CHAPTER 9 — ONE HAS TO DIE.

🦪 DORA 🦪

A small cry escaped my lips, my eyes slowly fluttering open. I fly up in an instant, looking around.

I am in a place that looks like a fighting ring, an empty space. There's no roar of a crowd, no shouts, no cheers, no supporters, just the echo of my own breathing and the quiet, almost imperceptible whir of two cameras mounted on tripods outside the ring. Their lenses, dark and unblinking, were aiming directly at me.

CCTV cameras are also planted at every corner it could be, to get full footage from every angle of whatever happens in the ring.

“Welcome to the ring!” A digital voice roars from a LED screen.

“There are no rules in the fight. Except that to win, your opponent has to die. There's no backing down, giving up, or surrendering. Any fighting method is allowed. In this ring, it's just you and your opponent, and only one of you will walk out alive.”

I've read this in the contract, but hearing it standing in this ring holds a different weight.

“50 million dollars is given to the winner in cash, alongside 50 investors’ 1 kilogram gold bar, which weighs about 32.15 troy ounces, with an approximate value of $130,000 - $140,000.” The digital voice continues. “If you look down, to the right, next to your feet, there's a box, open it.”

Slowly, I bend down, pick up the box next to my feet, and open the box.

The camera above me beeps, and the digital voice continues.

“Inside the box, there's a small bottle that contains some liquid. Pick it up and drink.”

“What's in it?” I yell, facing the camera.

“Pick it up, and drink,” the digital voice repeated.

“I'm supposed to just drink a strange liquid I've never heard of? What if it's poison?”

“Pick it up and drink.”

Sighing, I picked up the bottle and twisted the lid, bringing it close to my nose, but it had no smell or color, just like water, but thicker than water.

“What the fuck is this?” I murmur to myself.

“Drink!” The digital voice commands.

Slamming my eyes shut, I chug down the drink and swallow. It has a little bit of a sour taste, and that was it.

The camera above me beeps as if notifying the digital voice I drank it, “You just drank ‘Makish al háolan’, a deadly poison.”

I drop the bottle in an instant, my hands shaking uncontrollably. My breathing becomes shallow, and I feel physically lightheaded.

“You have 10 minutes. This fight must last for 10 minutes; once it's 10 minutes and one second, you will both die. Whoever is left standing before the 10 minutes is complete would be given the antidote. In summary, you have 10 minutes for one of you to die or you both die.”

“The effect of the poison would begin to kick in; you'll be especially weak, because it's your first dose of the poison.”

“Your time starts NOW.”

The digital voice disappears, and a timer begins to read.

Just then, my opponent walks in from a different door and looks just as horrified as I am, but as soon as he sees me, a satisfied sigh of relief escapes his lips.

He's a tall, tan-skinned, averagely built man; compared to him, I'm like a rat he could just trample on.

“A young lady? Today is my lucky day,” he says happily. “What are you doing in a place like this? Did your daddy force you to come for the money?”

I keep mute, observing him as he continues spitting, “I'm sorry, you'll die today, I need this money, you see.”

He rushes towards me, and I rush out, jumping out of the ring at full speed and landing on the ground.

I wince in pain as the digital voice roars, “Get back into the ring, you have 9 minutes left.”

Dragging myself up, I climb into the ring, and my opponent rushes towards me again.

I'm not even completely in the ring when I roll back out, landing on the ground with my back, this time more painful.

The camera above me beeps, and the digital voice becomes harsher, “Get your ass back in the ring!”

My opponent slams his fist in the ring in frustration as he stares into the timer.

I inhale sharply, my legs shaking as I reach out to the ring again, taking that as an opportunity, my opponent tries to grab me.

I shook his hands away and jumped back down, and a scream burst through his lungs, pointing at me in anger as he stared at the timer.

‘7 minutes 3 seconds left’

The camera beeps again, “Inside the ring!!!”

When I signed, ‘Fight till death deal,’ I probably wasn't thinking straight, and like Dale Lazarus said, I didn't know what I was getting myself into; I didn't realize the heaviness and the danger involved.

The effect of the poison kicks and I fall back to the ground, weak, broken, tired, and hopeless. For the first time in my life, I just want to go home. Dragging myself back up, I stare at the torturous ring.

The man in the ring shifts back to make me settle in the ring, as if calculating the right time to attack.

“Just get in here and die already,” he says. “We have a deadly poison in our tummy, we don’t have time on our side.”

I climb into the ring, and as soon as I make that mistake, the ground beside the ring slides to the left, revealing several long, pointed, iron spikes, angled aggressively toward me, appearing very sharp and very dangerous.

“If you jump out of the ring again, you’ll die,” the digital voice came crashing down.

My opponent grins in satisfaction and rushes towards me. I rush towards the edge of the ring in panic, clinging onto the thick rope that makes the ring, looking down with nowhere to escape. If I jump down, I die stabbed by these iron spikes. If I remain in the ring, I will be beaten to death.

Even my heart beat is crying, death! Death! Death!

He grips me, and one punch sends me face-first, kissing the ground. I hit with a loud thud, and my world blurs.

That’s all it takes to be overpowered. No, I was overpowered from the very beginning. I was merged with a man, a strong, unhinged man. I, with zero training and experience, and he, with natural strength, a huge body, and every preparation he needs, only show how unfair, merciless, and brutal this ring is.

A strong punch lands on my nose, I can swear I hear it crack and feel it shift, but that didn’t settle in when I’m face-to-face with another punch.

Whatever this is I got myself into, it’s hell. The worst hell ever. No one, even my worst enemy, should be in this situation.

Am I really going to die, beaten to death in this ring? Die feeling such pain.

And when I die, just like my father, they’ll say to my loved ones, “She died in the ring.” Not like I have any loved ones.

Oh, I have him… Dale Lazarus, the man I call daddy, I haven’t even gotten him to accept me as a lover.

Just as I am contemplating how the news of my death would go, another punch hits me in the jaw, throwing my face sideways with my blood splashing to the side of the ring. I cry in pain as he uses both his fists to ram me down with full force.

My eyes flutter weakly, half-conscious and half dead. I can hear my opponent screaming, “Die already, you witch, it’s just 3 minutes left.”