"Holy hell!" I said after her first connected with my face.
"Sorry" She said, actually apologetic , "try to block again"
She threw another punch at me, and this time, I successfully blocked the assault.
"Good, again." she threw another punch to my face. I blocked it, hooked her arm under my right am, and uppercut her jaw with my left.
"Ooof"
"Shit, sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you."
"No, no that's great. Please, don't feel sorry about hurting someone out there."
A bone-rattling noise came from the door being hit with something. "Get out of the room!" We quickly complied and scurried out. Almost no one was left in the halls, so we picked up the pace to avoid being too close to all the guards. The air itself seemed to be chalk full of the caution we felt.
"Sorry, five minutes turned into one-and-a-half minutes."
"It's fine" I said, even though my bones felt chilled.
"Honestly, I am, I truly, truly am."
"Why are you apologizing so fervently?"
"You'll see why if it comes down to it"
"What do you-"
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN" Said a booming voice on a loudspeaker "SORRY, LADIES ONLY. HOW DID YOU ALL ENJOY THE FIRST CHALLENGE PLUS MEETING YOUR PARTNER FOR THIS ONE?"
It was dead silence until the booming voice mentioned the new challenge, then whispers spread like wildfire and became completely blended in the echoes of the cold, stone, subterranean room.
"NOW, NOW, NO NEED TO BE SO SHAKY" the voice started clashing in echoes, so she spoke quieter; and sweeter.
"All you're doing now is fighting each other, no big deal"
Someone put their arm across my chest. It was my roommate. "What're you doing?" I asked in a hushed tone., because the room was quiet again.
"I know what you want to do. Trust me, it'll do you a hell of a lot of good to stay in the back and not stand out; or up" she replied
"Fight!?" a random female voice inquired, then screamed in such a hellish tone I wanted to curl on the floor into a ball and close myself off.
"DO. NOT. SPEAK. OUT. OF. TURN."
I started hyperventilating. What-why is this happening? Why am I here? I want to go home! This isn't real!
I got a swift kick to my side and a hand over my mouth. I started screaming into the hand until I was told to hush. I looked up to see my roommate holding me, down, but steady, while I was on the floor, curled into a ball. Her grasp was so comforting, like she hadn't just kicked me.
"Sorry, you were panicking, and that's the only way I could get you to stop" she whispered.
She pulled me up, and I wound up crying on her shoulder while she stood stoically.
