“Wake her up! Someone, wake her up now! She has to help us fight!” My mother’s voice rang around me along with the sound of flesh hitting flesh and the loud banging of guns.
My eyes snapped open as I felt the weight of another person across my body. A dead boy with brown hair and a fresh, bleeding, bullet hole in his forehead lay across my lap. I sat up and brushed him off of me then stood.
“It’s about time you came to!” Selena yelled from my left side. I looked at her in shock for a few minutes then blinked back into reality. My mother was in front of me and Logan to my right. Jake was nowhere to be seen.
I turned my back to my mother’s and stood in a fighting stance. The rest of my group was spread out across the arena, fighting the other trainees. I looked through the crowd for Jake, but I still couldn’t find him.
A girl with curly brown hair and menacing blue eyes ran towards me, a knife in hand. She let out a loud battle call and leapt into the air. I grabbed hold of the wrist that held the knife and pulled it behind me. She landed on her knees in front of me and I pulled her into a standing position with her back against me. I put one arm around her neck and one up under the knife bearing arm, causing it to rise in the air as she struggled. I bore down with all my strength until the knife dropped and her body went limp in my arms. I let her drop to the ground in front of me.
I looked up just when a flash of blonde hair caught my eyes. I allowed them to follow the figure until they reached the end of the large group of fighters and made its way towards us.
And to my relief, it was Jake.
There was a flash of black from the corner of my eye and I quickly turned to fight my new opponent. It was a man that stood roughly six and a half feet tall. He had shiny black hair and blue eyes along with the biggest muscles I’d ever seen in real life. Movies and such are a different story.
“Jasper,” I said with a smirk.
“Madeline, what a nice surprise to see you; you know, I’ve been looking for you all day.” He said, a half smile turning up the corner of his mouth.
“Really, you don’t say? Well, as you can see, I’ve been pretty busy.” I said and moved a little closer to him. The heat radiating from his body touched me and instantly warmed my skin but sent a chill down my spine.
“Hmm, yes I could tell. Well, I’ve been pretty busy myself but I just thought I’d drop by for a nice little talk.”
“Well, too bad this ‘talk’ will last a bit longer than you hoped it would because, for once, I’m actually in the mood for it.”
“Well, that is too bad. I was really hoping I could just kill you and move on.” He laughed then his face instantly became serious. He leapt towards me and landed on my chest, pushing us both to the ground. We rolled and he ended up on top of me. He pulled his arm back and shot it forward to punch me. I rolled my head to the right and elbowed him in the eye.
“Ouch! Fuck, you little bitch! I knew you were working on your fighting skills but this is kind of ridiculous. You know, we could always kiss and make up and move on. All you have to do is plant a big one right here. We could make an amazing couple.” He said as he pointed to his lips. He cupped his eye with one hand and grabbed my hair with the other. He wrapped it around his fist and yanked as hard as he could. A few strands broke free.
I allowed my hands to come up and wrest at the back of his neck. “I always thought you were cute.” I whispered when he let go of my hair and moved to punch me again.
He stopped and pulled his arm back. “I knew it! I knew you did! And we are so perfect for each other, Madeline.” He leaned forward and when his lips were almost against mine, I spoke.
“Yes, I guess it’s too bad I lied, huh? You’re really quit repulsive.” Then I moved my feet and hands under him and heaved with all my strength. He rolled off of me and landed on the bloody ground at my side. As soon as his back hit the ground, he was moving again. He pulled a dagger from his belt and held it to my neck as he hovered over me.
“What the fuck? Why the hell did you do that you stupid bitch? I can’t believe you fucking lied to me! I fucking love you, you stupid whore! Why couldn’t you ever see that?” I felt the sting of the dagger as the cold steel slightly pressed into the skin of my neck.
He started to cry and spit as he talked. He roughly wiped some tears away. “We could have been together, Madeline, think about it! We could have been perfect but you ruined it now!”
Suddenly the knife was out of his hand and he was lying on his back on the ground with Jake over him.
“Listen, prick, Madeline’s taken and is happy. And besides, she doesn’t want a crazy ass piece of shit like you!” Jake said and punched Jasper so hard that I heard the snap of his nose. Blood began to rush out of his nostrils and his head lolled to the side as he passed out. Jake turned to face me and helped me sit up.
“Are you okay?” He asked as he rubbed a smudge of dirt from my cheek with his thumb.
“Yeah, fine. But, how did you know? About me and Logan I mean?” I asked as I climbed onto my knees. He stood and prepared to pull me up.
“Who doesn’t? You guys are pretty obvious about it. And the ring on your finger kind of tells the story by itself.”
I looked down at my finger and saw the sapphire ring that glinted there. The diamonds shown like rainbows in the ray of the sun and the deep blue of the sapphire blinked up at me.
“I forgot I was wearing it.” I said, still looking at the ring.
“When were you going to tell us? How long have the two of you been together?”
“A while,” I looked up at him, expecting him to be smiling at me, happy for me. Instead, he was frowning and tears gathered in his eyes.
“What’s wrong, Jake?” I asked. I took a step closer to him and watched as his feet moved back. “Jake, look-” but I was too late. He stepped back again; close enough for Jasper to stick the blade of a different, longer knife through Jake’s back and out his stomach. “NO!”
