I open my heavy eyelids. I realize I am lying in my cell. I do not remember how I got here.
My entire body is sore and bloody. But it does not matter. It was always like this when I let my emotions take over. Nothing new—I would like to say that, but this time something has changed.
My heart is overflowing with savagery. In a way... I feel free.
I was trained to be an obedient pawn in this game for so long that I forgot what slumbers within me. I am glad to be alive, yet at the same time, I cannot rejoice in the next day that will come.
I know this is only the calm before the storm.
Before I was thrown into the arena, such outbursts occurred only during training. That was simply my nature. Every time I showed my true face, I was brutally brought back down to earth. An uncountable number of lashes and elaborate tortures were sacrificed to mold me into the perfect gladiator.
That is why I had to hide. I had to forget about myself. So it would not hurt anymore. So I could survive even one day longer.
A loud voice snaps me out of my swarm of thoughts. Footsteps approach the cell.
Sigh...
I am left with nothing but a heavy sigh. The time to return to reality has come.
The same guard as always stands in the doorway.
The quartermaster.
Wordlessly, I step out of the cell and follow him. I know perfectly well what awaits me. The hair on the back of my neck stands up. I had a quiet hope that I would never experience this again...
I wonder why I deluded myself in the first place.
Evidently, such is my fate.
The quartermaster leads me right to the center of the training grounds. A thick wooden stake rises from the packed sand. The torturer shackles my arms and legs with a heavy chain, immobilizing me against the post.
I had forgotten what this felt like.
The brute fastens a leather blindfold over my eyes. Lacking sight, all my other senses violently sharpen.
*The time for re-education has come...*
* * *
"Malvira, approach the edge and look closely."
At the sound of my name, I stand up immediately and follow the order.
"What you are about to see awaits anyone who dares to sully the good name of our arena."
One of the overseers is speaking to me. It is Quirinus. I have been his property for barely a week.
"Watch and remember. Disappoint me just once, and you will end up exactly like him."
I glance at him. I see only a mocking smile blooming on his vile, greasy snout. With a gesture of his hand, he orders me to look down at the center of the grounds. A man has just been chained to a wooden stake—a man who, not long ago, barely escaped with his life in the arena.
Merely a few hours ago, I watched in admiration as, despite a hopeless situation, he not only survived but literally crushed his tormentors in a matter of minutes.
At first, he fought with cold precision. Only later did something inside him snap. He became savage... feral.
He achieved the impossible and won.
So why do they want to punish him?
The man who brought him reaches for a leather whip tipped with lead balls. He turns to the condemned with a wide, sadistic grin.
A loud swoosh cuts through the air. A massive blow lands on the gladiator's filthy, mangled back. A scream rings out. Terrifying. Inhuman.
Someone immediately forces a hard gag into his mouth. The shriek vanishes, smothered in his throat.
The condemned man freezes, but only for a fraction of a second. The hulking torturer attacks with a series of sweeping strikes, not slowing the pace for a moment. Though the prisoner's screams are muffled, his spasmodically twitching muscles betray unimaginable agony. His body contorts unnaturally after every lash.
Blood pours in streams. Finally, his legs refuse to obey, and he slumps to his knees, hanging from the chains. He finds no relief, however. The whip mercilessly continues to fall.
I cannot tear my eyes away from this slaughter. With trembling hands, I cover my mouth. I am terrified by what a human being can do to another human being.
"You are shaking all over."
"He will not survive this!"
"Do not worry. It is only the first day."
I look at Quirinus in disbelief. I open my mouth, but I cannot force a sound out.
"He will hang at this post for three days. For three days, his good friend will instill the basics of obedience into him."
I do not believe what I am hearing.
"And when today's lesson comes to an end, it will be your task to patch him up enough so he lasts until tomorrow's."
I want to say that I will not do it, so badly...
But when I see his disgusting gaze, I know deep down that this is exactly what he would desire the most.
So I merely bow my head in silence, listening to the rhythmic swoosh of the falling whip in the distance.