Tournament of Trials

by J Niessen

  *****

  08: The Gladiator

  Garrison and I share the same mom. He has her better qualities. Judging by the way my stepbrother looks at me, he intuitively seems to know that I am born with a dark seed that my father Jim spawned. I once believed it was my dad’s anger in me that makes me black out and lose consciousness. Later I realize there’s a dark spirit assigned to me, attached to my soul. Even though fulfillment is absent, I embrace these matters anyways. All of this revolves around where Jim and my mom work. My dad brought something to Earth from the Voltaire Facility.

  Jim passed down the artifact to test me and my stepbrother. He wanted to see who would take on the responsibility of controlling it. Garrison wants to find Mom, and is the reason he makes such spur-of-the-moment decisions. Jim tells us she disappeared at work. I know what has happened to her. It’s part of my dreams. I see what is going to happen in my nightmares. The night I ran away I blacked out. The rage within me was so strong…it consumed my sight, my thoughts, and my memories. I only remember parts of what happened. Holding a knife in a public bathroom and trying to stick my stepbrother with it. Then having the antique box and prying it open. But that’s it. Garrison disappears from my reach. And I never return home.

  I wait. Dreams of when the time will come for me to become great cease. I survive in the meantime. I work odd jobs, mostly as a dishwasher or a back-of-the-house prep-chef. The day I learn about the contest is when I feel my purpose come to hand. A lifetime of meaninglessness melts from harbored resentment. I’m no longer a drone working in the pits of Earth’s hell, slithering through buried garbage, eating through it to reach the surface.

  The contest is a suicide mission. The applicants are promised to have one hope or desire fulfilled, if they are the finalist. Becoming a contestant comes at a high price. Part of their entrance fee is that they must have a rare piece of metal. I still can’t believe I came across an artifact while in a pawn shop one day. Locating that significant piece was part of a dream I had, before the premonitions stopped. I bet you’ll never guess who the master mind is behind it all.

  I already know the ending as to how things are going to work out, from the visions I get. My decision here at life’s crossroad is about to cause a chain reaction that will affect the entire world and its population. It’s up to me to decide before this locomotive I’m on, known as life, acquires an uncontrollable rate of speed. I could let things remain how they are, and return to my mundane existence, which would allow Garrison to win at beating me.

  It’s told the key to happiness is to enjoy life. I find no enjoyment in life, other than losing myself in the thought of taking the artifact (belonging to our mom) from my stepbrother.

  A calming spirit comes over me for a moment. It reveals the message behind some of my unsolved visions. I see sights and words as part of that moment of insight. “Glen.” The vision starts out. Then I see a place with celestial light. I travel into the light that I know is called the Angelic Realm. There I will atone for my wrongdoings. In this vision there is a shining, faceless presence that is my guardian angel. There I also find myself greeted by two silhouettes: Garrison and my mother, Kathrin.

  It doesn’t take long for my heart to harden and my thoughts of redemption to turn away from this possibility. I have dark revelations. I dwell on proving them wrong…the ones who think I’m the weaker sibling, and a bottom feeding organism in society. My heart races while my mind stirs. All will bow down to me, as their reigning master. The anticipation is frustrating because my destiny to rule can only come about once I complete the trials of this tournament.

  These are the life choices I’m presented, before entering the tournament battlegrounds. It’s time I recognize that I’m not that cowering child that ran from his stepbrother. It’s time for those two boys, as men, to face one another. Let’s just see whose blood will be spilled.

  A loud alarm sounds as the door panels to the warehouse open. I nearly black out as I stride toward it. The crowd in the stadium goes crazy, cheering for me. But is it for my victory or for my blood? I guess it all depends on whom you root for in the movies. If part of you sides with the resourceful villain, you would be one of the many fanatics cheering on my behalf.

  I’m not sure if I know more about my creature than my stepbrother Garrison knows about his Guardian Angel. But I plan on taking Garrison and his angel down. I’m going to make them bleed with the twin daggers I’m promised to win in this challenge. Then I’ll reclaim the artifact Garrison got when we were younger. He is older, yet I am older still from experience.

  I hold my crossbow. The quiver maintaining the arrows is secured to my back. My TATS (technologically advanced thermal “wrist” scanner) is powered up. The full-scale body armor I have on over my clothes is a tight fit. I feel ready for anything. A cargo door on the other side of the warehouse opens. My confidence drops. A tall figure intimidating in presence stomps forward. A red beam illuminates--and it scans me! Then the warehouse goes dark as the dual panels “boom” closed, sealing me in with a highly intelligent and vicious monster.

  Studying this new scanning device I have, the creature reads at a staggering 7’ 3”. There’s more. It’s classified as a Class 5 “Predator.” The screen’s display shows my enemy circling within the darkness. Precisely tapping the wrist monitor magnifies the beast’s image, and details the five weapons it has chosen. Ill prepared, I hurry to load my crossbow.

