Another YouTube Fairytale: Matt's Life In Hope Square; Book 1

Chapter 18 - Into The Arena

They sat in silent contemplation upon Matt's defense. They could feel the darkness around them, the tight spaces of the boxes somehow getting smaller. 

"We..." They heard Teala speak up. "We are ALL going to live." She said. "All of us." No one said a word, but turned in the direction of her voice. "Right?" 

Matt nodded from his own place. "Right. We're all getting out of here." 

Suddenly, the lights turned on. Despite the only view into the outside being through the tiny peepholes in the boxes, the light still streamed brightly into the boxes, nearly blinding them all. They could hear each other's grunts as they attempted to shield their eyes. 

Matt, being the one who had last seen light, and very recently, adjusted first, as everyone else had been in the dark for weeks. His finger had the thin golden stripe directly through it. His fingers played with the light, before Matt looked through the hole. 

He could see only directly in front of him, seeing a box, he assumed it to be the same size as his. Inside the box was another eye, peering out at him. It had to be one of the others, but Matt assumed from the person's long eyelashes that it was one of the girls. 

There was damp stone below them, tiny pools of water forming in the cracks, and around them, more stones, piled high up in a circle, making a sort of coliseum shape. But the worst parts were the seats. They were filled to the top with men and women, all thin and bony, starved to the bone, and scarred, dirty, ripped up clothes around their bodies. It was obviously very deep in the dungeons, maybe in an area that more closely resembled the sewers. The lowest level of the whole village, holding the lowest of people. 

"The Daggers." Matt whispered to himself. 

Suddenly, an eye looked back into the box through the peephole at Matt. He jumped back, hitting his head on the roof. The owner of the eye laughed. The crowd had no idea what was so funny, but if that guy was laughing, it must be funny. So they all laughed, too. Daggers find pain and suffering to be funny or entertaining. Matt reminded himself. Don't give them the satisfaction. 

Matt watched as another Dagger, a man, approached the box right in front of them and removed the latch. Matt was right about his assumption that it was one of the girls in the box, because there was a woman curled up inside. She was very thin, almost as thin as the Daggers themselves. Most likely because of a lack of food, over a period of several weeks. Matt had to assume that it was Sayfia, since she was there first. 

Almost as a cruel joke, the Dagger who opened her box bowed and extended his hand to her, like a true gentleman. Gritting her teeth, Sayfia took the man's hand as he gently helped her up, her other hand balled into a fist. She knew how to operate these guys; give them just enough of what they wanted, but she would not loose her pride. The whole time she looked at Matt's eye through the peephole, as if trying to give him that information. "This is how you should act, so watch me." She seemed to be saying.  He picked up her message, loud and clear.

Matt leaned over a bit to see two other boxes open up, two other Daggers opened the boxes in the same way as Sayfia, the cruel irony of their manners on full display. The other two boxes held the other two girls. One was fairly tan, with small facial features, and the other was a bit tall, with a fairly large nose and lips, though she was still as pretty. 

The shorter girl, being very confused, took the man's hand and he gently helped her up, leaving her to stand next to Sayfia. As for the other girl, she didn't bother taking the guy's hand; she slapped it away and stomped off next to the other girl. Matt associated their attitudes with what he had heard from them. The short one must be Teala, while the tall girl was most likely Colleen. No matter what they looked like though, they were both fairly thin. Nowhere near as bad as Sayfia or the Daggers, but they were still in rough shape.