Tormented

Chapter 1: Mornings in the Rebel Quarters

Aylex POV

I wake up to the sound of Killer Goats the band screaming in my ear. I get up and shut my alarm clock, I did my usual morning routine. Feed my cats Glark and Blarb, one is a Siamese cat and one is just a plain grey cat with huge green eyes; They stare at Glark in jealously as I pour food into his bowl, "calm down Blarb you'll get your food too" I reach out to pet him but he scratches me. I sigh, this is the same story every day, "ok fine I guess you won't be getting food" I'm bluffing I always feed my cats, but Blarb doesn't know that so he licks my hand and looks at the food bag longingly. I smile at him sleepily and pour food into his bowl, he purrs, satisfied and I head into the bathroom. I do my business, change, brush my teeth, make my hair and exit to get my breakfast. Food in the rebel quarters are hard to find so I grab a packet of beef and potatoes and decide I'll eat a third for breakfast, a third for lunch and a third for dinner. I hear my messenger ring and sigh, probably Jenna. Jenna is my best friend, she knows everything about me, we're like twins except our appearances are different, way different. She has ocean blue eyes that mesmerize me with their depth and beauty, I think she has the prettiest eyes of everyone in the quarter. She has gorgeous dirty blonde locks that fall just above her rib cage, they are straight and super easy to tame unlike my dark red curls that rest at my hip when straightened. But if they're not straight they rest just below my heart, I envy her hair because it is naturally perfect, my hair takes hours to comb out. I have to use so many hair products just for it to look presentable but she's all set, Jenna says she envies my hair for some dumb reason. She says how can anyone who sees me not want my hair? I just rolled my eyes at her, my curls were the worst thing ever. Ok, maybe not the worst thing but still it's a pain to take care of them. Then she has really blue eyes, but my eyes are just a dull green colour. Also she has the cutest nose and mine is just awkward. She has really pink and vibrant lips, mine are light pink and thin, very thin. The only flaw about Jenna is that she's clumsy, I may be less prettier than her but I am strong, tough, and I've seen a lot of gruesome things in my life. The only thing Jenna doesn't know about me is my past, whenever she brings up the subject, I just brush it off saying the past is the past and we're living in the present. My past isn't very happy, it's just, I don't want to talk about it. My messenger rings again shaking me out of my thoughts, I grab it and read the message.

Hey A,

What's up? Probably not a lot. How are Glark and Blarb? Anyways I have big news! It's good and bad, here's the bad part, the War of Torment is being held this year. Here's the good news, they're looking for coaches for the Rebels, no one is volunteering but A you are so good so please do it! We'd win if you did! Think about it, meet me in the square for lunch

