He doubled over, wheezing with surprise. “You fucking bitch! You’re going to pay for that.”
His large, calloused hand rose to slap me, but one of the other guards stepped forward halting him midair. “You know they don’t like it when we’re late.”
“Watch your back you little bitch, I’d hate for you to end up dead before you even started the games,” he sneered. Dread, cold hard dread settled into my stomach. I’d heard of accidents happening to contestants before. It wasn’t uncommon for a few to end up dead before the games had even started, but his warning sounded like a promise he intended to fulfill himself.
“Davis, we gotta go.”
The one called Davis flared his nostrils as he looked down at me one last time before righting himself. “You’re right, this one’s not worth it. She’ll be dead soon enough anyway.”
The guard’s words followed me all the way down the stairs and into the living room where my family waited for me with forlorn expressions, save for Marley, who looked like she would burst from the excitement. I clutched my suitcase in my hands so hard, that my knuckles were blanched stark white with the strain. My skin was still tingling from the guard’s touch and my stomach was churning with nausea. I didn’t even eat that morning for fear of throwing up.
“Remember to be ruthless, my darling,” my maman whispered as I crouched down to kiss her cheek. I inhaled the familiar scent of lavender and hoped this wouldn’t be the last time I saw her. Just in case, I memorized the faint lines around her eyes and mouth. The way her eyes misted over with tears, and her brown hair done in a similar braid as mine. It tookevery bit of strength I had to not break apart right then and there. Her thin hand cupped my cheek sending a sharp fissure in my resolve, but Davis was all out of patience. He hauled me away fingers tightly gripped around my arm, shuffling me out my front door to be shackled like a prisoner to the float. His cruel expression turned almost giddy as he pulled the metal tight around my wrists before locking them into place The restraints bit into my skin as he sneered down at my misfortune, happy to be apart of my demise.
“Don’t trip,” he taunted, taking up his position to escort the contestants to the catacombs, but not before knocking my side and making me falter in my step. I brushed away his words, not wanting the encounter to get under my skin. I had more important things to worry about, like how in the seven hells I was going to survive.
Maman stayed behind as the rest of my family boarded the parade float. I watched my mother’s face disappear from sight with fear gripping my heart as I was yanked away by the chains as soon as the float began moving forward. It was a red and white beast filled with flowers and blue glittering ornaments. No matter how prettily they dressed it up though, it still was an open-air cage designed to drag me off to my uncertain destiny.
The parade to the game was long and grueling. We were required to pick up all the contestants along the way, and the temperature was quickly climbing. From my vantage point, I couldn’t see them joining us but could hear the moment that they emerged based on the crowd’s enthusiastic reaction. This parade was for the people, but the games? The games of Nocturne were for the gods.
The chains around my wrists were heavy and dug uncomfortably into my flesh, leaving angry red welts. That jackass made them too tight on purpose. I hoped he wouldsomeday accidentally shoot himself with that gun of his. Maybe in the groin. A girl could dream.
The longer we walked, the more my nerves rumbled around in my chest. The arrondissements were arranged in a circular pattern, twisting from one into the next. Several contestants had already been picked up, but there were still more to collect.
I could feel my exposed skin beginning to crisp from the unrelenting bright sun and it had me wishing I’d chosen another outfit. Maybe something with more breathability. I’d been preparing for the cool underground, forgetting the trek there would take hours through the streets of Paris.
The air smelt of sweat and freshly made bread as people packed the route to wave us off. Like lambs to the slaughter.The cheers from the crowd were nearly deafening. Everywhere I looked, there were glittering gold masks staring back at me as people waved enthusiastically from all over. Some were hanging off their balconies, some had climbed up light poles, but most were pressed along the barricades that lined the uneven streets, eager to see this year’s contestants. Celebratory music pulsed throughout the city as we wove through the web of streets that led to our final destination.
We passed the Notre Dame crossing over the Seine where rows of boats were filled with spectators, dining, and drinking, and waving at us. There were several bodies on display, strung up for their crimes in the square, as a reminder of what becomes of those who cross the gods, but today? No one was paying their decaying corpses any attention.
