Slain

If you wanna play it like a game

Come on, come on let’s play

-Crushcrushcrush, Paramore

It seems like hours before I’m finally thrown down into a chair. My arms are swiftly tied to the back of the wooden chair before the foul smelling bag is ripped off of my head. I blink against the sudden light as someone jerks the cloth from my mouth.

“This is her?” A gruff voice questions doubtfully. My eyes finally adjust to the light and I’m able to take in the four men standing around me.

One of the men, who I recognize as the one that hit Fluffy with the log, shrugs his thick shoulders. “She was where he told us she would be.”

“What are you talking about? What do you want with me?” I snap, as I fidget with the rope restraining my hands.

The only man I don’t recognize narrows his eyes at me. “Are you the female Slayer?”

I scowl at him, unappreciative of his tone. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

He growls lowly at me. So I’ve been taken by more wolves. This probably has to do with the stupid mate thing. “Answer me.”

Instead of answering him, I ask, “Does this have to do with the whole mate thing? Because that’s total bull crap.”

“ANSWER MY QUESTION,” he snarls angrily, baring his teeth at me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I shout back in annoyance, hiding the fear that his anger evoked.

He growls in response, flicking his hand at me. “Search for her mark. If there is none, then dispose of her.” He crosses his arms over his chest as the other three wolves approach me.

“Woah, woah, woah, that’s not necessary,” I snap as the men begin tugging at my clothes. When they begin to lift my shirt, I blurt, “It’s on my right shoulder blade!” They drop the hem of my shirt and one pulls the neck of my shirt down to expose the mark on my back.

“So it’s true then,” the leader says.

I glare at him as the others step away from me, waiting for more instructions. “What’s true?”

“The prophecy about the female slayer.”

I scrunch up my face if confusion and disbelief. “The what?”

The leader shakes his head irritably. “Don’t play dumb.”

“Sorry, but I really have no idea what you’re talking about.” He seems to believe me this time.

Letting out an irritated sigh, he begins to explain. “A long time ago there was a prophecy that there would be a female slayer and whoever controlled her would rain destruction on the land.”

“And you want to rain destruction on the land?” I ask doubtfully, not entirely sure he’s not just making this all up.

“I have a vendetta against someone.”

“Ah,” I say with a nod. “Good ol’ revenge. And you think I can help you with that.”

“Seeing as you were in his pack when I captured you, yes.”

That catches my attention. “The alpha?”

“I’ll fill you in when it’s time. First, I need to know you’ll actually be useful to me.”

“And if I’m not?”

“You better hope you are.” He turns, walking to the door. “I want a wolf outside at all times,” he says as he walks out of the room. The remaining three wolves glance at each other, then me, before walking out as well. I’m left alone in the drafty room.

If I can get these ropes untied, I could escape. The only problem: I can’t get the ropes untied and they’re too tight to wiggle out of. Breaking the chair seems to be my only other option at the moment. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

Leaning forward, I put my weight on my feet and hobble over to the stone wall. With as much force as I can manage, I slam the chair into it. I hear the wood crack, but it definitely doesn’t break. Before I can try again, the door swings open and a wolf walks in.

“Don’t be difficult,” he says as he walks towards me. I sit back in my chair with a huff. “It’s time for you to prove yourself.” He crouches behind me and unties the ropes keeping me bound to the chair.

“Prove myself how?” I question as he pulls me to my feet.

He keeps a large hand wrapped firmly around my upper arms as he begins to lead me out of the room into a hallway. “You’ll see.”

He walks me down the empty hallway and outside. Houses surround the building we exit, but there’s an unsettling lack of wolves. As we walk through the pack, a large arena like building rises in the distance. “Is that where we’re going?” I ask, uneasily nodding my head at the large open-roof building.

“Yep,” the wolf sighs. I become more worried with every step, my imagination running wild with possibilities of what they might make me do.

We finally reach the building’s entrance and the sound of a large crowd catches my attention. I stop walking and the wolf escorting me pauses, glancing back at me. “This is entertainment?”

“Come on,” he says, not answering my question. He doesn’t seem too happy about the situation, which leads me to wonder if maybe not everyone in this pack is as bloodthirsty as their alpha.

