"Okay, now throw the knife with a flick of your wrist." With Vond's patient instruction, the knife in my hand almost flew into the throat of the cowering Announcer.

"But," I asked my older sister, Vond, "doesn't the red stuff mean they're hurting?" Pointing toward the red blood pooling out of the dead Announcer. "They look like us." In a swift motion, I picked up the dagger from the corpses throat and slashed the palm of my hand. An involuntary yelp escaped my lips as the pain spread outward from the fresh wound. Squatting down to compare the liquid. "Vond! Vond!" I exclaimed. "They're the same! The sticky red stuff!" I looked up from my bangs and half-smiled at my sister.

The red blood pooled on the stone floor, reflecting the light of glowing orbs as well as the dark shadow above. That being the border of our world from the above.

My older sister chuckled and sat on her knees, we were almost the same height when she was on her knees and when I was standing up. Vond and I didn't look very similar, I had dark brown eyes while she had cool blue eyes. My hair was coal black while hers was a dull brown. Vond said gently, "Alex, it isn't what's inside that matters!" I tilted my head in confusion, "You silly goose!" she continued. "You're young, so you don't understand. But, you see, us Diggers, well, we aren't the same thing as those upper class Announcers! It's the Digger's job to move the corpses, you know that! You've done it everyday of your life! It's the Announcer's job to watch over us, contain us... Control us..." There was a certain level of darkness in her gaze. A glimmer of hate escaping her control.

I smiled, "Of course, Vond. I know that!" Looking away, my fingers unconsciously fiddled with the chain shackle around my neck. Sweat formed behind my neck uncomfortably. Though, unsure was I as to why my breath was ragged and my fingers felt cold. I shook my hand turned my head back toward Vond.

She pointed to the chains around her and my own neck, marking us as the undesirable Diggers. "We have chains telling us what to do. They pull when we don't obey, until we're forced to move the bodies or be hung. Lifting our bodies to the sky, never to be seen again... Conditioned, like animals..." Vond's eyes darkened again and her fists clenched, which confused me. I didn't know what an 'animal' was and why she was so angry about it. Vond shook her head and turned back to me. "Alex," Vond said my name, "the Announcers are free! Don't you want to be free?" She gestured again to the chains, leading to the dark sky above. We were encased in stone walls, but the ceiling didn't have a surface. It just faded into darkness along with the non existent ends of our chains.

I smiled and shrugged, "Anywhere's fine, sis, as long as I'm with you!"

Vond smiled down somewhat distantly. She murmured so softly that I could barely hear her, "I'm gonna' miss you..." I turned around about to ask her to repeat herself when a there was a loud siren, meaning us Diggers had to start moving the dead bodies. Vond chuckled, "Okay, you silly little girl, let's start moving the bodies."

"Nuh-ah! I'm not a girl!"

Vond smiled at that. "Then what are you, silly? A boy?" she whispered.

I considered it, yet shook my head, "No..."

"Now then what are you?" Vond was openly laughing now.

"Um... Something else!"

"You silly goose-" Vond was cut off as the shackle around her neck tightened and the chain lifted her off the ground.

"Vond!" I yelled and the chain around my neck lifted me up as well. The world dropped before my feet as the shackle hugged my neck. After several seconds we both were let down, running, whilst clenching our throats in agony, toward the dead body of the Announcer we had killed. Lifting its body, we walked toward the direction of the Pit, where we were supposed to drop it in.

Now taking breaths and calming down, Vond leaned her head toward my small ear.

She whispered to me, "I love you, Alex."

And I whispered back, "I love you too, Vond."

That would be the last time I told her I loved her for a long time.

...

I aimed the knife in my hand toward my next target, another Announcer who stood merely a few feet away.

It had been years since Vond, my sister, left to be a Contestant. Left me.

A Contestant was a person, usually a Digger, sometimes an Announcer, who fought in these... Well, Contests in the Arena (A room just a bit smaller than the room we were in now). It was a fight to the death. Those who lost, died. Those who won were able to live with the Creators as Contestant Winners, Creators being the group of people who, according to legend, created our underground world.

They lived above us, though we couldn't see them. They watched us and pulled on our chains if we stopped our work or even talked too loud. Legends say they hear everything we say, so we must be quiet and repress our contradictions and rebelliousness. That they have no mercy even for those they've created...

My hand holding the knife trembled when I thought of them; Of what deep hatred Vond had had for them.

Contests were five days long. There was a battle every day. Usually hundreds of Diggers would become Contestants and fight, but, inevitably, only one would survive, if that. That person would have to survive four more battle directly after that one.

As one could infer, only few have ever won. Though, we could never know for sure unless we became Contestants ourselves and won. Those blessed few who lived with the Creators. That's where Vond was. She went to the Contests a long time ago, sometimes I can barely remember her face; She promised me she would come back to me. That she would win and save both of us.

Vond was gone now. She either left me or she's de - No, she left me.

Rubbing my temples and clearing my eyes, I desperately tried to focus on the fight at hand. I turned toward the Announcer in it's red coat in order to practise my weapons training, specifically my knife throwing. These creatures were always smiling, even now as this one was crawling away. Its chest had already been slashed by another Digger (Many of us trained in our freetime by hunting these humanoid creatures), but I was determined to finish it off. Blood was pooling on the stone floor, light from the floating orbs, once more, reflected on the liquid.

