It was a day to the trial, I and Mr Gregory were sharing a snack on his cushion, something we usually did every day after training.
I had stopped going to school about the same time I and Mr Gregory became a team, we decided that it would be better if I utilise my time for training, both mental and physical.
And it had been worth it, my mind was as versatile as ever and my body was perfectly formed, every muscle tightened and perfected to give a hundred percent.
We said nothing for a long time, just sat and listened to the loud radio while eating.
"Are you ready yet?" He finally broke the silence
"No" replied simply. And it was the
truth
"How did you feel when you received the invitation?" He asked again
I didn't understand the twenty questions, but I figured there was a reason behind it, there always was.
"Cassie come to the kitchen" Mr. Gregory called out.
I was on the ground floor of his apartment building, one of the rooms being the general gym everyone in the building used.
"I'll be right up" I had replied. I had doused up two bottled water and walked swiftly up the stairs to his apartment, trying to keep warm
"This came in the mail," he said pointing at a folder on the kitchen table.
I walked swiftly towards where he stopped and stared down at the folder, it had the stamp of the Alpha Royal Academy.
It was the result of my application for joining the competition, the reason why I had gone to Bloomsville High School.
The High School selected extremely brilliant students every year to represent them at the trials.
And then the Academy would then decide how many and which students they wanted in the screening
I stood looking at the folder for a while, I guess it was a while too long for Mr. Gregory because he tapped my shoulder
"Go on," he said
I took the folder and noticed that my hands were steady, I thought I would be more nervous than this about the fact that I had wanted this my whole life.
I tore through the folder and pulled the letter out, several other papers fell out. I took the letter out of the bunch and stared at it.
It would either be acceptance or rejection.
"I felt… Ready. I still do" I finally replied to his question.
"My work here is done then" he replied
We stayed that way for a while longer. I didn't know if it was because we both knew would either make it or wouldn't, live or die.
The trials were the most mind-blowing competition any beta would ever go through, and I was no typical wolf, so my chances were even slimmer than normal.
So we sat there and shared what might be our last drink together, just mentor and student. And the loud radio disturbed me.
"Have a nice time during your stay here at the Academy," the receptionist said.
It was evening and I had finally reached shanty. My flight had taken nine hours from Bloomsville but I was finally here at the Academy.
Everything from the first class tickets that had come together with the letter, to the driver waiting with my name in the waiting room at the airport had screamed so much money.
I had wondered briefly on the drive to the Academy if every player had been given this kind of treatment.
It had been three hours driving through shanty before we finally got to the Academy. Golden iron gates
automatically opened on our arrival. The drive from the gate to the inner campus was about an hour.
The place was absolutely beautiful with many towering buildings and sections.
We passed by so many eateries and shopping malls I almost asked if we were in another city.
The car then finally stopped in front of the building.
The driver had helped me unload my small bag, it contained all the things I needed for my stay here.
I was finally escorted to the reception before the driver bowed in farewell before leaving.
I now had my keys to the room I would be staying in. And I was shown to my room.
It all just felt different, this wasn't how I thought the whole thing would happen. I had thought the competition would start as soon as I got there, hence why I was dressed in my new training outfit, but I didn't mind.
I finally walked into my room for the next three weeks and let myself fall back on the Queen bed. The room itself was a luxury.
There was a door I knew led to the bathroom.
I took the flyer from one of the cupboards by the bed. It had numbers to dial for room service.
I was famished and decided to quickly order. Food then sleep, in that order.
An alarm woke me up instantly, and I sat straight up from the bed. I looked around me in shock
what was that noise?
"Attention! Attention! All players should be dressed appropriately and at Hall Gamma in thirty minutes"
Hall Gamma? Where was that?
I swiftly came down from the bed and looked down at myself. I was dressed in a white vest and white pajamas.
When had I worn these?
I was sure I hadn't gone to bed in these clothes. I went to the closet and opened it. There was a uniform with my name on it.
I quickly put it on, trying to understand what went where. It was at least ten minutes before I finished dressing up.
I was dressed in a black bodysuit, something that held tight to my skin, but at the same time felt so light it was almost as if I was wearing nothing.
I stood in front of the mirror, trying to see what I looked like. I looked ridiculous.
