TO KILL A KING

TWENTY-ELEN

KING

I didn't sleep easy.

Because with the sanctity of the night came a much darker threat. 

Something far more sinister.

The kind of vile serpent that tore through your dreams and suffocated the mornings waking hope, as it brought with it a whole new world of darkness.

With the dawning of the sun came another day, just as bloody and brutal as the last.

And this day in particular marked the genesis of the trials.

A horrid knot balled in the pit of my stomach as I crawled from my comfort of my bed, groggy and unwilling.

Another day that I'd have to face that horrid male.

North.

Even the name evoked a response I couldn't stand within myself.

A slight shiver. 

A gentle cardiac increase. 

A burning heat.

Enough. I turned it off, shut out all thought of him from my mind. It was as simple as flipping a switch.

Except this switch didn't want to be flipped and would fight with all its might to stay on.

From my window I could already see I was late by the small gathering of bodies already forming on the field.

"f***s sake." I grunted to myself, dressing quickly and heading down to the group, shoving an apple into my pocket before I left.

Let the games begin, I thought to myself grimly.

Tossing the shiny red apple between my palms I wove my way through the crowd.

"You decided to show up." North commented as I went to stand beside him before the crowd.

"f**k off."

Today was not the day for his little jabs and comments, I was on the brink and ready to snap.

He laughed, shrugging of my mannerisms as he cleared his throat. 

"Today marks the beginning of the Elen trials." North boomed, his voice so strong it could've made the sun weep tears of gold. "-And therefore today we require each household to volunteer at least one fighter to participate in phase two of the trials.."

Fathers held their daughters and mothers clutched their sons. I couldn't help but look at the faces before me, and wonder which of them would be dead in a week.

Would it be the red headed girl to my right, with her bright green eyes? Or the meek boy beside her his poor face an open book and every page was filled by fear.

"You must decide amongst yourselves," I continued on from where North left off. We had rehearsed this before. 

We had to remain united. We had to remain constant. We had to remain as one.

No one could know how fractured we really were.

If they saw the cracks, the whole pack would shatter.

-And I like last time I didn't think I'd be around to pick up the pieces.

"- Once the volunteer from each household has been chosen, please step forward."

Mothers broke down as sons stepped out from under their arms. Cries shrieking shrill had them kneeing, hands held tightly, praying to a god that didn't exist.

Maybe he did, but either way he didn't answer.

He didn't care.

Tired knees worn thin to the bone pressed to the earth, alongside the hands that begged and the slumped shoulders that screamed, and the eyes that cried without words, to do what no one could but someone must.

We were barren. We were boundless. We were bare.

Nothing left to show for except our pride, but now even that was quaking.

"How could you do this to us?"

Mothers cried out, they shouted to me. "King! Don't let him take them!"

Begging me to spare their children. But there was nothing I could do except watch as their most sacred souls lined up before us.

A boy no older than twelve held his head in his hands, cheeks stained with salty tears.

This was wrong. This was so, so wrong.

These were children.

These were children being sent to their deaths.

But I remained silent, because I was something far more monstrous than North. I was a coward.

I feared for my own life more than I feared for theirs. I worried that North would make good on his promise and end me, then there wouldn't be any chance of saving what shreds remained of my people.

"Is that everyone?" North asked one of his Betas, who nodded to the others and they began walking through the orderly rows of people like dogs through sheep, scanning for anyone still hiding.

"Found one!" One of them shouted, before his voice was drowned beneath the cries of a father, begging for his daughters life.

"Please!" His voice shivered and shook. "She's all I have!"

I could hear the tears thick in his throat. They heard them too. The difference was they didn't care as they tore the young girl from the old mans arms and threw her towards the rest of the volunteers.

I started up at North, studying his face for any sort of feeling, regret, remorse.. anything. He started at the girl, his eyes just as cold and unfeeling as ever.

"Volunteers will sleep in the barracks with the soldiers tonight. Tomorrow at seven we will all meet here again for the fight pairings, they will be based on skill, and they will not be changeable."

"In the meantime however," I added, "Fighting in any shape or form will not be tolerated and will lead to exile."

Over one hundred young, tense, stressed males forced into a tight enclosure for twenty four hours was surely a recipe for disaster.

"You have five minutes to say your goodbyes." I said with all the somber on my heart, trying my best to be the soft respect besides North's hard brutality.

I didn't miss the glares the parents gave me. The hated stares that screamed, this is all your fault.

