Kaynes and I practiced until a siren went off. It was the siren that told us to work, moving the bodies of the dead Contestants. I tried to avoid the idea that it would probably be me who the Diggers dragged into the pit tomorrow.

I walked toward the largest opening in the wall - It led to where the Contestants fought. The nearest Contestant was being slashed to pieces as I stood, the Contestant doing the mululation letting the body drop and move toward her next victim. The dead Contestant was torn along the belly. Looking away as the guts slowly slopped onto the ground. Wincing, I gingerly put my hands under the Contestants shoulders, holding them by their armpits, I began the unpleasant walk to the Pit.

The Pit was a giant hole where we threw the bodies. It was manned by a group of special Diggers who turned a giant windlass that would lift a vent-like lid from the large hole. No one knew why there was a lid to where we threw the bodies, but no one questioned it. No one wanted to see the wrath of the Creator if we weren't supposed to wonder.

I continued dragging the man. As I moved quickly, more gut juice spewed onto the already-blood stained, stone floor. Looking away, I continued to walk.

As soon I got to the new room, which held the pit, I threw the body into the hole. There was a squish as it fell onto other dead bodies below. It was a morbid world we lived in.

I went back for another body, and another, and soon the siren wailed yet again, signalling for us to stop. Finding Kaynes, we trained. As he taught me various defence techniques as well as where the weak parts of the human body were.

After a while, another siren went off again, signalling for us to sleep.

The other Diggers and I all layed down and curled up, on the stone floor, into a giant pile of Digger bodies, the chain and shackle around me neck resting uncomfortably while it touched my skin. My head was resting on someone's arm. I didn't know whose.

I stared at the darkness above. The glowing orb light began to fade but my eyes remain open. Tomorrow I'm going to be a Contestant.

The thought filled me with dread, though I didn't know why. Wasn't this what I wanted?

...

Night became day, and the glowing orbs that floated in the sky brightened. Today was the day I would be one step closer to freedom.

I looked around at all the Diggers yawning and waking up, but I didn't see Kaynes anywhere. Shrugging, I walked over to an Announcer with a blue coat who had just started feeding us breakfast. Most Announcers had red coats, but the Announcers with the keys had blue coats. The chains that lead to the ceiling would also immediately hang you if you tried to attack them. I looked him in the eye, he flinched. After realizing what I meant to do, the Announcer looked at me and nodded. He led me to a small corridor, a door. It wasn't the type used to accommodate chained Diggers, only Announcers and free Diggers, Contestants, were able to pass these doors.

The Announcer took a key from his back pocket and unlocked the chains around my neck. They clangned onto the ground as they fell. I smiled grimly. Now I was a Contestant. I needed to fight to survive. Fight, and kill, other Diggers.

With that thought, I sighed. My eyes were crusty and tired.

"Are you ready?" The Announcer asked in a strange, foreign accent. The Announcer was smiling, like all Announcers were supposed to, but this man smiled, not of malice, but of sympathy. He knew I probably wouldn't survive. To be a Contestant Winner and live with the Creators, you had to win five fight-to-the-death Contests. It seemed impossible sometimes.

I nodded my head, thinking to myself, Why is he so kind seeming? I'm a Contestant, he's an Announcer. We're enemies.

After the Announcer handed me weapons (Including throwing knives and daggers), he walked me down long hallway after long hallway. We found ourselves in a large room shaped like some sort of circle or oval. There were doors all over the room. Diggers stood by each door. I noticed the scars around their necks from the chains, shuddering and fingering my own scar.

My Announcer left, whispering "Good luck" as he left. I was left alone with the crowd of other soulless Diggers, Contestants.

I heard a scream as one Contestant threw a dagger into a neighbors chest and chaos ensured. More screams and gasps of pain as I threw one of my throwing daggers into a girl around my age, ducking as another went my way. I pranced around the room, slicing unprotected armpits and leg tendons. Not outright killing anyone myself, just making it easier for others to kill each other.

In other words, I enjoyed until I was the last one standing. Slaughtering the crying little boy.

I smiled as the adrenaline pumped through my system, my skin hot and wet. Feeling alive.

...

"Kaynes!" I yelled to the room with the Diggers. I had a personal Announcer with me to make sure I didn't escape as he escorted me back to the Digger's area. I smiled at that. Why would I want to escape? Soon, I would win and see Vond. I would take Kaynes with me and we would all live together with the Contestants.

"Kaynes! Where are you?" I continued yelling again and again, Kaynes wasn't answering. I ran threw the crowd of Diggers, my Announcer just barely keeping up (A different one than the Announcer that had brought me to my first Contest. He had a similar accent to the blue-coat, but his eyes were white while the first one had grey. This Announcer said his name was Hamal). Looking for Kaynes, my voice grew frantic. Where was Kaynes? Did he die? Was he hung then? "Kaynes! Kaynes, where are you?! Kaynes!" My heart started beating frantically. My fingers started to tingle, and I began to sweat.

"My dear," said a soft voice of an old Digger woman, "if you looking for Kaynes, he's gone."

My heart froze.

"W-what do you mean 'gone'?" I asked the strange, old woman, my voice trembling. Was my worst fear true? Was I alone again? "L-like d-d-dead?"

My heart then began beating faster. And faster. And faster, until it almost burst. My stomach tore itself into knots.

"No..." the woman looked down. "He went away, that's what he told me to tell you. He has gone away somewhere far away, saying he loves you and to never hope to see him again." The woman looked back at me mysteriously. "Some strange men took him away. One was very large and fat, the other was a strange peach color with a scar on his cheek."

My fingers felt frozen, my toes tingling.

Gone? I stood, thinking to myself, Kaynes, gone?

The world turned fuzzy and my vision blurred.

This can't be... He - This can't be... Kaynes, gone?

My head started to hurt and the outer rim of my vision turned into static. I didn't notice I fainted until I awoke on the floor.

"Alex! Alex!" I was awoken by Hamal, the Announcer, as he shook me awake. I squinted at him and sat up.

"W-what," I stuttered, "h-happened?"

"The Digger told you a man named Kaynes was gone and you fainted! Are you alright?"

No... No... It can't be... I felt frozen inside, but ice turned to fire as my shock turned to anger and panic. As I realized that Kaynes must have left me, betraying me... I ignored the fact that people came to take him away. Hamal tried to help me stand up, but I swatted him away and stayed on the ground.

I fingered my knife, switching it between my finger over and over, cutting the flesh. My blood started to wet my grip. The world hazed and morality had no reason.

My knife slipped from my damp hands, wet from blood. I pressed my hands against my eyes, incidentally leaving red handprints on my eyes, staring at the blood. My bloody hands. In a sudden movement, I screamed and pressed my hands again my ears.

No no no no.

I dropped to the floor, holding myself in a ball and grabbing my knife in protection. My anxieties tumbled within me, I felt like throwing up.

No no no no.

Sitting up to my knees, hyperventilating. I stared at the knife. My hands trembling uncontrollably. I needed it away from me. I needed the memories of Kaynes and him teaching me gone so I threw it. I threw the knife, the weapon as it reminded me of him, as hard as I could toward the nearest shadow in my vision. Who just so happened to be poor, young Hamal, the Announcer with a strange accent. The knife lodged itself in his throat.

Making a choking sound, Hamal opened his mouth, blood splattered onto my face. Gasping for breath, the Announcer gripped at his throat, grabbing the knife. His fingers wet with blood, he fell to the ground, still holding the knife. Trying to dislodge it before it was too late.

But it was too late for poor, young Hamal.

I sat. Struck with the realization that I had killed an Announcer, not like any before, because this Announcer had a name.