Love Ya

Jenna💞

I shake my head and read the message again. Me? Be the coach? I think Jenna has lost her marbles, I would never volunteer for the War of Torment it was far too dangerous and I just didn't want to. I never knew it was coming so soon, I know that ever six years it comes but it's been six years already? The War of Torment is basically a war between the Rebels and the Estates. The Estates are the wealthy and first class people, the Rebels have to work for their food and everything they own, the Estates call us lower class. A couple thousand of years ago the Rebels decided they were not going to stand by and watch, so they declared war, the Estates won and killed the remaining Rebels left. It then became a game, eighty six years later there were people chosen to fight, the rules were simple, there were ninety-eight days to fight, whoever has the most men, supplies and resources at the end would win and they killed the rest of the other team and ruled. So for the Estates they said they would win and continue ruling but if the Rebels won, they would be rulers. Only once did the Rebels win, it was when they had the greatest leader coaching them, his name was Daniel Freddie Greenwood, he is greatly remembered in Rebels history. But the next year the Estates stole the title from us and we were poverty stricken again. I can tell why Jenna wants me to beat the and I'll tell you I sure want to beat those stupid Estates but I'm just not skilled enough. I finished my breakfast and went to work, I worked at a boot camp where we trained young men and women to fight and be strong. I worked with my friend Cain, he was tortured by the Estates for information on the Rebels, he doesn't like to talk about it. Today was a normal day, Cain greeted me with a grunt as a lady stood on his shoulders trying to reach a metal bar. I run over to a man who's trying to bench press some weights and had them fall on him, carefully I put the the weight on its stand and help the man up. His cheeks are red and he looks out of breath, he thanks me with a nod and hobbles over to his wife who looks extremely worried. Finally the woman who is standing on Cain's shoulders reaches the bar and hops off his shoulders, he wipes sweat off his forehead. I hand him an energy drink and he takes it gratefully, I grab my drink and let the cold fruit flavoured liquid run down my throat. It feels refreshing. I suddenly burp out loud, Cain looks at me as he sets his drink down and starts laughing, I hit him on the shoulder playfully. Jenna sometimes helps us teach classes but she's working today so she can't come. Jenna works at the only salon in the quarter, we only have a salon because our Head Chief is a girl and she Uniates on having it built. The Assistant Chief said it was a waste of money, he said we should've built another school. The Head Chief, Theresa said that he should shut his mouth or else she was going to fire him. The Assistant Chief, Antonio had no choice but to stay quiet. The class today was ok except that someone in the woman's bathroom flooded one of the toilets so we had to call Maxi, the grumpy janitor. Cain and I despise her, she hates her job so much I can see waves of negativity radiating around her. "What?" She said grumpily hunched over her cart, "you tell her" I say to Cain but he shakes his head, "no, you tell her" finally Maxi exploded. "TELL ME WHAT?!" I feel like laughing but Maxi would probably me even madder at us so I tell her, "well um, one of the uh, ladies toilets is well er flooded" her eye twitches her mouth is pulled into a frown and she stomps away. "Geez, this place needs a new janitor" Cain says shaking his head, "yeah we need a new place" I say looking around. The place was old, the metal hinges were rusting, door sometimes didn't open, the conditions of the washrooms were just gross. All the equipment was breaking and there was no money to get new ones, it smelled like mildew and mild somehow finds its way to creep in. I hated the place, this was our only proper gym in whole quarter, I heard Cain sighing. "Yeah well we need a new janitor to take care of the place" he says sadly, I know who he's thinking of, Frank was the best janitor ever and he was so kind. The place was clean when he worked here and I enjoyed his company. But that was five years ago, after two years of working here he passed away from disease. Since then Maxi has been working here, she's let the place fall apart. Cain and I both missed Frank, I saw a far away look in his eyes. Cain was older than me by a year, he was 19 and I was 18. He had seen more and experienced more than I have, but I'm a close second because of everything I saw. Again I'm thinking of the past and I need to stop, I was relieved when the lunch break bell rang. I quickly hurried to meet Jenna and tell her she's mad for suggesting that I should coach.

