JADE COLLINS

Green and I were told to step into the ring.....

I could hear my heart beats.

I could hear Sam speak with one of his guests that came to watch the match.

Looking at my opponent, I felt her confidence ooze. She's definitely one of the volunteers that was ready to forget her old life.

After the gong signaled us to fight, we circled the the ring slowly trying to guage each other.

"What is this?" One of the spectators said, irritated. "I didn't leave my home to come watch bitches circle the ring" And with that statement, Green lunged at me, she immediately brought my face down to her knee and blood flowed freely from my nose because of the impact.

Ignoring the excruciating pain while using my mouth to breathe, I grabbed the same leg that hit my nose and flung her. I guess she was surprised because she just lay on the floor.

I used the few seconds of hesitation to pounce on her. By now, our spectators were cheering us. I started punching Green's face since I was quite pissed that she kneed me in the face.

All of a sudden, she flipped me and started punching me on the face too. I managed to push her off and we circled each other again. My head was spinning and I could feel my blood dripping through my nose, bloodying my lips. My head felt like a mad house. Green didn't look any better, an eye was swollen shut already.

At this point we were both exhausted but Green looked so angry that if looks could kill, I would be dead already. I guess she didn't expect me to put up much of a fight.

Green pounced on me again and pushed me down. I tried fighting her off but she was too strong, she started punching me in the face over and over and I started screaming and shaking trying to get her off me.

A loud bang startled us signaling the end of the fight. Green looked at Sam beside the gong in surprise. Her face saying what I didn't have the strength to say. How was the fight over? Who won?

"Okay so I know you lot have questions but in a never happened, never gonna happen again incident, you four have passed on to become recruits".

After Sam's announcement, all of the guests started yelling. "WHAT IS THIS SAM?" A large ugly man shouted and pointed towards Green and I in the fighting ring.

"YOU AND EVERYONE HERE KNOW GREEN WAS ABOUT TO WIN THE FIGHT. WHY DID YOU BRING ME ALL THE WAY TO WATCH A BLOODLESS FIGHT?" I nervously wiped my bloody mouth. Ugly guy called this fight bloodless????

Many of the murmuring guests copied large ugly man and began shouting.

"Shut up you fools" Sam said in a deadly and calm voice. All of a sudden, his voice went up "I AM THE SOLE OWNER OF THIS ORGANIZATION AND YOU WOULDN'T TELL ME HOW TO RUN IT". His voice went down several octaves again.

"Strength isn't necessarily defined by physical attributes and I am a present example of this. I know what I see in Red and she shows a lot of strength"

I looked up at Sam in surprise from my laid down position and blushed. I really don't know why Sam is standing up for me.

"Do you remember why we're doing this? Do you remember the kinds of soldiers were looking for?

Do you want a soldier like Orange who tried cheating his way in last week?

RED was the one who discovered this.

Do you want a wise strategic soldier or a half assed soldier with no honor?"

Now I guess we know the fourth recruit and why Silver was brought out with us today.

"So Dave, you have insulted me, my organization and all that I stand for and it is the very thing I can't and wouldn't tolerate" Sam calmly said while walking slowly towards Dave, his quiet voice ringing throughout the hall. I stared in fear for Dave silently willing him to take back his words and apologize. A calm Sam is a crazy Sam.

Immediately Sam got in front of Dave, he literally plunged his hand into Dave's chest and out came Dave's heart. Blood spilled everywhere as Dave looked on in shock, falling slowly as his brain finally registered his heart had been pulled out.

Everyone gasped in shock. Well everyone except fighters and staff. We all know Sam. Dave was suicidal to question him.

"Anyone else have a problem?" Sam asked while using a handkerchief a guard gave him to clean his hands. "Ughh, this idiot's blood has stained my shoes. Get him out of here, he's kind of ruining the vibes" Sam gestured to the guard in which he immediately complied. After the incident, definitely nobody had further complaints.

"I guess we're done here" Sam said while rubbing his hands together.

"My winners shall pack up their bags and move into the house with immediate effect. We don't want them sleeping in an uncomfortable environment much longer". And with that, Sam started walking towards the exit then said over his shoulder, "We start our real fights in a week recruits".

Silver ran into the ring to help me up just as Green stalked away angrily. I guess she also didn't like Sam's decision.

.

.

.

I sighed. I was really lucky. Silver too, he got to be a recruit.The guards directed us straight to The House and since we technically have no belongings, we would be given new fighting gear, still in our respective colors though.

As we walked into the house, I couldn't help but gasp. I saw recruits moving about freely kind of with purpose. Surprisingly, the recruits were few in number. With the way recruits to be have fights almost everyday and recruits are churned out from those fights, I expected more recruits to be here.

I looked up at the staircase landing because I felt the weight of a pair of eyes on me and I saw a recruit wearing red, looking at me with so much hatred.