The person that came to my mind when I looked at myself was the black widow. The uniform looked exactly like hers, only mine was pure black.
I didn't know what to do to cover my head. There had been no protective cover for it.
It had been a while since I went to the salon to get it reshaven so there was a mat of white hair on my head.
Body fat and things I had always hidden were all there in the open to be seen.
I knew there was going to be a problem if I let my head out like that, but I knew there would be a bigger one if I covered it up. So I let it be.
"Why is your hair shaven? Don't think I don't notice despite the hoody" said Mr. Gregory one afternoon.
"I just like it that way" I replied, nodding
"Are you sure? Because I thought at first it was because you were ill or something, but I have seen you leaving the saloon where you get it cut often. Why?" He asked again
Damn he was persistent
"I just like it that way," I replied.
To be honest, I didn't like the attention the color of my hair brought, something I had realised I had always preferred since I was young. My hair has always been shaven, that was it.
"You do know you look weird bald right?" He asked again, munching on chips
"I didn't realise you were such a talker" I replied, teasing...
"Wait till you...."
I couldn't help but remember my conversation with Mr. Gregory, Well, it couldn't be helped.
I walked out of my room and watched as several other players dressed like me walked out of their respective rooms toward the corridor
I joined them and looked around. They all looked so different, something I was expecting but still took me by surprise
There was a guy with dreads, and a woman who was naked except for the bra and panties she was wearing. People of different ages and colors all dressed up.
I was beginning to think this wasn't what I might have signed up for.
We all slowly walked into a huge hall, and conversations were so loud and crowded that the hall hummed with vibration.
I was sure we were more than a thousand wolves playing, we were that many.
"You are all welcome to this year's Alpha Royal Academy Competition. I would like to congratulate all those in attendance, you were all specifically selected individuals and we are happy to have you here this year".
This year's competition will be a two-stage trial. And today, you will be facing your first trial. These are the rules.
The guy I had met during my breakdown, was the one with the forest eyes.
He was standing on a huge podium, wearing a get-up suit like mine, only his had stripes of red in it.
And an array of equally dressed-up commanders stood behind him at attention.
We watched as the podium they all stood on lowered slowly, taking them along until they were underneath the hall and covered.The ground we all stood on shook and reverberated as something unimaginable happened before our eyes. The four walls of the huge hall unhinged from the edge and opened up slowly, like literally opened up and all four walls slowly fell back to the ground. We were in the centre of a forest, a huge forest. We were all on the floor of the hall and the hall itself was in the middle of a clearing with surrounding forest all around us.Up on the sky literally just hanging was a digit counter, and it had the figure one thousand written in words. I bet you could see that from anywhere in the forest, I guess that was the whole point"Here are the rules" it was forest eye's voice but on a loud speaker, we could all hear him loud and clear, it was just like another part of squid game"There are no rules in this round. Get to the edge of the forest and get on the boat.
I thought the knot holding me to the tree would not withstand the force of my body being shaken over and over again. So I had to turn over again and hug the tree as tightly as I could. I was getting dizzy as if I was going to faint and I could have sworn that a little of the food I ate earlier had gotten back into my mouth.I was going to dieThe thought came into my mind and the fear inside me ignited. I had not proven anything to myself or to anybody and here I was about to die. The thought didn't sit well with me, I didn't want to die, not now, not yet.The constant hitting and pulling was having an effect on the tree, and I couldsee as far away roots of the same tree snapped as they were pulled deep from the ground. The monster literally held the whole uprooted tree in his embrace. I thought I was dizzy before, but I wasn't, not yet.He swung the tree in his arms here then there, trying to shake me off the tree. I didn't even realise when I closed my eyes, and I was really ge
It stood facing the water with me still in its grip. It's hold on me was no longer tight and my ribs had fully mended. I had no idea what it wanted with me until it walked forward towards the water, as if to dive inside, then everything clicked.This monster wasn't comfortable eating me because it wasn't in its natural habitat, it had been forced to kill and eat the player that attacked earlier but that was all. I on the other hand was going to be taken into the water where it actually lived, to be properly eaten. I needed to get out of its grip if I intended to live, if I got into the water with it, it was game over for me.I tried extending one of the fingers I had stuck in its palm. It was hard and it felt squished against my body but I did it anyway. When my finger was aimed at a part of its body, I immediately called my wolf to the surface.This was very risky because all the time I had called my wolf, people died because I didn't have control of my powers, but I didn't exact
