Survival Games

Chapter 1~ Flashback

I took a deep, sad breath and lay on my back. Tears were stinging in my eyes, threatening to roll down my pale cheeks. I was not used to crying all the time, but I could not help it. 

Imagine seeing the man that took care of you since you were fourteen, die the most gruesome, horrible death. 

The three years  I spent running away with him was the happiest times of my life, even if it was extremely dangerous. I did not regret hanging out with him, I couldn't and wouldn't.  

I could have been dead by now if it was not for him. He saved me and taught me how to fight, to see the horrible truth of life that was hiding from me since I was born.  And he made me a better person. Now, I hoped it was just a nightmare but no, it was the reality that I needed to face.

Three years ago.

My life sucked, even if I was the 'perfect girl' that everyone thought I was. They said that I was smart, pretty, awesome, or maybe even cool. I might have been perfect in their eyes, or an angel from above but I was not happy with it. 

I'm not contented. 

I wanted an adventure that would wake up my senses. I wanted to fight like the characters in my books. I just wished I could be one of them. But I was simply me, and nothing could change that simple fact of my boring life.

Staring blankly at the four walls of my room was unbearable; I didn't know what I wanted, didn't know what to think.

I sighed.

My pink wall was hurting my eyes and I couldn't do anything about it, they insisted that it was what I wanted since I was a kid. 

I closed the book and put it on the shelves. I needed to buy the sequel tomorrow, or I would die wondering about what would happen next. I needed to know if Percy would be okay at Camp Jupiter. What adventures would happen to him there? I needed to know everything.

I opened my window and peeked out, trying to inhale a lung full of the cold air outside. I needed to go outside. 

I stepped out of my window and carefully walked on the flat roof. 

Ah, this was the most perfect place in our horrible house of pleasures and luxuries. I closed my eyes and felt my surroundings. The tree branches sway at the whistle of the wind. Some leaves fell on the ground. And crickets chirp under the moon to call their lovers.

Suddenly I heard an unfamiliar sound behind the trees that stood tall beside our big house. 

An owl hooted from the distance and I realized that I was shuddering. 

I turned to look back at my window when I heard a loud thud. As if someone was in there, watching me. 

What if something was inside my room?

A bead of sweat rolled down on my skin, I knew it was hilarious to feel like this but I had a bad feeling.

Silently, I walked toward my window and crouched down to peek through it. Beads of sweat start forming on my temples. 

When I saw nothing, I let out a relieved sigh. Nothing was there, and I looked like a criminal peeking into my own house.

Suddenly, the book that I had read fell on the floor with a loud thud. 

It can't be! There is no earthquake to make that book fall on the floor. 

My eyes went up the shelves and saw a body, large as a crocodile but glass-like, just like a bubble that was about to pop. 

As seconds passed, the figure became more visible. What I saw made me gasp. 

The figure was so horrible. 

It had the scaly skin of a snake and the body features of a crocodile with a twisted tongue. The eyes were bloody red, and piercing like daggers. I couldn't walk in there and pretend that I didn't feel anything unusual. 

I wasn't that dumb to die. 

I shifted my weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other until the roof creaked and the monster's eyes saw me. It hissed and lunged. The window shattered as the monster surged forward, not caring if it hurt itself. I staggered backward - eyes wide. 

I couldn't believe I was experiencing this. This was what I had always wanted, but now I realized that what I wanted before was a death wish.

The monster moved toward me but my throat was so dry that I couldn't shout for help. 

It was looking at me with its menacing red eyes. I stumbled backward again.  I was now a foot away from the edge of the roof and my vision blurred as tears freely streaked down my red cheeks. I only had two choices, both ending in my death:

1. Die by falling off the roof.

2. Die between the monster's teeth.

Oh gosh.....maybe I would go with the first. 

I would rather die by breaking every bone in my body than to die between those razor-sharp teeth. Unfortunately, the fear I got from the monster's eyes paralyzed me.

I couldn't move. It was licking its lips repeatedly like a dog that hadn't eaten for a long time.

I changed my mind. "I don't want to die."

 With that thought, I could finally release every voice hidden. I screamed with all I have. Blood rushed in my head and panic engulf my senses.

As I screamed, all the glass windows in the house shattered into million pieces.

The house seemed to come to life by suddenly turning on the lights. 

The monster was now restless. Suddenly, it lunged and pinned my back onto the cold roof. Its razor-sharp claw cut through my arms. It sniffed my scent and as it opened its mouth, the disgusting slimy saliva of the monster dropped onto my face and I flinched.

Its breath smelled of rotten flesh and garbage. 

Feeling its movement, I squirmed but its saliva seep through my skin and mouth. I became weaker and weaker until my struggling became useless.  With that, the monster was about to bite my neck until a blinding blue light appeared in the corner of my vision.

Suddenly, I knew that I would live through another night. 

The bright light hit the monster and it disintegrated into a pile of ashes with its slimy saliva on my face. 

Finally, I found the strength to sit up and looked for the origin of the light. 

There, beside the tree. He stood proudly, unafraid.

He walked towards me, carrying a big gun with blue lights on it. He offered me a hand. I accepted it and brushed off the ashes on my clothes. 

"Who are you?" I asked rudely, forgetting to thank him.

"I am Nelson" 

His eyes tell me that this will be the start of something. Something big.