Iris: The Games

Chapter Ten "The penthouse"

When the elevator started to move up Acacia told me to "not get overwhelmed". We were now moving up the elevator shaft and we were moving up fast. To describe the elevator it was cold, grey, and dark. When the elevator started to move up there was a concrete wall covering the elevator glass window. The wall was only a couple of feet tall and so soon after we started to see floors of the building. The contestant center must have had hundreds of floors because I counted endless floors while we were in that elevator. Each floor was similar to the next one. The contestant center was indeed a tall building but like the E.C.A building, it had an interesting and unusual layout. The structure of the contestant center build was a halo. Every floor was basically a ring. It's hard to explain how the building looked so you just have to use your imagination. As the elevator went up went pass tons of floors and I was in the elevator until I got to the tenth floor. Each planet had two floors, one floor for the males and one floor for the females of each planet in the Calen empire. The contestants of Titan always had the best apartments while the contestants of more poor planets had lower quality apartments. When we finally reached the tenth floor the elevator stopped and remained closed until Acacia opened the door. Before she opened the door of the elevator she told me this, "this is your new home for the next week, I suggest that you make as many allies with the people who are from Taboo". She told me this before she opened the elevator door. "Are you ready"? I told her yes. She pulled out a card from her pocket and held it up to a scanner on the wall. The card scanner scanned the card and the door opened immediately after. When the door opened I saw 3 other boys of Taboo in the living room of the apartment. I was startled to see Ivan's grandmother. But she did volunteer for his place after he died soo guess she would technically get to live in our apartment. I don't understand why she volunteered, maybe she wanted to die in the games. It would be honorable though. Maybe when Ivan died she felt it was necessary to take his place. I don't know, I still have a lot of questions even years after it all happened to me. Anyways the apartment was very white, bright, and clean. The only colors that seemed to pop out in the apartment were furniture, paintings, and plants. There was a lot of military propaganda in the living room of the apartment. Every wall had a Calen poster on it and every poster had a story. Some posters were from different periods of time in the Calen empire. Some posters even dated back to the dark days and the great Calen conquest. I had only been told stories of the dark days. But I didn't know much about the great Calen conquest. I wanted to know more, but I didn't know who to ask. So I went to my bedroom to go and further research on the great Calen conquest. All of the bedrooms of the apartments were bald and white the furniture was black and grey. The ceiling was covered in white glowing panels. The beds were all king sized beds. The sheets were silken and white. The sheets would shine in the lights all the time. The rooms were clean and open. Providing a balcony for residents of the building. All rooms had artwork, some of them being worth not much and some were worth a whole lot. There were sculptures and artifacts scattered all over the apartment. It was all beautiful. But Acacia had told me not to be fooled. Lots of artifacts that were not from the Calen empire had been stolen from others. She told me that on every mission her mother had gone on was she would steal an artifact or item. Each item usually came from the town that they were invading. I went and opened a door on the dresser next to my bed and to my surprise and luck I found a holo bar and keyboard inside the cabinet. Now was my chance to research like how I always wanted to. For years I would beg my mother to tell me about her service for the Calen empire. But she would always tell me the same thing. "I'll tell you when you're older." But now I could not ask her. I would have to ask others if I wanted to visualize what it would be like to be in my mother's shoes. I went along with my hopes and pulled out the holo bar and keyboard. To my surprise, it was very easy to set up. I set up the holo bar and keyboard at a white desk that was on the other side of my room. At this point in my life, I was to emotionally torn apart that I was barely holding on. I mean come on, when your best friend is murdered in front of you and you have been sent to your possible death you'll understand. After I set up everything at the desk I pressed the power button on the holo bar. As soon as I pressed the button a white screen hovered over the bar creating a monitor. I didn't know where to start on my research. I was astonished by the technology that was sitting in front of me. I was like a kid in a candy store. Every time I got an idea on what to research I got another. I had so many thoughts and things in mind on what to research I could have been sitting there for hours. Before I knew Acacia was in my room she spoke out generously "need some help." I told I would be fine but soon after that wouldn't have mattered. "Come get to know your partner for the arena." She told me. I sat there in my chair for a few more seconds and thought to myself. Then after I nodded at her and I got up from my chair and powered off the holo bar. I knew exactly who she was talking about. She was talking about Iden. In all honesty, I did have a crush on Iden but I knew we could never have a relationship back home. But hey, our lives are different for now. Maybe it could work out. But it couldn't have worked before. It has been awkward with me being friends with her brother. When I got up from my chair she asked me if I was okay. I nodded to say yes. I soon began to cry into my hands. we exited the bedroom that I was stationed in and began to walk down the hallway. She wanted Iden and i to meet up in a conference room on our first day together. Just so we could get to know each other.