Journey

Elijah

"Lorelei what are we going to do?" I ask her.

After the weird meeting with Leopold and Tori in the hospital Leopold took us back to the bunks but we left again to talk in a closet.

"I think their alibi is pretty good,"Lorelei whispered.

"Indiana had no problem with them."

"But they are also really good liars and we don't want to trust them as quickly as we trusted Indio."

"That's true."

"So what do we do?"

I think for a moment.

"If they want to free us then we should trust them but as soon as we get suspicious we take matters into our own hands."

"That's a good plan Elijah."

We exit the closet and go back to the bunks.

"Where have you guys been?" Kourtni yells.

Everything in the room stops and they all stare at us. We need to think up a lie and quick.

"We decided to go exploring and got caught by le-the Bright escort," Lorelei lies.

She is getting good at lying. It makes me kind of sad that she has to be good at lying to get through this world we now live in.

"Where did you go?" Fox asks.

He is suspicious of our alibi. Of course he is. He is a naturally suspicious person and of course he chooses this moment to exercise this.

"We mainly just wandered the hallways. All the door signs were in another language so we couldn't figure out where we were," I told them.

This seemed to satisfy Fox and they all went back to their own thing.

I lay down on my bunk and try to sleep. Someone comes up next to me.

"I don't believe that for a second," She says next to us.

"I'm trying to sleep Kourtni. Go away," I tell her.

"You guys did not go wander the hallways. You were gone for too long. What were you really doing?"

"Kourtni get away from me. I told you to leave me alone. I have a girlfriend," I yell at her.

"Wait what?"

"Kourtni back off of him. He clearly doesn't like you in that way," Someone from the otherside of the room yells at her.

Kourtni looks so confused. I kind of feel bad but then again I kinda don't. Lorelei wakes up from her bunk and looks at me. She is laughing to herself. Kourtni stands up and carefully walks to her own bunk.

I look at my watch. The watch face reads 2100. Lorelei comes and sits on my bed. We whisper into the night. We finally fall asleep.

I wake up when water gets dumped on my head.

"No sleeping in other beds," Leopold scolds.

We go back to the practice room. Today we are brawling. I stretch my limbs and Lorelei does the same.

"I am going to pull names out of this bowl and they are going to be your partners," He tells us.

Kourtni gets paired with a big man and looks worried.

Fox gets paired with someone nimble on her feet but doesn't get worried.

Then they pull my name out. I wonder if I can actually win this fight.

Then they pull out my partner. They speak her name.

Lorelei.

You've got to be kidding me right? Nope. I am brawling with Lorelei.

"We both agree not to murder the other right?" I whisper.

"Agreed."

We have to go in order. There is two group after us and five groups before us. The pit in my stomach doesn't go away. It gets larger and larger with every punch kick or bite. Leopold is giving Lorelei advice on how to beat me. I don't care really. I would rather her beat me than me beat her.

Fox comes out of the arena a little battered. Battered but triumphant.

He is the second person I know to come out triumphant. I know I'm not because reasons.

"Don't be afraid to hit me Eli," Lorelei tells me.

I laugh.

"Most girls wouldn't say that," I tell her.

"Well I'm not most girls now am I?"

"That is true."

Finally there is one more fight before ours. The only rules in these fights are no weapons. The fight ends when the opponent is either unconscious or dead. The final fight before ours ends with one person unconscious and the other person with broken or maybe just bruised ribs.

Lorelei and I take our places in the ring. We begin circling. She takes the first shot with impressive speed and I dodge but not fast enough. She hits my shoulder with her metal elbow and it shoots pain crawling up my neck. My sight blackens around the edges. I need to make this fight look realistic so I give her an uppercut. She bit a hole in her lip and it is now gushing blood.

She punches my jaw. It will definitely bruise tomorrow. I throw her over my shoulder and pin her down. She struggles against my grip and I loosen it for her. She wriggles out and pulls my ankles and I fall on my face. She stands up panting hard and starts kicking me with her metal leg. I bring my hands up to protect my face and trip her. I start punching her. She gives one final kick to my head and I go unconscious.

"Oww," I say when I finally wake up.

I am in the hospital. Makes sense. Lorelei did kick my head pretty hard. Indiana is sitting in the chair across from the bed.

"You guys beat each other up pretty good. People have been talking about it for days. They have also been talking about your extremely hard noggin. Lorelei's leg is steel Elijah and she kicked you hard. Most people would be dead but you aren't," He explains.

"I do have one pretty bad headache," I say wincing.

Indiana hands me some pain killer. I swallow the bitter pills.