another thing...I haven't really been helping." she said with a frown and I chuckled.

  "You really think you would be of any help? Really? Not like this. Do what you're doing and that'll be all. That's all I want from you." I said, but she keeps her gaze leveled with mine.

  "It's just that....I don't know. I've been feeling helpless, like I haven't been doing enough. Like i'm out of my depth." she said and I nodded

  "You are out of your depth." I said to her and she smiled.

  "Easy for you to say but...you're going to need my help in the later rounds so...I don't know. It feels like what I’ve been doing isn't enough." she said.

  I could hear her in the night, she was doing exercises like pushups, other times she's been dancing around on her feet to get used to dodging. I don't' know what her aim was but thus far it hasn't really been showing. There was about a week between each match and during the last 4 weeks she has shown an improvement. She doesn't have to be guided by me to duck into the ground any longer, she moves on her own.

  But I didn't relish the day when she would have to commit the same acts of violence I did.

  I didn't want to think of the fact that she would have to plunge a knife or a spear into one of our opponents one day. I didn't want to think of the fact that she would have to shoot and deal with the blood splattering on her hands. That fact was quite abhorrent to me and I wanted to keep her from it for as long as possible.

  And why? I thought I had sworn off caring, I thought that I didn't have a care in the world at all about what she did and yet I find myself wanting to hold her back from the more unsavory elements of this occupation.

  Over the last couple of weeks we had discussed quite a bit and I have developed something akin to a joking relationship with her. She would say something or I would say something and we would take jabs at one another, and during all of it I find that warmth that lurked in the pit of my heart increasing, I find it inching its wa
y into my veins once more.

  And it frightened me.

  I knew that she was my mate at this point, it took some thinking but I think I realized it once I was sitting there after battle with her. It was after the third match actually, on the beach head that I saw her standing there while the waves crashed into her feet. That fake seawater slipping over her toes while the sand tucked beneath her ankle.

  "What are you looking at?" she had asked me with a sad smile. It was hard to ignore the carnage that I had just partaken in but somehow she managed to look past the blood on my hands and still manages the best smile that she could muster.

  I looked her over while the trees swayed behind her. Earthling environments usually made for pretty good areas due to the fact that most species could tolerate them. Neborans were mostly underwater or on these flat surfaces that were mostly comprised of moss and rocks which weren't really suited for the type of combat that Merdin was going for. Kasorians dwelled on large cliff faces in deserts comprised of mostly rock and Jorathians had these massive humid forests but humanity...they had all that was in between.

  "Nothing." I would say to her while turning back to look amongst the waters.

  The feeling was unmistakable.

  I could feel my heart flutter when I looked her over, it felt like my throat was going to pop from the pressure in it when I glanced over at her and she smiled back at me. Her hands rested at her side and her brown eyes shine in contrast with the blue waters. In the distance I could see the pumps that made the waves which ruined the illusion somewhat but when I glanced over at her she brought it all back to me. This feeling of love, of adoration, the feeling that I was actually here in this paradise with her and living in this heaven. Here with her the dream made sense and I could see the flicker of her black hair long with the mist dancing across her face. Here the illusion of the arena was mute and so was the illusion that I was trying to place on myself, the illusion that I didn't care in the slightest.

  But I did, I knew it now when glancing her over.

  "Are you alright?" she asked me while she spooned up the rest of her meal and I looked over at her, sighing while nodding.

  "Yeah, I think I am." I said, realizing that there might be an inkling of care in my heart.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Melissa

  It was now our 4th match if I was counting rightly. Yagrax told me that if we win this then we get a new room with new beds that weren't stained with dirt and ash. This time when the door opened we were in this...strange land that I haven't seen before.

  "Kasorian cliff faces." he said.

  We had emerged from the doorway which was situated in this massive plateau with a variety of cracks running through it. My boots tense against the rock beneath and I looked into the distance in front of us. There was nothing on the horizon with exception for sand and salt fields. I looked back at him and bite my lip before we began to move. I search for a spot to hide in, he tells me that I should get into the canyon behind us.

  "Trust me." he said.

  Through the plateau that we emerged from were a series of cracks that formed an interconnected web that stretched amongst the entire area. The cracks were about 20 feet wide and there were a variety of boulders all around for us to hide behind, there was next to no plant life however. I found a weapon soon after we entered, a small knife. He found something else, a strange four pronged weapon with each end being blunt. Almost like two claw hammers that were fused together.

  "Remain calm...Let me listen in." he said and bites his lip as he cocked his head and nodded to himself

  ""Who is it?" I asked.

  "Two humans...they sound male, from the smell I can confirm that they are. And they're quickly approaching." he said and pointed in the direction that was further along the canyon, deeper inside. I tensed my hand around the knife and looked up from the rocks to see...nothing.

  "What do we do?" I asked him.

  "Shhh...." he remarked and got to his feet, creeping forward and telling me to stay in place before he suddenly jolts back into his cover position. A laser beam flew past him as soon as he slides down behind the rock.

