Chapter 6

I looked at him curiously, "The soul searchers?" I asked. He nodded and said "Just stay where you are and I'll explain the reason we formed our group. Years ago when the Endgame Battlegrounds first formed a few people thought that even with the world being fair there had to be a way to make it even better. So they came up with a solution, and then created the Endgame Battlegrounds and our group to lure people in to reduce the worlds population little by little until we had a fresh start." I had never known who made the Endgame Battlegrounds and neither did the majority of the population, all we knew was that people who commit crimes were made to fight there if they weren't sentenced to immediate death; and anyone who decided to fight could register at anytime to climb to the top and seek the safety of items from other people except other Battleground winners. Not to mention being able to choose a certain amount of items with no blood penalty, items of sentimental value still held the blood penalty but everyday items didn't.

I looked at him and said "She said she read my spirit, how is it possible to read a person's spirit?" He looked at me and smiled. "If you want to know that you have to join us first." I thought about it for a moment, I was curious and also the girl I loved was part of this group so I couldn't see a reason not to. "Okay I'll join you" I said finally. The man beckoned for me to follow him and we went back to the room behind the announcer's booth and he took a small drop of blood from his finger and dropped it into a small twisting tube that was attached to the wall and we waited for it to go behind the wall and suddenly the wall slid back to reveal a hidden room where a small group of people were gathered around. They all turned towards me and stood silently with their heads down slightly. I saw the guard from earlier in the group of people, he looked at me with empathy as they parted to reveal the body of Opet laying inside a dark glass box. She was pale and lifeless but she still looked like she could spring back to life at any moment. Instead of the clothes she had worn into battle she was covered in a long white dress.

The sight of her made me turn away in guilt, the announcer came over and took me out of the room and said "She would have wanted it this way, the soul searchers all know that their job requires laying their life on the line day after day. Today we lost one of our greatest fighters but gained an even greater one. You achieved something no one else in your place has ever done before, I know now that you're hurting but there was something she wanted to give to you even after death." I looked at him still feeling the pain of losing her and asked "what did she want me to have?" he took me and led me to another room that had a red and black tuxedo that was my size and said, "she felt your love for her and wanted you to prove your love to her by not holding back, no one has ever survived her before but she had a feeling about you. The last thing she wanted was to have a wedding with you so that when you die you'll be reunited with her in the afterlife."

After hearing those words I fell down with tears falling from my face rapidly. The announcer pulled me up and took me out and let me have time to myself and once I got through he said, "I know you're in pain right now, but she loved you as much as you loved her. She loved you so much she wanted to spend an eternity with her. I understand if this is painful for you, but if you love her then please try and do this for her." I had stopped crying but still felt hollow inside, yet what he said made me feel better and I agreed to have the wedding and asked for some space. I put on the tuxedo and sat down facing the table in front of me and laid my head down getting the last of my sadness out of me so I could do this for her. I came out wearing the tuxedo and one of the people from the group played canon in d major on violin as I walked towards her dark open container and they had a voice recording of her responses and her vows and I felt tears well up in my eyes hearing her voice again after I said my parts and made my vows.

Finally it was time for me to kiss the bride and I lifted her veil and saw her face and held back the feeling of overwhelming sadness and kissed her cold lifeless lips making final my promise to join her when I die. No one cheered or acted happy, they knew how hard this was for me and parted for me to get by. I looked down emptily wishing I could've been with her in this life and the afterlife. Time passed slowly as we had her funeral after the gloomy wedding. I watched on emptily as they lowered her down into her grave and buried her under the mounds of dirt before adding the final touches of pitch black stone under her white marble rose gravestone that said "Here lies Opet, may she be as happy after life as she was before death." After the burial everyone slowly walked away except for me and the announcer, I stood over the grave looking at it as though it were far off and nonexistent almost. The announcer came closer and barely put his hand around my shoulder. "I remember being in this exact same situation and ironically before you came along your wife killed mine and I hated her for it, even though the rules are that if someone is killed in the arena by a worthy opponent they can't be harmed because the risk was taken knowing that death was a possibility; I still wanted revenge. Seeing you here suffering without being able to have her even for a moment though is far worse than what happened to me. I'm sorry that this happened."

The announcer turned away from me and removed his hand from my shoulder. I looked at him and asked, "What do you know about my wife?" He looked back at me and said "We all shared stories we were okay with sharing so I can only tell you what I heard, if you want to know everything about her we all make sure to write our own stories of our life in case we should die and someone wants to know of our life before we died." I asked where the stories were kept and he showed me the way to her room and opened the door and walked over to a silver bookcase holder and took Opet's key that was removed before the burial and opened it. I felt strange opening the case to my dead wife's entire life, but I had to know her life before I met her since she and I were together forever I needed to know everything about her. I opened the first page and the announcer stepped out giving me my privacy, but before I started reading I heard someone say something to the announcer. "Is he ready for the initiation training yet Renfro?" I had not known the announcer's name until now, probably because formalities seem less important when you lose someone you love. "Not yet Guise, he's reading her life book as we speak." I saw the guard that talked to me when they took me off the battlefield speaking with Renfro before they left leaving me by myself to read about my deceased wife's life, before I took it from her.