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Ambrosia woke up with a throbbing lip, a bleeding forehead and a bruised stomach. Her tears had dried on her cheeks, washing off the dirt in some places. A very concerned looking boy was standing over her. Seeing a boy, destined to be tortured and killed, made her start crying again. Her whole body hurt, to the point she wished she'd just get sold and killed already. The boy patted her on the shoulder, whispering something like " Calm down, Calm Down..." Ambrosia's eyes started blurring with tears, and she started hiccuping violently. Through her blur of tears, she made out a square room filled with humans. At the end of the room, there were two doors. "What's that?", she asked amidst her hiccups, and the boy laughed. Ambrosia froze at the sound. The only time she heard someone truly laugh in the last few years, was her torturers. Even the babies didn't laugh here, knowing someone would probably smack them for disrupting the peace. She wished the boy would stop laughing at her, and just answer her question to distract her from their unavoidable death. The boy was smiling now, his dimples showing. He informed Ambrosia that was a door leading to the bathroom, where they were supposed to clean themselves for the arena. Ambrosia felt her throat tighten, a bunch of tears threatening to come out.

The boy paled at the thought of her going into hysteria again and started apologizing. Seeing him blabber like this, Ambrosia smiled. She relaxed again and pushed her back against the wall. "So what now?" she asked, and the boy once again told her that she had to put on the dress, but only after showering. Her eyes light up at the thought of getting the dirt and grime off of her body.  The boy guided her towards a door and gave her a package with two small pieces of fabrics in it. He told Ambrosia he would leave a dress outside the door. Ambrosia's head was spinning, after all, she had hit her head on a cement floor and probably bruised a rib. She could barely see the other kids scattered around the room. There was something strange about them, something she couldn't quite put her hand on. She spotted a girl she knew from the cell next to her. Ambrosia wondered how long the fiery redhead had before she died. She crawl-walked to the door with the help of her new friend and closed the door behind her. 

The bathroom was minuscule, even smaller than the ones back at the cells. It felt nice, having privacy. Back there, you never knew who would creep up on you and hit you in the back.

She scrubbed off all the dirt from her body, but her hair was a real struggle. Whenever it was dry, it would puff up,  so tangled she couldn't even put her hand in it. She wet her hair and rinsed through it with a strange liquid she found. She couldn't read, but she recognized some of the letters, so she made something out like sapoo. Shaking her head, droplets of water flew off her head. Ambrosia opened the bag with the  two things. She couldn't quite figure out what they were. She figured the long piece of fabric with straps on the back and two round thing was supposed to go on her breasts and hide them, although she didn't quite catch why that was needed for. Everyone knows girls have breasts. The Second one she thought was kind of a bracelet, after a long time of looking at it from every angle. Ambrosia opened the door and quickly snatched the dress.  Examining the material, she felt she had never seen anything as beautiful and soft as this fabric. It was a material, unlike anything Ambrosia had seen. It was a shimmery color, with a bareback and deep cleavage. Ambrosia felt disgusted. As pretty as the dress was, she knew it was designed to provoke the gods, to make them want to fight for her. Not her, but her body. She scoffed and slid the dress over her head. Not even wanting to look at herself, she wrapped the bracelet around her arm. As for shoes, she had no idea if she had to wear her worn-out sandals, as they ruined the whole thing of being desirable. She peeked through the door and found that the boy was sitting there, waiting for her. Ambrosia stepped out and patted his shoulder. "Do I look okay?", she asked, not bothering to even look up. He looked up, and his gaze flickering from her face to her whole down body. "Yeah, you're pretty." Ambrosia smiled but got nervous when the boy paled looking at her bracelet.

"Uh, I think you misunderstood the use for that." Ambrosia looked confused, so the boy started blabbering something about the second thing being for the upper part and that thing for the down part. Ambrosia finally got it, squealed, and jumped back into the bathroom. She blushed furiously and felt like she could never go back out there. It was her first time feeling embarrassed in her whole life, and to be honest it wasn't something she liked.  Removing the previously thought bracelet of her arm, she put it on her down part.

Ambrosia walked out of the bathroom for the last time and stood next to the boy. " You know, they'll be here shortly. To take us away." The boy spoke with an unexpectedly serious voice. Ambrosia grinned."And I'm planning on doing everything I can to anger them before they kill me."

"You're so calm about death."

" I'll die anyway, and everyone knows they will too. Why not knowing I've angered them?"

"You're brave."

"I'm a coward."

" You know you're not."

 "My name's Ambrosia. Just so you know."

"Pretty name. Where did you come up with it?"

