Page 28

Odessa

T he floor slid out from underneath me, and I found myself tumbling down into a dusty tomb, entrapping me behind several large boulders and muffling the screams of Dex and Nat.

No, no, no! My fingers dug against the rough edges of the rocks, trying to claw my way out.

But the bits of bone and rubble continued to slide and what little light there was snuffed out, plunging me into total darkness.

My body ached from the fall, and a stinging sensation spread up my legs, letting me know that I was bleeding.

How could I get out of here?

My power surged inside me as soon as that thought crossed my mind, almost on instinct, pushing against the rockslide that threatened to bury me alive. I couldn’t tell if it was doing any good, but it was better than doing nothing.

My heart pounded like a drum was shoved behind my rib cage and sweat gathered along my brow.

How long would it take for me to run out of oxygen?

I’d expelled so much of my power yesterday saving myself and Dex that I didn’t know how much I still had in me.

With minimal sleep and a shitty breakfast, I was feeling weak and run down.

Something scurried along the ground near my feet, making me shriek in terror. Was that a rat? Gods I hoped not.

Was this how I went? Trapped beneath rock and bone, eaten by rats until my bones were a permanent fixture of this cursed place.

“Please,” I pleaded, with tears gathering at the corners of my eyes as my fingers desperately scraped against the bits of loose limestone, hoping that something would give way.

My power felt distant as I attempted another surge, pushing against the rock, but nothing but a whisper of magick came out.

Dammit!

The rocks stopped sliding, and I found my body wedged between a slab of limestone and what felt like hundreds of bones.

There wasn’t anywhere for me to move, and the weight felt unbearable.

Like I was being squeezed from the waist up.

I kicked and kicked, only managing to get stuck further, with the rocks pressing in against my ribs, making it hard to breathe.

Air. Air! I needed air!

Were Nat and Dex in the same predicament right now?

Clawing against heavy boulders hoping that they weren’t stuck forever.

Or were they crushed to death by the heavy bits of tunnel that had collapsed on us?

We’d already lost so many people along the way, and the thought of losing Dex too filled me with an emotion that I was too scared to put a name to.

I knew Nat shouldn’t have touched that button. If the gods were watching us right now, I hoped they knew how much I hated them for this.

“Odessa?” Dex’s voice penetrated through the darkness.

“I’m here!” I called back with a cough, relieved to hear his voice. He wasn’t dead. “Is Nat, okay?”

“I don’t know. Nat?” I listened closely for any signs she was okay but heard nothing.

“Can you see anything?” Dex asked after a moment.

“No. It’s pitch-black, but I think there are rats in here.”

“Okay. I’m going to try and move some of the bones.”

“Okay.”

I readied myself, hoping that he might be able to get me the hell out of here.

The air felt thin and dusty as I waited.

Then, there was a rumble of movement, and a deluge of bones fell away from me, dropping me further until I crash landed on solid ground.

A moment later and another firm body crumpled next to mine with a groan.

“Nat?”

“Fuck, I shouldn’t have touched that button,” she said.

“No shit,” Dex replied as he tumbled next to us.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I think I have a lighter in my pack,” Nat said rummaging through her bag. I’d lost mine in the rubble but still could feel the dagger that I’d hid in my boot pressing against my leg.

“Got it!” She cried, lighting it. It gave off a warm glow, illuminating the bottom of her face. We could barely make out our surroundings, but it seemed we had fallen into a room of some sort.

“Here let me see that lighter,” Dex said grabbing a large bone and ripping off some of his jumper to wrap around the end.

He lit the fabric, fashioning a makeshift torch from fabric and bone.

It gave off enough light that we could see far enough to take in the large room.

It had a high ceiling and markings drawn all over the walls in every color imaginable.

There were words and pictures painted on even the dust covered floor.

It was clear no one had been in here in some time though.

Maybe years. The room was filled with toppled tables and chairs covered in cobwebs, like whoever had left here, hadn’t left peacefully.

My fingers dragged along the edges of the wall, outlining the words, “Les dieux vous mentent”. The gods are lying to you.

