Eunice, the maid whose name I overheard from one of the cooks, brought me to the kitchen as promised. It was impressive, and slightly jarring, to watch the staff scramble to set a small table as if lives were at stake. I looked on, wide-eyed, as one of them fanned out a white cloth, draping it over the table where I sat. At the same time another started placing way too many pieces of silverware for one person. I looked up at him, confused, as I counted the number of spoons and forks. Why do I need two of each?

  "You’re going to embarrass me aren’t you...” Belial mumbled. “The short one, USE THE SHORT ONE.”

  How would I embarrass him? Nobody even knows he exists...I eyed both forks, finally realizing what he’d meant. Smiling, I decided to use the long one just to spite him.

  Whatever the cooks fed me was unlike anything I’d ever tasted.

  “What ith thith,” I managed, through a mouth full of food. It had layers of soft, golden sheets, with mushrooms. Each layer had some red sauce that I realized must be made from tomatoes in between.

  “That’s Lasagna, ma’am,” one of the cooks said, watching me wearily as I devoured the food like a wild animal.

  “Well ith amathing.” I proclaimed, huffing in another mouthful despite the unsettled looks I was getting from the staff. What? I thought, had they never seen someone eat?

  “Can you please stop speaking with food in your mouth. You’re being uncouth,” he sniffed.

  I cleared my throat, embarrassed, when a loud belch slipped out.

  “Uhm…Excuse me,” I managed, cheeks flushed as Eunice stared wide eyed at the floor.

  Shut up, I thought, as Belial made a series of gagging noises. My protest only seemed to egg him on, as the noises became a chain of coughs and wheezes that I assumed was his version of dying.

  I finally got to hear the end of Belial’s complaining as Eunice led me to a room where a bath had already been drawn. I was grateful when she didn’t insist on helping me wash. Instead, slipping out after making sure I knew how to make it back to my room. I made it there without incident, though I couldn’t help but feel it was strange how much they trusted me to move around on my own.

  I fell asleep that night staring at the open window, wondering how far I could make it if I ran.

  “Not far, I told you we need to be patient.” Belial answered my thoughts, “Now go to sleep, I’m trying to watch my soaps, and your thoughts are distracting.”

  His response made me want to tear my eyelids off out of spite, but I was too exhausted to put the little demon in his place. Instead, I begrudgingly did as he said. Nodding off to the sound of wind scraping the leaves outside the window.

  I woke to the feeling of cold marble beneath my feet, mind racing as I tried to figure out why I was standing in the middle of the room.

  “Don’t look down until I’ve had a chance to expla-,”

  I looked down. The sight sent me reeling back, feet sliding over something wet as I collided with the bedframe. The bed slid across the floor, pushing the nightstand with it and knocking over one of the lamps. I gave myself a moment to catch my breath, waiting until my heart stopped thudding in the center of my throat to speak.

  “Belial,” I said, struggling to keep the tension from my voice, “why is there a guard lying on the floor?”

  “Uh, that would be because he’s dead.”

  “Uh huh, figured that…from all the blood…”

  “Oh, you mean why is he dead. Great question…Other than interrupting the season finale of Android’s Embrace, he was trying to kill us.”

  “Was that meant for me?” I asked, eyeing the syringe sticking out of the man’s neck. Only then did I notice the blood on the floor hadn’t come from any wounds to his body. Instead, it drained onto the floor from his ears and mouth. I cringed, realizing how much he’d vomited up. “Why aren’t you freaking out? We need to run before they send someone else.”

  “I don’t think Lord Caelan sent this guy.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because someone locked him in his room.”

  “What? How do you know?” I crossed my arms, patience unraveling as he managed a sigh that lasted three entire seconds.

  “From the ‘watchy-eyes’, as you call them. He's been pounding on his door for the past twenty minutes. Oren's on his way back to the estate, he was running an errand for Lord Caelan on the other side of the city."

  I shook my head, resisting the urge to ask how he'd figured all that out as I turned toward the window. “Should we escape?”

  “You keep forgetting about that collar.” he said, as I wrapped my fingers around it, cursing. “Besides that, I don’t think we’d last long. Whoever orchestrated this really wants you dead…and whoever they are, they’re powerful enough to turn half of Lord Caelan’s guards against him.”

