Morph

Chapter Fourteen Skyler Confusion continues

I sat up with a startle. My head ached. My room was pitched black. I leaned back on my elbows. I was drenched in a cold sweat. I was so confused. Day four. The last thing I remember was Carson saying, "Look, Skyler if you want to live and survive, you need to fight with all your might."

My nightmare had consisted of Terra ripping my body to shreds and eating my heart in front of me. Then the scene shifted to Bridget running through the woods at full speed not caring about a huge gash in her left leg, and beginning to morph, but the scene shifted again before I saw what her animal was. Then I saw Carson sitting in a pillowed room laughing to himself as guards brought him daily doses of food and medication. The scene shifted one last time to the Queen standing amidst of all the bodies of my hometown, my father and sister among them as she cackled an evil laugh.

My head pounded, then the door pounded in response. I looked at the clock 6:00. Crap. I launched myself out of bed to open the door but instead of Carson or Bridget, it was a huge man. His chocolate skin shined in the hallway lighting.

In a gruff voice, he said, "Bridget is waiting for you down in the training room, she sent me to get you." 

He looked me up and down and then said, "You might want a shirt."

I gave a light chuckle to release the tension between us. His unblinking glare stared me deep into my soul. I closed my door quickly and ran and grabbed the first thing I saw.

I stepped off the elevator into the training room. People were already in the room training hard. Bridget and Carson were at the far side of the room talking intensely with each other. I made my way over to them. Carson looked up and we made eye contact. I smiled. He gave a weak smile in return. Not the Carson I know. Carson was wearing a white t-shirt and red shorts. Very odd. Bridget was not in her normal clothes either. She was wearing blue jean shorts with red shoes and a red V-neck.

"What's up guys?" I said coming closer.

Carson stood and clamped his hand on my back, "Nothing, we just sometimes have to dress different. The Queen has kind of been a stickler about it lately. She says Bridge and me look too dark. Eh! Its only like once a week we have to do this."

Bridget nodded.

We all stood there awkwardly. "Well I will just go and work on my sword work." I said slowly.

"Wait bro!" Carson said, "Do you know how this is going to go down?"

I shook my head.

"Ok so you are fighting this girl, her name is Flare. She is scarier than the Queen in a bad mood. So, this is what is going to happen. On Saturday, you will be escorted to a truck and that truck is going to take you about thirty minutes away from here to a small battle arena. Kind of like a coliseum. Next you will be forced to change into this stupid outfit. It's completely black with a white stripe down the sides. It's really dumb, like who were the stylists that saw that and were like" perfection!" Anyway, then you will be escorted to the center of the coliseum. In the middle, there is a table with two swords, ten knifes, and four spears. You will fight Flare weapon to weapon for the first round, which will last twenty minutes. And if you survive that long you will continue to the next round, which is hand-to-hand combat, which only lasts ten minutes. The final round is Morphing. You will have to morph. Try not to die. No one knows what Flare's morphing power is, so be on your guard. And the final round doesn't end until there is a death and a victory. Understand?" Carson told me with intensity in his eyes.

I nodded.

Bridget, patted me on the back, "Don't worry you're going to do awesome." She tried to give me a reassuring smile, but it didn't work.