"Too late." A mysterious voice said from behind me. "We already heard you." My eyes went wide. "Just kidding! We're related to Ashlie, of course we know! These two just found out, though..." I turned around and felt a wave of relief hit me. The air seemed to be fresher, it was just our friends. "Oh, gosh. I thought...that we were gonna die." Ashlie whispered to herself. "I'm sorry, Venus." I looked back at her. I gave a slight smile, "Its ok." I said.

"So...you guys are solo-fuels? Like Max?" Clint asked. I nodded. "Wait. Max is also like us? Why couldn't I sense it?" Ashlie questioned. Her statement made me confused. "What do you mean? How do you sense things?" I questioned. Ashlie looked at me. "You can feel sparks—" Max cut her off. "You can only tell if your physically close to someone, I've never stood that close to you before. You only feel them once." He informed. Sparks. I felt sparks when I met Max and Ashlie, both times I was standing fairly close to them.

"Campers! Attention please!" We looked back to the arena. The body was cleaned up, including the blood, and the water had been drained. "I know we don't usually do this but its time that we have to continue these battles. Tomorrow is when we will finish our deathmatches. Since Ms. Lucy didn't get to finish, she'll get someone else." Ray told us. When Lucy was training, she was excellent but during the match, she seemed nervous. Maybe she wasn't prepared?

~~~~~

I went to Ray's office since he's in charge of all the groups. We'd have 10 people per cabin, including the three elites. I needed to know which cabin and group would be mine. "Hello, Venus. Are you here to see which cabin you have?" Ray asked. I nodded. "Ok, let me check the list." He opened a large folder full of papers containing our groups and cabin numbers. "You are with...Asher, Ashlie, Ashton, Clint, Lucy, and Max. In cabin 6." He said, looking up at me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What about the elites?" I asked, there were always elites, too many to run out of. "They...uhm...bailed. All of them. Her Majesty definitely totally had nothing to do with that...." He said although the last part was quiet. "Huh, ok." I said, slightly confused. I exited the office and went to cabin 6, where my cabinmates would be waiting. I knocked on the door since I wasn't given a key. The door flung open to reveal Lucy. "Venus!" She engulfed me in a hug.

"You're our new group member?" Clint asked, appearing behind her. "Yeah, I guess so." I said, covering my ears because Lucy squealed loudly. Lucy moved to the side, making some room for me to enter. I walked inside the room, expecting to see everyone being chaotic and that is indeed what I saw.

Instead of being awkward, like how someone would be if they just met their dorm mates, I joined in on the chaotic madness. I jumped on Lucy's back. She was surprisingly strong and carried me over to where the others were. "Guys! Look who's part of our group!" Lucy squealed.

~~~~~

It was early in the morning, five a.m. on a Saturday. No one else was awake because I woke up two hours early. I left the cabin and went to my usual spot, the lake. As I was watching the moonlight make the water glisten, the light flickered. The moon doesn't flicker, it never has. What is this? The moon continued flickering until the light was out.

It was extremely dark. Am I the only person awake? Am I the only one who sees this? Just then, the light came back on. I felt unease wash over my body, it hit me like a wave. "What just happened...?" I asked aloud. "I'm going crazy." I stated, then walked back to my cabin.

When I entered, no one was in their beds. They weren't in the sleeping area, not in the bathroom, not in the kitchen; they weren't in the cabin at all. "Where'd they go? It's not seven yet, is it?" I checked the time, it said six-thirty a.m. I was confused. Did they wake up early? I sighed, went to get my dark blue uniform, then finished getting ready for the morning.

~~~~~

Assemblies happened every day, excluding Friday because that was when death matches happened. Although we were continuing the death matches from yesterday, we still had our assembly. "Good morning, freshwaters, campers, elites, and mega efficients. Today isn't like any other day." Her Majesty said. Duh, the moon flickered for Her Lord's sake! "Training will be more advanced, today. We will train together since the deathmatches are being resumed." She continued.

All of the Freshwaters—whom we call Freshies but Her Majesty calls them F.W.s—whimpered. "Now, F.W.s don't be like that. You want to be cleansed, right? You'll be part of the family, soon!" Her Majesty said to the part of the crowd with the yellow and orange uniforms. A look of fear was present on their faces. "If you fail the 'test', then you will become a malfunction and live, only to be tortured." She said, emphasizing the word 'test' while spitting venom.

The freshies hesitantly smiled and said words similar to "I can't wait to be part of the family!" This brought fake joy to Her Majesty. Something is off with her...wait...she just told them that they would be tortured if they didn't pass the test! Those poor freshies, I can already tell that they won't succeed.

~~~~~

It was later in the day, around seven p.m. I was lying on my bed, watching the patterns my mind formed on the ceiling. "Venus." Someone called but I couldn't hear. I continued watching shapes appear. "Venus." They called again but I was focusing on weird waves ripple. "Venus!" They yelled, shaking me. I jumped into a sitting position, startled. "W...what?" I asked. "Hey, it's seven-twenty." It was Max, he looked at me like I was strange.

"So?" I said, a little upset that he took me out of my daze. He sighed, "We're continuing the deathmatches, remember?" He asked, like I was stupid. "Oh, yeah. I remember now. Carry me." I said, yawning and putting my hands up. "Fine." He said. He bent down so that I could grab his shoulders. I got on his back and he took me to the bleachers near the arena. We sat with our group, getting ready for the rest of the matches.

"Murder! Today, someone else will die." Ray said, spinning his hand around the name jar. I noticed something peculiar, he was looking into the jar. He was cheating! "Ashton Yielding!" Ashlie yelped. "No...not my brother." She whispered to herself. "I have to...I'm sorry. I love you guys." Ashton said to us. Ashlie hugged him, then he went into the arena.

"And...Venus Evergreen!" He said. So that's why. He wanted to place us against each other. "A family member can't go against a family member!" Lucy shouted. "Too late. I'm not changing my mind." Ray said. "You need permission from Her Majesty!" This time, Ashlie yelled. "I'll ask then. Her Majesty? Is this allowed?" He asked, a smirk tugging on his lips.

"Yes, to the death."