ISAAC

It definitely isn't just Naomi who's running this story. Or Annabelle, for that matter.

Alex didn't seem surprised, and the people around me had blank looks on their faces. "Marissa, me and my people don't have the energy to challenge you," he confessed, spreading his hands. "It's been an even streak for years now. I don't want to waste my men on yours when there's entity-collecting to be done."

An even streak? This weird cult has challenged these people before?

Marissa wringed her hands. I think she's frustrated. "Good point, Alexander," she shot back, "but are you secretly cowering behind your excuse?"

Alex didn't get offended or shout at her, but instead smirked and rolled his eyes. "You never changed, did you, Mar? Cute. Oh well, I'll accept your challenge."

Didn't he just say—

"Wonderful! Just wonderful!" Marissa clapped her gloved hands together, the black leather squeaking as she moved them. "When will the first challenge be?"

"How about now, since you made such a grand entrance?" I glanced at Annabelle, who's eyes were stretched wide in anticipation. She loves things like this, blood-boiling adventure that makes your heart race and your nerves tingle.

Marissa bounced on the balls of her feet. Was she really that excited? "Get your best archers, Alex, and prepare to lose like never before!"

"You really think my archers are going to lose? Ow, my dignity." Alex put a hand dramatically on his chest. He would be great for the drama club. "I trained them myself, you know."

"Yes, you were the best with the bow and arrow." Marissa turned to her group. "Susie! John! Shakira! Kirk! Percy!"

Five people stepped up. "We will do our best, miss," said a girl with long curly black hair and pink streaks and shimmery lips. The power of lip gloss, I guess.

"Make sure you do. Alex, who will you choose?" Marissa queried him. She was just raring to go.

Alex roamed his gaze over the crowd, his eyes narrowed and thoughtful. "Cole, Bella, Marlene, Evangeline, and..." His eyes landed on me, and he smiled. "Isaac."

Annabelle gasped and slapped my shoulder. "Isaac, you dog! Going into all the action without me!" Her eyes were bright, fevered, and she twirled a strand of fiery-red hair around her ivory finger.

"M-me?" I stuttered out loud as a girl with blond hair dragged me towards them. "But I'm new to this place!" Why would I participate in a challenge when I've only been here for less than a day?

"Yes, Alex, he is a rookie," Marissa drawled. "Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?"

"I have faith in him, as I do with all my students," Alex replied, gazing at me with steady eyes as the girl deposited me next to the chosen ones. "I believe he can do it."

Yeah, I've done archery before. I went regularly to the archery club, and sure, I was good, but I wasn't exceptional. I was never chosen for challenges or anything.

"Hey," the blond-haired girl that led me up whispered. "Aren't you friends with the blue-haired girl?"

Why is everyone talking about her? Yeah, bright colors attract monsters, and I can see why it would be a big deal, but Naomi can't be the first person to have their hair dyed. One of the girls that Marissa picked had pink highlights! If blue was called bright and pink wasn't, I think the world would stop turning.

"Yes," I muttered. "I'm Isaac, friend of the girl with blue hair."

The girl's lips twitched in a smile, and she turned her face to hide it. "I'm Evangeline. Nice to meet you, Isaac."

"You too." I guess.

"Lead the way to your targets," Marissa invited Alex. He gave her a mock bow before trudging to the targets, some human with the vital points marked on them, and the rest the white, black, blue, red, and yellow targets.

"Grab your bows and quivers, and get three arrows!" Alex ordered the competitors. "A perfect score is 300."

I grabbed a bow and tested its weight in my hand. A little too heavy, so I put it back and got another one. Way too light. I went through three more bows before I found the perfect one for me.

"You go, Isaac! Show some pride for your people!" Annabelle hollered over the din of the chattering crowd. When I glanced at my friends, Naomi smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. I smiled back and clipped the quiver to my waist before retrieving my arrows.

Pretend it's just practice. Nothing is at stake, nothing is at stake...

A boy with tanned skin and ruffled black, curly hair bared his teeth at me. They all took off their cloaks since their sleeves covered their hands, which they needed."Prepare to get your butt kicked, blondie," he threatened. "Don't expect me to go easy on you since you're a rookie."

Okay. I'm terrified. I tipped my head and analyzed him. "You sure you can even pack a punch, flabby-arms?" I asked.

He made an inhuman sound in his throat that could only be interpreted as a growl. "Your girlfriend's gonna dump you when this is over, scrawny," he muttered before storming off to Marissa.

Girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend. Was he talking about Annabelle or Naomi? Or even Evangeline? I shrugged it off and turned back to Alex, who was animatedly talking to one of his archers. I walked up to him and called, "So, what is it we're supposed to do?"

He glanced at me and smiled. "You lost your hearing, kid? It's simple: get the best score you can possibly can. Runner up!" he abruptly shouted after that.

A black girl with short hair stepped up to a target and drew her bow back. On our side, Evangeline stepped up and gracefully did the same.

"Are you ready? GO!" Marissa bellowed.

For a few seconds, neither girl did anything. Then, Evangeline harrumphed and fired.

Red.

The other girl released the string. Yellow, close to the bull's-eye.

Evangeline got two more reds, which made 240 points. The other girl got one more yellow and a red, which is 280. Marissa's team won that round.

"Shakira wins!" Marissa yelled, and her people hollered and cheered for her.

"Excellent work, Mar," Alex complimented her as Shakira smirked at Evangeline and joined her group. "Polished up your warriors quite nicely." He winked at Shakira, who rolled her eyes and turned her back.

He isn't nervous at all. Is he covering it up, or does he really just not care?

