Sacrifice Sanctuary

Chapter 6 Salmon and Brownies

"Hi, my name is Dylan, " I said before pointing at my only 'friend' in this place. "Hey I'm Rowan," he said quickly before pointing to a slightly chubby mixed guy, he had a bleached buzz cut and a cold look in his dark grey eyes. "Atlas." The boy said sternly. Then he pointed to another boy in the room he was tall and had freckles painted across his dark skin, he had black dreadlocks, but also bright green eyes, and a muscular build, "My name is Dallas" he said with a quick half-smile the motioned for a shorter but muscular girl to go, she had box braids and cute dimples on her mixed skin.

I hadn't noticed her since I had been so caught up in everything that was going on I hadn't looked at other people. "Hi, I'm Charlotte," she said, her voice was soft and sweet like her black eyes. She pointed to a muscular girl with collarbone-length blond hair, and bright grey eyes. "Jessie," she said quickly then the last girl started to speak. If I thought Charlotte was pretty this girl was on a whole other level. She had beautiful chest-length hair with curtain bangs that shaped her face perfectly and freckles that contrasted her light skin in such a pretty way.

"My name is Mira, " she said with her calming voice. After she introduced herself no one else wanted to speak including me. Partly because I thought other people would say something, but mostly because I was still scared by the tension in the room. "Oh god finally you're all done I mean it was only your name it shouldn't have taken more than 5 minutes. Anyways... Lucas, you can pick who you want to go," Mr. K said unbothered. "Oh no... No. No. No... I'm going to die today if he picks me no matter who I go up against please don't say my name. Please. Please. please. " I thought. Everyone in the room was still waiting to hear the sound of Luke's voice facing them with death and another person. "Hm..." Luke hummed. I jumped at his sudden sound. "I think... well first I'll pick a strong-looking guy... how about... Dallas," Luke spoke evilly. I was shaking by then, I looked over at the guy he looked more terrified than me his eyes were bloodshot and open with a tear running down his face and a slight frown on his face. "Please someone else I'm too young to die, please. please..." I heard him whisper to himself. "I guess I'll make it even then," Luke started back up again. "I'll pick a girl!" he exclaimed sarcastically and I gasped. These girls looked very strong but I wasn't sure anyone who went up against him could win. "How about you... Mia? Luke gave a quick evil chuckle. "ME!?" Mia screamed. "ARE YOU SERIOUS!? ALL I'VE DONE TO TRY AND... LET SOME OF US SURVIVE!" She added. "Why'd she stop mid-sentence? Probably because she was going to mention the fact she was trying to team up with people. Then she'd really be dead. Why am I talking like this, how am I talking like this? How am I so normal right now people are literally getting handed their death sentence right to them and I'm joking to myself about how mad people would get if they found out she was teaming up with other people. Would people even care at this point? Would they be mad? Why would they even have the nerve to be mad? Don't people want to team up? Survive? Get out of here? Guess not. I bet everyone's thoughts here are the same as mine... were all going to be gone anyway except for the victor, the heartless victor who will kill all these people. Would they even let that person or would they go insane? Or would they not want to kill anybody like me, and they won't go inaine but they'd live the rest of their lives having to deal with the fact they murdered so many innocent people just to escape this stupid place." I thought

"Okay! Mia and Dallas that's who you're picking?" Mr. K asked. "Yeah, that's who I'm picking" Luke responded with a wicked look on his face. "Well even if it is you can think it over because we'll be having dinner first, and to celebrate it being our first dinner well have some of your favorite foods!" Mr. K smiled. "Favorite foods?" I heard Rowan mutter to me, "How would he know?" "I don't know probably the same freaky reason he knew our names, " I suggested. "So after dinner, we'll have the games and unlike breakfast and your lunch we all will sit down in that room over there," he pointed to a a large room to the left of us, "and there will be a whole bunch of foods to choose from! Only today though my cooks don't really like me asking them to spend that much money and their time on these kinds of things and it took them all day, like started just after breakfast, and they were really mad haha. Anyway, I'm getting off track, we'll have dinner in that room every night before the games. Sound good?" he questioned. No one nodded or said yes, or said anything at all, we all just stood there kind of waiting for someone to move. "That means you guys can go now? Gosh, you guys are so much more hesitant than the last group. "Last group..?" I whispered to myself. "He's done this before? I mean... I don't know what I expected I guess he is some crazy old guy. Not old maybe in his 50s, so he must've been doing this for years, " I thought. Then people started to walk up to the room, I could smell a lot of different things from Cinnamon rolls to... SALMON!

