by Joe Fowler
“How long before the fights? Did I sleep the entire day? Why were you sitting outside my door?” I asked all of these questions quickly before they could question me about anything. I figured to keep them talking about other things.
“We aren’t sure about the fights since Gray and Noah haven’t told us.” Trog answered that one.
“You slept the hours left from last night and all through the day.” Justin said.
“We took turns guarding your door. They have said it was supposed to be safe here but you have been continuously attacked. We were doing what we could to help keep you safe.” Sweetie said.
“My thanks to all of you for the sentiment but I really think we can relax while we are here. Once we leave, the other old ones and their factions will be in play again.”
“How sure are you?” Trog asked. He was still mired in the same depressed rut he had been in for days.
“If anything, the rest of the council would act to protect me while I am here. They saw enough of Arria’s wrath yesterday. They will not want to see that again. Trust me.”
We sat mostly quietly for the next six months. We might have stayed there for minutes more but Gray came by to let us know the training room was open now. We all headed out.
“I think I am going to nickname this place Jimi Hendrix.” I said out of the blue while we walked to the training room.
“Why?” Sweetie asked.
“Purple maze.” I said. That one earned some groans.
“That was horrible!” Penny said, laughing.
Once we had our mats picked out, once again by the wall, we paired off. Penny and Justin sparred. Trog and Charles sparred. Sweetie and I watched.
The other groups made their way to the other mats. I saw Sleepy’s group take some mats close to ours. They were also against the wall. Their fighters paired off with Sleepy taking a seat by the wall.
“Stay here, everyone.” I said.
I walked over and sat beside Sleepy. He looked over at me briefly.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“I can’t get enough cake or sleep now. Tonight, I will lose. Even if I could drive, I won’t. There’s no longer a real banana for me to get any chairs.” He muttered.
“I’m sorry.”
There wasn’t anything else to say. I wasn’t going to lie to him to try and make things sound better when we both knew the truth. He was there and I would end up there too.
I sat beside him for two weeks. I knew I needed to go back to my group. I didn’t really want to. I had two growing suspicions about Trog and I wasn’t sure which would play out.
“Can you help him?” One of Sleepy’s group came over to ask.
“No. I am going through the same thing. I am not as far along as he is but I will end up the same way.” I admitted. I no longer cared who knew.
“But you’re Titan. You are the one who is so gifted.” He was shocked.
“Doesn’t matter how gifted I am. My mind wasn’t able to turn properly.” I told him. I saw that the fighters from the other groups were starting to look over here too much. I stood to leave. I place my hand on Sleepy’s shoulder in silent sympathy. He looked up and nodded.
Once I was back with my group, I stood with Sweetie without saying anything. The others could see my reluctance to talk. We stayed there like that until Gray came.
“The newbie is waking. Titan and Trog?” Gray looked to us expectantly.
“Okay.” I said. Trog followed along with us.
The purple walls seemed a bit more somber to me for this trip. When we reached the door, Gray unlocked it.
“Thanks, Gray.” I told her as she turned to walk away.
Trog was still out of it so I knocked on the door before I opened it.
A red headed woman was sitting on her bed. She was tall and slender. Mostly, she was scared. Her eyes looked from me to Trog in fear. I could see her thoughts plainly enough. She thought we were going to rape her. I hated to tell her that the truth was more dangerous for her.
“I am Titan and this is Trog. You are safe for the moment. You can relax as far as that goes. I don’t have much good news for you though. You have been turned into a vampire and will be expected to fight tonight.” I spoke as calmly as I could to try and calm her down.
“A vampire? Is this some kind of a sick joke?” She asked.
“No. I almost wish it was. What is your name?” I asked her. I already knew her name was Patty. I also knew her gift was teleporting.
“Patricia. Why would I have to fight?” She asked.
“Come with us and we will explain things to you. You will need to meet Arria, our old one.” I told her.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Nope.”
She slowly stood. She took a deep breath and followed us down the hall.
“What is this place?”
“There are facilities like this one all over the world. I have no clue where this one is or even which country we are in.” I decided to answer more of her questions without waiting for her to ask them. “Many old vampires, we have no clue how many, like to bet. They make new vampires and makes us fight ten fights. Your first fight will be against another first timer. You second fight will be against someone fighting their second fight and so on through the tenth. If you win your fights, you win your freedom.”
“What if I lose?”
“Losing means death. At the moment you are immortal. Sunlight, fire, and decapitation can kill you. In the arena, you will fight another vampire until one of you rips the other’s head off.” We were heading up the stairs now. “You are about to meet Arria. Don’t speak unless she asks you to. She will have a look at you and then we will get you something to eat.”
I opened the door then and led the way. Arria’s beautiful smile greeted me. I smiled in return. She looked even more beautiful today. I wouldn’t have thought that possible. I guess it was due to the stress being lifted for the time being.
“Arria, this is your new fighter, Patricia. She has teleporting for her gift.” I told her.
Arria made her regular walk around Patricia during her inspection.
