The Game

Training

The curtains closed and the stage sank back down with Kassendra and Sindred. Grace heard Sindred start talking to the other team, but she couldn't quite make out the words. Her team stared expectantly at Kassendra, waiting. Finally, she spoke, saying, "Only one person makes it out of the game alive. It was me last year. This year, it might be you, but it might not be." Here she paused, looking everyone in the eye. "I am here to train you, not lie and tell you that you'll be great. You won't be. Most or all of you will die." She paused looking everyone in the eye again. "Follow me."

She began walking, but towards the curtains instead of away this time. Grace looked around and saw that  the red team had disappeared, so they had no choice but to follow. They walked for what seemed like miles until Kassandra stopped abruptly in front of a steel door with no markings."This is the training room." she said, then she opened the door. "Here some of you who cannot stand it will die, but those who survive training will have a better chance of winning. Let's begin. You three," she gestured towards Jaden, Dylan, and Adam, "go over to that end of the training room." She pointed over to the far corner. "The rest of you," She gestured towards Grace, Whitney, and Ally, "stand here." She gestured towards the corner opposite the boys.

"When I blow the whistle, grab a weapon from the table and kill. Whoever is not killed will move on." A shot of fear shot through Grace as she saw Ally steeling herself. She had seen her like this only once before, and at that time she had punched an innocent man on the street. "Ally," she said, "calm down. Take a deep breath." She could tel that Ally wasn't listening, so she stopped talking and took a deep breath, steeling herself as well. You could have cut the tension with a knife, it was so think  when, the whistle blew. 

Everyone rushed to the weapons table in the middle of the room and grabbed something. Grace herself grabbed a sword which was surprisingly light. Right off the bat, Ally also grabbed a sword and turned on Grace. She roared with fury and went stabbing with all her strength at Grace's heart. Grace jumped back and barely managed to deflect Ally's rage. Grace turned and ran, knowing that that was her best hope. Ally also knew that she wouldn't be able to catch Grace, so she gave up and attacked Adam.

Grace ran and found Dylan, looking quite helpless. He had been stabbed in the gut and was bleeding. Grace leaned over him and wept. "No Dylan! You can't die! You just can't! I love you!" She wept and held Dylan's hand, but he was dead, she could tell. As she was crying, Whitney had crept up on her with a short, but lethal dagger with a notched tip. She reared up and stabbed Grace in the shoulder. the notched blade broke off and entered into Grace's body. The pain was blinding. It seemed like someone had set fire to her left shoulder and it was slowly spreading over her body. Grace was thrown into a blind rage and she whipped her arm around to punch Whitney, but she was still holding a sword. Whitney was decapitated.

The whistle blew again and Grace noticed that the Training Room was strangely silent. "Those of you still alive please stand by the door that you came through." Grace stumbled over and found that Adam, Ally, and Jaden were there too. All of them were bleeding terribly.