My boots echoed on the stone floor as I walked toward him, so close was he, that he could have touched me if he wasn't already shrinking in fear. In one fluid movement, I stabbed the knife into his skull, shattering the thin layer of bone easily. Sliding the knife through the toren flesh of his head and into his eye. Torquing my blade to release it and stabbing again, deep into his brain as hard as I could. I twisted my blade again to loosen it and, as I did, blood squirted and started dripping through his socket, onto the stone floor. The eyeball that wasn't torn, bloody, and slowly oozing out of it's empty socket, was frozen, wide with terror. Panting, I turned away.

I never did like looking at the corpses.

Turning back, I began undressing the dead body, avoiding the blood soaked top. I took off it's pants and compared them to my waist. It was much too large. The Announcer was also wearing a belt. I took off the rags I was wearing and began pulling on the Announcers clothes. Only just had I put on the belt and pants when I heard a familiar voice beckoning to me.

"Alex! What are you doing?!" I rolled my eyes and turned around to see Kaynes. Kaynes was another, older Digger, though he didn't start out as one of us. He just suddenly appeared out of nowhere one day and started teaching Diggers who wanted to be Contestants martial arts and weaponry, as well as any other way to kill. Kaynes was the one that taught Vond.

He was also the one that was teaching me.

Kaynes was an older fellow, one would say, his eyes were bright blue and his hair white. Though he was still as sharp with a blade as ever. His skin was dark and richly colored, a vibrant brown. Which was strange, as most Diggers and Announcers were different shades of white and dark grey.

"Calm down, Kaynes," I told the old man, "I was just practising with my knife."

Kaynes stared at me, aghast, and sputtered at me, "Practicing! You just killed a man!"

I stared at Kaynes back, strangely, and replied back, "It was just an Announcer. I kill those all the time."

Kaynes sighed, visibly trying to cool down his temper, "I - didn't realize you did that. Alex, Announcers are human, just like us. We are the same outside-" Kaynes took a knife and slit his palm, red blood seeped out "-and in. Why would you think it was okay to kill an Announcer?"

I shrugged and answered him, "Vond told me so."

Kaynes sighed as if he knew everything now.

"Vond. The best Contestant I've ever trained in all these years. Amazing, because she didn't hesitate to kill." Kaynes shook his head in disgust.

"W-whats wrong with that?!" I asked him, my temper exploding.

"A lot of things!" Kaynes yelled back.

Nearby, Diggers slowly began turning toward us.

"Kaynes," I murmured, he nodded as he looked at the crowd.

He turned to me, in a quieter voice he continued his rant. "If we kill the Announcers, then we're just as bad as the Goddamn Creators themselves!-" I wondered, absentmindedly, about what this 'God' he spoke of was "-Don't you see! We're all the same! To kill an Announcer is to killed another Digger!" I gasped at his statement, killing another Digger? That's absurd!

I told him so, "Kaynes! I would never kill another Digger!"

"But don't you?" I stared at him unknowingly. "You want to become a Contestant, that's why you've asked me to train you. Contestants aren't more than other Diggers. To kill them is to kill a Digger just as desperate to take back a family member." I blinked and shook my head defiantly. Though, I knew it was true. "Listen, Alex, child-"

I cut him off. "I'm not a child anymore! I'm a grown-" I stumbled with my words, not wanting to say woman or man, "-grown... Adult!" Kaynes just sighed and looked away, shaking his head. I crossed my arms around my bandaged chest. "I'll show you how serious I am! I will become a Contestant! I will find Vond! And when I do, I'll come back and show you! Show you I am right!" Tears of anger fell from my face. I looked around me and found the nearest Announcer, this one was feeding a Digger child. He was smiling, grinning, just like all the other Announcers. Always smiling.

"Announcer!" I screamed at him, he turned to me, his smile almost wavering. He looked at me, saw my bloodied Announcer style pants and fell to the ground. I saw him trembling, still smiling though. It made my blood boil. "I wish to become a Contestant!" The Announcer quickly nodded and ran to the nearest exit. It was a doorway with an arch, opposed to most doorways with slits going up toward the blackness. That means it was meant only for Announcers, the Digger's chains would be caught. It led to the Creators.

I saw another Announcer, he looked at me strangely. I ran toward him, grabbing his shoulders, and slitting his throat for vengeance and pure spite. It wasn't its right to look at me that way.

"Alex," It was Kaynes, "I'm sorry for your loss." I looked at him confusedly for a moment until I realized. If I was to be a Contestant, the odds weren't in my favor to come out alive.

But Vond did, Vond lived.

A small voice in my head mentioned how I didn't actually know that. I didn't know Vond was alive.

"Is that all Kaynes?" I asked him coldly.

"No," he said shortly, "I also want to teach you."

"Teach me more?" I commented annoyingly.

"No," he said again, "I want to teach you self defence and how to treat wounds." He sighed. "Vond taught you everything you'd ever need to know about offence. I want to teach you about defence."

I smiled despite my agitation at Kaynes. No matter what he would do, Kaynes would always be like a father to me. "Kaynes," I said softly and gently, "I'll show you. I'll show you how far I've come. How strong I've become. After tomorrow's battle, I'll come back, alive, and show you."

Kaynes smiled back, sadly. "I know," he said, "I know."

I embraced the old man.