A Collection of my Writer's Games Entries

Hourglass Games: Task 2 (Maisy Bellon) D10

Task: Bloodbath

I paced up and down the room. I was claustrophobic in here. My stylist sat on the couch, babbling on how fun these Games would be to watch. Fun? It made me want to puke over his ivory coloured skin. He was the first person that I had wanted to punch in my entire life. But he just chatted onwards to himself, not even realizing what he was saying would affect me. To be honest – I couldn’t even remember his name, not that I cared anyways but he was annoying me so much. And I didn’t get ticked off easily. My usual personality was buried deep – right now I was too afraid to be myself. Too afraid that I might lose myself by killing these people who – like me – had been Reaped for their death. I wasn’t sure I would kill someone if I had the chance. I only had my father back home – no one else. My step-mum was okay but her daughter was a cross between a hideous troll and a wild boar. Fat and mean in one go! I hated that old cow.

“Do you want to stop pacing? It’s driving me insane!” my stylist interrupted my thoughts. I glared at him.

No, I do not want to stop pacing you unbearable human gremlin!! I wanted to shout but I knew that wasn’t me. I took a deep breath.

“Sorry. I’m just so nervous,” I muttered and walked over to the table and took a sip of water. The 60 second buzzer had gone off a while ago but time seemed to drag by. I could just feel each grain of sand going to the bottom of the hourglass…..

“30 seconds.” The voice buzzed. I placed the water gently down – I was shaking like a leaf. I wiped my sweaty palms on my outfit that they had me in before walking to the glass tube. My mind wondered what the arena would be like. A frozen wasteland, a dark forest, rolling meadows or maybe just a lava pit. The possibilities were endless. Each arena could just as easily be torturous than easy. I shivered. Mutts. Anything and everything could be in the arena.

Suddenly the glass tube encased me and I felt even more trapped than before. My stylist gives me a beaming smile and I wave a goodbye. He may have been an evil gremlin but he did dress me and see me off. He would probably be the last civilized person I would see in my life – if you could call him that.

I placed my hands on the cool glass to give me some security. I was in total darkness and this tunnel seemed endless. You’ll be fine May, just calm yourself down. Breathe in, and out. That’s all I had time for because then I shielded my eyes from the brightness of day. The Head Gamemaker’s voice drilled through me while I surveyed the arena.

“Welcome to Memoryland!” she beamed. I didn’t bother listening – I was trying to figure out my Game plan, if I could live long enough to execute it.

In a way, the arena was beautiful. With the crystal clear lake, the small island in the middle with the flowering cherry blossom tree. But the weapons that dangled from its limbs were a reminder that this was no time for admire the beauty: it was time for death. I continued to survey the arena around me. To my left is a volcano with a small amount of lava but a huge cloud of ash billowing from it – it seemed as if it wouldn’t explode but I wasn’t going to take my chances there. In front of me is a vast desert landscape and as a gust of wind blew, I had to shield my eyes from the sand that wafted towards me. To my right are roses. Numerous colours and sizes covered the area along with the shades of clay and mud – some hedges were carefully placed and from above I would imagine it to look like a maze of sorts. Then a glance me showed a dark forest where I would picture a troll or witches to live in.

One thing was for sure – I was terrified. The places look either too uninviting or too good to be true. From watching those horrifying Games in previous years proved that nothing was ever safe – something lurked in each corner. I was almost glad when I realised Ransom was next to me, I glanced at him quickly – not meeting his eyes.