Every single one cut through me like a knife.

This was all my fault.

Maybe if I hadn't let my lust shout louder than my common sense we wouldn't be in this predicament.

If Orian had just killed me like he was supposed to, maybe their children would live.

Of course most of them weren't children, the majority of what stood before me were soldiers, born bred and raised to fight. Some of my strongest.

But I barely noticed them. I only noticed those whose head were barely to the soldiers shoulders.

I only noticed those who wept for they knew that for them, this was a death sentence.

They had only a week to prepare, which wasn't long at all considering some of them looked as though they'd never felt a fist in their lives.

I vowed to train them, to make even the weak strong.

I wouldn't let them give in so easy.

"You have one week." Norths shout broke the thin veil of peace that had dared to settle. "So be ready."

• • •

"Stop hesitating!" I yelled into the training ring, my patients well worn thin.

The two males danced around one another as if their lives weren't going to be put to the test in only a few days.

"Daniel seriously! What the f**k are you doing with your hands!" A migraine was beginning to bite at my temples with all the shouting I had been doing, my throat felt raw and hoarse.

"Blocking?" Daniel said unsure. 

"No, you're hands are supposed to be like this if you're blocking." I held my hands up to show him. "You look like you're trying to high-five him for gods sake."

He lowered his arms, pushing his chest out. "Better?"

"Better." I confirmed with a heavy sigh. I was done.

For five days I practically hadn't slept, spending my every waking hour trying to train those least experienced. I had my work cut out for me, it was almost as if some of them were deliberately trying to test me patience.

Only two days left now until the fights.

They had made great progress. But still I knew deep down some of them didn't stand a chance.

My eyes still lingered on the young boy I had noticed the day of the choosing. Head in his hands, faced streaked with tears.

I hadn't seen him she'd a tear since, though I knew he had. Every time I saw him his eyes were red rimmed and puffy, just ready to overflow with sadness.

The sight of him made my heart clench painfully.

"You need to throw your weight into it." I said gently as I approached where he was jabbing haphazardly at a punching bag.

He looked up at me, but only for a second before his melancholy eyes remained firmly fixed on the bag.

"Keep tension in your core-"

"Leave me alone." He choked out.

I'll admit I was stunned for a second that such a meek mannered child would be the one to speak back to the Alpha.

"No." I snapped. "You need my help, so you're going to get it wether you want it or not."

"There's no point." He threw one last hit at the bag before abandoning it all together. "We both know I don't stand a chance."

I looked him up and down. Scrawny, underfed, not anything ounce of muscle on the young boy at all.

"You're fast." I said. "You don't have to be strong, you just have to be smart."

"Why are you doing this?" He slumped to the floor, his back to the wall. "Why can't you just leave me be?"

"What about your mother?" I caught him off guard with that one.

His lip pulled between his teeth, bright green eyes scanning mine. "She doesn't care. I'll just be one less mouth to feed."

"What about your-"

"-He's dead." The boy interrupted. 

He had no one. No one to mourn him. No one to need him. He was nothing but an empty vessel, fuelled only by the incessant need to survive, though he wasn't exactly sure why.

Thuds and muffled roars still echoed around us, but we didn't hear them. The rest of the world was dead to us.

I felt a strange sort of instinct towards this boy that I hadn't felt before, wether it be brood or nurture.

"What is your name?"

"Fin."

"Well, Fin." A small smile, a slight twinkle of the eye, "I'm King."

He didn't return my favour, instead saying bluntly, "I know who you are."

"Then you know I'm no threat to you, that I only want to help you."

His lip curled into a slight snarl, "You tried to kill my brother."

What?

"You beat him so badly he lost an eye, so badly that he's still unconscious even now, weeks later." His eyes brimmed with a sad little shine. "You're the reason I'm going to die. The reason Akais couldn't volunteer so I had to instead."

Akais. The pig headed man I had fought before the ball.

"Akais is your brother?"

"Please." Fin lowered his head into his hands, lip quivering at the thoughts that tormented him. "Just leave me alone."

"I-I.."

I had a handful of letters, but no idea how to begin stringing them together. I stuttered and stumbled to try to find the right thing to say. But nothing.

I had sentenced him to his death.

The letters fell from my dead palms, hitting the floor and scattering in every directions. No hope of getting them back now.

Every action had a consequence, I knew that.

But I had never meant for this.

***

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