"Dude I know this may sound bad..." I heard Rowan start to say, "Like I know people's lives are in danger and people are hesitant to walk to the food, but man am I hungry," He whined. Although I didn't say anything I agreed with him, I had burned all my energy from those games and I wondered if it would be like this every day, but I had more time to think later I was very hungry. As I got closer and closer to the smell of delicious plates of food I saw each chair, and our names on each one. I found where my name was on one of the chairs, I'm only guessing we had to sit on the ones with our names because that's common sense and also because everyone else was already sitting down and or finding their seats. When people did eventually realize that we had to get up to eat and get the things ourselves we all went to a big table with a whole bunch of different things on it. I saw the cinnamon rolls I smelt then saw the salmon it had my name on it with a little toothpick and then a card with a fancy font that said, Dylan other things had my name on it too, like a plate of brownies. "My favorite desert" I noted to myself. I guess the Keeper did know. I took all the dishes that had the fancy written Dylan on them to the table to eat. I had Salmon, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, broccoli, brownies, and a glass of milk. Milk isn't really my favorite but everyone else got milk too, I guess those 'cooks' didn't want to buy a drink just for one pour of a glass. Some people talked or started quick chats with others but the majority stayed quiet. No matter how many people were talking it always felt like there was an awkward silence. I looked over to see Luke and Mia sitting together, it was a random seating arrangement but it was also very ironic that they sat by each other. Mia had a napkin in her hand and by further inspection of me staring at her for a while she passed it over to Luke. At first, he didn't see it, but Mia tapped him on the arm and gestured for him to open the napkin. I could see him rolling his eyes as he picked it up, but then he looked at Mia with an uncaring confused face while raising an eyebrow. I turned my attention back to my plate of food that I was digging into. One-fourth of the salmon was already gone along with the potatoes and gravy. "I knew that I was starving," I quickly chuckled to myself. Before turning my attention back to Mia and Luke they had gotten up out of their seats and walked to the corner of the room. I looked over at Charlotte the girl sitting next to me and she also was squinting her eyes at them. "What do you think they're up to?" she said quietly. "Oh, um, I don't know," I responded taken aback by the sudden start of conversation. "You know what I think that snake Mia is doing," she started, "I think she's trying to talk her way out of going down to the basement with that guy." She insisted.

Charlotte looked away but I kept my eye on them and saw that Mia kept getting closer to Luke, and she put one of her hands on his forearm. "Oh ew in front of all of us?" Rowan scoffed, he was sitting in front of me. "They can't wait until they don't have our undivided attention?" He finished. "Guess not if they're up they're always going to have our attention because well be wondering what the heck they're doin-" I stopped as I saw Mia get closer and she kissed him on the cheek. "EW DUDE!" Rowan whisper-yelled. "SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE ONLY WAY SHE CAN THINK OF NOT GOING DOWN THERE?" He screamed quietly.

I watched slightly confused and slightly disgusted, "How can she kiss a guy she just met? And she only knows his name..." I thought while judging her.

Mia and Luke came back a minute later, Mia had a big smile on her face and I could tell that meant she had convinced him to pick someone else. I couldn't be calm just yet when I knew he was going to pick another person pretty soon. Hopefully, he'll pick another girl and not a boy or just anyone but me. I picked my last piece of brownies off the plate and scraped it into my mouth. Everyone finished their meal around the same time I did, maybe it was planned maybe not. I heard the footsteps of guards and Mr. Ks boots, it's like they're made to sound loud, so people know when he's coming and are afraid when they hear that sound. "So everyone is finished with their meal and now it is time for the game!" The keeper excitedly spoke. "Everyone come with me!"

We followed Mr. K back to the middle of the room where there were the chairs with our names on them and screens on the chairs too. "So everyone sit down with the chair that has your name on it just like you did before the game and pick up the tablet to be ready to vote on who you think will win!" We all took our seats I now knew the girl that was sitting next to me was Jesse and I knew Rowan a bit better too. "So Luke do you still have your mind on the two people you picked? Same people right?" Mr. K asked. "No! I'm going to switch someone," Luke stammered. "Really." Mr. K said unfazed. He must've seen Mia and him talking just a few minutes ago. "Yes, I'm switching Mia with..." Luke started. "Oh god, here it is the chances of it being me are probably low. He's going to pick another girl right? Just say it already! Please don't say my name. Please. Please. Please!" I pleaded to myself and Luke opened his mouth to speak once more.