The Void

Chapter 1

I was so silent, I could barely hear myself breathe. For the first time, I got caught. 

I got caught stealing and the punishment as everyone knows is death and when I realized that fact, I ran, I ran at full speed, I ran out of the alley with two assassins right behind me. I could feel every single pair of eyes following me, wondering when they would see my lifeless body. I kept on going through stalls barely filled with food and materials. 

When I realized I was entering another sector which meant more assassins. I thought I was going to die but then I saw a tiny spark of hope, a school, an assassin's school of course but a school nonetheless someplace perfect for hiding and there was a chance that Daniel was there so I ran inside and lost my pursuers in the crowd. I remember him telling me that he had History first so I snuck in and I immediately saw him in front of the whole crowd wearing his slightly torn uniform, a scar on his cheek, his black hair going wild and smirk on his face. 

I realized he was heading for the back seats and immediately followed him and sat down on the seat next to him. I didn't immediately say anything, my goal was to blend in and then for the first time I started to examine the classroom the walls and the roof were made of bricks which were barely holding up, there were three rows of chairs each on different platforms, there were a medium-sized blackboard and a man, the teacher standing in front of it waiting for everyone to settle down. I touched Daniel's shoulder, he turned and saw me and was immediately shocked but then after a few seconds he went back to normal like nothing had happened, he understood but I still owed him an explanation so I whispered in his ear, "Got caught, hiding, need help." He nodded and then the teacher started the lesson. 

The teacher said in a loud voice that was probably for the students sitting at the back, "Today we shall continue in our study of the Great War. As all of you know the great war was between humans and supernatural beings. Their name is The Celestials. Humanity fought hard and with all its resources and in the end, the Celestials retreated. More than 6 billion humans were lost, butchered on the battlefield while not....not even one Celestial fell..." The teacher started crying, just a few tears but you could see the pain in his eyes, the sadness, the blood, and the war. He continued, " Then the assassins were hired by almost every town, they basically took over but of course we have no idea which company actually owns the assassins." 

That's when I felt it a hand on my shoulder, the man forced me to stand up and I saw his face. It was one of the assassins, he punched me in the ribs and pain spread everywhere in my body. I could barely think but I punched his face. The other assassin had arrived and was about to punch me but Daniel charged at him and pinned him on the wall. The first assassin punched me in the face. Pain was flooding all over my face my nose was bleeding. I knew I had to do something so I charged at him and slammed him on a desk. I started punching his ribs repeatedly and then I heard Daniel's voice, "Leave him, we should get out of here." and then he started running to the door. I followed him and we went through the door at full speed, we kept on going pushing people out of the way. We were near the exit, almost there and we charged through the door and immediately stopped. 

There were five assassins outside their guns pointed straight at us. We slowly put our hands up knowing there was nothing we could do. One assassin walked up to us the leader of the squad and elbowed Daniel's face, he was immediately knocked out and I stared at Daniel and then he came to me. I saw his elbow coming to my face and I blacked out.

 I woke up in a cell, probably under an execution ground. Daniel was in a cell beside mine. He said, "Wakey, Wakey Sleepyhead, welcome to the holding chambers of the arena".

I replied, "The arena? Isn't that..." "Yep", He said, "This is the place where you get to fight and die." "

"Oh shit", I said. At that moment two assassins entered the room. One came over to me and unlocked my cage while the other did the same for Daniel. He put a black bag over my head and then lifted me up. He opened the cage door and then dragged me out of the cage and then he lifted the bag, punched me in the gut, and threw me into the arena. 

The arena was an old stadium which was covered with sand which of course wasn't surprising as we were in the middle of the desert, there was absolutely no one sitting on the stands, why would they be, they have to survive don't they. There were about 15 other people in the arena, all criminals and not good ones. The only way to get out of the arena, alive at least is to fight your way out and that is usually not easy. 

I ran at the nearest guy I could find and punched him, he almost immediately recovered, he got up and slammed me to the ground. He then started punching me furiously while I was incredibly dazed and so was blocking every punch with my face. I was starting to blackout when Daniel picked him up and threw him on the ground. I immediately got up. Another criminal landed a punch on my jaw, I kicked him in the ribs and slammed him against the arena wall. Then, I punched him in the guts until he looked like he was about to faint and finished him with a punch directly to the face. This is where Assassin's training got you, I almost felt bad for the guy. 

Then I saw what was happening, there were only three people left in the arena, Me, Daniel and a muscular tall guy who was beating Daniel to death, he landed a punch that sent Daniel to the ground. I knew I had to help him. I ran towards the guy, he saw me and punched me in the face, he was about to go in for another punch but I kicked him in the knee and punched him in the face. He recovered immediately and punched me in the guts and then he landed one on my face. I almost fell down, I knew I was gone there was no way I could beat this guy and he knew it. I looked at Daniel, my best friend, the person who had done so much for me, lying there half dead. At that moment something happened to me, I felt like power was in my body swirling in me and then the power went in my arm, he started running towards me and I punched him straight in the gut, a surge of power came from my fist and he went flying to the other end of the arena and he crashed into the wall. I looked at my knuckles, this is crazy right, I mean...What am I?