101 Ways to Skin a Hoodie

Chapter 4

"Alright, you're awake. I think it's time we had a little chat."

The voice in my head again. It uses human words, and even common colloquialisms, but something just seems off about it. I can't quite place it.

"A chat about what?" I open my eyes onto a cold metal room, not unlike any of the other ones in the prison. The main difference is that this one isn't brightly lit. In fact, it's not lit at all, I'm surrounded by total darkness.

"Oh, I think you know," the voice continues, "about how you wiped the floor with one of our top fighters. You killed her with quite some ease, as a matter of fact. This was after you got knocked down, too. We're just... curious about how you did that."

"Funny. I was out cold after she threw her clubs at me. There's no way I killed anyone." Right? There's no way I killed anyone, right?

"See, you play dumb, yet we know the truth about you. Or at least we can hearken a guess. We can smell it. The two souls resting inside that little, ripe head of yours." I feel moist breath down the back of my neck, and something skitters around behind me. Goosebumps poke out atop my bare flesh.

"You know, I figured out what's so wrong with the way you monsters talk. There's no intonation in you creepy mind-voice at all. Just the same flat, high pitched cold tone at all times. So here's the thing. Once you can talk at my level, I'll consider talking back, alright?"

The least I can do is put on a brave face. The fact that I'm in the dark both literally and metaphorically isn't doing anything good for my blood pressure, and I want to get myself sorted out as soon as possible, with other humans that is.

...

There's no more voice for a while. Perhaps they're communicating among one another. From the pre-match announcement I know that they can project their voices into the minds of many, so it would make sense that they could block it out and only send messages to select people as well. If I'm going to break out from this place I bet I'm going to need to figure out how to cut that off.

It starts talking again; "You can get off for now. Luckily for you, we have other people to attend to besides yourself, but just know that in the future if you don't talk willingly then we may have to default to some... more crude forms of diplomacy. We don't want to take any chances with something that could put a damper on the plans of God above after all. Take her away."

Huh. That seemed a little loose lipped to me. I'll ask Aruetta about it later. Right now I need to figure out what the hell happened while I was unconscious.

Speaking of unconscious, an appendage of whatever is slithering behind me springs forth, knocking into the back of my head, and me out.