Meeting Death

Chapter 5

Its been about 6 weeks since I had been taken from Oscar, the place that were at now, I couldn't even explain its horrible-ness.

They people here have been training me roughly and hard. The only breaks I get are when everyone would take a break and party so we could stop training.

Next week is the real deal, we are going to the pit to fight a real gang, none of this sparring crap.

Mason and I have become quite good friends throughout my time here. He, I learned, is about to turn 20.

The leaders and my trainer, have said i've been learning quickly, and words spread that I am one of the best fighters here or that I am ready for next week. That was blown out of proportion as I am no where near to fight.

All I knew is that I needed to win this fight, make the leader proud. Maybe they will let me go home, I need to see my family, they were my only drive to win. Most importantly, I needed to see Oscar, to that him, he risked his life for me. I had only known him for a short time, yeah, I mean is first impression wasn't that good, but I saw the better in him, maybe I shouldn't.

My mind wondered off but the alarm went off, signaling training was going to start soon. All of the sudden, my body had no energy. I didn't want to go, a picture of my family flashed through my mind and I knew I had to go home.

I slowly yet steadily got up and sighed, here we go again.
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The week went fairly fast, I had skipped out on friday to stay back and train, like some others. I pushed my body to its physical and mental limits. I was more broken then healthy, by looks, you wouldn't be able to tell, but on the inside, you can only imagine.
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The fight was tonight, everyone was in a good mood. Most of them talking about the fight tonight and who was going to be there.

Although I was alone at my table, people were staring, wondering why I wasn't as excited as everyone else. Truly I wasn't happy looking, my brown curly hair had lay lifeless upon my shoulders, my face was bruised and pale, and to add to that I had a cracked open lip.

I also looked quite scrawny, but everyone new I was a good fighter, and they knew deep down not to taunt me, and that was a good enough image for me.

The leader had decided to get this thing going when he had hopped onto the stage ad was getting ready to announce the rankings. The rankings were how good you are of a fighter, and thats how you were labeled here. After the mens category it was time for the woman's.

"In the woman's category, for first we have Giovanni Cane, for second we have Lisa Shaw, and lastly in third, we have Connie Fisher. Come up here and stand tall and proud of yourselves." He pointed to a place behind him.

Once we were all up there, a man came with three medals and he put them around our necks. He whispered congratulations to all of us and then quickly left the stage.

"Now if the instructors who had taught these ladies, want to say something, come on up." The leader moved away from the microphone.

Soon enough three guys, I recognized one of them as my trainer, stepped onto stage.

Trevor, my instructor went first, "I had Gio, and woman, you fight like no one else I have trained. You have shown me you determination, you really want to win, to get back to your family. I enjoyed training you Gio, I am proud of being your instructor," He smiled at me, and then left for the others to go.

It was short yet sweet, it was bringing tears to my eyes.

After all of the instructors went, everyone started cheering.

The next thing that happened shocked all of us, a man who looked to be in his late 40s, stepped into the room. "Alright, enough of this crap. Get into the cars and on the bus, and go to the pit."

He spoke with so much authority that everyone had stopped what they were doing and walked out of the room in single file line. One by one, they disappeared, until it was our turn to go.

Some were cheering, others were terrified like me, we hopped onto one of the buses and we were off.

I was sitting next to a man in his late twenties, he was silent for most of the ride, but there was a little bit of chitter chatter here and there.

We were nearing the sand pit, as I could see the outlines of the sand piles. The same ones Oscar and I had climbed.

The same ones he risked his life at, the memory of him on the ground pulsed through me. He could of died because of me, I repeated it over and over.

The voice in the back of my head kept repeating something, but I was to busy fighting with myself.

I stopped for a second and the voice repeated itself one more time and I heard it, 'Maybe you should accept the fact that you like him.'

Do I?