Split

The Black Market

I asked Tina what we had to do with the money and she said she didn't know, but heard from a boy in room 13. We found room 13, and knocked on the door. A boy with dark brown, messy hair opened the door and said, "Wht do you want, dorks?" rudely.

"You're the one that said we needed to buy something from the black market to escape. What is it we need?" Tina asked.

"Give me the money," he said unexpectedly that all I could say was, "What?"

"What?" I said again and he held out his hand. "Give me the money," he said again.

"Why? What for? You're going to get it for us?" Tina asked but before she could say anything else, the boy snatched the money off her and ran down the corridor with us shouting and running after him. He ran into room 2 and slammed the door shut. Room 2 seemed to be the black market and we waited outside for him to come out. We could hear from the inside what was being said, but we couldn't see what was happening because we weren't tall enough to see from the window.

I heard a deep voice shouting angrily, "Duncan! If that's what they want, give it to them!"

Then the boy who took the money's voice replied, "No, it was for me! It's mine!" And then I heard some rough noises and shouts and finally the door opened, but it was a big, tough-looking boy, around 16 years old, holding the money in his hand. He smiled and gave us the money and said, "That was my younger brother, Duncan. We both failed the test. He found out that in the black market they sold things he needed to escape here and was desperate for money. But nevermind that. I'll take you to the black market." He walked down the corridor to the room at the end of the row and knocked on the door. "Here it is." he said and a tall girl opened the door.

"They're here to buy," Duncan's brother said and the tall girl gestured to us to come in.

"Here we sell lots of things. Here's a list of categories to buy from," she said and handed us a piece of paper.

I read out the list quietly to Tina, "Staitionery, books, entertainment, weapons..." I shuddered. Weapons? I took a few minutes to calm down and continued reading, "food & drinks, carpets, toiletries, miscellaneous." I looked up. There was no more on the list.

Tina asked, "What is there on the miscellaneous section?"

"Show them, Bruce," the girl said to an even taller and muscular boy who looked like a grown man. He pointed at a drawer in a tiny desk and pulled it open. Inside were a bunch of things that looked like junk. I rummaged through the items until I found two bracelets with charms with the letter 'F' on them. I found a bow tie with the letter F on it. I held them in my hands and looked at Tina.

"What's that?" she asked.

I showed her the bracelet I was wearing, "This bracelet will give you abilities to fly, and so will this bow tie. We can buy these and escape from here! You can have the bracelet and James will have the bow tie. My mum can have the other bracelet."

"Good, but what about Phil?"

I turned around and pointed to the bow tie I was holding and asked the tall boy, "Do you have another of these?"

"Yes, but it's mine. You see, it suits me doesn't it?" he said, pointing at a greeny-blue bow tie he had around his neck.

"Can we have it?"

Bruce thought long and hard and finally replied, "OK but it'll cost you extra since it's mine."

I was slightly worried and asked, "How much will it cost along with these bracelets and this bow tie?"

"Hmm... let me calculate..." Bruce said quietly and a few moments later he came with the answer, '140 villions'. Villions is our currency. Tina and I stared at Bruce and he looked back at us. Nothing happened for a while but then Tina pulled out the money which added up to 278 villions. What luck! I thought with anger and gave Bruce the notes and coins. He counted them up and smiled, untied his bow tie and handed it to us.