Ace

1

14 years later

The whispering.

They are always whispering around her no matter what she's doing, no matter where she is, the whispering just never stops. She always hated the whispering, she thought as she sat with her back facing the room. It was littered with scars from her early days when she was whipped in their attempt to break her, break her spirit.

They stopped after a while. Donovan had done that for her and she was grateful. He had told them it got in the way of her training so they wouldn't think he had a soft spot for her.

This, her scars contributed majorly to the whispering and today was no different. It always gets worse after a new batch of kids come in.

"I heard that she can and has beaten everyone she's come up against" Clarissa whispered to their small group of five. "That's why she's got so much scars." They were all captured two weeks ago and she was trying to make the best of her situation. She, Peter, Trevor, Jennifer and Ryder, they are people she knew and felt comfortable with and we're part of the circle she was talking with. All except Ryder.

She looked over at him now, he was the youngest of them all. He wasn't sitting with them, he hasn't, not since they brought them here, he always sits at a corner, away from everyone. He looks so scared and she feels for him especially since he has gone through so much in such a short time.

This place was not good, sure, they had been kidnapped, are being forced to learn how to fight and are being constantly watched, monitored and all but it beats being out on the streets, starving for food and then stealing some or begging. She was even able to go on a plane for the first time. It wasn't good but it's not so bad either.

"Are you all talking about Ace?" Clarissa turns to see a blonde haired girl with blue streaks in them. She joins their circle. "Hi, I'm June" she says with a wave.

"Is that her name?" Peter, the ever inquisitive 12 years old asked. His brown eyes bright as he looked at June. She was older, her muscles more defined. He figured she has been here a long time.

She wore the blue arm band with four white stripes. That means she is fourteen. If you are yellow, your are below the age of ten but from eleven and above you wear a blue arm band with the stripes show old your are. One stripe means eleven until you get to five stripes, that's fifteen. From sixteen to eighteen, you get a red band with white stripes, one stripe means sixteen and three means eighteen.

Only Alyssa wears a black stripe though and no one seems to know how old she is. The stripe also helps identify our ranking system. So you don't fight a person above or below your rank or else you'll be punished. That's just one of the rules they got to learn when they got here.

Here, when they were first kidnapped and brought here, they were told that they had been chosen, that they would learn how to fight and will have to compete in a place called The Pit. It scared him but all the other kids were acting tough about it so he had to as well. All except for Ryder anyways. He looked at him now as he sat in the corner, silently crying.

"No not really. Her real name is Alyssa but everyone calls her Ace. She's so bad ass, always keeps to her self and she's almost always quiet but don't let that fool you, she can take down a lot of people" June whispered. Intrigued, the group drew closer to her so they could hear her better.

"I heard", she continued, liking the fact that these new comers were listening to what she had to say "that she was the first. You know, first among us down here, probably why they call her that but I've seen her fight and trust me she is good. The other day, I heard one of the bosses talking that she shouldn't think herself too important even if The Pit was created for her".

"Woah. I wonder how old she was when she started" Clarissa whispered to the group again.

"No one really knows. She only talks to the guards and the bosses. Oh and Baby doll, she's one of us but she's in the infirmary now, she had a fight recently." The new comers eyes bulged at the thought of a fight sending you to the infirmary.

June smiled. They need to be prepared for what's to come. What better way than to get them acquainted with the way things work.

Alyssa sighed. She was tired, so tired of this constant whispering and it's always about her. She couldn't blame them for being curious though and of course, they couldn't know that she could hear them, she could hear all of them, hear their breaths, their heartbeats.

After that day, the day her fate was decided, it was torture after torture. The only reprieve, which wasn't really a reprieve, was when she had to train with Donovan.

She didn't want to, not at first, she always cried for her mommy and when they got tired of her tears, the lashing came. It went on and on until that stopped, but she trained with him, she figured he was kind to her but only when they were alone.

It went well until they she got good. Really good. Then the experiments started. Ivan had already started gathering the elite crowd, spectators, wealthy filthy men who would bet on her.

He wanted her perfect, a spectacle and to have an advantage since she was to be put against higher opponents so he got some people to experiment on her and it was brutal.

The draw backs, the blinding white pain as the drugs and chemicals went through her system. In the end, they got what they wanted. She was faster, stronger and more agile than normal. What they didn't account for or know was her hearing.

Even as she sat, waiting for the other trainers to come work with the children she could hear them in the break room, muttering. She couldn't hear clear enough but she knew it wasn't normal.

She knew a lot of things weren't normal even if she had grown up in here. She often wonder how the outside world looked like. It's been too long.

Fourteen years.

She's been a captive. She'll be nineteen soon, the oldest of all of them and had overheard Clarence discuss with Ivan how it was time to put her to good use. 'she's becoming too old for the Pit' he said. 'She's already a weapon let's sell her to the highest bidder'.

Her escape plan was already in motion, her allies well in place but she needs time, but one thing is for certain, she's going to get her life back.

*Thank you for reading 😘
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