Papa Roach-Last Resort
~Hazel POV~
I had spent weeks in the gym. I had done millions of crunches, hundreds of lunges, a thousand miles around the campus. We had worked every possible muscle my body had to offer, and every single day it was something new.
On the first day of The Games, they'd woken us up in the middle of the night, all of us stumbling around drunkenly as we tried to make our way through a maze that spit fire every time you turned a wrong corner.
By week two, they'd put us in a tank full of sharks and told us it was our jobs to either swim miles to safety or be eaten alive.
By week three, they'd put us through electroshock therapy, which was meant to toughen up our will should we be kidnapped and tortured.
Now, in week four, nearly a month after we'd been kidnapped and brought to Creto's school, I was, as usual, fighting for my life.
I rounded a corner, colliding fiercely with a strong, hard body. My back hit the ground first, my curls exploding out of their ponytail holder as a groan escaped my lips. A pair of dark black eyes settled on me, the boy's curly brown hair shining in the light from above as he bent down and extended his hand towards me.
"We have got to stop meeting like this." he grinned, heaving me to my feet. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Yes, well, I wasn't exactly thinking of the perfect setting when I was running for my life."
"Might as well get used to it," he laughed, unwrapping a rubber band from his wrist and holding it out for me. "We're tested at the beginning of every semester, split into Divisions, and then train all week until the next testing session comes. The running-for-your-life never stops."
I threw my curls into a sloppy ponytail, pressing myself flat against the wall as a couple of troops ran right past us. The boy bit his lip and stared at me.
"Troy," he said quickly, shoving me to the ground as a dagger flew over our heads and landed in the wall above us. "And if you want to live you should probably follow me."
A soldier rounded the corner and swung a large sword over my head, barely giving me time to deflect it with my arm. The metal sliced across my skin, leaving a trail of blood in it's place before I shoved my foot hard into the man's shin, dropping him to his knees. I crossed him in the jaw with my elbow, shooting Troy a pointed look. "I can take care of myself just fine, thank you. And my name is-"
"Oh trust me, I know what your name is." Troy laughed, unsheathing a large sword. I marveled at the instrument, it's bronze metal glimmering a blood-red gold in the light. At the hilt, a pair of angel wings spread wide in a prideful arc, a red ruby nestled right in the center of them. Troy swung it upwards at the soldier who'd made the mistake of advancing on him.
I'd never seen anyone fight so clean. His posture, his movements, everything was calculated, everything was thoughtful. Every flick of the wrist and turn of the torso was a studied, actions that only could have been achieved through years of endless drills and practice. He just like Jamie.
No, my soul whispered. No one is anything like Jamie. As I watched Troy move, I realized that it was true. Jamie was all passion, all emotion, all feeling. He was his sword, he was the battle, Troy had only studied it. For someone who wasn't supposed to feel anything, emotion was all Jamie really worked off of.
I swore at myself silently, cursing myself for even thinking of him. It had been a month and he still hadn't found me. He probably hadn't even started looking.
Troy looked at me, his eyebrows knitting together as he caught me staring.
"Everything alright?" he asked, breathless.
"I-" The brick beside us exploded, heavy concrete flying through the air as I sailed into wall after wall, every bone in my body cracking until I finally hit the stone ground. I kept my eyes closed for a long time, dwelling on the pain that spread through my ribs every time I inhaled. The air came in and out of my lungs in labored, short, rasps, but I knew I couldn't stay down for long. This was a game. This was a test. I needed to move.
I shifted my body to the left, rolling onto my back as a groan moved from my mouth. Brick littered the ground, dust and sharp bits of concrete everywhere I looked. I was on my feet soon enough, my entire body begging me to take a rest as I began pushing my way through the debris, heading towards the sound of clashing metal.
"Hazel?" I turned my head towards the voice that sang out my name, although I'd never heard it before.
"Hello?"
"Hazel?!"
I ran towards the sound of my identity, tripping over bricks and rubble until finally I shoved my way into a circle of Initiates. They all looked at me, each of them roughly about my age and all armed. Immediately I patted down my pockets, my chest, even my back for Ember.
"Shit..."I whispered. It was gone. I'd dropped it in the explosion. Troy and a few other kids from our team ran to my side, Abby's bright blue eyes gleaming in anxiety. Her strawberry-blonde hair was twisted high into an elegant knot at the top of her head, and even with her high cheekbones and small, petite nose, the nineteen-year-old looked perfectly plain next to Anastasia, who was panting at her side.
"What the Hell is this?" Stasi whispered.
"Team Match," Troy murmured, tightening his grip on his sword. "Don't worry, my brother's been through Initiation and he made it out alive just fine."
"ALIVE?!" Thomas cried, his eyes wide as the other team began to advance towards us.
"YES, alive," Troy said irritatedly, stepping slightly in front of me. "I guess they forgot to mention the part where those who don't make the cut get killed in the games."
"This is like Mockingjay all over again..." I murmured, shaking my head and backing away with my fearful teammates.
"What the Hell does a bird have to do with this?"
"Ignore her," Stasi cut in. "Hazel lived like a human for the first seventeen years of her life, no one ever knows what she's talking about."
"I think we have bigger problems on our hands, people." Abby snapped, drawing out her bow and arrow. A tall, gangly boy with ginger red hair on the other team grinned at her, his eyes glinting.
"Nobody said anything about dying when we agreed to this shit." I grumbled.
"Nobody ever says anything about dying until it happens." Troy shrugged. And then he lunged.
