Miracle

Chapter 4: ETournement

“Whoa, steady don’t want to break the merchandise.” I felt large arms drop me into another man’s.

“Just give us the money,” said a gruff voice. I assumed it was the first man.

The man put me down. The ground was cold but I kept my gasp in, and feigned asleep.  “Where’s the other one?”

“Right here,” replied the first man and soon Rain’s limp body lay next to me.

“Thanks for the business!” chirped a woman and I felt a swell of hatred bubble up inside of me. That woman, how dare she! She adopted us then sold us to some other people for her own profit. As soon as I got out of this place I would find her and extract my revenge. I lay limp and seethed inside.

“Wakey, wakey,” the man who bought us poked my side and I fake yawned.

I opened my eyes and immediately found the nearest object that I could use as a weapon. We were in a large grey room and the closest thing was a chair. I darted towards the chair but my legs were still half paralyzed so instead of knocking our captor out, I ended up falling in a heap in front of it.

“Oh nice, a fiery one, you’ll last a good week.”

I turned to see my captor was a middle aged man with long brown hair. Surprisingly handsome, in a rough way. He was fit for his age and had an aura of a seasoned fighter.

“And by the way, that was the most fake yawn I have ever heard. I knew you were awake from the moment your body stiffened in my arms.” I had stiffened? I didn’t recall that.

“Looks like lover boy isn’t awake yet,” he kicked Rain and I growled protectively.

“Oh don’t worry sweetheart, this won’t kill him.” He bent down to pinch Rain’s cheek.

“He kind of reminds me of one of my brothers,” he mused then grabbed a handful of Rain’s gold hair and sharply pulled upward. Rain gave out a moan and the man dropped his head on the concrete floor. Feeling had returned to my feet and I burst towards the enemy with a ferocious swipe. “Miss, you really need to work on your form,” he remarked staring down at me. His movements had been so precise that I hadn’t noticed them until I was flat on my back.

“Who are you?” I said crawling over to place my body between him and Rain. He noticed my pathetic attempt to buy time.

“Look sweetheart, I’m not gonna kill your boyfriend. Why would I kill the merchandise I paid for?” he responded then pulled out a business card from his ratty jeans. I read the card out loud:

Sammy G’s Vacuum Store

“Not that one,” he replaced the card with the correct one.

 Eugene Shard, Recruit Trainer

“Eugene…” my lips tugged upward in a smile.

“If you crack a joke about my name, I swear I will personally dump you off the ship myself,” he warned, pointing a finger at me. I made a motion of zipping my lips closed.

“Mer?”

I shuffled to Rain’s side.

“Where are we?” he sat up and rubbed his head. I noticed him wince as he located the spot where Eugene had dropped him.

“On a ship,” I said after a moment “Eugene “bought” us from our fake adoptive parents.” My face automatically arranged itself into a frown, I knew that it was too good to be true. No one would ever go to the slums of space to adopt a kid, especially two teenagers.

“Eugene,” I said with a glare “You want to explain why we were bought here?”

He ginned “Oh that’s simple, you’re going to compete in the ETournement”

“What?” I blinked at him and Rain turned pale.

“A tournament among extraterrestrials,”

This time I turned pale. I looked at Rain and he stared at me with a curious look. “Mer, why do you always wear a mask?”

In a split second I was running out the door.