“Who do you think did this?” I asked in a whisper almost to myself.

“It had to be earlier contestants, right?” Nat replied.

“Right,” I said, but the next words I’d found vive la revolution, had me doubting the truth of that.

There were rumors that when the gods first arrived, that there was an uprising of the people. War broke out amongst the citizens and gods, but without access to magick, the people were at a disadvantage and many perished in the fight for freedom.

However, the way the gods tell it was that our people were thankful for their arrival.

There were parades to honor them, welcoming their new rule.

The old ways were abolished, and the people celebrated the new era of the gods, erecting temples and statues in their honor.

But there were some who weren’t as welcoming, and they were dealt with swiftly.

It’s what we’ve been taught in school as we say our daily allegiance to their image.

We honor them by pledging our loyalty to their divine rule.

From the tender age of five, we were made to recite our rituals before the school day began.

Even in my college courses, we remained faithful to our honoring of them.

It was the way things had always been done, at least as far as I could remember.

But seeing these words splattered across the walls felt like maybe there was more to what we had always been told.

That maybe there was a revolution, and it had been erased from our collective history.

I already knew that the gods made sure to eradicate everything from before their rule, and any mention of it was treason. With that knowledge of what they were willing to hide from the past, there was no telling what else they might hide. Or what they still might be hiding.

My stomach soured wondering if these games were even for the reason we’d been told. They always brought out sixteen contestants. Every year like clockwork. Claiming their need for entertainment.

But if the games aren’t being held for their entertainment, what are they being held for?

“Look, over here!” Nat called. She was pointing to a halfway crumbled archway. “There’s a way out, I think. Shine your light over here, I want to see if this goes anywhere.”

Dex brought over the flickering torch and shone the light into the opening.

“Looks like it keeps going,” he said. “Why don’t we break here, rest up. Take care of that cut on your head, and then we’ll head down.”

“But which way do we go? Left, or right?” I asked.

Dex shrugged and set his pack down, tossing me one of his rations. “Thanks.” I said, opening it and breaking the hard granola in half. “Here, you have to eat too.”

He sighed and then took my offering, biting off a chunk with a grimace. The food was hardly edible, but it was something.

Nat propped up one of the toppled chairs and wiped it off, sitting— or more like collapsing into it with her legs stretched out and one ankle crossed over the other.

I chose to sit on the floor, not wanting to chance the rickety looking furniture that was thrown about.

Who knew how long they’d been here in disarray.

“What do you think happened here?” Nat said.

“Nothing good,” Dex replied, reaching down to hand me his canteen.

It was odd how quickly someone could go from annoying acquaintance and enemy to trusted support system.

But I guess when you’re thrown into life-or-death situations it’s just human nature to seek out that comfort in another.

Needing a sense of safety and normalcy that you otherwise wouldn’t even engage with.

Nat might be a part of my team and Dex might make me feel safer, but there was no denying that either of them could turn on me at any time.

There could only be one winner, and I wasn’t sure how far either of them would go in order to win.

Desperation made people do the most out of character things, and down here the air was rife with it.

We were desperate to survive. Desperate to get out of here. Desperate for the chance that we might be the ones to walk out of here with our magick intact and money flooding our bank accounts.

I may have been content with my life before, but I was here now. And no matter how much I wished it, there was no changing it.

While we were gathering our strength, I took a chance to remove my mask, just for a moment.

I needed a break from having it dig against my face.

Dex and Nat did the same, and it felt odd seeing them as they would normally look.

I’d almost forgotten how handsome Dex was underneath his golden mask.

My face felt naked now, without the mask to cover me and I massaged the skin, reveling in the feel of my own fingers.

The relief was short lived, because I knew we had to keep moving.

As I stood to leave, a chilling rattle emanated from right behind me.

“Don’t fucking move,” Dex said eyes wide.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge as a venomous black snake, slithered right between my legs. Its onyx tongue flickering as it moved.

“What do I do?” I asked watching it with wide eyes. One bite from it and I’d be dead in seconds.