Chapter 2: Lunch and Visitors

Aylex POV

Jenna smiled as I approached her, I saw two small subs on a plate and decided that was our lunch. "So did you get my message?" She asks twirling her perfect hair, "how could I miss it?" I reply grabbing a sub, she swats my hand away and I drop the sub. Jenna makes an irritated noise and looks at me eagerly, "well..." she says. I just shake my head, "are you crazy?" I say trying to grab a sub but Jenna just slides the plate out of my reach. "Aylex, I'm not crazy! Cain says you're the best teacher in the quarter and so does everybody else! You'll be a great Rebels teacher pease do it" Jenna says pouring, she makes the puppy dog eyes and I just can't resist. "Jenna! Stop! I don't want to get killed out there, I don't want to" I say trying to at least grab my drink. Jenna just tells me try it, so I decide I'll do it but if I die she can't have my stuff. She says deal and it's settled. I will be the coach of the Rebels in this year's War of Torment, lots of people look at me sympathetically as I sign my name on to the empty list. Theresa acknowledges this with a sigh of relief, she gets up onto the podium and clears her throat. "Excuse Me! Ladies and Gentlemen as you all know this year will be the 88th War of Torment. No one has taken the responsibility to step up and coach our team but with great relief Aylex Veragedd has! This is a new war and we must believe we can win it! Thank you all for your attention resume with your daily routines" She says and the crowd dispersed. Theresa smiles warily, "ten days Veragedd, ten days to form your team" I nod and salute her, she just shakes her head and leaves me standing there. I feel like I made a big mistake but I already volunteered so there's no going back. When Cain found out what I had done he just kissed me on the forehead and shook his head. "You're crazy! I can't believe you A, do you know what you've got yourself into? Frein Gotts is coaching this year, he's a monster he's going to destroy you" Cain says looking into my eyes seriously. "How do you know him?" I murmur as he hugs me, he sighs as we sit on the cold bench inside the gymnasium. "When I was in the Estate they had him torture....made him torture me" Cain says his grip on me tightening, he sighs and is silent looking at anything but me. "Cain I'm so so sorry" I say through a choked voice, he glances at me and gently kisses my hand. Cain wipes away my tears and stands up, "well Aylex we need to train, you've got ten days to find a team and fifty days until the war" he says lifting up some weights and handing them to me. Smiling I take them, the night is quiet, all I can hear is our grunts as we increase the number of pounds on our weights. Cain and I finally head to my house, he decides he's staying with me tonight. I open the door, it creaks a little, I see a new message on my messenger but am too tired to check it. I put out the night lamps and shut my appliances off. Cain changes into a loose cotton shirt and shorts, I grab my shorts and t-shirt. I let my hair out of my bun and quickly rinse my mouth with water, Cain does the same and cleans out the cuts from our workout. I help him bandage his bleeding hands, he smiles at me and crashes on to my bed. I laugh silently and climb in, Cain is asleep and I can hear his breathing slow, his arm is wrapped around my torso loosely. I sigh and let my eyes close, all I see is blackness then I see bodies, tons of bodies just littered on the ground. I see pools of dark red surround them, I see a man with his eyes wide staring back at me, a sword is shoved into his chest. My eyes burn with tears and I look away, I see a man with a wicked smile he lunges toward me and then I wake up. I take huge breaths, my lungs feel like collapsing, I realize I actually was crying during the dream and I knew what it meant. It was a warning that I shouldn't have volunteered. I wanted to tell Cain but he was sound asleep, I heard his soft snores and decided that it could wait till the morning, after all it was two in the morning. What seems like two minutes of sleep I wake up, Cain stirs in his sleep and stretches his arms. We both yawn, "morning" he murmurs sleepily, "you too" I mutter back. He looks at me concerned, I stand up and go to the bathroom and follow my routine. Glark and Blarb scratch my door , I hear Cain take them downstairs and feel grateful, I love my cats but sometimes I'm not in the mood for them. I wash my face and see the dark circles under my eyes, I use a small amount of cream and rub it on the dark circles. I remember the dream and shudder, it was just a dream, I grabbed a pale grey sweater, jeans and a blue shirt. Once I was dressed I saw Cain look at me curiously before going to the washroom, I look throughs my cabinets and find the beef and potatoes packet. Cain return and looks at me weirdly as I open the barely eaten package, "hey! What's this rubbish?" Cain says grabbing the packet from my hand and putting it away. "Hey!" I shout, he just sighs, "do you except me to eat that stuff for breakfast?" Cain says and finds the peanut butter. "Cain! I'm running out of peanut butter so don't use it!" I say grabbing the jar from his hands and putting it back. "Oh well that's a shame, peanut butter is hard to find these days and whoever finds it charges so much for it" Cain says, "thank you for the report, not, that's why we leave my peanut butter alone" I say irritatedly, he nods and sits down at my old wooden table, the chair creaks under his weight. I find that I have three unopened jars of jam, I grab three pieces of bread and spread jam on them, I place two pieces of bread on Cain's plate and put the other one on mine. I grab two wooden glasses and fill them with goat's milk, Cain thanks me as I hand him the plates, we sit down and thank our lord

before we eat. After we say 'amen' I dig in, the jam tastes so sweet and I can't believe I haven't noticed until now, yet tastes great with the bread. I see Cain smile and he finishes his two pieces quicker than me, he gulps down milk and nods toward the door. "I'll see you at work ok?" Cain says tucking his chair in, grabbing his stuff and leaving me alone. I finish up my breakfast, grab my stuff and head out as well but I'm reminded of the message on messenger, I grab it and read the message.

Hey, A!

Good news! I found ten people to be apart of your team, they're well...they got lost and so I told them that visitors have to fight and well they agreed. They just said on one condition, after the war they get to go home. We have to take them home, I feel bad to know they won't survive but whatever talk to me soon. I'll be at the gym tomorrow morning see you later!

Love you, Jenna💞

I scoff, it was unusual for Jenna to trick people into doing her dirty work but I was grateful because no one wanted to join so it was going to be tough and she saved my butt again. I jogged to the gym and saw Jenna and Cain teaching the class, Cain sighed of relief when I walked over. Jenna looked at me seriously and motioned to ten people crowed in the back, they looked confused and not fit to join the Rebels team but I didn't have a choice so they should work fine if I can whip them in shape. "See them?" Jenna whispers and I nod, "yes, but how did you convince them?" She just smiles, "I told them they would get paid for it" she whispers and Cain glares at us because we're disturbing the class. I laugh loudly but that doesn't help my case, Cain introduces the activity and everyone gets to work, he walks over to us. "What's going on with you two?" He hisses, "apparently Jenna's found my team" I tell him through snorts of laughter. "What? How?" Cain asks curiously, Jenna points to the people in the back and whispers, "it's them, they're visitors and I managed to convince them to fight" Cain shakes his head disbelievingly, I stare at them and find myself worrying. "Jenna they're not, um, well they're not fighters" I protest