Souxie Lafayette #6
“THIS IS A TRAP! THIS IS PART OF IT! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME IN THE ARENA, GET OUT! GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN! THEY’RE SETTING YOU UP TO EXPOSE THE UNDERGROUND!” She cried. “This is just a distraction!”
I looked back at the volunteers in black as they continued to stand in place, muttering with their eyes dark as they looked up. They were casting some sort of spell and Maggie was calling it out despite no one believing her.
“IF YOU CAN HEAR ME! MY NAME IS MAGGIE GREY!” She shouted through heavy breaths. “ALL OF THIS IS A TRAP!”
“Did the water go to your head, fang mutt?!” One of the athletes asked. “Did all of that blood swell up to your brain? The fuck are you talking about?! This is the GAMES! The official TRIALS! There is no such thing as exposing the Underground–––”
“She is not lying!” Ayira yelled just as Maggie’s foot slipped from standing on a branch beneath the water. Her head dunked underneath the surface for a second when Ayira grabbed her arm to pull her back up.
“Yeah whatever,” one of the women said with a snort as she began to swim.
A few students still clung to the trees when suddenly an arm came up from behind the camera shot and wrapped around Maggie’s neck to drag her back into the water.
Ayira screamed just as one of the male students from Drew Collins dragged her beneath the surface.
You could see his muscular arm and veins stressed against his skin as Maggie began kicking and flailing about in the water.
Everyone in the arena began screaming with some rooting for her while others were egging it on.
“A fellow Collins student by the name of Roger Marion, first year and one of the most decorated athletes Drew Collins has seen so far! He just attacked Maggie Grey by dragging her into the water in hopes of taking her out of the game!” The male announcer shouted before blurting out, “OH! OH! It’s a double attack!
Another student by the name of Jaden Woods just came for Ayira! ”
“Princess!” Clementine chimed in with the correction. “Princess Ayira!”
I clamped my mouth closed with both hands, watching as the student came up towards Ayira trying to pull her away from the tree and drag her into the water.
The only problem that came with that is, he too, was a pyrokinetic just like her.
His hand was set ablaze with the bright orange flames covering every finger down to his wrist. He was about to slam it down against her face when she ducked underneath the water, looped underneath his body with fierce bright blue eyes burning with rage before popping back up from behind with both hands clamping his eyes shut and set her own flames on him.
Her teeth were gritting where you could see the flames escaping the corners of her mouth like a true draconia.
The man screamed out in pain with his arms splashing about as the entire stadium roared.
You could hear the howling and barking at the pain being displayed.
“THAT’S RIGHT PRINCESS!” Isis screamed. “THAT’S MY FRIEND!”
I smiled until they showed Maggie still underwater fighting against this man’s hold. She was silently screaming as bubbles flew from her mouth.
“We don’t know what made these students suddenly turn on the other athletes, and from the same school at that!
Could it be the ‘spreading false lies about the games’?
!” The male announcer shouted with excitement.
“Could it be that Maggie Grey is a danger to us all?! Are we about to see a live vampiric attack before our very eyes?!”
It was Maggie Grey and this man in the middle of this lake, deep beneath the surface fighting as he gripped her neck, forcing her head up and squeezed her jaw like he meant to actually kill her.
He was grinning, easily breathing under water as he balanced their bodies in the middle of a growing current, but he didn’t see what I could see.
What the rest were starting to realize. It started with a few split leaves slowly panning and circling around the two.
Her eyes were bleeding, but she was still very much present when she reached her arm out in a last desperate attempt.
There was nothing she was grabbing at when she screamed out, hearing the muffled word, please…
Of course they showed Namir’s face and for the first time, someone gripped his shoulder to pull his attention away while the rest of us watched, unable to look away.
Then a single tiny branch with a few leaves trickled in the water towards her hand.
You couldn’t see the trees with how dark the water became the deeper he took her but that small branch with a few twigs of branches reached out and just barely tapped the tip of her fingers and all hell broke loose.
The stadium shook and the current circling around her suddenly became a whiplash of a storm as her body levitated from his loosening hold.
