The girl in the arena

The End of Paridise

I made the excuse of feeling sick so I wouldn't have to see Christian or fill out any paperwork. When I did occasionally leave my room, Storm and would go out to catch something to eat, and I would tiptoe to the cafeteria and back to my room. 

Almost all my time was divided between caring for Storm and talking to Oliver. We conversed about anything, but mostly Christian because I was too afraid to talk to him myself.

"So, is it like a daily thing that they do?" My curiosity got the best fo me as we veered back to the topic once more. 

"Uhm- none of us really know how often, but it's mostly when Sophia is stressed out. I don't blame her, I wonder what he's like in bed-" 

"I don't. I must have seemed rude asking him questions when we met." Scientists had always taught me to treat sex slaves as less than dirt, nothing more than grime. 

A loud bang interrupted our conversation. Barely startled, Storm slowly turned his head towards the door, eyes narrowed. 

"Storm? What's up, baby?" He began to shriek, louder and louder before it became shrill. 

I shot up, moving over to try to soothe him. He pulled the sleeve of my shirt, wings fluttering in vain. 

I pushed Storm off of me, moving to the door to find the source of the commotion. I got ready to defend myself, equipping my hands with a small lightning knife. The deafening rhythmic bangs stopped after the sound of something falling. 

Then the shooting began. I blinked for a few moments, then closed my eyes and tried to asses the situation. 

only a few guns, but they were heavy ones. Their bullets were hitting wood, metal, marble. I flinched as each point of contact pulled a different memory from my mind. 

I pushed the door open as my feet moved on their own. I put up a wall of lightning, protecting my door so nobody could get in to hurt Oliver or Storm. Slowly descending the polished stairs, I could hear cries and shouts of all the people that Sophia had taken in. 

I put up another wall of bluish light around me, protecting me from deadly bullets. I threw down my glasses to the ground with a deadly crack, not caring for impaired vision. 

I stepped around broken glass and bloody floors before I covered my mouth in disgust. 

A girl I had only seen in a total of four times, sat slumped against the wall, her eyes dead and glazed with unshed tears. I didn't turn away fast enough, the sight enough to upset my stomach. 

I vomited until I couldn't breathe until only dry heaves of air remained. 

I looked back, staring into her eyes until I forced myself to look away. 

Around the next corner, people huddled in balls behind shields they put up themselves. Their eyes went wide when they saw me, and they began to usher me over. 

"Ms. Jade!" A middle-aged man spoke in hushed tones. I crept over to him, quickly checking his body for injuries. 

"What's going on?" My eyes frantically searched his as he tried to steady his breath. 

"M-Mr. Michel, he got angry, and-" the older man stopped to sob quietly for a few moments, "He's always been the violent type, but I never thought that he would be so inclined to hurt people this much, I-" 

My patience had begun to wear thin as I clenched my teeth. "What happened? Please hurry so I can stop it" 

"When we get taken in, Sophia takes all of our weapons and puts them away in a room we don't have access to. Somehow, Michel found those weapons. I don't know what could have made him so angry, but God, if he had just talked to someone-" A collection of shots, followed by the sound of dropping bodies stopped the man mid-sentence. 

I stood, intent on finding Michel and stopping his rampage. 

"It'll be over soon, I promise", I whispered as I began to jog away. 

If someone had it all? Why would they act out like this? A jealous fit? Anger problems?  I just couldn't wrap my mind around the reason for all this. 

From around a pillar, I could see him. Big and bulky, he was wielding a weapon of military grade at a pair of innocent children. 

With all the power I could muster through my fear, I pushed a handgun past my fingertips. It was no match for his weapon, but maybe I could distract him long enough to get the children to safety. 

I aimed to knock the gun out of his hand, fully knowing that no ordinary bullets would come out. With any firearm I made, the bullets would stun, like a volt of electricity enough to knock someone out. 

I pulled the trigger, but not before Michel turned his head towards me, a murderous glow in his eyes. 

"Ah, just the person I wanted to see right now! Join the party Jade! Come on! I'll even let the kids go if you 'wanna come play with me." His sadistic smile stretched from ear to ear as he jerked his head, motioning the children to scurry along. 

The children ran like hell, slipping and sliding on the blood spilled all over the marble floor. 

When they were out of sight, I once again raised my gun, giving him the final option to back down. 

He began to pace back and forth. "Even if you kill me right now, I have bombs all over this place. I'm not really a sore loser."

My hands began to shake as I tightened my grip on the gun, so hard the white of my knuckles was probably visible.  I fired a shot, clipping him in the shoulder. 

He winced in pain before howling with laughter. 

"This is the shit I talk about! Irrelevant people seem to make the biggest scenes." 

"Is that why you're doing this? Killing all these people? Because you have some inferiority complex?" 

"I kill for fun, you can't keep a lion in a cage. It's not like they were important, they didn't-" 

I fired again, my hands shaking so bad I nicked his side. 

"Shut up, that's enough. I didn't come here to argue." 

"What? Are you here to stop me? You beat me once, out of sheer luck, that doesn't mean it'll happen again." 

"Put that down before you get everyone in here killed little lady." 

I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, desperately clawing at a solution. 

I could kill him and stop the problem, but who knows how many of us here would die. 

But to let him go? Let him kill whoever came across him?

I opened my eyes, letting energy crackle down my fingertips until it spilled onto the floor. It zapped at my feel, pooling around my ankles. 

In the same second, I pulled the trigger and expelled a massive amount of energy, pushing a shield up around all living things in the house. 

Michel's lifeless body thumped to the ground, but not before he wildly fired his gun in my direction. My vision was invaded by black spots until it faded away completely. 

~~

I awoke on that same floor that I blacked out on, amongst dirt and debris. 

So he wasn't bluffing about the bombs...