That night Dominique hardly slept. She sat on her matt, crying silently, shifting every once and a while when the spot she was sitting on got too deflated. With no way to tell the time, Dominique felt like the night would never end. Finally, after falling asleep from pure exhaustion from crying, the slot in her door opened. Sam, the familiar guard, looked through the door at her, his cruel eyes hungrily looking her up and down. "Hands against the opposite wall, now," Sam growled. Dominique glared with red puffy eyes, but did as she was told. Sam unlocked the door, and threw something on the floor at her feet. It looked to be a pair of sweat pants and a baggy top. "Put it on, now," Sam demanded, seemingly wanting everything done at that moment. Dominique picked up the clothing, her mind flashing to the knife that she had hidden in her pocket. If she took off her jacket, she had no way of protecting herself. Sam got impatient, Dominique just standing there staring at the clothing. he grabbed Dom's jacket and ripped it off, practically dislocating her shoulder at the same time. "Ow! Hey, stop! I can dress myself!" Dominique yelled, attempting to shove the man twice her size away.
Quickly Dom pulled off her own jacket, throwing it onto the thin pillow on her matt. Sam didn't seem to care that she wanted to keep the jacket, he just stood back and watched with a ugly smile as Dom took off her shirt awkwardly, trying to hide as much of herself as possible. Dressing as fast as possible, Dominique was then cuffed by a still grinning Sam, and lead out of the cell, and to the large mess hall, which had about ten people in it. Dominique was uncuffed, many people staring at her as she was let loose. Quickly glancing around the room, Dom's heart dropped, not seeing anyone in her family. She stood there for a second before edging towards the food line, which had a small choice of some type of mystery meat sandwiches, corn or green beans, and a stale looking roll. Not at all hungry, Dominique only grabbed a sandwich and a small amount of corn, once again looking around the room, trying to figure out where she could sit. That's when she noticed Robin Slater, the man she met yesterday. He was sitting alone, chewing on one of the rolls with a wrinkled nose.
Hurrying over to the familiar man, Dominique sat down, catching the mans attention. Dominique held out her hand, trying to smile politely, "Hi, I'm Dominique, we met yesterday..." Robin shook her hand, nodding to her, the disgusted look still on his face as he tried to swallow the sad excuse of bread. Dominique didn't even bother trying to eat her food, looking around the lunch room, many people still staring at her. Everyone looked hopeless on the inside, a dead look in their eyes, a few people looking mean. "This whole situation... I feel like I'm in a dream," Dominique mumbled, "My family should be here... I haven't really seen them ever sense I got here, not that I had much of a chance... I've only seen them once, and I was too groggy to really notice." Dominique's eyes started to water, but before she could settle on the negative emotions, Juan, the first guard, walked into the room with a clip bored. "Akins, Andrews, Barrel, Ender, Slater, Zander, with me. It's time for your Pit time." Robin and Dominique met eyes, fear flashing in Dom's. Throwing away her untouched food, her and the five other people all went over to Juan, who didn't bother cuffing them. Taking the group across the room, and through a couple hallways, the group was lead into a locker room. "You're opponents are already ready. Akins goes first, then Ender, Slater, Zander, Andrews, and last is Barrel." Juan sounded bored, as if practically giving these people their death certificate was something normal. The middle aged woman, Akins, was sent out right away. When she walked out of the door across the room, there was a loud automated voice calling, "Julia Akins versus Hamich Jacobs."
The group sat silently, Juan doodling lazily on his clip board. Fifteen minutes later, a telephone rang next to Juan, who quickly picked it up. A grin spread across his face, and he hung up the phone. "Hamich Jacobs won... Ender, you're up." There was a pause of surprise, everyone looking at one another with scared faces. Dominique, who was sitting next to Robin, couldn't help but scoot closer to the bigger man, trying to remember the details of Julia Akins face. The young boy, who looked to be 18, walked out, the voice announcing who he was. This time the group waited about twenty minutes before the phone rang. Ender had won, although he didn't come back into the locker room. Robin was then sent out, taking one last look at Dominique before exiting through the doors. Ten minutes, then Sam announced that Robin had won. Dominique released the breath she had been subconsciously holding ever sense the phone rang. Next was Zander, who lost, then Andrews, who had won but then died right after because she had bled out shortly after winning. Finally it was Dominique's turn to fight. Shaking uncontrollably, Dom walked out into a large dirt arena, bright lights shining in her eyes. Dominique barley even registered the animated voice until she recognized the name. "Dominique Barrel Versus Desmond Barrel."
