It began with the sirens.
Shrill, mechanical, unnatural — they tore through the suffocating silence of the Hollow, making Fred's skin crawl.
The heavy metal doors clanged open, and overseers poured in, wearing black armor and cruel smiles.
They herded the survivors like cattle into the arena.
No explanations.
No mercy.
Theo found Fred's side, terror etched across his face.
> "What's happening?" he whispered.
Fred just shook his head, gripping the stolen map in his pocket like a lifeline.
The Overseers circled them, forming a black wall of death.
Kael stepped forward, whip coiled casually around his arm.
> "Tonight," he said, voice carrying through the arena, "we separate the strong from the weak."
> "The loyal from the traitors."
He paused, savoring the fear.
> "Tonight... you fight for your place."
The survivors murmured in panic.
Theo clutched Fred's sleeve.
> "We can't win," he said hoarsely.
> "We'll be slaughtered."
Fred said nothing.
Because he knew it was true.
---
Kael raised his hand.
The Overseers threw weapons at their feet — rusted swords, jagged knives, broken spears.
> "Pick up a weapon," Kael barked.
> "Or die defenseless."
Some scrambled immediately.
Others hesitated — and were struck down where they stood.
Fred grabbed a dagger.
It was chipped and stained, but it was something.
Theo, hands shaking, picked up a short sword.
Around them, the survivors formed a loose, chaotic ring.
> "There will be no rules," Kael said.
> "Survive."
> "Kill if you must."
> "Those left standing will earn a place among us."
He smiled, wide and cruel.
> "The rest... fertilizer."
Fred's heart pounded painfully against his ribs.
He looked at Theo.
At the red-haired girl.
At the others he barely knew.
And he realized:
He couldn't save them all.
Maybe he couldn't even save himself.
---
The horn sounded.
And all hell broke loose.
Screams filled the arena.
Blood sprayed the dirt.
Fred ducked a wild swing from a boy twice his size, driving his dagger into the boy's thigh.
The boy collapsed with a howl.
Fred didn't finish him.
He couldn't.
Not yet.
Theo stayed close, fighting desperately, clumsily.
Their training in the Hollow had been brutal — but it hadn't prepared them for this.
This wasn't training.
This was slaughter.
Chaos reigned.
Friends turned on friends.
Alliances shattered like glass.
The girl with the scar across her lip — Fred didn't even know her name — was tackled by two boys.
She fought back viciously, gouging one's eyes before she was overwhelmed.
Fred looked away as her screams were silenced.
He had to keep moving.
Keep breathing.
Keep surviving.
---
Fred saw the red-haired girl — the one who had warned him — cornered by three other survivors.
He ran toward her, heart pounding.
But before he could reach her, Theo grabbed his arm.
> "Fred, no!"
> "It's a trap!"
Fred froze.
One of the attackers looked up — and smirked.
It was a trap.
They had used the girl as bait.
Fred backed away slowly, dragging Theo with him.
The girl's eyes met his for a moment.
Full of betrayal.
Then they were full of terror as the others descended upon her.
Fred swallowed the bile rising in his throat.
> I can't save everyone.
> I can barely save myself.
The lesson carved itself into his bones with every scream.
---
By the time the horn sounded again, half the survivors were dead or dying.
The ground was slick with blood.
Fred stood panting, dagger dripping, Theo beside him — miraculously still alive.
Only a handful remained.
Kael surveyed the carnage, expression unreadable.
He walked among the bodies, kicking the weak and wounded aside.
Occasionally, he would nod at one of the overseers — and a fallen survivor would be dragged away.
The ones who couldn't even crawl were left to bleed out.
When Kael reached Fred, he stopped.
Studied him.
Fred met his gaze without flinching.
The whip uncoiled in Kael's hand.
Fred tensed.
But Kael just smiled — a slow, hateful smile.
> "You might last longer than I thought," he said softly.
> "Or maybe... you'll just break slower."
He moved on.
Fred let out a shaky breath.
Theo slumped against him, barely conscious.
They had survived.
For now.
---
Later, in the darkness of their new cell, Fred finally dared to look at the map again.
But something was wrong.
Part of it was missing.
Torn away.
The crucial part — the route to the secret exit — was gone.
> Someone had stolen it.
Fred's heart plummeted.
Was it the girl?
One of the others?
Had they been betrayed from the beginning?
The Hollow didn't just kill you.
It turned you against yourself.
It made trust a weapon.
Fred sat there in the dark, map pieces clutched in bloody fingers, and felt something inside him crack.
A part of him that would never heal.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He was changing.
Becoming something colder.
Sharper.
Deadlier.
And if the Overseers thought they had broken him?
They had no idea what they had created.
---