The arena

Chapter one

I woke up and immediately knew something was wrong. All around me were walls of ceramic and concrete, and I was in a strange bed. It was very soft and very big. I was in a big room, and there was furniture scattered everywhere. There were two benches surrounding a rectangular table near the rightmost wall. The floor had a very comfortable carpet of red and white coloring with windows scattered about the room. From what I could tell I was in a very large tower at the edge of something, because there were three more towers out three of the windows. I tried to get up but noticed that something was keeping me down. I looked down and saw an arm on my chest. Then I looked to my right. And right there barely two inches from my face, a woman lay there. She had long blond hair, a pretty face, her eyes were closed so I couldn't see her eyes but she looked familiar. I must have been staring because she suddenly opened her eyes and said, "Like what you see?" in a really nice voice. I started and she laughed, a high pitched but not annoying laugh that sounded like something from a movie. Then she looked straight at me and then I found out why she looked so familiar. She was in my dream. Then her next words turned my world upside down. "Welcome to the arena" she said "Congratulations".

I suddenly felt very dizzy. What on earth was she talking about, what was the arena, who was this woman. Had she kidnapped me? If so, why was I in a large room that was obviously not a place you put a prisoner, and why was she being so touchy with me. None of it made any sense. And I honestly didn't know what was going on. My name, what was my name? I just realized that I couldn't remember anything except the dream. Was the dream real? If so, what happened? Too many questions. So I decided to ask the woman. "What the hell is going on! Where am I, who are you, and what the heck is my name". The questions flowed out of my mouth one by one and the more I asked the more I realized that I knew nothing about my situation and the more I realized that I wasn't getting out of this any time soon. When I was done I sucked in a huge breath and waited. Waited for her reaction, and possible death. The idea hit me like a tsunami. I could die by her hands. She was obviously someone of high power otherwise she wouldn't have this room. She was also used to killing anything that made her angry and suddenly I felt very scared. I was about to apologise and plead for my life when she spoke.

She leaned over so her face was on top of mine then put her finger on my lips as if to stop me from what I was prepared to say. Had she done this with others before. But then her words I couldn't tell made it better or worse. "Listen all you need to know is that you are mine now". She said it so casually I almost missed it. I belonged to her? Does that mean I was a slave. Then I noticed that I had no shirt on. I looked at my chest and saw lettering, I looked a little closer and read what it said. Property of Molly Vollen. I stared at the woman still lying there. She stared back. She didn't make sense to me. Why would she bring me here and mark me and not explain anything. Why would she not explain anything and just say that I belonged to her without another. I was about to speak when again she stopped me with a finger. "All will be explained in due time but for now I am ordering you to lie down and stay put". I tried getting up but then I felt a sudden and painful spike of cold on my chest. The woman smiled, not a crazy sadistic smile but rather a sweet, kind smile that surprisingly made me feel much more calm. "See good" she said "now just calm down and know that you are destined for something great". And then I fell asleep.

I woke up in the same room I last woke up in except one thing, the woman wasn't there. I should really stop calling her the woman, her name is Molly Vollen. I briefly wondered how many people she owned. But then I thought of the fact that she owned anyone, and that jarred me the most. So I was essentially a slave. No, I was just a plain slave. She proved that last time I was awake. I tried getting up, the pain wasn't there so I went to the window. Outside there was a man and a woman, breathing heavily, and very bloody. I had already heard from last night that this was an arena, I didn't know how horrible it was. The woman looked like she was in her mid 20s and the boy was the average build for a 13 year old. A 13 year old, that must be rough. He wore a white tee and jeans with 2 rings and a necklace. He had half a dragon tattoo on his right arm and had jet black hair. He charged at the woman. She prepared for him but he ducked to the right, did a roll to get behind her and got up, delivering a brutal uppercut and breaking the back of their skull, leaving them to bleed out. Just then I felt a breath of air on the back of my neck and I turned around to see Molly right behind me looking over my shoulder. "I see you watched one of the contestants in battle". I nodded, not trusting myself enough to speak. If she took it the wrong way I might have to feel that horrible pain again. I didn't want that so I just waited for her to continue. "Well now you know why you are here, to fight for me in the glory of my arena". So she did run this place. Well that's one of my questions answered. She continued "Every day you will go to fight at least two fights as per quota" she smiled "unless you want more". I shook my head. I didn't want to fight more than I had to. And yet something was drawing me to the arena. I wanted so bad to go down into the arena and demand a fight right now. I couldn't explain it, I just wanted to fight, to feel the glory of winning a hard won fight, to see everyone in the stands cheering for me. And right then, I knew that I would fight.

I looked back at Molly. The one who owned me. I was still bothered by that. How many people did she own? I decided to ask her. "Just how many people do you own" I asked "And how many are still here". I half expected her not to respond. After all, she didn't need to and she could have bad memories of her dead slaves. Possibly shame that they failed her. Now that was a terrifying thought. I already knew that she owned the place. I shudder to think about what she might have done to people that failed her.

"Just you" she said to my surprise. But then I got suspicious, she didn't answer my second question.

"And how many died" I asked, not knowing what would happen.

"None" she answered, so quickly I almost didn't hear it. Have I completely misjudged this person? In the rage of my never ending list of questions, I completely skipped over the possibility of me being the only one. I had never thought about it. I should have realized in all my epiphanies that she wouldn't have every single slave wake up in the same room. It gives them too much hope they might think that they can escape before they have to fight. Control. The word popped into my head. I don't know why but it did. I thought about it for a minute and I couldn't figure out why if I had been told the meaning that second. Molly continued, "well you better prepare yourself" when I looked at her in confusion she laughed and said, "for your first fight silly". And at those words it was like the whole world had started watching me, waiting, ready to see what I would do. And then all of the sudden I got the greatest rush of adrenaline I have ever felt. When Molly noticed this she smiled and said, "see you when you get back". Then all around me white wisps of something started appearing and circling me crawling up my legs to cover me and then without warning, they disappeared and I was standing, in a small room I was dressed in bootcut black jeans with a chain on the right side. I was wearing a white tee that showed off my highly toned muscles. On my feet I was wearing black combat boots. On my hands, two leather gloves were there. They had a strange marking that looked like an arrow with the back dissipating into wisps of white. This reminded me of how I got to this room. In it was one heavy bag. I decided to punch it, and when I did my body went instantly into combat mode and I was punching and kicking with a precision that sent shivers running down my spine. And with each punch I noticed that there were those white wisps around my fists and feet like white clouds of fire. And before I knew it the door opened and out I went. On the opposite side of the arena, from a small dark room, came a long, sharp, piercing whistle that caused the ground to shake and the crowd to cheer. Then out came the boy who I had just seen fight. I couldn't understand why he was doing that but it seemed like a challenge, and I was willing to take him up on his offer.