I’m lead inside the building and am met with two more wolves standing before a wooden gate. My escort stops me a few feet in front of the other wolves before releasing my arm and stepping back behind me a few steps. “You’re going to prove yourself with a fight to the death,” one of the wolves standing in front of the gate says. His tone is so casual, like this is an everyday occurrence.

I’m completely startled. “What?”

“If you lose, your opponent kills you. If you win, you kill your opponent. It’s simple, really,” the other wolf explains, his tone full of condescence.

Before I have a chance to protest, the remaining ropes around my wrist are cut and the gate is lifted. The two wolves in front of me grab my arms and drag me out into the circular arena despite my struggling, shoving me inside and closing the gate behind me.

The circular sand floor is surrounded by tall walls with rows of seats behind them. Every seat is occupied by a cheering wolf. I quickly spot the alpha sitting motionlessly among the sea of rowdy wolves, his eyes boring into me.

The gate directly across from where I had entered slides up and a boy stumbles in. His blue eyes are wide in fear as they run over the crowd before landing on me. He seems to be younger than me, somewhere in his mid teens, and I instantly know I can’t kill this kid.

A knife suddenly lands blade down in the sand next to my feet; one lands next to the boy across from me as well. He scrambles to pick it up, holding it in front of him as he watches me carefully. He begins to take slow steps to the side, signalling the beginning of the fight. I reluctantly circle with the boy, but leave my knife in the sand.

A hush falls over the crowd as they watch us circle each other in anticipation. The boy’s fearful eyes don’t leave mine as we move; he seems to be waiting for me to make a move, but I don’t want to hurt him.

The longer we circle each other, the more impatient the crowd becomes until someone yells out for us to get on with the fight. I stop my circling and turn to glare at the section of seats that the voice came from. That’s my mistake. While I’m turned, the boy lunges at me, taking my redirected attention as his opportunity. I jump to the side, narrowly missing a knife to the stomach.

I turn my smoldering gaze on him, angered that the little brat tried to attack me after I obviously showed I didn’t want to fight him. The crowd cheers as the boy recovers from his miss and redirects himself. He swipes his knife at my chest and I jump out of his reach. He follows, swiping at me again.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I hiss as I catch his thin wrist in my hand.

He grunts, punching at my face with his free hand. I block the blow with my forearm, simultaneously hooking my foot around his ankle and jerking back. The boy crashes onto his back and I follow, pinning his knife hand above his head and his free hand under my knee. Now in full control of the boy, I grab the knife from his hand and hold it loosely at his neck.

The crowd screams for me to finish him, but as I stare down into his wide, hazel eyes, I know I can’t. He’s just trying to survive.

I toss the knife away from us and push to my feet, stepping away from the boy. The crowd boos, unhappy with the lack of bloodshed. The boy lays at my feet, staring up at me in disbelief.

“Kill me,” the boy begs, taking me off guard. I frown at his strange request. “You don’t want to know what they’ll do to you if you don’t.”

I shake my head, leaning down and offering the boy my hand. “Don’t worry about me, kid.”

The boy refuses to take my hand, his expression becoming more troubled. “They’ll hurt me too. One of us has to win.”

Just then, all of the seven gates ringing the sand floor open and a single male wolf enters from each. The boy whimpers at the sight.

I look up into the stands and meet the alpha’s gaze. He seems to be saying, “if you won’t follow my rules, I’ll make you.” I decide then and there that I will call him Demon, because he’s annoyingly demonic. And I don’t wanna call him alpha.

The seven wolves charge towards the boy and I, some phasing into their wolf forms while others remaining human. I lunge for the closest knife I can spot. The rough handle meets my palm just as a phased wolf chomps down on my right ankle. I yell out in pain as I slash the blade across his snout. He releases my foot at the pain, giving me just enough time to scramble to my feet. He lunges at me again, but I duck under him, thrusting the knife up into his soft belly. I’m tackled to the side as my blade sinks hand deep into the wolf, knocking me on my side. The man now above me wraps his large hands around my neck. My hand still grips the blade buried in the nearly dead wolf. The pressure put on my throat causes spots to dance in my vision. I rip the knife from the wolf and I stab it into the other wolf’s bicep.

He snarls, releasing my throat and jerking away from me. The blade is ripped from my hand as he rolls away from me. Coughing, I scramble to my feet, hearing a wolf coming from behind me while watching the wolf in front of me pull the blade from his arm.

