I laid awake for a little bit.

Normally even in these poor conditions I can snooze away but I had too much on my mind.

And that's a rare thing.

From what The Banshee had told me, Mathias and I had been here for over a week now.

Time sure seemed to fly when you have no clock or calendar.

I had been relaxing by my cozy corner near the food. I was barely awake when there was a pop and a sizzle noise.

Down the hall there were flabbergasted noises of the other fighters.

Claude and Mathias looked towards the barred door. I assumed they were trying to pick up on any conversations.

"What the hell?"

Banshee muttered standing up staring at the crudely rounded east corner of the room.

The guys turned and muttered curses of their own.

Now I defiantly had to see.

I sat up from lounging on my balled up jacket.

"Holy shit."

Hovering in the air in a dark blue-ish gray, semi-transparent color was a symbol.

Unlike mine it moved.

The background shimmered like a flag in the wind with two crossed long bladed daggers placed in the middle of a circular border which remained stationary.

Then it disappeared moments later.

We looked at the empty space then to each other.

And by the looks of our faces none of us had a clue.

For the next few days these occurrences continued to happen.

And we still had no goddamn clue to who or what was behind them.

Then again being caged tends to cut down on investigative snooping.

Banshee had the idea of copying the symbols in the dirt so we could give ourselves migraines from staring at it too hard.

Great

So far each of us has it ingrained into our long term memory.

While I was in a daze Mathias came over and crouched next to me.

"What are you doing?"

"Hmm?"

I was too focused on running my finger through the dirt.

Circles. Circles are fun to draw.

He grabbed my wrist and moved it away.

Just before I was about to yell at him I saw what he was looking at.

I unknowingly made the Reaper sigil I used back in the days of freedom and badass-ness.

Or some shit like that.

"You're familiar in this kind of magic." He smacked himself in the face.

"So?" I asked not getting where he was going with this train of thought.

"This!" He pointed in the dirt at the skull and crossed scythes.

I stared at it.

Then it clicked.

"Oh, jeez I'm retarded." I smacked myself in the face.

We woke Banshee and Claude up and updated them on our progress.

Claude gave me a thumbs up. Banshee furrowed her pale eyebrows.

"Do you have what you need to project?"

I nodded. "Projecting's easy when it's to a specific place. Imprinting is the hard part."

Mathias asked me if I could project it to the other cells like the other.

I shook my head.

"I've only successfully multi projected once and it was a fluke. I need to know which cell this unknown projector is."

Banshee fidgeted which caught all our attentions.

Banshee hardly ever moved.

"I- we may be able to help with that."

Claude looked at his friend with a questioning expression.

Hell we were all giving her the same look but the undead terminator at the door cut that conversation short.

"You." It pointed a pale sausage finger at me.

Pointing is rude.

"You." I grunted back at him.

I heard a smack behind me. I think Banshee face palmed.

I focused back on the guard.

"At sundown next Tuesday the Reaper is scheduled to face off against Huntress. Be Prepared. The Games Master advises."

The guard then promptly walked off.

"What?" I heard my self say.

"I believe you are getting thrown into the arena." Claude, the ever so helpful stated.

"No shit." I replied.

"Guys." Banshee spoke up.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Tuesday is in less than two days."

Fabulous.

"AGAIN!"

Claude and Mathias snarled at the same time as they came at me.

Claude threw a quick jab while wearing his brass alloy knuckles.

By sheer luck I ducked underneath his arm, nearly getting grazed in the forehead. Then grabbed his wrist and underneath his elbow successfully getting him in the air and launched his ass at Mathias.

Claude tumbled head first into the older Djamphir's chest, effectively knocking him back.

They both grunted getting back up.

Mathias rolled his neck.

Claude popped his left shoulder.

"AGAIN!"

Mathias yelled taking a running start.

I brought my hands up protectively.

Mathias struck faster, his hand becoming blurs.

I felt the air force from his strikes graze my skin reminding me I'm barely avoiding the painful blows.

It was a bitch to track the movements.

Right. Left. Right. Left. Left. Left. Right. Left hook.

He snarled flashing his pearly whites. The aspect ascended him. In response I put more force into my blows.

Left. Right. Left. Right. Double block. Duck. Chest kick.

He expected that.

Mathias grabbed my left ankle and twisted painfully.

I couldn't help but hiss. It fucking hurt!

