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┗━━━━°⌜𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘪𝘪 ⌟°━━━━┛
〄 THERE WAS a boisterous beat of classical music blaring around her.
A bright light blazed somewhere above her, though Kai had her eyes closed she could still feel the illuminating beacon shine upon them. Her eyelids felt weighted shut, light glowing through them in a white glow.
Her head was pounding. She moved her jaw, testing her movements, and felt her mouth was parched.
The music continued to play, like a restless alarm going off early in the morning. Though alarms going off were familiar sounds, Kai knew that she was not home. She moved her body, just a bit, and the mattress underneath her dipped with her weight.
Her brain was awake now, with a primal surge of adrenaline that should've carried her up to standing but cold, heavy limbs disobeyed. Background noises, soft, steady sounds of chatter interfered with the music. Kai was curious, for the amount of different voices she heard exceeded her expectations.
How many people, exactly, were here with her?
When she did decide to open her eyes her vision was sleep-blurred and her line of sight obscured by the roof of what seemed like a bunk bed. Out the corner of her eye she could see figures of people moving about. Kai tried to rub the sleep fogging her vision away with the fingers of her hand.
Pushing herself up on her elbows, Kai sat up. The sheer blanket that had rested over her body slid down to her lap.
The room she was in was interesting.
A sprawling space, walls that stretched exceptionally high up. The room was lined with three-bunk beds, so many of them that Kai felt like she could be dizzy. The center of the room was clear, no furniture or equipment in sight.
People, dressed in blue sweatshirts and sweatpants, rose from their designated beds, looking around with expressions mixed with wonder and confusion.
Kai glanced down, eyes setting on her own piece of the uniform. The blue of the sweatshirt was stark contrast to her dark hair. Her eyes caught something else: a tag. It was sewn into the sweatshirt, the number 023 boldly standing out.
Movement stole her attention. People, coming from all sides started moving towards the center. Figuring that was what she was supposed to do, Kai moved along with the human current, getting swallowed up by the sea of blue.
As she walked down the steps and emerged into the clear path, Kai saw a board on the wall ahead. It read: NUMBER OF PLAYERS, 456.
Her eyebrows snapped up. How had they brought so many people here? And, really, were that many people as desperate for money as she was.
The board suddenly became far less entertaining when a man yelled, loud and angry, "You little shit!"
Eyes following the source of the sound almost instinctively, Kai tried to find the culprit of the disruption. Her sight was blocked by the forming circle of people who had no doubt wanted to find out what was going on too.
Kai pushed her way through, not bothering to apologize to anyone in her way. She stopped when she saw a girl drop to the ground.
She would've felt bad - maybe - had the girl not been smiling. Though it was a smile absent of joy, filled with amusements and pride, her lips stained with crimson from the blow she had received.
The girl rose, slow and steady and faced the man who had thrown her down.
Not even five minutes in, and already, a fight had broken out. From what Kai heard the two must have had some bad blood. It certainly seemed so, for the tattooed man continued spitting insults at the short-haired girl, debasing her for the debt she owed to him.
Then the girl had said something to anger the man even more. The cruel humor quickly washed away from his face, and then his fist was swinging toward her.
Kai had thought that she would hear his fist crash with her jaw, but the girl stepped back and avoided his hit cleverly. Then, his hand was around her throat, and his leg was behind hers before he knocked her off her feet.
She collapsed, the sound of her hitting the floor echoing with the crowd's gasps. The girl tried to get up, but the man grabbed her by her hair and threw again.
Kai's interest quickly washed away. Watching other people fight was not her thing. She wasn't a big fan of violence. She retreated back, pushing her way through the now even bigger crowd that had formed to watch the ruckus.
She ascended the steps, one small step at a time, not wanting to hurry. She was half-scared that the game had already started, and this was just a way to test the players.
Kai found a bed in the back, occupied the bottom bunk of it.
The crowd was still gathered in the center, as if the two fighting were bulls pitted against each other solely for purposes of entertainment.
Something tickled her ankle, and Kai glanced down to see a string of thread loosely hanging from her sweatpants. She reached down, twisted her fingers around the string and pulled on it. It came off in ease, and suddenly the string was the most interesting thing in this place.
Kai twisted the thread around her fingers, tied it around her ring-finger, untied it then twisted it around again. Her eyes stayed intent on examining every single part of this thread, her full attention on it.
Had there weren't footsteps that sounded, she wasn't sure whether she would've snapped back from the hypnotic string of blue.
Kai cast her eyes up, and her gaze landed on the girl who partially caused the disruption just minutes earlier.
She was climbing up the stairs, making for the back row of beds, it seemed.
The girl hadn't noticed her yet, but Kai couldn't help but notice her.
Her short hair framed her face like a dark halo, accentuating her sharp jaw and the slender curve of her neck. Freckles dotted her cheeks and nose like tiny drops of paint. If Kai could've mustered even a bit of artistic talent, this girl would've been the first person she would draw. The girl's eyes, dark, almost black, glinted as they caught the light from the ceiling. And in them Kai could see a turbulent of emotions, though she could not make out a single one.
The girl, as intimidating as she looked, was one of the most beautiful people Kai had ever seen. And it sure captured her attention. There was a certain allure around the girl, one that pulled Kai in and left her gazing at the tall, slim figure now approaching closer.
Not wanting the girl to notice she was staring, Kai engaged herself in twisting her string. And the piece of thread had her full attention, yet again.
So engrossed with the string, Kai hadn't noticed that the girl had stopped right in front of her.