The Green Team sprung into action immediately, and I was left weaponless as the battle begun. Troy was swinging and stabbing and jabbing and throwing punches like he'd been doing it his entire life, and as I ducked underneath the swing of his sword, I tripped over his right foot and plummeted towards the ground. I threw my arms around his neck as he knelt on the ground, balancing me on his knee with one hand on my back and his sword pointed across my chest.
"Even in the heat of battle you can't keep away from me, huh?" he smiled. I rolled my eyes, flinching as a tall Mexican girl hurtled a dart near his face. Troy deflected it easily, rolling me off of his knee and heaving me to my feet, pushing me behind him. His sword met another in the crowd and he shoved his elbow into the girl's face, knocking her off balance and pulling her sword from it's sheath as she hit the ground.
"Here!" he yelled, tossing me the Seraph Blade. I stared at it for a moment, wondering how I was supposed to fight with a weapon that wouldn't answer to me. "What the Hell are you doing?!" he cried, blocking a blade as it slung towards my face.
"I can't use this!" I yelled over the roar of the crowd, stomping on the foot of a short boy and bringing my knee up in between his legs. He crumpled to the ground and I fished through his pockets, yanking a dagger out just in time to roll over his body and shove my foot into the tall Mexican girl's shins. She cried out, lashing at me as a blonde boy with fat lips ran to her.
"Laura!" he screamed, wedging himself in between our bodies. He lunged at me, knocking me onto my back and pinning me onto the ground, his brass knuckles slamming into the pavement centimeters away from my face.
I flinched, concrete exploding near my face as he drew back again. I rolled and his fist, along with the metal, came down hard on my left shoulder blade, cracking the bone underneath the skin. I turned back to him, closing my right hand around his throat. His fingers clawed at my hand, the nails of his free hand pressing in on my cheek until my hand grew searing hot, a quick flame exploding from my palm.
The boy screamed, throwing himself off of my body and clutching the burnt skin of his jugular. My eyes were wide as I watched him writhe on the floor, his screams filling the entire Battle Court. His team stared in horror, the Mexican girl he'd defended running to his side and gathering him up in her arms.
"Nick!" she yelled, tears brimming in her eyes as she ran her hand over his thin cheek. "Nick?! Somebody help! Stop it! Stop! We forfeit!"
"LAURA!" One of her teammates cried, shaking his head.
"WE FORFEIT! Laura screamed, staring up at the Judgment Panel two stories above us. Ms. Vivian raised an eyebrow at all of us, his Council Members all murmuring in surprise, all of them safe behind the glass that separated them from us.
The room was filled with nothing but heavy breathing and Laura's sniffing as the panel took a moment to murmur amongst themselves.
"Very well," Creto called. "Laura, I assume you understand the consequences of your forfeit?" Laura clenched her jaw, looking up at him teary-eyed.
"I understand."
"This isn't fair!" One of her teammates called. "She can't speak for all of us!"
"I'm Captain and I can speak for whomever the Hell I want!" Laura screamed, Nick's body starting to go limp in his arms. She looked up at Creto. "You need a Team to be out more than anything right now and if you keep letting us fight we'll be at it for days. Just heal him," she begged. "Heal him and I swear we'll forfeit."
Creto pondered this for a moment before nodding. Immediately, the walls of the Battle Room began to sink into the ground as if it were made of quicksand, all of the debris and rubble and weapons disappearing until there was nothing more than ten kids in an empty room.
"What the Hell is going on?" I whispered to Troy as he held out his hand for me again. I took it, pulling myself a little closer to him than I'd meant to.
"After every Team Match, one team gets eliminated."
"Eliminated? What are you talking about?"
"This is an Initiation, Haze," he murmured, pushing me towards the exit with the rest of our team. "Creto's making an army, and if you were making an army wouldn't you want to ensure that you only had the best of the best fighters?"
"This is a joke, right? What he's doing is sick. And he told me that everyone here has a gi-"
"You know for a fact that some gifts are better than others, babe."
I was still stuck on the fact that he'd called me babe when we were standing outside the door of my room, Stasi and Thomas walking towards us hand in hand.
"They'll call us for Elimination tonight," he said softly. "You should probably stay here."
"Why would I stay?"
"It's not something you're gonna wanna watch." he warned, giving me an apologetic smile. I nodded, rolling my shoulder a little bit.
"That kid really got me back there." I groaned.
"Hazel, you..." Troy bit his lip, which had been bloodied slightly from the fight. "You might wanna watch out, alright?"
"Is that a threat?" I asked immediately, unsure of why I'd been so quick to snap. Before learning about demons and evil Shadowhunters and the fact that you could honestly trust no one, I would've been slow to act against any possible warnings. But this was different. I was different. Troy just laughed, shaking his head slightly.
"Not at all," he chuckled. "I just don't want you to get hurt. People around here...they already have a bit of an opinion about you."
"And why is that?" I challenged.
"We're all well aware of your uhm...special talents. And after today, we know you know how to use them."
"Why wouldn't they like me for that? It's not my fault."
"We know it isn't. But you keep forgetting that this is a competition. Would you want to play a game if there was already a winner?"
"So Creto picks favorites?"
"Like you wouldn't believe."
I scoffed, biting my lip before opening the door of my room and letting Stasi pass us, who gave me a sly pointed look. I rolled my eyes at her.
"Thank you, Troy," I said honestly. "I owe you one."
"You owe me nothing," he said sweetly, raising his hands in modesty as he walked backwards away from me. "Just promise you won't turn out to be one of those crazy chicks that take the nice guys for advantage."
"I promise." I laughed.
If I knew then what I know now, I would've felt bad for lying.
