Miracle

Chapter 11: Acceptance

Of course I didn’t make it past the main hallway even with my raging powers. Apparently there was actually a reason why Eugene was boss here.

“MER!” he roared, fixing an angry gaze on me.

“What!” I shouted back. We stared each other down.

“You just broke 7 of my enforced glass doors,” he replied exasperatedly “Do you know how much it costs to replace those?”

“I just got my memories forcibly displayed and a broken nose, do you think I give a damn about your glass doors?” I shot him a fierce glare, ice gathering at my fingertips. He watched as ice formed into sharp daggers in my hands.

“I would prefer if you devote your energy and powers for training for the tournament.”

“I’m not fighting in the tournament,” I gritted my teeth “How can you train innocent kids to just send them to their deaths?”

“You’re not innocent,” his eyes fired up. “Every single one of you has killed a person before, and god knows how many I have.” Eugene suddenly seemed older, more haggard, tired.

“The government,” I shot back weakly “you’re still helping the government by sending us to them,”

“Yes, the government, I’m helping the government,” he gave a short humorless laugh “Because it’s the only goddamn way I can stay alive.” I stared at him blankly. “Mer, do you know what happens to the winners of the tournament?”

I nodded tentatively “They get to live.”

“Yeah,” he sighed “if you can even call it that. When I won, they gave me a trophy and a big pat on the back and told me ‘Thanks for the entertainment, now we’re gonna strip you of your powers and make you train the next batch.’ That way I wouldn’t rebel and kill everyone with my powers.” He shot me a look full of resistance “And you know what? I was a coward, I still am one too. So when they took my powers away and sent me off on a space ship to the middle of nowhere with a bunch of kids, I trained them like a good little doggy. And one by one they died in the ETournament, like fleas.”

I met his speech with silence, the daggers’ sharp edges that were digging into my palms started to melt. “I started to rebel, small baby steps, every tournament, the kids I trained were better, faster, tougher. I told myself that soon I would be training winners and those winners would make a change, a difference.”

I started to connect the dots “Do you mean-”

“Yeah, they’re preaching equality now, that they’re gonna make the winners Elite. So once one of you get into the top ten, we’re going to break this crappy system that they call a government into a billion pieces.” 

“What makes you think one of us can succeed?” I asked calmly, the ice in my hands had melted and I had regained control of my emotions.

He barked a short laugh “Kiddo, I know you all can succeed, because I’m the one training y’all.”

“Mer!” Rain’s voice called out, the sound of his footsteps coming closer. “Jo told me I should come over-” I turned around and his eyes widened. Panic rose when I realized I was still missing my mask. My hands automatically shot to cover my bare face. His hands pulled lightly at them and I resisted, fiercely clutching my face.

“Don’t look,” I shouted, fear laced my voice, had he seen it? I hunched over, my hair falling from my braid shielding my face from him.

“You have scales,” he said with a tinge in his voice, I cringed, he had seen them. He probably never wanted to talk to me again. No one liked the deformed. I bit my tongue til it bled. “They’re beautiful,” he breathed and I realized that the tinge was not fear nor disgust but awe.