Little Dead Monsters (6 page)

Chapter Ten.

News of Dog’s record-breaking fight had spread quickly amongst the guards and into the prison cells. When Dog returned to his cage, none of the other boys had the guts to look at him. They were scared of Dog.

Of course, that suited him just fine. If he were to survive as long as Tiberius had in the pit, he needed an edge and their fear of him was a great one to have.

Dog sat behind the iron bars and looked into all the other cells, staring at each one of the boys, daring for someone to look him in the eye and challenge him. None of them lifted their heads.

It was because of this that Dog knew he had defeated each one of them before the fight even began.

*

Ryker and his men left Dog alone for the next couple of weeks. Food was brought to him—not by Allegra but another serving girl named Maria—and he ate vigorously to keep his strength up.

Once per day, the guards took him to a grimy gym in the basement of the complex and allowed him to do strength training. Dog tried his hand at it, but he was foreign to the weights and how to use them.

Garret, the guard on duty, watched him lift the dumbbells clumsily until he couldn’t stand to watch anymore.

“You’re doing it all wrong,” Garret said shaking his head. “The key is to isolate your muscles and work on one part of your body at a time.”

Garret showed him how to use the machines in the weight room and introduced him to a set of exercises to focus on, and Dog listened. For some reason, Dog felt comfortable around Garret, but he couldn’t figure out why. The way Garret put himself together was different from everyone else. Perhaps it was because of his older age? Life had taken its toll on the old guard and his face was wrinkled and tough, like boiled leather. He had crow’s feet at the corners of his soft brown eyes and his neatly cropped hair had gone completely grey. Despite the rough personalty he had when roaming the Arena’s hallways, he was warm and friendly while alone with Dog. The one thing about Garret that hadn’t aged was his smile, which was full of youthful innocence and energy. 

The next day when Dog returned to the gym, he displayed a new confidence around the weights. When he finished his workout, Garret nodded with approval and took him back to his cell. Despite the soreness all over, Dog felt a sense of accomplishment.

He began looking forward to his workouts and found satisfaction in exercise. By the second week he noticed slight changes to his body. His muscles were tighter and his body no longer felt as sore after finishing his work out routines. Each day he lifted with the same intensity, working until he was exhausted and his body was physically shaking.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You need time to rest,” Garret told him.

“There’s no time to rest,” Dog said. “I may die tomorrow. I’ll rest then.”

Garret had no response, so instead he showed Dog a few more exercises.

And then one night, unexpectedly, he was brought to the pits again to fight. His opponent was three years older and had already survived four fights. He was taller and physically more imposing than Dog, but it made no difference.

Dog snapped his neck in thirty seconds and the crowd loved him for it.

After the match, Dog sat by the entranceway to the pit and closed his eyes and breathed. His heart was still racing and his thoughts were frantic. He was drowning in images of blood and the boy’s screams. He couldn’t forget the look on the boy’s face just before he killed him. The boy was begging for mercy as tears and snot dribbled down his chin. It was inhumane. Dog didn’t want to do it, but what other choice did he have in the matter? It was either eat the bullets from the guns pointed at him, or kill his opponent. It wasn’t a difficult decision for Dog.

When he saw Allegra, he was still shaking heavily, though not because of the fight itself. The boy had begged Dog. Absolutely begged for mercy and he had ignored him.

Allegra rested the black medical bag on the ground and Dog looked at the yellow smiling moon. It calmed him.

She washed his face and poured water over his head and Dog felt cleansed from the horrors of the pit for a brief moment.

“Ryker was impressed with your win again today,” Allegra said. “You kill them so fast.”

Dog looked at her with shame. “The first time I killed someone in the pit, I hesitated and we both suffered. If I end the fights sooner, then maybe they won’t suffer as much.”

He didn’t know whether Allegra understood, or even agreed to what he said, but after a brief moment of silence, she nodded.

“Come, let’s go see Jacob,” she said.

*

Dog noticed an extra bounce in Jacob’s step when he greeted him this time.

“This is for you,” Jacob said as he handed Dog a folded piece of paper.

“What is it?” he asked.

Jacob winked. “Open it.”

Inside was a picture of a yellow smiling moon, drawn with intricate detail. It was shaded and coloured with brilliant yellow and grey gradients to give the drawing a rich texture. Dog couldn’t remember the last time he received a gift from anyone.

He looked at Jacob with a curious eye and was at a loss for words.

“No need to thank me,” Jacob said. “I thought you might like it. It really didn’t take that long to draw, just a circle and some colouring.”

Dog held the paper in his hands delicately as if it were a fragile flower, threatening to wilt and crumble in his blood stained hands.

“So what tattoo do you want this time?” Jacob asked.

“My name,” he replied.

“Surely you have another name besides Dog,” Jacob said.

“If I had one, I forgot it long ago. Dog is fine.”

“There’s no dignity in that name,” Jacob protested.

“I’ll give it dignity,” Dog said. Finally Jacob gave in and wrote the name across the base of his neck in large, stylish letters.

“No mirror?” Allegra asked when the tattoo was done.

“No mirror.” He held the drawing in his hand like a sacred artifact and left the room, returning with the guards back to his cell.

He placed Jacob’s drawing underneath the straw where he slept. At least once per day, he took the picture out and stared at it as if it were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Chapter Eleven.

With Tiberius retired, Ryker needed an Arena champion and decided that a tournament was the perfect way to find a new one. The Arena had been doing well as of late, which allowed Ryker to find and purchase more slaves. His dungeons were almost at full capacity, and he decided that he had the inventory to spare to hold such a tournament.

