Little Spy | Peter Parker ✓

[2]

IT WAS UNUSUALLY WARM in the courtyard, especially for Northern Russia, where there was always a brisk wind or a chill running down the streets and into people. It felt wrong, in a way, as if it was some sort of omen gesturing that something bad was going to happen. Considering we were lined up, facing another student, waiting our chance to fight with no rules or form, that very well could be true.

I was the last one, placed due to my height and weight. My 'opponent' was Anita, someone with a stockier build but a smaller frame, leaving us with a somewhat even playing field. She, along with me and a few others, had been at the Academy the longest and were to soon be considered for graduation if we could pass through the extensive ceremonies following. 

I didn't bother to hide my scrutinizing stare, and neither did she; we were both examining each other, trying to find some way inside, some sort of vantage point that would help us win the fight. 

Anita was well built and indubitably stronger than me, but that meant she would be clumsier, less sure on her feet. I was lithe, agile, meaning if the opportunity presented itself, I could get inside her shields and win the fight. That was if the opportunity presented itself. These competitions were like a game of chess; one wrong move of the other opponent and someone's plan would be ruined. In order to succeed, you always needed at least five ways to win.

"начать", Madame announced, watching the two girls in the ring with her usual calculating glare. 

Begin.

It was as if in that moment, a switch had been flicked in the two's heads, immediately morphing them from meek, obedient students to wild beasts, ripping and biting and tearing at each other as if they were locked in their own war. It was scary, watching; not because of the girls themselves, but how much they - we - wanted the recognition. No one wanted to be left behind, for although going forward was a difficult path, it was better than anything else being offered to us.

Madame stared with a sort of sick fascination, cruel eyes glittering as she watched the two girls, ripping at each other with every ounce of strength in their small bodies. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. They would not stop until one had won; that was the way it was.

It was sick, really, the fact that this was a thing; forcing girls to watch their own peers tear at each other like beasts, while the girls fighting were forced to go as long as Madame wanted, even sometimes ending in death. It was even more sick, however, that Madame enjoyed it, more than I thought was possible for a human being. For although it was her job to train us, to make sure that we were as stronger as possible, anyone could see in her eyes that this is what she lived for. Every swipe, every scream, every groan of pain and sorrow - that was why she was here. To make girls lose every inch of innocence possible, to turn them into the machines necessary.

The fight was only five minutes, though it felt more like five centuries. In the end, the blonde, Clara, was pinned down, denounced as the loser. It would be much harder for her to advance from there, for once someone loses a round, they carry that with them for the rest of their time at the Academy. I would know; I had only failed once, in the beginning, but it had set me back several years in training, and I had to push twice as hard to continue down my steady path.

"достаточно," Madame announced, causing the two girls to break apart and morph back into the quiet little girls they really were. She stepped into the ring, gesturing forward the next two girls. "начать."

Begin.

We watched, each of us standing as still as stone, as each pair fights until they are battered and bruised, some girls faces' unrecognizable in the end. And each time that someone else stepped forward, and the lineup got shorter and shorter, my heart beat faster and faster until I was sure it would fly out of my chest and into the ring instead of me.