To the Slaughter - Part Four

Here's the next installment. Not the first, not the second, nor the third, but the fourth, where Ana gets a visitor...

***

To the Slaughter - Part Four
By David Zaragoza and Dianna Zaragoza

Ana’s tears ran so much that she moistened the hay beneath her. As the guards continue to take screaming girls out of their cells and out to the arena, she wept again.

“Will you not eat?” the guard asked as she dragged in from the practice room and dropped in a heap before him. “How is your wound?”

She lifted her tunic as he brought a medic pack to her side. As he worked on her wound, binding her up with bandages, she turned to him.

“Perhaps it's for the best that I die here. Your bandaging will do me no good with a knife in my heart.”

“Not so,” the guard tells her. “It's pretty clear the Prince favors you. All you need is to defeat the last two competitors.”

“That is impossible,” Ana said. “I couldn't kill her. The Prince dispatched her for me.”

“If he had not, the king would have ordered the guards to kill you both. There is no way out of this other than to kill.”

“I want to go home,” she cried. “I want to walk the streets to the centersquare again, talk to Thom in his vendor station...why am I here?”

The guard paused. “If I arrange a meeting for you…with your Thom…would you fight?

“You can do that?”

“I can, for a few tics. If I do, will you promise me you will fight? To the death? I cannot bear another moment of your giving up on life and your loves. It is intolerable to me.”

She stared at him. He’d done so much for her already. The simple fighting moves he taught her had already helped her see another rise.

“By your head and your hand, you will do this?”

“Why do you want to extract my sacred vow?”

“Because I know you will not break it.” Why was he acting so exasperated? “If the Prince's favor means nothing to you, you can surrender yourself to the weapon of your enemy. But those you love are relying on you, and you are ready to throw their lives away along with your own. It sickens me! For their sakes, if not for your own…by your head and your hand…will you fight?” He held out his outstretched for her vow.

She paused, then nodded, reaching her hand out to mirror his. “I will. You kindness saved me in the arena. I will do it for Thom, and for you.”

“Wait here.” He stepped out of the room, leaving her feeling small and confused. What had she done? 

She had given her sacred vow…to fight and to kill. To a man whose face she’d still never seen.

But what else could she do? Her life had turned into tragedy, but nothing could be done. No way to escape but through the door of death.

The door clanked open, and Thom was thrown inside the room, landing hard on the floor. She ran to his side and he embraced her as she sank to her knees.

“Thom! I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”

He nodded. “I’m fine, Ana. I’m fine.”

“I never wanted this to happen. You tried to help me, and now…” Tears squeezed from her eyes once more.

They held each other again, and his thumbs wiped the tears from her face and lifted her eyes to his. “I only have a tic or two. The guard told me about your vow. He’s right, Ana. You have to fight, you have to kill. There's no other choice. I don’t think any less of you for this.”

She could only sob, in return.

‘Listen to him, and do what he says. If he’s right, and the prince favors you, we have a chance.”

“But…but I don’t want to join with him, Thom. I want...I wanted...”

Thom nodded. “Just live, for now. I’ll be watching.”

Two loud clanks sounded on the other side of the door, and it swung open. Thom stood, and walked out, his eyes on her, an encouraging look that warmed her and gave her hope, even as the door swung closed, and she found herself alone once again.

***
We're over the hump tomorrow in Part Five, where Ana battles yet again...