We were about to take off when I saw the pregnant woman and the man had also started untying their boats as well. It wasn't long before everyone was doing the same. I guess they had just been afraid to do it.We were all soon underway. Even the very injured ones had a boat of their own and were all rowing.It was a complex boat but with a simple mechanism of usage. All we had to do was sit on the edge and row, it wasn't even heavy.I looked down in my boat and saw that there was a compartment. I stopped rowing and shuffled towards it. It was easy to pull open and inside it was a crossbow, some knives, a net and a map.I was quick to take the map and look into it.That bastard, every single word he had said had an innuendo. I thought as I recalled what the instructor had said to us.I looked up and realised that they had all stopped rowing and were watching me.When had they all started looking up to me?"Take a look at the compartment and look at the map!" I shouted, waving the one in
"Okay I didn't understand what he meant by a letter arriving but I needed to hurry to find out. Highest points? That sounded like me and also not at the same time."Come come. I made your favourite. Lasagna" he said as I walked out if the room was refreshed.He made an elaborate show of opening the cover and the smell of herbs and meat hit my nostrils. I loved lasagna.It wasn't long before we were clearing our dishes and shoving them in the dishwasher. Then we moved to the living roomCoach had a paper with a list of questions he wanted to ask me, I immediately realised his behaviour was so me. I would do something like that if I feared forgetting what I wanted to say or ask"How badly were your injuries?" He asked first.I was curious as to why he wasn't asking me to just tell him in full every single detail of what happened"I broke a rib or two. I had some scrapings. It made things painful for a while before it healed" I replied"How bad were the injuries of some of the players?"
"I won't go back"Mr Gregory stopped what he was doing and looked back at me. We were both hiking, having started since morning and were on our way back. It was currently mid afternoon but still pretty cold in February. We were dressed quite snugly in our tracksuits He stared back at me for a second before he resumed walking. He didn't say anything for a long time"Can you live with the decision?" He finally askedI said nothing the whole way home. We were now back at home and I stood on the other side of the kitchen table as he took bottles of water from the fridge and passed one back to me.Our gaze clashed and held, feeling a shift in the atmosphere. This was an important moment for both of us"I can. I have to live, and I won't if I go back. I can always find the answers another way. And I will, not just the way I wanted. But I would find them alive" I repliedI had really thought long and hard about it. It was the right thing to do for myself. I had wanted to be at the Academy f
The slap came out of nowhere. My right hand already hit him in the face and his head had hit the trashcan a few feet away before I realized that I hit him.It was tense for a moment before the others attacked. They all turned at once, their eyes turning red and claws unsheathing. I could see as their jaws started changing, one of them was tearing out of his clothes and even turning, they were five of them including the one struggling to get up from the ground and I didn't have time to think anymore, I just attackedIt was the most exciting thing I had ever done. The sound of wolves snarling and growling as my fists connected to them, hitting body parts apart of theirs felt soothing to my ears. I was more in tune with my surroundings and I could hear or percieve an attack before it even got to me. I had most of them whimpering and struggling to rise up at the end of three minutes.I looked around at the ground. A few were still able to get to their feet. I didn't like that, I wanted
The six hours flight to Brittania was...quiet. The passengers had been all quiescent and nobody had made a ruckus, I didn't even remember hearing anyone say anything. It could have been because I kept listening to music on my phone or the sleep I had on the later part of the flight. But now that I remember it, everyone has just been...quiet. it was oddI met the same man at the terminal with my name written on a board. He took me on the same car through Brittania to a hotel. It was...huge.I was currently standing in front of the same receptionist who went ahead to register me. Then I was escorted again to my room.It was now midnight and had been told I would be conveyed to the arena when the time was right. Maybe later tonight, or maybe early tomorrow morning. All I knew was that I needed to be close to let that happen.I wore my training clothes and walked from my room to the quiet hallway. It was midnight and hence most players who I now knew were in the other rooms were all