May Legends Become Champions: Round One

Michelle

We end up in a tight cage. Ben looks at the door to exit and let's out a sigh of relief.

"Good," he says with large beads of sweat. "It's not locked."

"Great," Raphael says. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Wait." I firmly take his arm and his eyes turn dark. Before he could shoot back, I gesture at Zoey that's comforting the young girl. She sobs next Brianna that seems to be in shock.

Raphael scoffs as he impatiently says, "Are we seriously going to stay crying in here? Do you guys want him to crush us?!"

Ben gives him a disgusted look along with some of the others. "Do you have no heart?"

"No," he angrily says at Ben. "I have a logical brain!"

"Someone just died!" I yell at him.

"So what?! What can we do?! We can't go back for him. We have to keep going if we don't want to end up like him."

We're silent. Some of us internally wanting to choke Raphael while others quietly think of the few memories we have of that man.

"We didn't even know his name..." For the first time, Brianna speaks up. Her eyes glisten with tears as she softly says, "The least we can do is have a moment of silence for him."

We all nod and stay quiet. My blood boils as I watch Raphael impatiently lean at a corner of the cage. The young girl does a small sniffle before saying, "I'm Penny." Her blue eyes carry tears as she looks up at us.

The woman with red lipstick and blonde hair sighs. "Lisa."

The guy with the hat takes it off and wipes his brow. "Lucas."

Lisa looks at me and I softly say, "Michelle."

"Ben," Ben tiredly says.

Zoey does her quiet smile and says her name. Brianna is next, then everyone looks at Raphael and he rolls his eyes. "I'm Raphael. Are we done here? We should get—"

I ignore him as I say, "You guys didn't know you were in a game?"

Lisa crosses her arms on her chest and says, "We did. At least we were prepared for it. I didn't know it would be in here. Wherever we are..."

"They told us that it was a competition," Penny sadly says. "That if we win this last time, we'd be free."

"But one of you have died," Ben says with furrowed brows. "Wouldn't that mean you guys have lost?"

Lucas shakes his head. "It depends on who survives at the end. But I think it's bull—"

"We don't want to fight," Penny says. "Imagine if we all had the competition in mind. We'd all try to kill each other."

"But we're okay with letting a psycho kill us," Raphael says with his stupid smile.

"Shut up already, Raphael," I mumble in Spanish. How did I let this guy kiss me?

"Are you serious now?! We should get going before they realize that we're stalling!"

"We're not stalling," Zoey firmly says to as she stands up. She burns her eyes at him as she opens the door of the cage. "It's called being kind."

Raphael rolls his eyes and tries to look for my help, but I push past him. Idiot.

In this dark tunnel, I see Zoey find a heavy door. Ben helps her open it and it slowly shows a bright entrance. We all quietly walk in to a shiny room. It reminds me of the houses I would see in magazines back in Brazil. The tile floor is as shiny as the marbled pillars around the room. The rest of the players also roam around with awe. I can see that shine in Raphael's eyes. The stacks of money and beautiful golden pieces laying on the wooden counters.