Making a split-second decision, I throw myself at the wolf in front of me. I wrap my arm around his throat as I swing myself around his upper body, positioning him into a choke hold. The wolf in front of me doesn’t slow his advance.

Once in reach, he slashes his claws at my face. I duck behind the wolf in my hold, hearing the claws rip through his flesh. He claws at my arm, but I continue holding him as tightly as I can while trying to dodge the other wolves advances. Behind the attacking wolf, I spot the boy surrounded by three wolves, jabbing at them with his knife.

The wolf in my hold becomes sluggish and stops fighting against me until he’s suddenly dead weight. I shove him forward into the other wolf suddenly, making him stumble back at the weight. I turn to run, but sharp searing pain rips through my side, knocking me backwards. I realize I hadn’t accounted for the seventh wolf.

I land on my back, blood now gushing from my right side and my left arm. The wolf is on me before I can even focus on his face, baring his elongated teeth at me as he traps my throat with one clawed hand. His other hand digs into the ragged flesh on my side, making me scream as his claws rip into the flesh again. I flail my arms frantically, trying desperately to escape the agonizing pain. My palm slams into the wolf’s nose. There’s a loud crack and the wolf falls, blood now gushing from his nose.

I drag myself out from under his near motionless body, getting to my feet as quickly as I can manage with my mangled side. The wolf now lays on his back, blood still streaming from his nose, his body twitching, but otherwise seems nonthreatening.

The wolf I had shoved the unconscious wolf at is now a few feet away, studying me with glaring eyes. I catch the glint of a knife out of the corner of my eye and lunge for it. The wolf moves faster than me, reaching the knife before I do. I jerk to a stop and we study each other again before I turn suddenly, running the opposite direction where the boy is still surrounded. The three wolves have closed in on him, and I realize they’re playing with him. He’s not the threat in this arena, he’s the pray.

I charge into the back of one of the wolves, knocking him face first into the sand. I slam my foot down on his head while he’s still on the ground. There’s a sharp crack and the wolf whines before his body goes limp. The other two wolves turn and lunge at me. I throw myself towards the boy, narrowly missing their reaching claws.

“Find the other knife,” I instruct the boy as I turn back to the three remaining wolves. He takes a few tentative steps to the side. When it’s apparent none of the wolves are going to follow him, he runs off in search of the knife.

The wolves, having now regained their balance, all three face me, spreading so I’m trapped with my back against the arena wall. The one still in human form wields my knife, sand stuck to the bloody blade.

The crowd of the arena roars so loudly I barely hear the snarls of the three wolves as they advance as one. I clutch my side with one hand, trying to stop the bleeding as much as I can as I try to figure out how I can possibly beat all three of these wolves at once.

One wolf dives down, aiming for my feet, while the other leaps at my face, the third closing in as insurance that I can’t escape. I jump away from the first wolf’s snapping jaws, barely saving my ankle. The wolf thrusts his nose up, digging his teeth deep into my thigh as the other crashes into my shoulder. He wraps his jaws around my throat as we land on the ground. My momentum tears my leg from the other wolfs teeth painfully.

I lay as still as I can manage as the wolf with his teeth around my throat growls warningly at me. The other wolf reclaims my leg as they wait for the third wolf to finish me off. A knife thuds into the shoulder of the wolf holding my throat. He howls, releasing my neck. I turn to see thin arms wrapped around the unphased wolf’s throat, pulling him backwards.

The wolf holding my leg jerks roughly, tearing into the flesh a little more. I yell out, kicking at his face with my other foot. He snarls, releasing my leg and diving for my throat. I roll to the side, getting onto my hands and knees. Recovered, he lunges at me again. I dive for the knife sticking out of the other wolf’s shoulder. As I grab the handle, jerking it out of the squirming wolf, the other lands in front of me. I swing the blade around, catching the wolf’s gums as he had been about to clamp down on me again. When he jerks back, I thrust my knife forward, taking advantage of his exposed neck.

He collapses, blood gurgling in his throat as I pull the blade out. The wolf behind me, who had the knife in his shoulder, bites down on my left shoulder, crushing the bone in his powerful jaws. My vision goes black as a mangled cry escapes my throat and my body goes limp. The wolf begins to drag me, giving me time to think through the pain now engulfing my whole body. I jam the knife back into the wolf’s eye, instantly killing him.

