the game

katie

ken and i sit on the couch by the fire in the common room of the base.

there are people milling around eating. others are sleeping. i can't seem to do either. my stomach is in knots. there are three more hours until the wall comes down and our team goes out to raid the jail again. so far i think luck has kept me alive. at least with ken here i can be tortured. several times tonight he prevented me from being hit by things. he doesn't care if he's protecting me from the opposite team or my own. he's had my back the whole time.

"thank you for today. maybe i was too harsh to you before. now you could be trying to gain my favor to betray me but honestly i'm so bad i can't imagine that even being necessary," i say offhandedly strictly looking at the flames.

i hear a low laugh.

"anytime sugar, listen i'm going to sleep before the three hour mark is up, see you soon," he gets up and rustles my hair on his way away. it irritates me but i let him. i don't know why. or maybe i do.

i know i can't like ken. that's a given. but there's another part of me that's human. and can only take someone being kind to them for so long before falling.

and this is mainly what i'm thinking about when the time drips down to nothing and they pull the wall down. i don't stop thinking about it as i walk over to the meeting place for my section. almost everyone is there. everyone except ken. i gulp.

"looks like your boyfriend won't be joining us," a voice hisses from behind me as chills crawl up my spine. i gulp.

the minutes tick by. he's not here.

the unit begins to move without him. i hear chuckles as we make our way out of base.

"you know why ima left you with us," another kid chuckles.

"no one cares about the alasians in jail. they'll be dead soon, but they do care about you climbing up the ranks," and then i feel it. two of them grab me as i feel a punch land in my gut. i knew that it was going to stay bad if he wasn't here, but i hate being a damsel in distress. to think the only reason they didn't touch me was because he was there makes me even more mad. more mad. in fact i haven't been this angry in a while.

i feel as my anger grows power building in me. and as the electricity builds in me the desire to hold it back ebbs away. the two people holding my arms back get the brunt of it. the two of them wryth and twitch as my electricity messes with their nervous system. the third person that feels it is the one about to punch me. i grab their face and electrically burn it.

i can't stop. i'm so mad i kill every single one of them before i can contain it. i'm so mad that my electricity floods in the ground and animals fall from the trees twitching.

i haven't been this mad since my mom told me to come here. and why is it? is it because he's not here? is it because i wanted him to protect me? is it the embarrassment that he wasn't here? why am i so mad?

i don't care if i look like an easy kill. i've never cared about that. so why am i so mad?

i can hear the pulse of electricity through my veins. i'm ready to kill.