Behind the Lines

The arena is really big, filled with many obstacles and walls with holes or walls without holes. The whole arena is painted in black; with various colors of neon paint splattered everywhere, including the floor. There are many different platforms to stand on, if you want high ground to look for your opponents. And then there is some low ground to hide behind and prey on your opponents. In the middle is a booth where you have to go after you have been hit to “recharge.” You insert the tip of you laser gun in a little hole and wait for a minute. When you hear a beeping in your ear, through your headphones, you are free to go back in the game.

When everyone has entered the room, one of the employees closes the double doors that led us in here. Everyone looks a bit funky, wearing their headphones and jackets that we have to shoot. The teams are divided by color. Our team is red, while the other is blue. You will know who your teammate is when the lights in the arena closes and the center of your jacket will light up with the color corresponding to your team. Each game lasts fifteen minutes.

About thirty seconds later, the lights are completely shut off, and the room is pitch black. The only source of light is coming from our jackets and the neon colored paint on the walls, glowing in the dark. With the paint on the wall, it is slightly easier to see, and not as blinding. You can make out which person is which by looking at their faces, but you have to look really close.

I look around the room and notice people groaning about wearing white, since that also lights up and makes them the easier target. I look down at my clothes and thank the lord I chose to wear dark colors. The only source of light coming from me was my jacket and my white shoelaces.

They warning buzzer buzzes and the announcer tells us to take our spots. We all spread out and find a hiding spot. I run away and quickly find myself a spot between a wall and a big box you can climb on. I can see Blaine across from me behind a wall, looking through a hole and waving at me like an idiot. I roll my eyes, though he probably could not see that, but wave back anyway to keep him content.

“In three, two, one, BUZZ!” the final buzzer sounds and I can hear people shuffling their feet, trying to be quiet while they move. There are war cries and laughter all around the arena. I stay in my spot and wait for people to come my way.

I see a shoelace glowing by my right and squeeze further back in my small space, trying to be as quiet as possible. I can hear feet shuffling towards me and hear a giggle that I recognize as Claire’s. Right before she can get me, I come out from behind and jump in front, surprising her, and aim my gun at her jacket and shoot.

I let out an evil scientist kind of laugh and run away. Claire stomps her foot and huffs, before retreating back to the recharge station.

I find another hiding spot, this time between two walls; one covered in holes and one not. I can see the shadow of a person coming near me and know they are from the opposite team from the blue glow of the jacket. I aim my gun at him, and wait for him to turn around and face me. I kneel down a little, peeping through the hole, but the person senses my movements and turns around.

But before he can see where I am, I pull my trigger and shoot his vest. The person groans—a boy—and retreats after muttering a few curses, heading towards the recharge station.

I smile to myself and keep a lookout for anymore people. I guess I did not notice someone to my side until they slap the back of my head.

“Hey!” I whisper yell, and turn to the person who abused my head. It’s Blaine and he is smiling like the little idiot he is.

“Hey yourself,” he greets.

“What do you want?” I grumble.

“Not a nice way to greet you best friend,” he complains and pouts.

“Good thing you’re not, then. Grace is,” I state jokingly.

“What?” he says dramatically, putting a hand to his head and another to his heart.

“You heard me.”

“I thought we had something,” he admits, putting a hand to his head and sliding down the wall like the actresses in the olden days.

“Shhh…. I hear someone coming,” clamping a hand on his mouth.

I see two people heading our way, sneakily, and they look over to where we are sitting. I duck my head as quick as I can, but it is too late and I know they have noticed us. I hear them mumbling to each other, and I look over to Blaine. Without exchanging any words, we know what to do.

I signal him with my fingers and count to three. On three, we both split and run in opposite directions. The two from the opposing team, who I make out to be Landon and Garrett, also split, running after each of us. Running in the dark in an arena like this, is like running through a maze at night with only the stars and moon to guide you.

My hands are constantly in front of me, trying to feel for any walls or obstacles. The person—I do not know if it is Garrett or Landon, yet— behind me is really fast and catching up quick. I fasten up my pace and continue to dodge things. Turning a corner, I accidently bump into someone from the other team. I recognize it to be John. I realize I am on top of him and blush.

“Get off me, you freak,” he complains, shoving me off him and abruptly standing up and stalking off. He did not even try and shoot me, too disgusted to even help me up.

What the hell? I thought everyone here was over that and knew about the plan my brothers told me about.

During my little session is space, the person behind me has caught up and I hear my headphones say “Dead, dead, dead,” repeatedly. I look up to see who caught me and realize it is Landon.

He smirks at me and holds out his hand for me to grab onto. I take the offer and pull myself up.

“Got ya,” he whispers.

“Don’t have to rub it in.”

“Just stating the facts.”

“Good for you,” I turn around and walk to the recharge station.

He did not follow me, but simply laughed and turned walking the other way.

