CYPHER

Moisture alley

He did not sleep for five minutes or ten minutes .

And he would have continued to sleep for a lot longer If Jade had not woken him up .

Dean was quite groggy as he was tapped awake , he turned over in the bed , groaning as he did so .

" Is it ten minutes now ? Let me sleep for an extra five minutes , will you ? ".

The person that had been waking him began to snicker, when he opened his eyes he could not make out the face of whoever was snickering because the room was so dark .

He wondered just how long he had been sleeping for .

" A very long time now ".

Jade's voice ended his curiosity as he paused his snickering .

He must have been more exhausted than he thought to have slept for so long when he had not planned to .

Dean thought of May and her fight later tonight , he wondered if she had taken his advise to rest and regroup .

Dean felt around for Jade and found that he was still seated at the edge of the bed, he wondered just how long he had been out for.

" Is May ready ? How about the arena , have the lights come on ? "

" Yeah , that is why I am here .May wanted you to rest which is why we did not wake you up sooner but the light just came on at the arena and we are all ready to go ".

Dean heard as the sheets rustled quietly when Jade stood up , he took a step back and Dean pushed himself to a sitting position as he tried to recall where he had left his flashlight .

Dean squinted and used his hand to block his face as his flashlight came on , Jade was holding it and pointing it at Dean .

" Could you get that thing out of my face ? ".

Jade complied and turned the flashlight instead to a crumpled piece of paper , the Nitroglycerin paper report that Dean had crumpled and thrown away earlier .

Jade gasped when he realized what the paper was.

" You threw my baby outtt ".

Jade began to fake sob as he brought the flashlight to below his own face , Dean got a feeling that Jade intended for him to be scared .

So , there he was with the flashlight under his face as he made weird crying noises and weird faces .

Dean let it go on for sixty seconds before he could not take it anymore .

" Jade , Get the hell out of here , now " .

" And leave the flashlight ".

Dean sounded harsher than he had intended , he watched Jade gulp as he turned the flashlight away from his face and moved closer to leave the flashlight on the bed .

" I will leave this right here and leave . Uhm , the others are waiting , so you might want to hurry , I will now proceed to get out ".

Dean waited till he had scurried off before he stood up , he felt lighter and his body did not feel like extra weight that had been tied to him , he examined his wrapped arm to see if tge bandage was still intact .

Satisfied , he bent to pick up the torch and took it over to the desk where he left it .

He was thirsty and his throat felt scratchy so he found a bottle of water and guzzled the whole thing down before beginning to prepare for the night .

He did not intend to go to the Arena like he had done yesterday , unarmed.

He put on his vest and boots which was two times slower since only one hand was in commission .

When he had finished putting on his shoes , he picked the gun and put it into a pocket in his vest before looking around to check if he had missed something .

He thought of taking his emergency kit but May would probably flip if he did , so he only picked some things out of it and left the rest as he had met it while praying that he would not have to use any of it .

Dean finally left the room with the flashlight , he was not going to be walking around trying to feel his way through the night as they had done yesterday.

As soon as he left the room , he could already hear the deep vibration that came from loud voices afar off .

He did not need the flashlight in the church's main area since the opening in the roof was creating enough light , moonlight that was shining into the church .

He could make out all three of their figures as they lounged about the door . May walked forward to meet him half way as he approached , she was not smiling .

" If you had spent just a few more seconds , I would have been sure that you snuck in a whole Maybelline counter ".

May looked like the Webster definition of nerves and would take it out on Dean if he let her .

Dean grinned at her and slid past her.

" I am more of a Moisturizer and vitamin C supplements kind of guy ".

Blade yawned and began to push the door lazily , Dean watched as May bristled by his side while she watched Blade .

Jade noticed the tenseness around May and rushed to the door to help Blade .

Together , they still could not open the door , they barely even made a difference .

" Okay , that's it ".

May walked forward and dragged Jade out of her way before kicking the door loudly , the feedback echoed through out the church and they all flinched while May just pushed it wider and stepped out .

Blade went out after her and then Jade , Dean came through last .

They turned towards the way they had taken last night and began to walk , an awkward silence based off May's very visible nervousness had filled the air and no one seemed particularly interested in changing that .

When their terrain beginning to grow rougher , Dean switched on the flashlight he had brought along for exactly this purpose .

No one made any comment over the flashlight because they all knew it was needed .

Just like yesterday, as they walked, the thundering from the arena grew louder and louder , it was almost as if there were double the amount of people they had seen yesterday , screaming like their pants were on fire .

" The number of people that came to watch and participate in today's match probably rose significantly because of their propositioning ".

Dean turned to acknowledge Jade who had walked up to meet him and walk by him .

" How do you mean ? "

Jade adjusted the neck of his vest to let in more air , he was probably really hot with the weather and their clothes and all of their gear .

" Yesterday , before my fight , I saw and heard that there were others like me . They had either been goaded into fighting or propositioned with the idea that the fights were safe and secure ".

" Remember how I said Top dog was a bottom feeder ? "

Dean nodded even though he was sure that no one of them had called anyone a bottomfeeder but he still listened anyway .

" There are several others like him too , all they do is fight and kill and then proposition people that the organizers tell them to. My guess is that you must have caught someone's eye yesterday . Hence , the invitation earlier ".

They had reached the field that led into the highschool and Jade was right , people were loitering everywhere in the dark .

They watched the new arrivals from the dark and they unconsciously moved close to one another , all of them sticking around Blade who was the only one that was physically intimidating .

They made their way through the noise and darkness to the gymnasium that was lit just the way it had been yesterday .

The people here were almost three times the size of people that had been here yesterday and they were all cheering loudly to the fight that was going on.

Even the commentator was chanting 'Blood'.

It all seemed like a terribly made horror movie .

" I was beginning to think you had been bluffing earlier when you said you would fight Martha ".

They all turned around to see Top dog , he was accompanied by a different guy from the one they had seen earlier today .

Top dog's face was not visible with the angle of the light but they still were able to recognize his build and face .

He was naked from the top up , his corded chest lined with some kind of black ink or paint that looked like battle paint.

Dean shook his head , this bunch of adults were taking all of this too serious and he honestly did not know how to act around them because he could not tell .

He could not tell if he was the one taking the game not as seriously or if they were the ones doing too much .

May scoffed as she took a step forward .

" Why would I lie about that ? I said I would fight her already ".

Blade guffawed and Top dog's friend looked at him for a second before looking away .

From the way his eyes were sweeping around them , it was quite obvious that he was not just Top dog's friend but possibly a guard of sorts.

Top dog walked past them and beckoned them to follow .

" I informed Martha of your request and told her that you had been the one to run into my fight yesterday and offered her a chance to embarrass you and she immediately accepted ".

They had pushed their way forward and now stood very close to the ring itself that was not visible due to the throngs of people that had covered it .

Top dog turned around and pulled all of them close so he did not have to shout anymore.

" Someone saw you when you got here and informed me , I in turn informed Martha. So , she is currently in the ring , waiting to welcome you ".

The commentator screamed .

" WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE ???!! I RECEIVED INFORMATION THAT OUR UNDER b***h CHALLENGED MARTHA !!!!"