  I wondered who I could have possibly pissed off, hardly anyone here even knew I existed. “Do you think someone's trying to keep me from getting to the tournament?”

  “Most likely, but I can’t figure out why. Among all the other gladiators, you aren't all that strong...no offense...but I’d only give you about a 4% chance of winning in your present state.”

  “Gee, thanks.” I said, adding the stress of the tournament to my list of anxieties.

  I almost leapt from my skin as something bashed against the door. “What is that?”

  “Ah, I should have mentioned that...” A section on the wall opposite the bed lit up to form a screen. It took me a moment to realize Belial was showing me the view outside my room, as each thud against the door coincided with a frustrated guard driving his shoulder into it. “These ones came to finish the job when Needles here didn’t check in.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Two others stood next to him, one of them had some sort of device with wires extending to a panel near the door. “That one with the data pad…Oh. Sorry, I forgot who I was speaking to. The one with the swirling magical glass-,”

  “Shut up.”

  “Okay, okay.” He made a clearing noise, despite not having a throat. “He’s the one who sealed Lord Caelan’s door. I sort of...copied his trick to keep them out...anyways, there’s nothing to worry about, that door only looks like wood. There’s no way those morons are getting in."

  As he said that, one of the guards reached into a duffle and pulled a black rod-shaped device with a handle on one end. The others stepped back as the guard twisted something on the device and a blue-hued plume extended from the tip.

  “What is that?” I asked, alarmed, as the guard pointed the device at the door. I turned my gaze from the screen to see an orange spot the size of a button glowing on the door. My eyes went wide as a fiery tip poked through, sending up bluish smoke and shooting sparks into the room. Slowly the tip moved downward, cutting in a line.

  “Hmm. Perhaps there’s one way those morons could get in.”

  “What do we do?” I panicked, moving to look out the window. The second I did something streaked past my head, hitting the wall behind me with a crack and showering me with splintered wood and plaster. My ears rang as I hit the floor, heart slamming against my ribcage.

  “Wow. We came very close to becoming an entirely different state of matter.” Belial noted, as if we weren’t in the worst situation I could imagine for myself. I held my hand to my chest, trying to steady myself as I stared at the newly formed crater in the wall, imagining what my head might’ve looked like had it found its mark.

  “What was that,” I managed.

  “Looks like some kind of projectile, I think you people call them bullets. Probably best if you don’t get hit by any of those.” I rolled my eyes at the incredible wisdom he’d bestowed upon me.

  “Do you have a plan?” I asked, still prone on the floor as I looked around the room for anything I could use as a weapon.

  “Not really, I was kind of hoping you would think of something.”

  “You’re sure Caelan didn’t send them?” I asked, grunting as I used my feet for leverage to snap one of the posts from the bedframe. The heft of it splintered away. I was pleased to see it had cracked along the middle, forming a jagged tip on one end.

  “Positive, he’s still trapped in his room.”

  “How far away is Oren?” I asked, crawling toward the open window across the room. It seemed a bigger threat than the door they were still working on cutting open. I sat up, my back against the wall as I clutched the improvised weapon to my chest. Head turned to one side to watch for anyone trying to climb in. I didn’t have to wait long as someone swung past me into the room. I could tell it was a woman by their build; despite the guard’s armor they wore. Did all his guards turn on him?

  She must’ve seen me from the corner of their eye, because she immediately spun to face me, detaching the metallic rope from her hip. Time slowed as I surged up at her from the floor, driving the sharp end of the bedpost into her neck. To my dismay, it only splintered off her armor, the force sending her stumbling backwards. Seeing an opportunity I sprang, swinging what remained of my bedpost at the weapon she held and knocking it from her hands to slide across the floor. I charged at her, more projectiles whizzing over my head as I passed the window. Each met the wall with a crack, clouding the air with dust as I charged, slamming the guard against the wall.

  “Ooo, put her in a chokehold!”

  Somehow, I instantly knew what he meant as I slipped behind her, bringing my arm around her throat before she’d regained her balance. I squeezed with all my strength, pushing into her with my chest. She struggled, grunting as one of her arms tried to pry mine away, the other straining to reach something on her thigh.