His jaw goes slack on my shoulder and I drag myself away from him. Though my vision is a bit blurry and spotted, I easily find the last wolf and the boy. The boy still has his arms wrapped around the wolf’s neck, but the wolf is now trying to slam the small boy off of him against the arena wall.

I take as deep a breath as I can, lining the wolf up with my knife blade. It’s hard for me to focus from so much blood loss, but I’m out of options. Hoping for the best, I launch the blade towards the wolf. Seconds later, it thuds into the wolf’s chest. He looks down at the knife, stopping his attack on the boy, before he sinks to the ground. I barely see the boy let go of his neck and pull the blade from his chest, slitting the wolf’s throat before the rest of my vision abandons me and I’m completely engulfed in black.

My head throbs painfully, my mouth dry and sandy. Every inch of my body aches and I feel as if my limbs weigh a hundred pounds more than they should. A soft moan escapes my dry, scratchy throat. I hear rustling to my left before a cool hand is placed on my head.

“Hello?” a soft voice asks. With great difficulty, I pry open my eyes, blinking up at the boy from the arena. “Oh good,” he sighs in relief. “You should have died!”

I roll my head to the side, closing my eyes and frowning as I try to think around the thick fog in my brain.

“Here, drink some water,” the boy says. I open my eyes again to see him holding a wooden cup. He places his other hand under my head and gently lifts. I hiss at the pain of movement and he hesitates before lifting my head a little more and slowly trickling water into my dry mouth. The cool water runs down my throat and soothes the burning while also relieving some of the cottony feel from my mouth.

The boy gently sets my head back down and sets the cup on the ground. I clear my throat. “What happened?” I ask, my voice hoarse and barely audible.

The settles himself on the stone floor, tucking his hands into his lap. “After you threw that knife, you passed out. I guess from blood loss. I killed the last wolf and then wolves rushed in and took you out. I was brought here and a few hours later they brought you in here with me and left. That was a day ago. They should be coming back to bring us our meal soon.”

Now that I have a chance to actually look at the boy and talk to him, I realize he’s even younger than I originally thought. I first thought that the dark, shaggy haired boy was around sixteen, but now looking closely at his dirt covered face and crooked teeth, I realize I was wrong.

“How old are you?” I ask, frowning up at him.

He absentmindedly shoves his bangs, which had fallen into his eyes, out of his face before answering. “I’m twelve.”

My eyes widen in shock. “How did you end up here?”

He shoves his bangs out of his face again, though they fall right back, as he sighs. “I was out collecting firewood and I guess I went a little too far from the city. Next thing I knew, I was pinned by a wolf. They brought me back here and I’ve been here ever since.”

“How long ago was that?”

He shrugs. “Almost a year, I think.”

My heart aches for the young boy. “Are you a werewolf or…?” I trail off.

“Human. Like you.”

I’m shocked by his answer. Why would these wolves be so close to human territory? “I’m not human,” I say absentmindedly, trying to think of why these wolves would go so far.

The boy cocks his head to the side curiously. “What are you then?”

“I’m a slayer.”

The boy seems even more confused. “What’s a slayer?”

“Uh,” I try to think of how I can explain what we slayers are to this little boy since I don’t exactly know myself. “Well…we’re kind of like werewolves I guess, except we don’t phase into animals. We heal really fast and we’re stronger and faster than humans.”

“Oh…” the boy says thoughtfully. “How old are you?” He asks suddenly.

I laugh. “I’m eighteen.”

“You look younger,” he comments. I roll my eyes.

“Because of my height?”

He shrugs. “Yeah, but your face also looks young.”

“Well, thanks,” I say, deciding to take his comment as a compliment. I begin looking around the small stone room. “So, is this one of their cells?”

The boy looks around as well with a nod. “Yeah. They’re all full, that’s why we’re in one together. They have a lot of prisoners.”

“So they can have entertainment,” I say, the disgust clear in my voice. The boy nods solemnly. “Once I’m healed enough, we’re gonna get outta here, I promise.”

The boys eyes light up with excitement. “Really?”

I nod. “You’ve been here too long already.”

He nods once in agreement. He then begins giving me a detailed explanation of the schedule and guards down in the cells.