The Hollow Game.

Chapter Fifteen

He stared open mouthed at the flames. Jim, bless the man, darted forward towards the horrific sight, smoke engulfing him until he was just a handful of gestures. The lady behind him still screamed. Tears ran down her puffy cheeks and she violently shook the bars, as though trying to break them down with nothing more than her force.

They rattled, background music to the rest of the sounds meshing together. The red headed woman dragged the scruffy looking man behind her. Neither one appeared to notice the sudden blue light behind them. “Look out!” He shouted, waving his arms wildly until they scuttled away. The rattling stopped and the fire burned. Someone kneeled next to the woman and all around them anonymous figures clapped and whistled and cheered. More, they chanted. More, more, more. “‘More’ ladies and gentlemen?! Why, we haven’t even hit the main event!”

Wild cheering. Jim still was behind the smoke and the screaming had died down to whimpers. He hoped for she stopped soon, the spokesman had a hungry gleam in his eyes that the mask did nothing to hide. “Next in the ring, next in the ring. Come on, contestants, it might be a little warm but surely, surely, you’re still in it to win it, right? Enter the ring.” Enter the ring, the crowd chanted fervently. Enter, enter, enter the ring. Bars raised and people rushed out, not anymore willing to fight to the death than they were to stay inside the cages. The screaming woman was led out last, another woman holding her up her shivering form. He could hear her thin breaths and see the silent words that she no longer had the energy to utter.

Not him, not him, not him. Jim still wasn’t back and an itch crawled across his shoulder blades as sweat ran down his face and neck. The red headed woman and scruffy man appeared next to him, both of them panting and covered in soot, sweat and grime. “Did you see a man rush in there?” He asked quickly.

They both nodded, though neither one had gained their breath back enough to talk.

“Did he come out,yet? Like, on the other side?”

“No,” the woman mumbled thickly. “Hate to tell ya but I think anythin’’ in that inferno is a goner.” That caused the other woman to start sniffling again, tears spilling over and leaving pale streaks on her dirty face. The crowd roared its approval and the gate, dark and foreboding, released its next creature. If the last one was somewhat recognizable as human, this one was nowhere in the vicinity of it. Too many spindly legs; hands with deformed fingers on each one that scraped and clawed at the ground. A bloated body the color of burned grass with a small head that had dozens of beady black eyes that swiveled around. He froze, throat constricting painfully as a s***h tore the flesh below its eyes and red blood gushed out. It shuddered and gurgled as two shiny black things pushed their way out, clicking and dripping bright red. H stumbled backwards, his back slamming into metal and a quick glance confirmed that the cages were closed and everyone was out in the open. Screams and gasps broke the thickening tension and the creature lurched forward, it’s hands scraping at the ground like mice.

The heat really was unimportant-- he was freezing, his sweat turning to ice chunks that he could brush away with numb fingers. The red headed woman swore and several people cried out amongst the crowd as the creature screeched, it’s mandibles clicking and clacking manically.

“Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a show for you. Presenting our latest creation, Sickle!” The audience roared its approval, sounding like a tidal wave with how loud they were.

Sickle, he thought, eyeing the creature wearily. Well, it does live up to its name. It scuttled towards them quicker than he had thought possible. Smoke shrouded it, turning the frightening figure into nothing more than black wisps. Swearing, screams; he honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the two as the creature howled and literally jumped from the smoke, covering the distance quicker than before. It spat blood, darker in color than before, and fixed all its eyes on them before letting loose another blood curdling howl.

His eyes darted around looking for any escape, any place to hide, and spotting nothing but the diminishing smoke, the fire now gone. How long had they been there? Was this even the second phase or was this some type of twisted side game that no one survived to tell of?

He didn’t know and some quiet part in the back of his mind whispered that he didn’t want to know, either. “Look at that, ladies and gentlemen!” The ringleader screeched gleefully. “Ha ha, isn’t this fun? Place your bets, place your bets! The champion Lynx defeat, can Sickle do better? Place your bets, ha ha.”

He wanted to turn around and flip the man off but his feet were stuck and his head wouldn’t turn away from the approaching danger.

He could have been made of ice and wouldn’t have noticed. The creature lunged again and a loud ding echoed throughout the stadium. Eyes frantically darted around and he felt a relieved smirk cross his face, thawing some of the ice and tension from his body. Jim, tall, brawny Jim, was crouched over by the smouldering remains of the metal man, his arm still raised. Beside him, dazed and scorching but very much alive, was the kid. The woman rushed towards them, a twisted piece of blackened metal in her hands. He thinks it might have been an arm at one point, maybe just a spare piece of metal, but she brandished it tightly in front of herself and waved it threateningly at the creature when it tried to approach. “Hey lady.”

“Look out!”

Yo, behind you!” Several voices chimed in, Jim’s baritone the loudest, as they tried calling out to her. The creature jumped towards her, its hands stretched out, fingers curled into claws. “Back off you overgrown nightmare!” She screeched and thrust the metal at it, forcing it to back up a few inches hesitantly. That was all the time she needed apparently because in the next second she was crouched next to the kid, another piece of metal in her hands. Jim shrugged, gathered several blackened pieces, and the two half-carried, half-dragged the kid back across the stadium. His hands closed around one of the hastily thrown weapons and he grimaced at the sticky texture. The creature reared back, half its legs raised threateningly, the hands and fingers twitching sporadically. “Hit it,” one man screamed. “Would it do anything?” Another asked.

“Where’s it weakest?”

“Is it like a real spider?”

“Hopefully not, I don’t wanna test out its poison to blood ratio.” It jerked, mandibles clicking as a gargled hissing noise erupted from it. He watched as it coughed up something small, about as big as the tip of his pinky, and drenched red. “It’s a tooth,” the kid muttered quietly. He squinted, still seeing a bloody thing. “A human tooth,” the kid continued dully. “Julian!”

“It is,” he protested, arms crossed clumsily. “An’ its spittin’ out a bunch of them.” Yep, it was indeed hacking out teeth by the dozen, a small pile now resting at its feet. An inhuman shriek pierced the air and the audience gasped as the creature began twitching. “Looks like our contestants lucky day,” the ringleader trilled. He gaped wordlessly as the creature flopped to the ground then onto its back, still twitching.

He blinked as the words floated through his head, fuzzy and faint. “It looks like Sickle is ahead of schedule.”

The twitching increased and with a sickeningly wet sound the flesh parted down the creature’s belly.

“The molt’s begun.”