"Next runner up!"

Archers came and went, Marissa scored and Alex scored. Eventually, I was the last one to go, versus someone named Susie. She was the one with the lip gloss and the pink highlights, I recall as I shuffle my feet into position.

"Ready, set, go!" Alex started, and Susie steadied her bow, aiming down the sights.

I peered through my sight as well, and focused on the yellow. Three, two, one. Susie and I simultaneously fired, and both landed in the yellow.

"It's a draw!" Marissa declared before a shriek cut everything off. Silence, except for the shrieking, fell as everyone looked up.

"I-it's... it's a dragon!" someone screamed, and instantly everyone was running around, snatching weapons, calling to each other and Alex and someone please tell me what's going on—

"Run, Isaac!" Naomi sprinted up to me and pulled me along to the towering doors, which were wide open and filled with people. My pulse pounded in my ears, and I broke into a cold sweat as a shadow fell over me and I dared to look up.

It was definitely a dragon. The sound of beating wings rang in my ears, and a dark creature silhouetted against the sun glared down at us, with scaly skin and ferocious wings that could probably cut you clean in half like saw blades.

My body seemed paralyzed with fear, my head pounding with a headache. How could this happen?

"Isaac! Why did you stop, dude?" Someone herded me along to the crowd, which was roaring with chattering and conversation. I felt slightly dizzy, my head still throbbing with the rhythm of my heart. A dragon ambush. Of course. My bow was still clenched in my hand, my quiver still holding two arrows. I considered trying to shoot the dragon out of the sky, like in Skyrim, but someone shoved me out of the door and made me trip face-first into the clouds before I could do anything.

"Thanks a lot!" I remarked before pushing myself to my feet and running with my new group. Tons of people ran alongside me, hair whipping in my face and elbows digging into my sides. It was a frenzy; didn't they have drills or something?

"Alex, what is going on?" Naomi popped up beside me and talked to the person running in front of us. He looked back quickly before returning his gaze ahead.

"It's a dragon," he answered. "I don't even know if dragons are in the Trials or not!"

"How can you not know?" I blurted out.

"I know I'm handsome and a genius and all, but I don't know everything," he replied before slowing to a stop and staring up at the sky. I stopped too, and tried to focus with bodies bumping against mine in haste to escape.

The dragon flew after us, its nostrils flaring and its beady eyes locked on.

I needed to do something, or at least slow it down.

I don't know what made me think it, but I fit an arrow into the bow and drew back, trying to aim at the monster and keep track of it while it was flying. It let out a caterwaul, making me shiver, but I let go anyway and watched the arrow fly.

It hit, but it fell away pathetically.

"Its scales are protecting it. Maybe there are some chinks in its armor. Here, give me that." Alex grabbed my bow and grimaced. "Dude, you are so weak."

"Unlike you, I'm not a bodybuilder." I handed him my quiver before he could rip it off my belt, and he huffed at that, too.

"Only one arrow? You're such a nerd."

"Is this the time to be teasing me right now?"

"It's always the time." He let the arrow fly and observed in satisfaction as it hit a chink in the dragon's scales. It roared angrily before circling in the sky, possibly looking for the source of the arrow. "We should keep running. It won't take much for it to be hot on our trail again."

"Yeah, I could've figured that out myself." We spun around and raced back to the Above people and Marissa's group, shadows flitting in between the colorful humans.

We ran and we ran, my heart pumping in my ears and Alex trying to yell encouragement to the group over the sound of the dragon's furious screeching.

"Keep going! This is what we all trained for! You can all do it, I know you can!"

I'm so dead I'm so dead I'm really, truly dead—

"Come on, Francesca, you can be even better than Jesse Owens if you keep going!"

I bet Jesse Owens didn't have to run for his life from a dragon.

"When are we going to stop? We can't run forever!" I panted to Alex. A stitch in my side was killing me, but I wasn't going to let myself become cooked steak for the flying beast.

"We never experienced something like this," he muttered, so quiet I had to strain to hear him. "I don't know what to do."

"So, there are no rescue choppers, no bunkers...?"

"We're not the SWAT team, boy."

"Oh, really? I thought you were better than the SWAT team, Alex." Was that really...

"Annabelle!" I gasped out. I haven't seen her since we evacuated, and my relief to see her crashed down over me like a tidal wave of warmth.

"Hey, bro." She grinned at me, her legs pumping and her arms swinging. "I know I don't seem like it, but I'm about to have a heart attack."

"Don't stop moving if you don't want to die. This is serious business we're dealing with, and I won't put up with any fun and games." Alex sprinted up ahead and screamed for everybody to follow him, safety will come soon, he's sure of it...

"I'm about to die," I gasped to Annabelle. The stitch in my side was tearing at my skin, clawing aside my bones and sucking up my blood...

"Yeah, we're all about to die, Isaac. What reality are you living in? Now, shut your face so we can all get plenty of oxygen." As if to demonstrate, Annabelle sucked in a big breath of air and blew it out.

Suddenly, a blue, flickering wall shot up in front of us, blocking our path. A robot-woman's voice announced calmly, "Preparing to activate MEA, or Monster-Elimination-Act. Please stand by while we come to eliminate your problem."

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Marissa screamed, shoving me aside. "EVERYONE STAND BY!"

A ramp slowly lowered down from the wall, and a woman in a white suit with blue stripes on the sides stepped out holding a bulky, futuristic gun. "Thank you for your cooperation," she declared sweetly, devoid of expression as she aimed her gun at the dragon and fired.

I didn't have time to react before she continued, "Now I will render you unconscious to protect the location of our headquarters."