“Teleporting can be good. You are pretty. I really like the red hair.” Arria waved her hand in the dismissed gesture, playfully. She was smiling at me the whole time. “Take her to the donor room. Her fight is in two hours.”
I hated to leave. I knew I needed to.
“Yes, Arria.” Trog and I said as we made our bows.
“As you wish.” I added just before turning away.
I could hear her quiet laughter.
We set Patricia up with a donor. I watched as she took it all in. The people strapped to chairs being fed on was a shock to the system the first time you saw it. She hesitantly lifted the woman’s arm to her mouth and bit. Once the taste filled her mouth, she drank hungrily. I watched her thoughts as she neared the breaking point. She stopped a moment before it was too late.
“Are we supposed to kill them?” She asked. She was not sure what she wanted my answer to be.
“You can or not. Most vampires don’t hesitate. Some vampires refuse to kill their human donors. It is your choice.” I said. I watched her mind go through the options. She would decide and move the arm back to her mouth only to lower it again without biting.
Finally, she drained the donor.
We went to the training room next. I took her to our mats and made the introductions. She couldn’t stop looking around the room in awe.
“Come over here and we will teach you what to expect.” I led her to an empty mat and stood across from her. Trog was standing by the mat. He was barely even here, mentally.
“What are the fights like? I’ve never fought before so I won’t know what I am doing.” She was getting scared again.
“Every vampire is given a gift. Yours is teleporting. You won’t have any idea what your opponent’s gift will be. It could be speed, strength, evasion, illusions, mind reading, or a hundred other things.”
“
If we don’t know then how do you know what my gift is?”
“I am very different. You need to know this anyway. I have a special gift that allows me to add other vampire’s gifts when I drink from them. One of the gifts I have now is recognizing what other vampires’ gifts are. That’s how I knew about your teleporting. You won’t know what your opponent can do until after the fight has started. Now, take a stance like this and brace yourself. I am going to attack you and you need to try and defend against me.”
She took her stance and I attacked at what I knew to be too much speed for her to see. She fell to the mat without having moved. I helped her up.
“How the hell am I supposed to fight that?”
“Sorry, but you needed to see some of what can happen here. I should let one of the others spar with you.” I looked around. Trog was still out of it. “Penny, could you come spar with Patty?”
“How did you know my name was Patty? I only told you Patricia.”
“I can read minds too. I picked that up earlier.”
Penny squared off with Patty. Penny attacked and Patty was trying but wasn’t very good at fighting. Her gift wasn’t making itself known within her. I interrupted their sparring.
“I need to drink from you. Your gift isn’t coming out. Once I have your gift I can tell you how to use it.” I took Patty’s arm and drank until I felt her gift added.
I spent the next whatever amount of time showing her how to teleport. She was catching on to that fairly well. Once she was good at it, I had her spar with Penny again.
“Penny, I need to rest a bit. Can you work with her and have the rest of the group spar with her some?” I asked.
“Sure, no problem.”
I took my normal place against the wall. I stayed there until the groups started gathering. Noah came to lead us. Sweetie decided to try and make it without her illusions this time.
As we were standing on the platform, I looked out at the council members. Arria was smiling at me. I was smiling at her. Lorac seemed to be surprised that Sweetie wasn’t in an illusion. The only sounds were Noah’s introductions as he gave our names and levels. I didn’t want to leave when the signal came.
Arria was happy. At least that was the impression I got from her smile. My mind was in a much better place as we made our way to the holding pen. I pointed Patty to where I wanted her to sit opposite the arena door. Sweetie took her place to my left.
I didn’t want to be the one doing the explaining tonight but Trog was out of it. He hadn’t said more than two words at a time today. I made my thoughts of Arria sit quietly in the back of my mind even though she was all I wanted to think about.
“What happens? How do we know what to do?” Patty asked nervously.
“The first timers will be the first matches. The announcer will call two fighter’s names. In the arena, you will see two X marks. Go to one of them and stand. When he opens the betting, you kneel down on the X. The betting period lasts for five minutes. The announcer will tell you when to stand and face your opponent. Be prepared then. When he says ‘let the game begin’ he will teleport out of the arena and the fight can start.”
I made myself open up the link to her mind. I had shut it off since the donor room. Her thoughts were frantic, but excited as well. She was looking forward to her fight. She felt like she needed to hit something.
It took however long for the announcer to appear and call the first match. I was ready for it to start since I had been having to watch Patty’s mind. She was trying as many scenarios in her mind as she could think of. She was putting a lot of thought into how to put her teleporting to good use. I was actually a little impressed with some of her ideas. I wasn’t a fan of the thoughts behind the moves. Patty had a definite cruel streak. She began to wonder if she could drink from her opponent.
“Yes. Drink from him if you get the chance. You don’t have to but vampire blood fills us like human blood. Also, when you drink from a vampire, it weakens him.” I told her.
“…Our first match is between first timers Gregor and Damon!” The announcer was so used to trying to build the crowd up that he was overdoing it. We had an audience of seven council members and a few employees of each.
