Faith (Book Two)

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

I missed this month's meeting and now I have two weeks before the next one. I have been keeping my head down since my last beating and figuring out the new guard's behaviors along with their patterns. I didn't recognize half of the people that are now employed here but the staff has also decreased a lot.

Nobody will speak to me or even look at me, and it is probably for the best at this point. On one hand, I wanted to gain their trust so that when everything goes down, they would know that they are safe, but on the other hand that is far too dangerous and suspicious and would only paint an even bigger target on my back.

I have also been undergoing even more grueling music lessons, seven hours of playing a day followed by three hours of vocal lessons. I am only granted a break for lunch and if I am scheduled to spar for a day. As I am on my way to my sparring session for the day I finally decide to act.

"I need to use the restroom," I say, and the guard turns and sneers at me.

"Hold it," he says.

"I just got my period," I say, and his eyes widen before narrowing.

"You have two minutes," he says pushing me into the communal bathroom a few feet away.

I grab a pad off the shelf they are kept on and rustle the packaging around in the stall before going idle. I can hear the guard becoming irritated outside but purposefully take even more time. Stepping out of the stall I check to make sure no one else is in here, most people are at lunch right about now.

"Maestro, get your ass out here," the guard growls but I just walk over to the sink and pull the little device out from my bra and turn it on. Sliding it back into place I hear the guard storm into the room.

"Stop," I say sternly and his boots squeak to a stop.

"Come closer," I say, and he mindlessly walks over.

"Listen to me carefully," I say, and he nods as if he were a rag doll.

"At the next monthly meeting you will start an all-out brawl with all of the guards, everyone has to be engaged, and a lot of people need to get hurt. You will forget that I ever said this to you, but you will know what you need to do without a reason," I say, before spinning him around. I turn off the little device and slide it back into place.

"Hey, I'm ready to go," I say and the guard spins back around with an annoyed face.

"Finally," he spits before dragging me out of the bathroom.

Walking into the room I see a boy I don't recognize along with another guard I also don't know. The first guard takes his leave and I begrudgingly walk over. Standing across from the two men a chill goes down my spine at the look in the older man's eyes. The boy next to him couldn't have been any older than me, and he is quite small, maybe five-seven and way too thin. But from the scars on his knuckles, I can tell he is a strong fighter.

"Fight," the guard says and the boy lunges at me.

I sidestep him and trip him, but he easily regains his composure before coming at me again and we break out into a fight. I eat quite a few punches from being rusty, but I am quicker than he is, and I manage to blind him with a sucker punch to the face before monopolizing on it and assaulting him until he hits the ground.

"If you want to win this fight Maestro, kill him," the guard orders, and my body stills.

The boy tries to swipe my legs, but I easily block and pull him into a leg hold. He screams out in pain and I ease up ever so slightly. He writhes around and tries to flip us, get an upper hand, I can see the desperation in his eyes. He knew that this was a fight to the death far before I did. But I will not kill, they will never break me like that. My humanity is one of the few things I still have left.