I hear someone from behind a wall chuckling.

“At least someone got the freak out,” a girl whispers.

Why is everyone still saying that?

I frown and continue my way to the station. Something is up if they keep calling me “freak.” Lloyd said all these people were a part of the plan. If they knew, why would they keep it up?

I reach the charge station to find Macee, Saxon, and Garrett also there. Macee and Saxon glare at me and turn around, while Garrett just looks away. My frown deepens a bit more and my heart drops a little. I thought everything was okay now.

I push aside my conflicting feelings and focus on charging my gun. I insert it into the little hole and wait for the beep from my headphones to sound. After about twenty seconds, Macee and Saxon finish their charge and mumble “finally, it finished.” Somehow, I feel they said that just to get away from me, but I did not want to dig deeper in the situation and I continue to focus on my charger. Garrett finishes a few seconds later and quickly walks away without saying anything. I shrug.

After about forty seconds of standing in the station alone, my gun is done charging and my headphones emit a loud beep. I take out my gun from the hole and exit the station. Quickly, I climb up a box so I can see what is going on, on the floor. The box is about five feet above ground and has a few steps to help you climb on to it. On the top, I lie down on my stomach and rest on my elbows. I look out for any oncoming people, but right now, everyone is all over the place, and a few people are close to where I am, but not close enough for me to shoot them.

I am up on the box for about two minutes before someone is finally within range. I try to shrink and flatten my body on top of the wooden box as much as I can. From the facial structure, I recognize the boy to be Chris. I smirk and point my laser at him. Like all my other victims, I wait for him to turn around. He has his back to me, but not for long! With the tip of my foot, I tap it on the box. He hears me and quickly turns around to point the gun in the direction of the noise. He spots me, but like always, I pull the trigger before he can and get him first.

“Damn, freak,” he mutters and walks away. Again with the name calling. I am so confused.

I look at the clock placed above the entrance of the door and see that we have five minutes left in the game. I hop off the box when I see no one is around, and I run around a few boxes to find my next hiding spot. I see a perfect spot, right in the corner of the arena. There is box in front of it, and on the side is a wall with holes. I stalk off to my next destination.

Right before I reach it, my headphones sound and tell me I am dead. I turn to my side and see Claire doing her little happy dance and playfully taunting me. I give her the birdie and go to the recharge station, once again.

Once I am there, I can see Lloyd and Chris mumbling things to each other, but they both stop when I reach there. I give them a small smile and turn to the wall, charging up my gun. Why are they acting so weird? Surely, they have to be talking about me if they have to stop when I am here. I turn around to ask them what they were talking about, but with no luck, they have already disappeared. Strange, I think, and turn back to my gun.

Once again, my gun is refilled and I head to the main arena. I see Blaine hiding behind a wall and go walk towards him. Surely, we could team up again. I see him look my way and I wave and jog forward.

When I reach him, he holds out his fist and I bump mine with his.

“Who are you stalking?” I ask.

“Landon,” he mumbles, looking back behind the wall where I am sure Landon is hiding.

“Need help?” I offer.

“Hell yeah.”

“Okay then. Let’s do what we did before. We split, only this time, we both try to get Landon and corner him from either side so he can’t escape. He might get one of us, but there will be enough time for one of us to get him, before he gets us both,” I plan.

“I like the way you think, young warrior,” Blaine smirks.

“Ready then?”

“Yup.”

“Let’s do it,” and we both walk around the wall from different ends and I see Landon’s shoe behind a box. I look over at Blaine and nod my head, signaling him to go.

We walk slowly and quietly and once behind the box we both run up next to Landon for a surprise attack. Cornering him, we both stalk closer and hold up our guns. In a jiffy, he pulls his gun and shoots me before I can, but Blaine is able to shoot him. My headphones sound again and I stalk off to the charge station again. There is no use in recharging the gun, since there are only thirty seconds left in the game.

I just wait by a random wall and lean on it, until the buzzer sounds. The lights flash on and blind my eyes, not used to the light. I hear others groan because of that, and I see a few here and there rub their eyes. Blaine catches up with me and we walk together to the exit. We hand in our vests and headphones and lasers to three employees standing by the door, collecting them.

We follow the others going to the refreshments bar. Everyone gets a table and sits with whoever they want. I sit alone with Blaine and Claire. We randomly talk about the laser game and who we got out and who got us out. After five minutes of useless talking, I get up to by myself a drink. As I walk to the register, Macee walks up to me and “accidently” bumps into me, spilling the contents in the drink she was holding. My whole top and part of my pants are drenched and dripping if liquid and ice, and I am sure she got some ice in my bra.

“Oops. My bad,” she says sarcastically, faking a caring tone though her eyes show true amusement. Everyone behind me is laughing, except for Blaine, Claire, and Landon, who give me looks full of pity. Even my brothers did not spare me, and laugh. My eyes start to water as I thought everything was okay between us, but I guess my brothers told me lies.