  A wave of fear crashes over me when I recheck the wrist display. The creature is in full stride! The challenge calls for me to take on my greatest fear alongside my greatest weakness. As it turns out, my greatest fear is the creature from the 1987 Science Fiction movie The Predator. Indecision is my greatest weakness, and leads to a miscalculation on my part.

  I need to decide. Fire or flee? With its thick reptilian armor the arrows I’ve chosen probably won’t hinder my enemy. Even if I manage two or three lucky shots, I can’t imagine those slowing it down. My bow has rapid fire. One arrow after another flies at the Predator and deflect like sticks as it gains on me. The watch warns of a weapon mounted to the creature’s shoulder. Equipment clamped to my opponent’s left wrist and forearm release a deadly pair of metal claws. A bright-red energy ball blasts toward me from my enemy’s portable shoulder cannon. I barely make the lunge to clear the fired attack.

  I was hoping to conserve these, I mentally contemplate. Getting to my feet, with my bow reloaded, I fire an explosive arrow. The creature calculates and dodges the thin missile as it sails inches from my intended target. I was stupid for trying to hit my rival directly. I should have shot at the ground in front of it. The arrow flies into a stack of crates at the back of the warehouse. The flash from the explosion is blinding.

  There’s no way I can outrun this monster. I don’t have time to reload another specialty arrow. The beast is so close I can smell the putrid filth its sweat glands excrete. With my eyes squinting from the bright inferno, I expect the metal claws to punch into my stomach. There’s nothing. With my eyes reopened, I spot the massive creature still cringing from the intense blast. The heat signatures from the fire are amplified by the highly sensitive, thermal sensor mask it wears. My opponent displays a susceptible spot, which is an unprotected portion of skin below its drawn-up arm. I point with the crossbow reloaded. I imagine the crowd just as silent as how the warehouse is. My breathing slows as I gently squeeze the trigger, sure of my aim.

  The projectile softly whistles as it cuts through the air. Success! This time the blast is so much more satisfying. A splatter of florescent fluid ejects into the air and splatters on the ground from my enemy’s exposed and destroyed flesh. The creature’s decimated body tilts and then drops with a thud. A spotlight from the warehouse rafters illuminates the mechanical equipment attached to the creature’s glowing forearm and wrist. The device unclamps when I touch it. I’m startled by the dual metal claw
s that instantly retract.

  My thermal wrist scanner locks ideally to the top panel of the Predator’s rewarded equipment. There on the widescreen display it lists off the functions of the device, but I can’t figure out how to operate the many features of this complicated device.

  “You may proceed to the next area, Glen,” a female voice instructs.

  As rare as the items are, that are required for all contestants to enter this contest, so much more unique are the opportunities involved. Here I have access to other realms, otherwise impossible for the average human to travel to. My belief is that the controls to this new device (equipped to my forearm and wrist) have something to do with my creature. I’ll find out soon enough, when I’m able to release my inner demon, and begin my dark training.

  I take a step out of the opposite side of the warehouse. I’m immediately forced to run out into the forest. It’s the worst feeling ever; I’m unable to focus on the bleak emptiness of this land which I’ve rushed off into. I drop my pants, haunch over, and push so hard it feels my heavy guts are exploding out. My body feels weak and shaky. My bowels ache as though sliced inside. I force out more foul waste. There is another painful burst, before my body calms and feels at ease. My head swims in a bubble of pleasurable relief for a brief enjoyable moment.

  The stench is putrid. Disgusted from being in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to clean up with, I pull up my pants and strap my belt. I turn to examine. Three fist-sized globs squirm in a pool of black sludge. I recall being in this situation once before. I know what’s happening, as it happens. I need to make my creature stronger. Another thing I realize is Garrison’s traveling parallel to me. I need to prepare before my stepbrother arrives, so that my creature is ready to take on each one of his two guardians.

  I hesitate to do what I know needs to be done--what I have done before. I need to step into the puddle of filth and allow this living sin to cover me.

  I think of meatloaf, green beans, and mashed potatoes as I consume the squirming plasma. The blackened sludge goes into my brain. It is seeping into my heart. And it is imprinting my cells as it inhabits me. My skin becomes dense and tightens. My tailbone splits the hardened shell. Inner fluid leaks from the wound that cracks up along my spinal cord. My exoskeleton separates; the shell moves forward.

  Stepping away from it is a soft, jet black body. It has a desire to crouch on all fours. The separated shell seals closed. I study the two bodies as a third entity. I must decide which form to take. Both urge for me to join them from inside my thoughts. I imagine the potential the soft new body has. It’s tempting to become one with it. From in my visions I have experienced being this creation, and the great potential it can offer.

  It shares with me its name. The name I would go by if I choose to become Saskoran.