Sixteen boys were enlisted into this tournament and over the course of two days, only one would survive.

When Ryker finished the tournament bracket and the fighting lists, he circulated it internally amongst the guards and slaves.

Allegra was heartbroken when she saw the names on the list. Many of the boys in the tournament were ones she had fought so hard to pry away from death’s grasp. And in just two days, fifteen of them were doomed to return to its bitter embrace.

She took special note of where Dog was placed. He was seeded tenth overall and was up against a boy from the south with a permanent scowl on his face, nicknamed
Cannibal
.

Cannibal already had six fights under his belt and was an angry boy as gritty as asphalt and he got his nickname on the account that he tore the neck out of his opponent with his teeth during his second fight. Cannibal certainly had the experience and size advantages over Dog. She wondered if this was to be his last fight and it saddened her to think so. 

The idea of the tournament had proved to be popular. Every seat in the arena was filled and even standing room space was scarce. The guards had to start turning back spectators at the door as they struggled to find a way inside.

“I’m a genius,” Ryker said as he gingerly sipped his whiskey. He sat on his throne and took in the electrifying atmosphere while Tiberius stood at his side.

“Who do you think will win Ty?” Ryker asked. Tiberius shrugged his massive shoulders.

“Does anybody ever really win here?” Tiberius replied.

Ryker laughed. “You’re a depressing man Ty.”

And YOU’RE a piece of shit,
Allegra thought. She regretted not smashing the decanter into Ryker’s head when she had the chance.

The voice through the speakers announced the start of the matches, and the violence and blood began.

Allegra stood in the corner of Ryker’s pavilion for what seemed like hours, doing her best to block out the sights and sounds of the fights. For the most part, the higher seeded fighters won their matches, despite a few close calls. It was the experience that allowed the veterans to prevail, leaving their opponent’s corpse for clean up on the sand.

Dog was the only exception.

Cannibal had tried to strike first but he missed badly with the clunky sledgehammer. It was a weapon far too heavy for him to wield. Dog was quick to retaliate and in less than ten seconds the fight was over with Dog’s pitchfork protruding from Cannibal’s lifeless body.

Ryker was on his feet cheering. “It will be Dog,” he had already decided. “Dog will win this whole thing.”

The second round of matches started immediately following the first, despite Allegra’s protests.

“Let me patch them up first at least,” she begged. Ryker beat her senseless right there. She felt every agonizing boot to her spine while she laid in a heap on the ground, defenseless. It wasn’t until Tiberius interjected that Ryker stopped.

“You’ll miss the start of the second matches,” Tiberius said as he gently coaxed Ryker back to his seat, allowing Allegra to drag herself back to her feet.

Her body ached and she felt sharp jolting pains in her hip muscles. She went to the sink at the rear of Ryker’s balcony room and spat out the blood from the back of her throat while wondering if there was any internal bleeding. Allegra stared at the mirror and cursed the girl looking back at her.

“Useless,” she said. “Useless.”

The second round of matches provided many unexpected results. Vitaly Kirelenko, also called the Bear, succumbed to his wounds from his first match and dropped dead in the sand four minutes into his fight. His opponent, a sheep-faced boy nicknamed
Stink
watched in silence as the blood flowed from Kirelenko’s body.

Dog faced off against a short and thin boy named
Pain
who bore more scars on his body than victory tattoos. Pain’s main weapon was his speed, which he used to his advantage during the first fight. The slower opponent Pain had faced ended up with four deadly puncture wounds in his stomach, neck, armpit, and knee while Pain remained untouched.

Once the match started, Pain tried using the same tactic on Dog but was caught off guard by Dog’s equal speed. Dog dodged Pain’s whirlwind attack and using his opponent’s momentum against him, Dog hurled Pain headfirst into the concrete walls. The match was over in eight seconds. Dog stood victorious before the backdrop of Pain’s splattered brains.

The other two victors were a hefty boy named
Crush
, who used his immense weight to his advantage, and a Middle Eastern boy nicknamed
Prophet
.

Thus the first night of the tournament ended. Eight boys were dead and two of the survivors had serious injuries.

Allegra and Maria were tasked to mend their wounds.

“They better not die,” Ryker threatened. “I need them for tomorrow, otherwise I’m sending the two of you to fight in their place.”

Crush’s wounds were easier to manage and he would survive. Stink was a different story. His fever was running at high temperatures and they were having trouble bringing it down. The infection had casted the long shadow of death over him.

“He can’t fight tomorrow,” Maria said. “Look at him.”

It was true. Stink was dehydrated and sweating profusely from the fever. He looked half awake and half in a dream.

“What do we do?” Maria asked. “He will die if we send him out like this.”

Allegra looked at Stink who stared back at her with glossy eyes. He spoke, but not to her; ghosts perhaps.

“Wait for me,” Stink whispered. “I’m still here.”

Allegra found herself crying and she wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks. She ran her hand through Stink’s thin black hair, oily from the sweat, as he continued to look through her and into a world of fevered dreams.

“Don’t leave me behind again,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’ll be good. Just don’t leave me.”

“What do we do?” Maria asked again.

Allegra shook her head and clenched the wet cloth in her hand tightly. She felt the anger boil inside her. She wanted to save Stink from the fights tomorrow, but the truth of the matter was there was nothing she could do. Stink was too weak to fight and she was too weak to protect him from Ryker’s bloodlust.

“This boy was dead the moment he was kidnapped and brought here,” Allegra said with a heavy heart. “We keep him alive and whether or not he survives the fight is up to God.”

“What kind of God allows this to happen?” Maria spat. Allegra had no answer for her.