The Arena novel Chapter 2

I have no idea why Cedric suddenly believes there’s a way for us to escape from this place. We’ve exhausted every possibility of escape. We’ve both tried to pull our bars apart, we’ve attempted to not eat the food in case it was poisoned, and we’ve tried climbing the walls to get to windows or air vents. Cedric even tried shifting, but he was unable to. I tried as well, just in case it would work, but it didn’t. Nothing has worked.

The only way we are getting out of here is if someone comes to our rescue. My family is gone, so I know there’s no one out there looking for me. Cedric strongly believed that his pack would come to rescue him, but they never did. It’s not that I think they left him for dead; based on what he’s shared with me, I think that they either were brought here and died in battle, or they were taken for experimentation. Either way, they’re probably dead now.

The day I was captured, my family chose death over the possibility of being experimented on. At that time, we were unaware of the existence of the arena. This part of the underworld is so deep that most supes don’t know of its existence. If they did, places like this would be burned to the ground.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t supes that help the hunters. Whether it’s because they are crazy or they are trying to save someone they love, some supes infiltrate different places and provide the hunters with a way to capture and imprison us before forcing us into the fighting ring.

I reach over and grab my food, snarling at the guy next to me. “What are you, anyway? Some kind of scavenger?” I ask him. He’s lanky and unkempt. He looks like a coyote shifter.

“What’s it to you?” he asks.

“Nothing, just curious. If you’re a coyote, they’ll probably match you with something bigger than you, a bear or maybe even Shere Khan over there.” I nod my head at our resident Bengal tiger.

I watch his face turn pale as the tiger shifter turns and looks him dead in the eye. Even though he doesn’t speak much, he’s very observant. The Bengal tiger has been here nearly as long as Cedric and I have.

I eat my food, and Cedric offers me some of his. “No, Ced, eat it. You need to keep your strength up,” I insist.

“Says the girl who keeps healing me,” he replies before pushing the food at me. “Eat. I’m fine.”

I finish my meal, and then we go through the list of those who lost their fights today.

“The girl who, I’m pretty sure, was a bird shifter,” Cedric tells me.

“The tall, skinny one from three cells down?”

“Yeah, the one that they brought in yesterday. She didn’t make it.”

“I’m not surprised; she was too skinny, and birds never survive in here. And, obviously, the warlock and the Kodiak didn’t make it,” I state.

“I heard rumblings today that they have a dragon,” Cedric says.

“A dragon?” I ask. Shit, did they figure out what I am?

“Yeah, something about some rare dragon they brought in yesterday. He or she is up tomorrow. I guess we’ll see if they survive.”

“Aren’t all dragons rare?” I say jokingly to Cedric while freaking out inside. If there is a dragon in here, then they will recognize me as one of their own. A dragon always knows another dragon.