Every single tree that was uprooted from the ground began to extend its branches out towards her before getting caught in the whirlpool surrounding her body.
Her hair glowed as her eyes turned white with everything and everybody suddenly caught in the violent current.
“GET OUT!” The disoriented voice shouted. “GET OUT OF THE STADIUM NOW! PLEASE! SOUXIE!? ASHA!? ISIS! GET THEMMMM OUTTT!”
The storm surrounding her body suddenly shot up from the surface like a growing funnel towards the sky before everything suddenly went black, but we all saw it.
We all witnessed her greatness and heard the warning.
I couldn’t move but I felt Isis’s hand grip mine while the rest of the stadium was quiet for a moment before complaining and screaming out about the lack of viewing.
“We’re getting everything situated, family! Bear with us! We weren’t expecting…well…” The male announcer trailed off with his words as people started to become irate.
“Isis we need to go,” I said as I grabbed her arm. “Now.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know but we’ll figure it out–––”
“Something is happening down below,” Quan said as he sat upright in the chair.
My sights immediately went to Namir who was no longer visible, but the coaches were panicking.
Something was happening amongst them. The screen suddenly cut back on one by one, popping around the arena as fans cheered over the chaos below.
You could see the final element which was supposed to be fire and the sight of three students left, including Ayira where they laid flat on the sand dunes of a new landscape.
They were still soaked from the lake, but with the sun hovering over them, it won’t be long before they start to dry out.
It was as if they just popped them into the next game room and showed them the red door all the way in the distance.
The first student to get up was the girl talking shit as she coughed and spit out water.
Ayira was still passed out while the third student, a male from Society Hill was getting himself together.
“The door is just at the end of this heated landscape, and you’d think it would be so simple to just run towards it… So I hope…” The male announcer let out before shouting erratically, “they RUN FOR THE DOOR!”
The stupid audience cheered as the two stumbled to their feet and attempted to take off. Ayira was the last to wake up just as another student appeared a few feet beside her, completely passed out. Isis was still enamored with the screen when I grabbed her arm and jerked her forward.
“Wait! Ayira is still alive! She–––”
“We don’t have time! Look!” I snapped, showing the volunteers in black still standing completely still in the middle of casting their spell.
Their hands were raised in front of them with their palms facing up, receiving and directing energy back into the stadium.
Isis and I moved toward the aisle and were just about to pass the first guy up when he stopped us, blinking out of his spell.
“You can’t leave your seats until the games are over and a winner is–––”
I intentionally shoved Isis forward as the man grabbed her arm and jerked her back, almost causing her to fall.
Quan who was slow to get up at first was now standing behind when he grabbed her to steady her.
Like clockwork, he got in the man’s face about his woman, towering over his height like a high rise building to a city tree while we took the chance to duck around him.
“There’s the door!” One of the players yelled. “It’s right there! It’s right––––”
The screeching roaring sound of something so dark, and nasty echoed in the stadium.
No one said a word as the dark cry went off again, causing the seats to shake.
We stopped to see the sand dunes tremble as scales and dark spikes emerged from the gritty ground.
Shaking his body free of sand, the creature extended its neck out with another roaring cry, showing multiple rows of sharp teeth.
I almost stumbled on my own feet as I took a step back.
Isis had her mouth covered and no one said a word, not even a cheer or clap.
“THE UNDERGROUNDS VERY OWN DRAGON! Sponsored by the Solhari Kingdom and the seven territories,” the male announcer said.
Where was Clementine? You could see the mythic creature adjust to its size as he guarded the door and spread its wings.
The teeth were covered in thick saliva as heat waves radiated from his skin in the desert landscape. “HOW WILL THEY GET TO THE DOOR NOW?!”
Isis and I managed to keep walking up the steps while Quan caused a scene that drew security from all entrances.
Just as we were about to leave, I grabbed Isis and turned down a row of seats as people complained and bitch.
One by one I flipped and switched my hand in midair, knocking popcorn, food, and drinks.
Isis was drawing water from bottles and splashing it on faces like we were trying to snap everyone out of watching the damn games.