"Oh good, you guys made it" Black said blankly in the most empty way possible. What happened to her?

The angry recruit kept eyeing me, clearly out for my blood. "Red don't mind her, she's angry because both of you can't be in the house" Black said blankly again. I'm actually noticing a pattern here, it seems like every trained recruit has a blank or an angry expression. An angry expression would totally fit Green.

"Black, what happened?" Silver spoke up.

"Nothing. Come, let me show you around" She said, walking up the staircase.

"You guys have a week to rest, I suggest you get prepared within that time" she continued.

We got to the first floor which had our hall with our rooms and "An actual bed" cried Purple. He went into the first room he saw and hugged the bed.

"Yeah, so you pick any room. It doesn't matter because as you go up each stage of your recruitment process, you move up each floor. If you make it. The first floor is for first stage recruits"

"We get fewer as we move up stages" Black finished.

"Wait, what do you mean by fewer?" I asked Black.

"Well, just think about your regular match but this time, either opponent has to die. It's supposed to train us to be ultimate assassins. We are supposed to kill anyone with zero hesitation."

I looked on in shock.

"That's why Red 2.0 was angry to see you. A duplicate color can't stay in the house at the same time so far both colors haven't graduated, one has to die. I have a feeling you guys would be the first match" Black finished.

Ughh, I totally forgot we're being trained to be assassins. No wonder Black killed her opponent in her last match. I knew it was unlike her.

"Wait, so when do we graduate?" I asked. All these fail safe passing of stages...I don't think I can handle the pressure anymore.

"You graduate after three fights each. If you survive" Black answered.

"A tip, just suppress all your emotions and everything would be easier from there." Black said and walked out to I assume, her wing.

Green stalked off to get a room. "Oh well, see you later Silver." I said.

"Wait Red, I never got to thank you for your help. I owe you" Silver said.

"No, Silver what are friends for? Besides, Orange could've killed you and gotten away with it or you could've been left at the cells . I couldn't leave you to rot there which is ironic now because we have to kill people to get to the next stage. Wouldn't it have been better rotting in the cells?" I started rambling.

"Calm down Red, you gave me a choice to fight by helping me and I think taking Black's tip might help" Silver said with his hands on my shoulder. All of a sudden he hugged me "Goodnight Red" and ran away mischievously into a room on the left side of the wing. Which left me with the last room on the right side of the wing. Ughhhh.

"Woooow" The room actually wasn't bad at all. I had a comfy bed. My room was en-suite with a proper toilet and bathroom. This was the life. I even had mirrors. One in the bathroom and one in the bedroom.

The suite had a clean minimalist feel to it. I don't know how to describe it.

I also have a TV.

After touring the whole room and getting snacks from the fridge in the room, I jumped on my bed, put on the TV and I must have slept off because I had my recurring dream. Funny thing is I woke up interrupting my dream as usual even though there were no guards around to wake us up. I put off the TV and went into the bathroom to clean up.

After I was done dressing up in my new workout gear, I decided to go to the gym to practice for the upcoming fights next week. If my last fight was any indication, no matter what Sam said, I don't think I'm strong enough to win a fight, not to talk of a fight to the death.When I got to the gym, I discovered all the new recruits had the same idea.

"Hey Red. How did you sleep?" Silver greeted me.

"My sleep was very good, thank you Silver. How's training going?" I asked. " Yeah, I'm working on building my endurance, wouldn't want a repeat of what happened in my last match now would we? If you didn't notice what Orange did and if Sam didn't care about what happened during the match, I would be rotting in the cells now" Silver finished.

I nodded my head. "Well, I think I also have to work on my endurance and strength because of what happened during my last match. Our future matches are life or death now. No more spottings needed" Silver nodded in agreement and went back to his training.

I went to the hung punching bags, dropped my bag and as I was trying to put on my gloves, one of the gloves fell.

I bent to pick it up and it suddenly flew in another direction. I looked at the culprit in contempt.

"Do you have a problem with me bitch?" Red 2.0 asked me because I wasn't saying anything, just looking at her and thinking up ways I could slap her very slapable face.

I looked at my glove across the room and went to pick it up, ignoring her completely. I need to focus on my training.

I got back to my sand bag and I noticed the bitch had started using it to train.

"Ooops, sorry. I didn't know you were going to use it" She gave an insincere apology.

I humphed and left to use the free standing punch bag which was what was left for me to use. Ughhhhh. I don't even like using this to train. You should've fought for your bag Red, I said to myself.

After training, Silver and I hung out till we slept.

The same thing went on throughout the week. Red 2.0 bullying me and trying to make sure I don't get to train, me getting solutions to that and thwarting all her attempts to get me not to train and hanging out with Silver and occasionally Purple.

Black doesn't pay us any attention. She's either very busy or doesn't want to get attached to us.

The fight week came up and Black came over to give each of us our invitation letters.