Last One Falling «Malum»

One; Paisley

Calum's pov:

I sat picking at one of the rips in my shirt when it all started to go wrong.. Well, worse than it already was. Being a hybrid, along with the many others, was no good life. After all, we were created for the entertainment of some sick minded fools. 

We were starved and kept in cramped cages until we were dragged out and thrown into an arena to fight it out. The winner got to be fed, bathed and given new clothes, as well as have their wounds tended to. You didn't want to lose, ever, because if you lost or didn't put on enough of a "show," you were killed. The cruel people who ran the fights would torture you until you finally gave out or just shoot you. At least that's what I had heard. 

I was due to fight that night, I knew that much at the time. I had heard my name being spoken by the workers. I hated the fights, at first they were fun and the thought of killing or mortally wounding my opponents gave me a certain rush of adrenalin, there was no morals to it, but now? Now I just felt the guilt as I took their life to save my own. It was cruel and I never asked to be taken from my family to be experimented on. If I could have a redo I would take it. I still vaguely remembered my family, I knew I had a sister and a mother and a father. But that was it. I didn't remember their names nor what they looked like. But I guess that's what the creators wanted. 

"Cal?" A voice came from a cage near by, it was Ryder, he had been brought in on the batch of hybrids after me. I remember watching them drag him in as he kicked and screamed for his family. In the end they had to tranquillise him so he wouldn't hurt himself or any of the workers before he started his fights. 

When he had came to, I had talked to him and explained everything as Naomi had done for myself. Our pack was an odd assortment of different animals combined with a human. There was Lux, she was a puma hybrid and one of the longest lasting in our pack. Eli was a grizzly bear hybrid. There was Harlow, she was part falcon. Naomi had been leopard hybrid but she was killed not long after I had arrived, and finally Ryder and I. Ryder was a lynx hybrid an I myself was a border collie. There were more but a lot of them didn't ever come back, we were the few that had won all of our fights in our pack. They were my family and were the only thing that made living in that hellhole the slightest bit bearable.

"Yeah Ryder?" I asked. 

"What- what do you think's gonna happen tonight?" He asked nervously. I knew why he was scared and he had a reason to be. One of the toughest gangs of hybrid fighters was coming here tonight and we were all scared out of our wits. They were better, stronger and tougher than us and the reason being that they get fed no matter what and they trained to be better fighters. But our small cluster of mismatched hybrids still found a way to win. We were smart and generally our opponents weren't. 

"Just use strategies Ry." I told him. The last time I fought one of them I came out of it very, very injured but I still one as I had killed them. That's the only way to beat them, kill them. 

"I don't wanna fight them. I don't wanna die." He cried.

"You won't die don't worry Ry." I told him. "You're way smarter than all of them out together, you know this." 

"Promise?" He sniffled. 

"I promise." I said and lent back against the bars of my cage. "Just get some rest before the fights okay?" I sighed. He nodded from his cage and I could see the lynx ears upon his head twitch as he curled up in a ball before shutting his eyes. I watched him until I could hear his breathing even out before curling up and going to sleep myself. 

There was the slamming of cage doors and it was all it took to wake me up and sit bolt upright. I looked around cautiously and saw one of the hybrids further down being dragged from their cage. They were unfamiliar to me as I never strayed far from Ryder, Lux, Harlow and Eli. 

The poor kid was dragged down the corridor by his neck and eventually through the door at the end. I sighed, he wasn't going to be coming back. He was too panicked and scared to fight properly. We could hear the growls and the screams of pain from here. It was torture to listen to and the people who ran this place knew that. 

"You're up." A worker huffed and opened my cage door. With a roll of my eyes, I stood and walked out. For "safety" they tied my wrists and led me down the corridor. My wrists were untied and I was shoved into what was basically a holding pen to wait for my fight. 

From here I could see my opponent being loaded into their own pen. With a glance up into the stands, I could see all the people passing money around and betting on who would win, who would be on the floor first, etcetera. All I could hope is that it wouldn't be me ending up dead by the end of it. I pulled off my tattered shirt and rolled my shoulders. I always did this, I would hype myself before a fight and remove my shirt so my movements were freer and I could fight better. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen! This fight's gonna be one of interest, in the third fight of the night we have Calum who is a border collie hybrid coming from the left and from the right, we have Killer, a panther hybrid!" The announcer yelled into a microphone. "In three! Two! One! Fight!" He shouted. 

The holding pen's door swung open and I stepped out into the light. "Killer" stepped out from his own holding pen and immediately ran at me. He leapt through the air and crashed into the ground where I had been standing moments before. I let out a snarl and continued to back away from my opponent as he advanced towards me. I sprang at him when he reached a couple of feet away and landed on him. I landed a few good punches on him before I was thrown off and into the dust. "Killer" landed on me and began to take hits on me. I drove my knee upwards and into his privates causing him to fall off me and to the side. I grabbed him by the neck and twisted it sharply and quickly causing it to snap, the noise sending chills through my body as the roar of the crowd was muffled in my ears. I rolled off to the side so I wouldn't have his dead weight on me. 

 "And here we have our winner!" The announcer yelled but I was already back in the holding pen. There were cheers and hoots but I drowned them out. Afterall, I didn't want this life.

 // 

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