“U-uh, it’s o-okay,” I stutter. I turn around and walk to the bathroom. Something is definitely up. I rinse off my shirt and pants, and in come in Macee, Natasha, and Ria. They come up to me and pin me on the counter. Macee starts to talk.

“I don’t know who the hell you think you are coming here with your brothers,” Macee starts, “but surely after three years you would know you are not welcome,” she smirks.

“I thought everything was I okay,” I say.

“Whoever told you that piece of crap is a lie. Now next time you come in close proximity of any of us, we won’t be this kind,” she digs her nails into my arm and I wince.

“Aw! Is the wittle freak scared of the big bad wolf?” she mocks in a baby accent.

I nod my head no.

“Well you should be. No one likes you. Surely you are smart enough to know that, but I guess not. You would know that not even your brothers care for you. No one does. All you have is a pathetic excuse of a friend, Blaine, but he probably doesn’t even know about Olivia. Come on girls. She isn’t even worth our time,” Macee finishes and struts off, her two minions following behind. I wince once again once she mentions Olivia. If only she was here to explain everything.

I check my arm to see the damage her nails did to me, and sure enough there were five marks on my arm above my elbow, red and bruising. I take a paper towel and wet it with ice cold water to put on my arm to numb the pain. It gets better after about three minutes and I dispose of the napkin.

I slowly walk out of the bathroom, not really expecting what to see next. Just as I am about to enter the refreshments area, I hear two voices talking right by the entrance of the bathroom hallway.

“When should we tell her?” says I voice I recognize to be Lloyd’s.

“I don’t know, but who cares? Let’s just get rid of her,” Chris’s voice says.

“We can’t just banish her, Chris.”

“Why not? No one wants her. Not even you. I don’t even know why you told her she is a werewolf. She won’t be accepted into the pack, and you know it.”

“I know. I had to tell her. Landon’s orders. All those times we had to go the forest to accompany her were Landon’s orders. Everything we told her today was Landon’s orders. I can’t not follow the alpha’s instructions,” Lloyd explains.

What? Landon was the one who told my brothers to tell me about what we are? He was the one who told them to tell me everything?

“Why did you even bring her here?” Chris asks.

“Alpha’s order. What do you think, dipshit? Do you think I want to hang out with my excuse of a sister?”

“At least you’ve got your head screwed on the right place. I though you actually cared for a second,” Chris sighs in relief.

“Are you kidding me? All those times we had to go to the forest was absolute torture. Do you know how much girls complain and cry? All she could talk about was how she did do anything, but who believes that little piece of shit? She’s just trying to make herself feel better. Can’t believe Landon actually wants us to be nice after all she did,” Lloyd spits.

Tears start to form in my eyes as I take in the truth of all things that are holy. They never cared. I knew it. I never should have trusted them. No wonder everyone was still calling me names. It is all just an order to them. Tears spill down my cheeks and I hold in a sob to try and listen in more.

“She should just run away. It would make everything so much easier,” Chris suggests, laughing.

“I know man. Wish she would,” Landon laughs.

This time I do not hold back a sob. I let it out and come out from behind the wall. I probably look like shit with tears rolling down my face and my shirt wet, but this time, I felt like I did three years ago. Broken, hurt, betrayed, and down-right humiliated.

I stand in front of Lloyd and Chris, and they turn around with shocked eyes, not expecting me to hear everything.

“So everything you said today was all a lie? There was no plan? You really weren’t protecting me? Everything was a fucking order to you? How could you do this to me? Has it ever crossed your mind that I never, ever did that? If you actually knew your sister, you would know I would never do something to lead someone to their death!” I blurt out, all my emotions coming together. My past comes to haunt me, yet again. A past that was never mine.

“Journey, I-,” Lloyd starts but I cut him off. I have the attention of all his friends, including Blaine and Claire who look at me with shocked expressions, filled with pity. I did not need that. All I want is to be accepted.

“Save it, Lloyd. I don’t want to hear anymore of your lies. You don’t have to follow any orders for your alpha anymore. I’m done,” I finish, and run out of the arena.

I do not stop running at all. I cannot. My tears still stream from my eyes, blurring my vision, but not blinding it, though the darkened sky seems to help that problem. All these years, those wolves were forced to come to me. They never cared. They never will.

I run and run for what seems like hours. I run on the road for miles, and once I see the forest, I run into that, not stopping for a minute. My body hurts from running so much, but I push my body further. I feel like I have been running for hours, and I probably have, and just collapse on the ground, under the safety of the trees.

I pour all my tears out, sobbing my heart out. Everything is a lie. I do not know how long I cry, but I do not stop at all.

Tired from the events of today, my body just shuts down, and I black out, but not before hearing the faint snap of twigs in the bushes behind me. But by then, I am too far out to even notice any impending danger.