Challenge The Proud

Ark Knight Trin

"As soon as she looked in the mirror, she regretted it." - Challenge No.19

THEY PUT CADET TRIN into a dark room. She could hear the Terror breathing in front of her, a few yards away. This was it. The final exam. All she had to do was survive the fight with a Terror. How fierce and skilled could this one be? Especially since it got itself captured in the first place.

But Trin was expecting the worst. Tentacles. Fiery breath. Claws. All of the stuff she's heard about Terrors ever since she was a kid, and even the stupid stories that the other cadets told just to scare each other. Every gruesome detail flooded her mind, right then and there. The Terror had sharp teeth, big claws, was sixty feet tall, could stretch its limbs as much as it needed...

The lights went on in the gray windowless room, and a cold tone on the intercom demanded: "Begin!"

Trin found herself face to face with a teenage girl, maybe only four years younger than herself. The girl was curled up in a ball, sobbing and sniffling as terrified as anyone would be. A hologram victim? But then where was the Terror?

She slowly walked toward the girl, wary of her surroundings, her long sword ready to strike, just in case.

"It's fine. No need to cry, yeah? Just get behind me. I'll pro -"

A dark tentacle spawned from the girl's back and swiped toward Trin. She leaped to the side and the tendril missed ruffling the air. A tainted current hit Trin's face - the smell was disgustingly sweet.

It made no sense. Terrors were little girls? No time to think about it though. Trin had to act. The tentacle sought to coil around her and just as Trin ran to the left, another tentacle lashed at her. It threw Trin across the room. The girl was clearly, not just a girl. More tentacles came at Trin and she had to move fast, dodging the lashes, and ducking the instant the tentacles tried to wrap around her. She had lost her sword, but Trin understood that it wasn't any good now anyway. So she ditched her heavy shoulder guards and chest plates throwing them to the floor as she ran around the room trying to avoid the tentacles.

Trin was swift and limber. Her side arm in hand, she knew that all it took was one misstep for her to get strangled or ripped apart by those tentacles, but she also knew that all it took for her to win was a moment of luck. And in a fight, the best kind of luck is the sort you make for yourself.

She fired her side arm and the red beam burned a hole through one of the tentacles. The Terror shrieked with pain and for a brief moment the tentacles retracted toward the girl. With the corner of her eye, Trin noticed the tentacle healed quickly. Then the dark appendages hurled and lashed in a vengeful torrent toward her from all sides. Trin dropped flat to the floor and shot the gun at the girl's feet, then quickly rolled out of there, avoiding the piercing end of a tentacle. The scream told her that her shot had hit its mark. Trin grabbed the nearest tentacle as it retracted out of reflex toward the girl.

Everything was over in a couple of seconds, but in that time, the world had slowed down almost to a stand-still. Her gaze met with the girl's teary, wide eyes and as her arm pointed the gun at the girl's head, she still wondered if that was a Terror or just a girl. Trin pulled the trigger and the girl's head exploded showering the wall and Trin's face in red. She could even feel the taste of blood on her lips and it wasn't any different from her own. What did she just kill?

* * *

Trin was feeling dizzy. She had a knot stuck in her throat and no matter how many times she swallowed and coughed, the knot did not budge. This was it. The moment she would leave the tattoo chair, she would be an Ark Knight. She would have the face markings to proudly show her allegiance and occupation wherever she went.

The numbness in her cheeks and jaw felt strange.

"Almost done," the tattoo artist spoke lowly with a smile.

He was leaning over her, his breath falling upon her forehead at times.

She wanted to smile. Maybe even offer a confident: "Take your time."

But really, Trin couldn't move her jaw or even make a grimace. Her muscles were forced to remain relaxed by the local anesthetic.

Getting your Charuk was a big deal. Not just for you, but also for every Ark Knight in the Colony. They were all there that evening. Standing in a circle around the tattoo chair, watching the artist mark the new Ark Knight's face with the crimson symbol, and cheering once the Charuk was complete. That was the graduation ceremony.

Trin had made it. She couldn't believe it, but she was one of them. She kept telling herself that she had succeeded.

And the moment she stood up from the tattoo chair basking in the cheers and greetings of her peers, Trin felt like she belonged. For the first time in her life, she belonged. So she saluted her fellow Ark Knights and hugged her colleagues - the seven people that had persisted throughout the training and that had passed the final exams, out of the total sixty-four cadets that had initially entered the gates of the Ark Academy only two years before.

She wanted to see herself - the new Trin. Ark Knight Trin. Some of the guys pointed in the direction of a mirror - the one at the end of the hall. Her steps echoed inside the narrow space, bouncing off the metallic walls and resonating throughout the maze that was the Recreation level of the Ark Academy.

Becoming a cadet had been one of the easiest decisions Trin had ever made. She needed to get away from a demanding father and a stiff mother. She wanted to be free. To Trin, joining the Knights was a way out and the best thing she had ever done but as soon as she looked in the mirror, she regretted it.

Who was that looking back at her? Who was the crimson face sternly peering out of the mirror with a spiteful smirk playing on her lips? That was no longer her face. That wasn't even Ark Knight Trin's face. That face was the face of a killer.

Trin covered her mouth to make sure none of her whimpers got out and turned her back to the mirror squatting down, with her head lowered. It wasn't true. She wasn't a killer. She had only done her duty. She had only taken the final exam and succeeded. She had taken the life of a Terror. Wasn't Terrors what Ark Knights killed every day on the battlefield, just a few clicks away from the Colony? Wasn't Terrors what she basically signed on to kill for a living? So why was she so torn up about the final exam?

She cried. There was no one and nothing else but sorrow. So she quietly let out her tears. And once that was done, there was nothing left. Trin stood up and dared to look at herself in the mirror again. She expected to be overwhelmed. She was certain that she'd need yet another crying session to clear her mind.

But this time she recognized the face in the mirror. Her dark hair was short for obvious practical reasons. She had pleasant features, like her button nose and rosy well-defined lips. Her mother used to say that if only she had cared enough to display some proper manners, she could have even married one of the council members and joined the Colony's political elites. Her face was that pretty. But Trin had never wanted to be just another pretty face, especially since her mother had expected that of her.

She ran her fingers over the crimson tattoo that covered most of her face, tracing its lines from her brows to her cheek, then her upper lip, then her round, dimpled chin. It was a skull. The Charuk symbol was a scarlet skull.

Trin took in a deep breath and smirked bitterly at herself. Even after her sobbing, she looked like a proper Ark Knight. Proud. Strong. Confident. And with a face forever painted red with the blood of her enemies.

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