If Only We Could Be Us

“We have to what?” I hissed.

“Well they may not pick any of you!” Red tried to calm us down, “I still haven’t gotten picked for it and I have been here for years! Well, I kinda have some special privileges, but that means nothing!”

“What do you mean special privileges?” Jack asked.

“Well uh-” Red was cut off by Shayne.

“Just spit it out!”

“Fine!” Red yells, “My big brother is in charge of security here and they have been told not to harm me in any way.”

“Wait,” Asher started, “so you don’t have to deal with this shit because you guys are related?”

“THIS IS BULL!” Shayne yelled, “THE HEADMASTER IS MY FUCKING FATHER AND I’M HERE! I DON’T GET ANY SPECIAL FUCKING TREATMENT!”

“Shayne, please calm down,” I begged.

“No! I will not calm down! This is fucked up!” he suddenly jumped up, “I’m going for a walk.”

“You can’t Shaye, we have to-”

“I DON’T GIVE A FUCK! I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS!” Shayne suddenly ran out of the room.

We all sat in an awkward silence for a few moments.

“What are we going to do?” Mitch sniffled, “What happens if one of us gets picked?”

“We won't get picked.” I assured him, “We haven’t even been here for a week, there is no way.”

A loud alarm suddenly went off and a voice echoed through the building, “Everyone to the arena in five minutes

“You guys ready?” Red asked, “They are going to pick the fighters now and after dinner the battle will begin.

“I’m never going to be ready for this, but okay.” Liza sighed. The seven of us opened the door and joined the group of kids going towards the arena. Right before we walked into the room Red pulled us aside.

“Don’t stand next to each other or talk,” she whispered, “They like to pin friends against each other.” and with that she walked away from all of us.

“You heard the lady,” Louis said, “Love you guys, see you soon.”

All of us slowly made our way into the arena and just stood around waiting. Everyone was completely silent, apparently they all know to stay quiet. One person seemed to miss that memo. That person was Shayne.

“Munro!” He screamed from across the room, “Hey Munro! I’m over here!”

Oh no. I tried to duck down so that he wouldn’t be able to find me, but of course he spotted me right away.

“Hey Munro, I’m really sorry about earlier. I was just freaking about because of this stupid shit. Hey why isn’t anyone talking?”

“Shayne go away,” I tried to whisper with my mouth closed.

“What was that babe?”

“Stop talking,” my mouth stayed closed, “Please just go away now.”

“I can’t hear you.”

“Go away!” I screamed and immediately regretted it. I looked around and everyone was staring at us with their eyes wide.The security was pointing over at us and talking. I muttered a quick fuck.

“Hello everyone!” Someone said into a microphone, “May I have everyone's attention? Can we have the following people to the stage? Liza Allistaire, Shayne Allistaire, Ben Kennidy, and Munro Skylan.”

You have got to be kidding me. They did not just call all of us up. I don’t give a fuck about this Ben kid, but I love Shayne and Liza. The four of us all slowly made our way up to the stage in front.

“For all of you newbies,” the speaker said, “Every few weeks we have a duel, a fight to the death. We select four of you and everyone else gets to vote on who the two are that are going to fight. They will not be able to use anything in the duel except for their shifting powers.”

I tried to tune out the speaker and just look to my friends, but I couldn’t. The looks on their faces make me want to cry. I focused on my thoughts. Would it be so bad if I was chosen to fight? I would be with my mommy again. That wouldn’t be too horrible. I just kept thinking positively as he continued to explain what would happen. I vaguely heard him say something about how all of the students would have to vote on who they would want to fight. This should be a fun time.

“Okay everyone! I think its time for everyone to vote!” Everyone was ushered out of the room except for the four of us and some security. None of us know what to say, so we just stood there. None of us moved or talked and it was totally awkward. After a few moments we were all taken away to different rooms so that who was fighting would be left a mystery.

I stayed in my room for what seemed like hours, but in reality was probably only twenty minutes. I just sat in a little chair and soon enough four of the security guards came into my room.

“So,” one of them said, “Your little Munro?”

I just sat there staring at them.

“Not going to talk eh? Oh well. Doesn’t matter much.”

“Derek and James. You two strap him down, I’ll go get the stuff.”

“Stuff?” I questioned before any of them moved.

“Yes. Stuff. Now shut up bitch.” One of them slapped me in the face. I showed no emotion, well that is until two of them came over to my chair and started strapping me down to it. I started to thrash around, but they were too strong for me.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!” I screamed. None of them answered me. I continued to try to try to get out of the restrains.

“You two!” One of the men screamed at the other guards, “Hold him down so I can do this!”

They just held onto my shoulders as the other guy pushed a cart into the room. On the cart was a very large looking needle with some other things around it.

“What are you going to do to me?!” I suddenly became extremely frightened.

“Well Munro, you are going to be fighting tonight. It just so happens that our supervisor thought the battle would be a bit on the boring side so he instructed us to give you some HU-74. This is going to make you more aggressive. You won't be able to control what you are feeling, and you won't be able to think freely.” He placed the end of the needle against my arm and slowly pushed it in.

Instantly I felt different. It was like I was becoming a completely different person. I felt like- like I wanted to rip someone limb from limb. I started to pull my arms out of the restraints and the men seemed a bit afraid.

“I think we gave him a bit too much.” One of them backed up a bit, “We need to get him to the arena before he hurts one of us.”

They kept me restrained to the chair and just picked me up and took me to a large door.

“LET ME GO!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, “I WANT TO RIP YOUR FUCKING THROAT OUT AND EAT IT!”

What the hell was I saying right now? It was like I couldn’t control myself.

“I DARE YOU! LET ME GO AND FIGHT ME! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! I’M GOING TO EAT YOUR BALLS AND BRAINS!”

“Okay this kid obviously didn’t need any HU-74. He is fucking crazy as it is!”

“Just put him down in the arena and lets get the hell out of here!”

The placed my chair in the center of what looked like a football field and ran for their lives. I quickly jerked my arms up and broke the straps that were restraining me. I jumped up out of my seat and started to tear it to little pieces. I could see and hear the students and staff in the bleachers around me, but I didn’t care. I tore that chair apart and when I was done with it I saw my next target. A human. I was out for blood.

“AGHHH!” I screamed as I ran. I didn’t even bother shifting, I just wanted to fight. I quickly jumped on top of the target and tackled the person to the ground.

“Munro!” The person pleaded for help, but I refused to stop.

I started throwing punches just like my father had once done to me. I grabbed onto the person's skull and slammed mine against it. I did everything I could think of doing to torcher this person. Kicking, punching, scratching, and biting. The poor human just layed on the ground with blood coming out anywhere. They didn’t stand a chance.

“Mu-Munro,” The person said in a weak voice, “plea-please stop.”

I stood up slowly and looked down. There was a bloody mess on the ground and you couldn’t even see the face behind the cuts and bruises. The only thing that was distinguishable were the big gray eyes in the middle of the face. Those grey eyes were extremely similar to Shaynes, the thing is, I didn’t care.

I kicked the person in the face one last time and those tortured eyes slowly closed.