Torba

Part 1

The girl took a sip of her coke light as the doctors place monitor pads all over her body. They moved quickly and efficiently whilst trying to avoid eye contact. The girl looked around the pristine, white medical room that’s laced with sickly green curtains. Next to her, on her left, was the silhouette her partner, who was unconscious from the fight. On her right are the opponents and where most of the doctors are at the moment.

            She heard the door open at the end of the room and steady footprints come towards her. She saw the silhouette of the tall, man before his fingers reached out and pulled back the curtain and said, “congratulations, Sienna.”

            The girl observed the Zimbabwean man in front of her.  He had thick eyebrows and eyes that were black; there was a large scar along his left cheek. It was strange seeing him in a suit, he looked scarier than normal but it seemed to suit him more. A whiney noise came behind the curtain to the left, but their coach ignored it. Raphael sighed, “he died again. How long did he last?”

            The girl took another sip before she replied, “a new record, ten minutes and forty seven seconds. When’s the final?”

            “There isn’t going to be a final, Sienna.”

            With that she sat up. What did he mean that there wasn’t a final? Raphael let her have a questioning look for a while before putting her confused thoughts to rest, “the opponent dropped out. The school was concerned for the physical and mental being of their students, especially after your performance in the last game.”

            The girl found her nose wrinkling from the irony. Ever since they developed the drug R.E.D.D.O, elite schools had been training one male student and one female student to be able to use R.E.D.D.O. A promising thought at first, many positive aspects: these children will have successful lives, can drop out at any time and help advance the world whether by helping research or serving a country. But there are negative sides: it was dangerous if it was not in a nullifying arena and you’re in a middle of a fight, it was also dangerous if you over exert your potential and some even go mad from the power. The whole thing was riddled with dangerous and governments around the world have agreed to let these students compete to find who was the most powerful.

            Raphael moved closer and sat on the chair next to her bed, “this does mean that we won this years partners competition. But there is another competition.”

            This caught the girl’s attention, there are only five contests held in Britain each year, the next one wasn’t for six months, “what competition?”

            “A new one that is going to be held only once that is hosted by Saladin.”

            “Saladin? Are you serious? Why?”

            “They have developed a new type of R.E.D.D.O that is only going to be compatible with seven people and those seven are going to be uniquely trained by professionals at Saladin. They want the best of the best, therefore they are asking for the best male and female partner from each country.”

            The girl felt a big smile stretched across her face, “since we won that means we’re gong.”

            The smile spread to Raphael’s face, “indeed we are. But don’t get your confidence up to high. These are elite people so you need to train harder once you and Asher recover.”

            The curtain to the left suddenly got pulled open and Asher was standing there. He was shirtless with bandages wrapped around his wounds and held a grin of anticipation in his face, “when are we going?”

            Raphael sighed at the boy’s foolishness, “soon, very soon.”

 

            A dreaming dozy state was the best state that a human being can reach daily.  A loose sense of time, colors and images. A deeper meaning for those who want to find something and a time for relaxation for those who don’t. But nightmares can be one of the worse things, a mixture of fear that specializes in you. The girl was experiencing a nightmare in the early morning, a mixture of screams and dark images.

            She felt a sense of relief when her mother woke her up and whispered to her, “you have to get up now Sienna, Asher is outside.” Hearing her mother’s request, she rolled out of bed and picked up one of the jumpers on the floor and puts it on as she goes down the stairs to the entrance of her house.

            She could see the silhouette of Asher in the colored glass on the front door. The girl quickly opened the door before slouching into the kitchen and putting on the kettle. Asher followed in after, said greetings to the girl’s mother before entering the kitchen.

            Asher watched the girl take a cookie from the fridge as she waited for the kettle to boil, “that’s not very healthy…” The girl shrugged at the comment and poured the hot water into a mug. “Anyway, why didn’t you come to school today?”

            The girl gave a puzzled look as she placed a tea bag in the mug and stirred it, “you know that those who are apart of R.E.D.D.O don’t have to attend school.”

            Asher grimaced, “that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go. You can use information from school to your advantage, like strategies from wars or using math or science to calculate the effect and strengths of a move.”

            “And yet I don’t die in matches.”

            A bitter atmosphere spread throughout the kitchen as the girl continued to stir her tea. She really struck home with that comment, Asher was constantly training to get stronger, and she was waltzing through.  She felt bad for him, when the offer for the program came out, Asher and others worked hard to prove themselves for the program. Whilst she was selected because of her brainwaves and compatibility with the drug.

            “So are you going to try to get to win the next match?”

            This caused the girl to remember what she was doing, she took out the tea bag and threw it into the sink, “not particularly. I liked the idea at the start, but it seemed like too much effort. I’m comfortable where I’m at now. You?”

            “Of course I’m going to try to get the offer. I’m training harder and I’m getting to skip some classes to spend it with Raphael.”

            “Hmm… So when is this event?”

            “Two weeks.”

            “Two weeks? That’s a bit quick.”

            Asher moved and opened the door to her fridge and took a cookie out. He smiled at it with greed as he murmured, “that’s the best part.”