Usually, I would spend this day tucked away inside, hiding from the commotion with my nose in a book. But today, I was the entertainment. Someone to take a bet on. I felt like a spectacle being picked apart as I walked by, escorted by the royal guards while the rest of the city celebrated the day off, grateful to have been spared or just elated to have an excuse to get drunkat nine in the morning. My brother, Jean, my sister Marley, and my father all accompanied me on the way, sitting in a place of honor on the float ahead of me. All the contestants’ families had one while we were dragged from behind, tethered. Marley was in her element, playing to the crowd, while Jean and father looked on stoically.
As we moved, I could see more of who was being carted off to the floats. The time gave me an opportunity to examine my fellow contestants.
From where I was located, I could only make out about half of who would be playing, but from what I could visualize, I was in for some stiff competition. There were several heavily built men, whose muscles seemed cut from stone, and the girls had a cunning and quick look about them. One of the contestants in particular with dark unkempt hair and broad shoulders, kept looking over at me with a smirk on his lips like he might try and eat me for breakfast. It was unnerving and made my stomach roil.
Once we arrived at the gates, we were allowed to say our last goodbyes as spectators looked on cheering for us. A court jester was hanging above the crowd on a high wire, doing flips to the crowd’s delight. There were dancers balancing on the tops of round hoops and jugglers spread throughout. A man blowing fire was stationed near the entrance and I made a mental note to sidestep him, for fear of singing off my eyebrows.
The entrance to the catacombs had been fashioned as a stone devil skull, with horns and its large mouth sat open wide, swallowing anyone who passed through whole. It sent a shiver of fear along my skin, knowing that once I entered those gates, I might not come back out again.
The guards unhooked our chains from the floats giving us agency to move about freely once more. My eyes swept over thecrowd looking for Theo. He promised he would meet me here, but so far, I couldn’t find him.
My father gripped me hard around the shoulders and pierced me with a serious look. “My darling girl, I know that you might want to go for the healer’s mask for your mother, but I need you to listen to me. This place is a death trap. You know how the gods like to play. You must pick a mask that gives you a chance to survive. Your mother and I will understand. Just make it home to us, Pigeon.” Unshed tears clung to his irises and gutted my already emotional heart.
I wanted to tell him what he wished to hear, but I also couldn’t lie to him, so I just hugged him tightly, tucking my head against his chest wishing beyond all hope that this wasn’t really happening, and I’d wake up in my bed. He smelled like the clay he worked with daily, though he was wearing his finest clothes as was expected, who he was at his heart shone through the spiffed-up veneer.
“I’m so glad we went with this outfit instead of the red dress, it would have gotten ruined in this heat,” Marley said. I smirked, thankful for her lightness in that moment. I felt seconds away from crumbling or taking off, chancing the guards shooting me right in the back. Maybe if ran fast enough…
But I knew how that ended. The gods would have their due one way or another and there’s no outrunning one of the gods once you’ve been summoned.
Jean clapped his large hand onto my shoulder. He’d be gone for training before I got out of here. If I got out.
His blond hair had already been buzzed giving his normally boyish appearance an edge. He looked so grown.
While we weren’t as close as me and Marley, he was still my brother.
“Stay alive down there.”
“You too,” I replied, knowing that after training they’d most likely send him right to the border where the fighting was mostly concentrated. Every so often, the fighting would get closer to the city gates, but that hadn’t happened in months. People still were acting as if everything was normal, just as long as the sound of the bombs were out of range, they could pretend we weren’t in the middle of a war that was killing our loved ones daily. So many of the people I went to school with had already died because of it. At least twenty percent of my graduating high school class, but people still fervently believed the gods had our best interests at heart and were doing a great job protecting us. I didn't feel protected with numbers like that. What was most infuriating about the whole thing was when people genuinely looked confused when you brought up the war. They couldn’t fathom why anyone would be concerned about it since they claimed we have the best army in the world. I couldn’t relate to that type of thinking, and now here I was, saying goodbye to my brother worried for his safety. And for mine. Both of us being directly impacted by the whims of the gods. Him by being drafted against his will, and me being summoned against mine.