The two fighters took their places on the X marks. This was where I was expecting the betting to be opened. It wasn’t.
“Fighters, face each other…Let the game begin!”
“Looks like things are different tonight, Patty. There won’t be the five minute betting period. Usually the stands behind the glass are full of rich humans and old ones. Not tonight. Normally you would be hearing nothing but the noise of the crowd right now. This event will be the only one like this.”
“Why is tonight different?”
“Me. We can fill you in tomorrow if you survive. Nothing I could tell you about me will help you win your match. You need to focus on the fighting.”
The two in the arena started out hesitantly but were now kicking it into gear. One was a mind reader and the other had strength. After ten years of back and forth, the mind reader won.
“Our next fight will be between Patricia and John.” The announcer must have been told to knock off the normal crap. He was stating things matter of factly now.
Patty stood and I stood with her.
“Now go stand on the X. When the announcer teleports, the fight starts.” I gave her a nudge to start her walk into the arena.
I returned to my seat feeling relieved to be rid of her mind for a spell. I then felt remorse for feeling the relief. She needed me to help her and I would do what I must.
“…Let the game begin.” The announcer teleported and in less than a day, so did Patty.
She hit John from behind and immediately teleported to the other side of the arena. John’s gift was the poison barb in his index finger. He already had the barb extended. When Patty started running for him, he prepared to inject but Patty teleported at the last moment and hit John from the side instead. Again she teleported to the opposite side of the arena. She continued this strategy until she had John worn down. She would have been able to tear his head off at any time but she continued to kick John repeatedly. She was enjoying every moment, every kick. She finally got enough of that and drank from him before ripping his head off.
“She’s a monster.” Sweetie said in her tiny voice.
“Yes she is.” I confirmed.
“Great win Patty.” Apollo told her.
“Nice job!” Penny said.
Everyone but Trog and Sweetie congratulated her.
There were a few more fights before Charles was announced. He took his spot across from a teleporter. He did as we had been instructing him. He attacked quickly after the announcer left the arena. He won easily. He didn’t drink. We all gave our congratulations for his victory.
We had a lot of fights to sit through before Sweetie’s match. Her matches were as predictable as mine. The announcer disappears, her opponent screams in terror, and Sweetie rips off the head of her opponent. Sweetie ignored the congratulations as she always did.
Patty was staring wide eyed and wondering what the hell just happened.
“Sweetie’s gift is illusions. She can make you see, hear, smell, and feel whatever she wants.” I told the baffled Patty.
“Holy shit!” Patty exclaimed. “Can I trade for her power?”
“Nope.”
The next two fights ended quickly. I knew this by the moves used. I would be hopeless at anything time related if there weren’t actions to follow and judge by.
“Our next fight will be fifth rounders Titan and Roadrunner!”
I wanted to laugh when I heard his name. Poor bastard was going to die anyway. We took our places on the X marks.
“Looks like I will die by your hand after all. Well, you let me live when you could.” He thought this to me as the announcer was speaking.
“Sorry.” I mouthed this to him.
“Don’t sweat it. It had to be somebody.” He was being nice about it anyway.
I nodded, solemnly.
“…Let the game begin!”
I knocked him out before I drank. I feel like it is nicer that way. I took his head and went back to my seat in the holding pen.
“What was his gift?” Not Apollo asked.
“Speed.”
“Wait, his gift is speed and you knocked him out before he could move? How?” Patty asked.
“Only the old ones are faster or stronger than me.” I told her.
“That isn’t fair.” She sounded like a spoiled child.
Our entire group was staring at her like she was insane. She returned their stares at first but she lowered her gaze eventually.
“Our next fight will be Sleepy against Apollo.” The announcer spoke the only words that would help ease my pain over Sleepy dying.
I didn’t tell Justin. I hoped he would end it quickly.
“…Let the game begin.”
Apollo, only because he is in the arena, approached Sleepy cautiously. Sleepy didn’t move. Apollo went in with a hard shot that put Sleepy on his back. When Sleepy didn’t try to get up. Apollo realized what was going on. He had seen Sleepy in the training room. He walked over and took Sleepy’s head. At least it wasn’t a painful end. Justin walked back in to our pen with his head down.
“Won again, Apollo!” Penny said. Once she got a good look at his face she cut her congrats short.
“He told me in the training room. He was tired. He couldn’t stay awake anymore. He was always starving. What’s worse, he was losing his mental cohesion. He would use the wrong words in a sentence and not realize it. He was ready to go.” I told them. Our group hung their heads. Sweetie shed a tear. Patty didn’t know what we were so sad about.
“What’s the big deal? Apollo won. Isn’t that a good thing?” Patty asked.
“Of course it is. The one he beat was ill. His mind was unravelling. He was to the point of not being able to function.” I said.
“So. I’m still not seeing the bad here.” She continued.
“I don’t know how long it will be before I am in the same shape. My mind is unravelling just like his was. He was just farther along.”