Dom froze where she stood, looking across the large arena to see her terrified looking little brother standing on the other side. Desmond was only 15, although he was tall for his age, almost as tall as Dominique. Desmond was always strong, although when the two were younger, Dominique was always able to over power her younger brother, and that never changed. Dominique walked towards her brother, who was also shaking, tears trailing down his face. The two hugged tightly, Desmond flinching when Lucius' voice came on the intercom, "If you two don't fight, you both will face a punishment worse than death. I suggest you hurry your good byes up." Desmond started to cry harder, pulling away from Dominique, who was now struggling to hold her own panic back. "Dom, what are we going to do? I-I don't want to die, or be punished..." Dominique grabbed Des' hand. "Don't worry, they won't hurt a kid as young as you, maybe if we just refuse to fight..." Even Dominique knew that she didn't sound very convincing. "I-I saw a ten year old boy get sent out, he didn't come back... He went up against that Andrews lady. I-I saw what happened. He bit her wrist like an animal, and she had to snap his neck to get him off... I-I'm sorry, Dom, but I can't..." To Dominique's horror, Desmond backed away, and put his fists up.
Now she was crying, falling to her knees in the blood stained dirt. "Des... Please don't-" Desmond slammed his fist into his sisters face, Dominique yelping and falling to the ground, Desmond letting out a strangled cry as tears poured harder out of his eyes. Desmond started to kick his sister in the ribs, Dominique just laying there, grunting and coughing with each kick. Lucius' voice came back on the over head, "Miss Barrel, if you don't fight back we'll kill your brother in the most horrendous way you can think. Get up and hit him." Desmond paused in his relentless kicking, fear in his eyes at the change in the game. Anger rushed through Dominique, screaming up into the air, "Fuck you!" Suddenly Desmond kicked Dom, hard, in the head. Vision going black for a second, a loud ringing squealed in her ears. She rolled onto her other side, back to Desmond, holding the area where her brothers shoe hit her in the temple. There was a sharp pain in her back, which was Desmond continuing to hit her. Lucius' voice came again, "I am true to my word, Miss Barrel. Get up, now."
Once again Des paused in his attacks, giving Dominique the chance to get up, shaking and coughing, the taste of blood in her mouth.
Dominique didn't know what to do. Fight and kill her brother, or let Desmond kill her? Dom was stubborn enough, her head telling her to stay alive to spite Lucius and get her revenge, but her heart ached at the idea of hurting her little brother. Desmond seemed to have made up his mind, however, screaming and rushing the bleeding Dominique. Bending low, Desmond attempted to tackle Dom around the middle, but Dominique instinctively braced herself, catching Des and managing to pick him up, throwing him to the ground. Dominiques mind went blank as she got on top of her innocent 15 year old little brother, her brain not registering the pain in her fist as she punched Des' face, ignoring the pain as Desmond scratched at her arm that was holding his throat, ignoring the scratches and fingers grabbing at her face. Dominique didn't even notice the increasing tears and blood that was mixing together on Desmonds face as she kept punching and punching. Eventually Desmond managed to get out a strangled, "Dom!" Snapping out of her head, Dominique stared down at what she had done. Teeth had been knocked out, his nose was broken, and she clearly shattered an orbital, Desmonds eye popping out and pointing in the wrong direction. His face was purple under all the blood, Dom never releasing her tight grip on his throat.
Desmond stopped fighting, understanding that he had no chance anymore, even if Dominique did let him kill her. So instead he just silently choked, staring up at Dominique with a tear and fear filled eye. "I-I lo...." Desmond tried to wheeze out through the trembling hand of Dominique, but never managed to complete the words. His good eye rolled to the back of his head, and his hands, which were softly petting Dom's long hair, fell to the ground. Dominique didn't realize she was bawling, holding her clearly broken hand to her chest as her other hand held tight to her little brothers throat. She didn't let go until Sam and Juan came in, pulling her crying shaking body off of her dead brother. The arena, where all the other prisoners, including her crying family, was completely silent. Dominique allowed herself to be dragged away, eyes still locked on the bloody mess of Desmond Barrel, who was 15 and wanted to be just like his big sister, but never would be because now he was dead. The last thing Dominique saw before she passed out was the doors closing on the image of her little brother who would never grow up.
