Stage 10: Setting the Stage
Deafening lights, blinding sounds... I knew they lay ahead- I could taste the air. Fresh air, something which I hadn't encountered once since being confined here. The atmosphere was almost tangible, a mixture of excitement and something else. Was it bloodlust? Or was that just my anxiety eating its way into my senses? What I did know, however, was that the games in Deadman Wonderland were known notoriously as the most violent and advanced in the way of visual effects in all of Japan. Dog races, one of the events that involved prisoners running obstacle races against each other, were frequently broadcast on live television. I'd watched one, and had to leave the room because of the utter violence that was shown- the special effects had been so realistic they were frightening.
You're on death row- nobody cares if you survive or not..
Special effects? Was that really the way of Deadman Wonderland? Now that I thought about it, we were all destined to die here- wasn't that the point of the necklaces we were forced to wear? If we were going to go, why not with a bang, for the entertainment of millions?
Perhaps the truth was more sickening than I'd originally believed.
I shifted, and one of the guards on my left rotated his head slightly so that he could eye me from his peripheral vision. The chains holding together my hands and ankles were heavy, and rubbed against each other whenever I moved in the slightest way. Up ahead was the unmistakeable roar of a crowd, hungry for entertainment.
All of a sudden a grainy voice made its way out of a device attached to the attendant's leg, and at once he pressed his hand against my back and pushed me forward.
"You're up," he muttered, and then more loudly, "Go!"
As slowly as I could, I edged towards the end of the corridor. In some ways I wanted to get outside, end it as fast as I could and face whatever lay in front of me. In another sense though, I was trying to draw it out as much as I could to prolong my life- or maybe it was because I was too scared to move any faster. My legs were stiff and refused to push me forward at a quicker pace. Yet just before I reached the end, I stopped, as if there was a barrier that was preventing me from proceeding onwards.
"Move, scum!"
Something hit the centre of my back, directly between my shoulder blades- the barrier shattered, and I found myself flying through it until I met the ground. Friction between my cheek and the dirt floor burned my skin, searing ot deeply up until the moment I became stationary once again.
Wincing, I slid onto my back and lay there, panting. But it was then that I heard the cheering on its full scale, a harsh, taunting sound, the clash of a thousand voices, all shouting and laughing and screaming out words that were all blended into one. And the light... I could barely open my eyes for fear that they would be immolated by the white, yet without my vision I felt helpless.
"Oh look- the first contestant has decided to enter!" said another voice, amplified by some kind of electrical device, to this a roar of laughs from every direction ripped out.
I groaned, rolled onto my stomach and stood up- it was a difficult task, considering that I was still chained. My whole body was shaking, as if I was having a violent reaction to something, when in fact the only thing that I was suffering from was fear. Like a rabbit in a sudden set of headlights, I was in the middle of a dangerous place that I knew nothing of, and I could barely see anything.
It took a few seconds for my vision to be restored, and when it was I realized that I was in the centre of a round stadium, surrounded by endless rows of people that cheered and laughed. Instead of travelling outwards at a diagonal angle however, as was normal of most other arenas I'd seen, the seats seemed to be stacked on top of each other, so that everyone had a bird's eye view on the middle section. The part I was standing on was about thirty metres in diameter and was made up of a plain dirt floor. In fact, the only thing interrupting the pale ground was a bare, leafless tree growing to my right, not in the middle of the stadium but definitely the centre of attention. Well, that was until I'd walked in- now everyone pointed and whooped at me like I was a hero, as opposed to a convict on death row.
"The Weaver Bird!" the electrified voice exclaimed- it took me mere momemts to work out that it was referring to me.
I'd been given a title? Was I now known as 'Weaver Bird' to the public? It was sick- if I died, then nobody would know my name. I had a desperation to shout out to everyone my real name, the one I hated so much but suddenly wanted to tell everyone. The thought was forbidden, and I quickly shut it away.
Because it was my name that had sent me here.
"And now, the second contestant!"
Directly across from me was a break in the seats, where a metal door set into a wall suddenly opened. The atmospheric fog seeping out from tiny holes in the ground created a film around the figure as they stepped forward into the dirt area, and the voice once again sounded.
"Fighting Weaver Bird, it's Crow!"
The fog cleared, and the words were confirmed- it was the man from before, the one who had signed me up for this, grinning maliciously like a dog.
My whole being went limp- I tried to shuffle back, but stood on my ankle chain and almost fell over.
Did they mean... I had to fight Crow? If that was the case, then this battle was over already.
Yay! End of part two, so start of author notes! :D
Part three is going to be… Very red. ^^' Poor Jana… I like to torture my characters! :D Seriously though, poor Jana… I reckon Nishi's been eating his CP. And in answer to a review that someone left (thank you for that, by the way), there will be a female character later on, though she isn't exactly 'nice'. For now, I'm just concentrating on the upcoming Carnival Corpse game, which will start next chapter.
Oh, and if you're wondering where Ganta and Shiro are, you'll have to wait and see. ^^ I'm not making any promises, but they MAY appear in the future. I finally managed to include Crow though, and also Tamaki Tsunenaga. I probably went slightly over the top on the descriptions of him, but then again, he's a very exaggerated character. Really, they couldn't have got a better person to play him in the anime- Junichi Suwabe has one of the best voices in the world, and he's so good at playing psychos…
I'm rambling again. What are you doing reading this? Go write a review and I'll give you 100,000 CP so you can go and buy Candy! Go!
In the meantime, thank you for every comment you have posted about this story- each one means so much and keeps me writing.
Love Lei x
By the way, for any J- Rock fans out there, listen to Orange No Taiyou by Gackt with double headphones- at one point you have Gackt singing in one ear and Hyde in the other! *Q*