Pulling out of his grasp was near to impossible. And hitting him would cause me more pain than him.

Shit. I was stuck.

Then the heavy weight secured to my side reminded me I had an advantage.

Instantly I had my hand on the small silver rod.

I twisted around extending the rod so I'd bust him upside the head.

He shoved me away bending backwards as the blade sailed and inch above his face.

It would have been cooler to see in slow motion, hah.

I completed a one handed backflip holding the scythe at Mathias.

Hell I was sweaty all over. I smacked my dry lips wishing I had some chap stick and I wiped away some free strands of hair that found their way into my mouth.

I focused on him.

Even in this place didn't diminish his attractiveness.

Dammit the dirt and grime seemed to only enhance it. Not to mention the new leather coat and simple brown t-shirt underneath outlined his figure too nicely.

He shot me a cocky smile. Hell he even tilted his head back a little to the side. Like how those male models pose in a photo shoot.

Instead, of going completely brain-dead female, I ignored the way my heart was beating fast, (I'm in denial. If anyone asked it was because the adrenaline was still flowing), and grinned mockingly when I saw he was panting hard.

His large chest expanding, showing every chiseled detail of what was underneath . . .

Jesus.

Focus. Training.

I'm supposed to be training.

Not ogling him.

Dammit, when did I become this deviant?

"Good job." He complimented which brought me out of having a talk with myself mentally.

"Thanks." I responded hopefully not looking deranged then looked over to Claude.

He had sat out that last round. Banshee or Eidel, I guess I could call her now, was working on his shoulder. Apparently when I threw him the joint popped out of place.

I put the scythe back into its holster and walked over to him.

"Sorry about your shoulder."

Claude did this awkward one shoulder shrug.

"Just means you're improving- OW Jesus Shee."

Her red eyes rolled. "Quit moving. I'm almost done."

Mathias tugged on the collar of my jacket.

"Come on."

I narrowed my eyes at him. What the hell does he want?

He sighed. "Please?"

Eidel chuckled. "Go on. He may have some words of wisdom for you."

Claude grumbled something about wisdom from Mathias had come out of flying monkeys asses.

The demi daemon tsked shooing me away.

I stood up and walked over to Mathias who was inspecting the gear.

"Sup?"

He turned to me then back to my pile of clothes.

"You should probably start wearing this while sparing. That way you are adjusted to it when actually fighting."

I looked over and stared a little distastefully at the gear.

What's wrong with my clothes? I had whined a couple days ago.

Not flashy enough. The Games Master's job it to put on the most attention capturing and blood curdling show for the Sponsors. Eidel said in-between bites of an apple. It's all for the money.

The Games Master could kiss my pale white butt cheek for all I cared. There was no way that top would cover my lady bits.

Mathias stared intently at nothing.

I caught him doing this more and more. The longer he does this the more depressing the atmosphere in this damned hole got.

Plus he could pull of the silent tortured crap.

I stepped forward so I could put my hand on his shoulder.

He looked at my hand then to me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You okay Pinky?"

He chuckled at the nickname. Somewhat laughing is better than him getting pissed.

"It's nothing."

Re-Re-Rejected. I sang in my head. His loss if he doesn't wanna share with the class.

"Be that way." I said with a dramatic flip on the hand then a grin.

I heard a chuckle behind me as I turned to head to my corner.

After getting comfortable I didn't fall asleep right away.

Too much on my mind.

1st there was the mystery symbol and who the person behind projecting it was.

2nd the fight in less than 24 hours against a top 5 ranking fighter.

3rd why I was being a creeper for Mathias?

For the first problem Banshee has finally explained to us that she has the ability to astral-project.

Astral-projecting is like the symbol projection, but instead of a picture you are spiritually walking out of your body. Hindu monks had perfected this type of projection through the methods of meditation.

I've never had the patience to try to astral-project but I trust in banshee's abilities.

So basically she is going to walk door to door as a ghost and see what happens.

That solves that problem.

Then I think I have figured out the third one. I think it's because the top 2 problems are so stressful that the third just seemed like a way for my brain to take a break from the stress.

Seems legit. I almost convinced myself.

But then there was that tiiiiiiiny voice behind my B.S. logic that said otherwise.

I'm ignoring that little asshole voice.

I turned onto my side and hugged my legs to my chest.

Then closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Sorry that took so long. Hope you enjoyed it!

~Sirens