  "Bastard has a laser weapon." he remarked with gritted teeth. From what I gathered guns were rare in the arena.

  "Come out!" I heard someone yell and suddenly the sound of footsteps clamors through my mind as well.

  "Shit, shit." remarked Yagrax while he tensed his grip around the hammer. I looked up from the rock to see a man running towards us quickly with a large sword in his hand. He was about to encroach upon where Yagrax was hiding when Yagrax struck him with the hammer by tossing it.

  "Ah!" the man shouted as he fell onto his back, his head cracked open with the blood leaking out.

  "Shit! Shit!" shouted the other man as he began to run towards us, firing with his laser pistol. I looked over at Yagrax and was about to hand him my knife but he shook his head and instead insisted on dodging by rolling behind a boulder in front of us to grab a stick that was waiting there but as he rolled forward he was caught on the shoulder with a single bolt of the laser.

  "AH!" he groaned and rolled behind the rock. I gazed at him and my eyes widened.

  He was in danger. He was actually in danger.

  I didn't believe my eyes at first, all this time I had thought him to be immortal and yet he was now sitting in front of me with a damaged arm with a man quickly approaching. I looked to the knife in my hands and realized that it was much too far to toss to him now, plus there was also the fact that if I popped my head out from this angle I might get shot.

  But....I didn't want him to die.

  During the last couple of weeks we had genuinely begun to enjoy one another's company. He was starting to become an actual friend and sometimes when I glanced into his eyes there was something more than that. I didn't want this man to die, I didn't want any harm to befall him, that's why I suddenly jolted when I heard a clamor behind me. That's why when I looked up and saw him struggling with the human man, trying to overpower him but failing due to his damaged arm, I acted. I lunged forward and lifted my knife before digging it into the neck of the human, I twisted the knife while in the back of the man's neck before he falls onto his side, dead.

  Suddenly my body goes cold.

  "No...no..." I muttered. I had killed someone, I killed a human being.

  What was I becoming?

  All of this time I was celebrating the fact that we were inching closer and closer to freedom and basking in the small rewards that we had been granted and not once did I stop to consider the nature of what we were doing. We were killing actual human beings, actual Kasorians, actual Neborans....This was it.

  Was I losing myself to the darkness? Was I going to ever regain that innocence that I had before I was captured? My attitude towards death had changed so much so I...I didn't know.

  "Melissa!" Yagrax yelled and rested his hand on my cheek. I looked over at him and my lip quivered as the tears began to well in my eyes.

  "I...I..." I began and he only nodded as he pulled me in with his right arm, his good arm.

  "It's gonna be fine." he said and rested my head against his chest.

  "I don't' know what's happening to me....Yagrax......I....I don't want to become this..." I muttered and he only stroked my back while cooing into my ear.

  "It's alright, it's going to be alright." he reassured me as I heard that large metal clanking occur once more. He lifts me up and leads me towards the doorway that was resting in the side of the plateau. I looked down at the body as I left, a young man, a fit man, he had black hair and brown eyes like mine, he died with a shocked expression on his face, an expression that I don't think I shall ever forget. I am led along and I stared at my bloodied hands, there were droplets still falling from my pinky as we both entered that room and began that familiar ritual. When we got to the changing room I could barely look at the clothes on the table. He finished changing and looked over at me and sighed.

>   "It's not your fault. You were fighting to survive, to save me." he said.

  "But I could have...I could have just pulled him off of you. I could have..." I stuttered as the tears began to fall and he shakes his head.

  "No. You would have had to have done this sooner or later. This is not going to change who you are Melissa." he said with a sweetness in his voice that I hadn't thought he was capable of.

  "What if I begin to enjoy it? What if I lose myself to this? This isn't who I am. I'm no warrior, no killer, I was just a kid when I left, i'm just a woman that was meant to stay on a colony and live a normal life.." I stuttered and he shakes his head as he approached and stroked my cheek, sighing as he pulled me in for a hug.

  "You won't. This isn't who you are but this is who you have to become to save that memory of who you once were. This is who you have to be in order to earn the right to be that person once again. I know that it's difficult and unappealing but...this is the way things work around here. We can't win based on hope alone, there has to be some darkness that dwells in our hearts in order to win." he reassures me and stroked my back while I sighed and let the tears run onto his white t-shirt.

  "I thought you didn't care at all. Liar." I laughed with a sniffle. He had managed to make me feel a bit better, although I was still immensely hesitant to kill...if I really had to I guess I could...I guess I could.

  "I do care. I care about you." he said and my face flushed as I feel his strong abs and chest press against my torso. His wound was still festering and I gazed at the spot on his shoulder and frowned. During all of this time I have been quite selfish haven't I? I looked up at him with a frown.

  "Take off the shirt." I said and he shrugged.

  "We'll just treat it once we get back to the cell." he said and I shake my head.

  "There's med gel here. If we leave it, it might get infected." I said in a worried tone and he only smiled, his eyes shutting as he sighed and grabbed his shirt before tugging it away.