  She drove me backwards into the wall, my breath spilling out as I met it with a thud before tightening my grip again. The momentary lapse must’ve been enough for her to reach the object on her thigh. Panic surged as I caught a glint of steel.

  I craned my head to one side as she swung her arm up to drive a knife over her shoulder, its tip caught my ear before stabbing into the wall. I cried out, tightening my arm until I felt the armored plates around her neck start to give. She must’ve felt the same, because she started stabbing frantically. I tilted my head right and left as she stabbed over each shoulder, trying to find my face. Belial giggled like we were playing some kind of children’s game.

  I cursed when the knife's edge found my cheek, deciding strangling was taking far too long as I released her neck and shoved her away. My jaw dropped when her head exploded into mist. It took a moment to realize what’d happened, she’d been shot by the person outside.

  “Wow! Did you plan that?” Belial asked, sounding amazed.

  “Sure,” I said, relief washing over me as I slid down the wall, exhausted.

  “Two things. First, I can tell when you’re lying, and second…you forgot about the door.”

  “Fuck,” I said, seeing that the guards outside had almost finished cutting out a square. “Is Caelan still locked in his room?”

  “Yes, and if my math is right, Oren is still at least three minutes away.”

  “You said you copied what that guard did when you sealed my door, can’t you just…unseal Caelan’s?”

  “Tssch, no, I can’t just unseal his…oh. I guess I can. Okay. Looks like he’s on his way here.”

  “How far?” I asked, squinting through the bluish smoke that clouded the whole doorway. Behind it, the glowing red square was inches from completion. I guessed I had maybe ten seconds.

  “Hmm. I don’t know. Soon?”

  I was running out of time. I slid the guard’s knife towards me with my foot, the blood on its edge reminding me of my wounds as I grasped it. I lifted a hand, relieved when I didn’t find any cuts on my ear or face. Belial must’ve healed them.

  I stared at the headless body on my floor, noting the angle between her and the window as I traced the line to the door with my mind. It, along with the woman’s weapon, was in the line of fire. Even if I knew how to use it, I’d be red mist by the time I’d picked it up.

  My arms hung at my sides. I didn’t stand a chance, not three against one. In a few seconds they’d burst through the door and kill me. They’d begun pounding to dislodge the square from the door just as an idea struck.

  “What are you doing?” Belial asked, as I dropped the knife, stretching out a hand to grab the headless guard’s leg. “They won’t fall for that again.”

  Hoping they might, I pulled the body toward me, grunting as I lifted it up by its torso. My muscles burned as I crouched there, holding a dead body over my head as I waited for the first guard to burst inside.

  “Well, I hope this works, because the other two guards have Lord Caelan pinned down…plus you look ridiculous.”

  The metal plate clattered to the ground as a guard stepped through the smoke. I hurled the body toward the door, hoping that if our shooter didn’t bite, at least it’d knock the first intruder back.

  Neither happened. Instead, the headless body flopped harmlessly against the floor, several feet from where the intruder stood. I cursed, realizing the blood on her armor made me lose my grip too soon.

  The guard paused to look down at the body before tilting his head as if to say; ‘what the fuck?’

  “That… wasn’t even close... Now he just thinks you’re some lunatic that shotputs dead bodies for fun.”

  I let out a final, defeated breath, collapsing to my haunches as he aimed his weapon at my head. Closing my eyes, I decided my last moments were better spent picturing my family than glaring at my executioner. My jaw clenched in irritation as Belial burst into a sudden fit of laughs.

  Can you shut up, I’m trying to imagine my family.

  After another moment of insufferable laughing and wondering why I wasn’t dead, I heard something clatter on the floor. It was the guard’s weapon. His body limply dangling from a thin blade piercing through the face of his helmet.

  “I am terribly sorry about all this. I hope you’ll believe me when I tell you this isn’t a typical experience for my guests.” Lord Caelan said, propping a foot against the guard’s lifeless shoulder to aid in pulling the blade from his head.

  “There’s someone-” I stopped myself. Why was I warning him about the shooter?

  “Already dead, Oren got him. We need to go; I’ll explain along the way.”