She heard someone snicker. Looking up, a woman's shadowy form was looming down on them, giggling. "You're pretty for a human." A huge smile fell on her face, and she motioned at Ambrosia. " Now, come, come." Ambrosia didn't move.  The woman grabbed her hand, dragging her along the room. The room spun. Her injuries hurt again. In the cells, others would take over the hard jobs for you when no one was watching if you were beaten. Now, nobody was there to shoulder her and help her walk. Amidst being dragged across the room, she found herself in another place. A moment ago, she was with the boy, and now she was probably being dragged to her painful death.  She closed her eyes, unable to endure the pain any longer. The woman came to a halt, and Ambrosia fell because of the sudden stop. She felt her head was going to burst into a million little pieces if her headache didn't stop. She winced when she was sat on a chair, yet the woman didn't pay her suffer any attention. Ambrosia was not surprised, her whole life had consisted of poor treatment, but after the boy treated her so nicely, hope blossomed in her mind. A mistake from her side.

The woman didn't speak another word as she pulled out a scissor, and before Ambrosia even realised what it was for, more than half of her hair was already on the ground. A quiet shriek escaped her mouth. She was horrified, but what did she expect? They would leave her ankle-length hair as she liked it? Her hair barely reached her shoulders now, and it was much lighter. To her surprise, after a few seconds, it didn't feel as bad. It felt good, even. Her hair was no longer dragging on the ground, and she knew it wouldn't reach the ground when she wet it.

Her face was poked, tweezed, and polished with numerous oils. The wound on her forehead was cleaned and hid. Her busted lip was covered up with lipstick. The hair on her arms and legs were no longer present, and her armpits were cleaned with strange pink papers. She felt like half her weight was shed when the woman cut her hair. She glanced at the pile of black, curly mass on the white ground. At that moment, she fully realised that she was no longer a cell girl, and the next day, she'd either be killed or tortured without end.  She grasped her dress in her fist, in an attempt to calm her down, but it didn't help. The woman spun the chair Ambrosia was sitting on and grinned. As Ambrosia guessed she was satisfied with her work. The woman, still without a name, motioned her to stand up and took her to the other side of the room, where a giant mirror stood. Ambrosia knew how her face looked like. She had curly black hair, full lips, and big brown eyes. But looking in the mirror, it was her first time seeing herself fully. She had long, pretty legs and a thin neck adorned with a pretty necklace. Her lips were accentuated with dark red lipstick, her eyelids a pretty silver. She sucked in her breath and noticed how her torso moved when she breathed.  The dress shimmered when she moved, and her eyes started pooling with tears. This was the first, and probably the last time she looked in a mirror and saw herself like this, without wounds and not looking like a dead man. It was pointless, imagining a future for herself without pain and torture.

The woman looked at her for the last time from every angle, making sure there was nothing left to polish and nodded her head. She then opened a door Ambrosia hadn't noticed yet, and Ambrosia knew what awaited on the other side. The woman had a grimly look, and Ambrosia wondered what creature she was. She was not a human, but not a god either. Ambrosia didn't know any other creatures,  unable to identify what the woman was. The woman's look changed, shifting to irritated. Ambrosia gulped, and walked into the door, ready for whatever gods would throw at her.

The arena was nothing like she imagined. Kids were everywhere, the place was dark, with no place for the gods to observe them from, and all she could see was a big, round room with helpless humans all around it. Her eyes searched for the boy, and soon enough she spotted a brown mop of hair on her left. She ran towards him, and the boy saw her too. A smile beamed on his face and he greeted her with open arms, hugging her tightly. Ambrosia got engulfed in his smell, his soft hair, and she thought she'd like this moment to go on forever. She finally let go and smiled. He had already been prepared when she met him, so there was nothing new she noticed. The look in his eyes had changed; it was not the same smiley look on his face had been swapped with a worried, scared look. Ambrosia suspected she had the same look on her face, the look of cowardness, and yet, she felt less fear than in her entire life. She had nothing to lose, she knew she would die, and if it meant she would be in the gods' mind for a small portion of their time, she was willing to defeat the weakling inside of her. They sat on the ground, probably dirtying their clothes, but they didn't care. They just sat and looked at other kids panicking. Both of them knew this was calm before the storm, but the calm was still calmer than the gods' rage, and they enjoyed their last minutes on the ground. Ambrosia still felt her bruises, although faintly. The boy put his head on her shoulder, and Ambrosia felt so sleepy. It would be so easy, just to fall asleep. She closed her eyes and felt herself drift to sleep when a crack sounded. 

Then another. She felt the whole ground shake, and Ambrosia and the boy jumped and looked around. The walls were shattering around them, some of the pieces hitting the humans and killing them on place. Ambrosia screamed when a big chunk of the wall landed right next to them. Humans were running around, bumping into each other; everything turned chaotic, and Ambrosia had no idea where they were or how to hide from the flying pieces of rocks. She cursed at the gods and their inability to avoid bloodshed. She grabbed the boy's hand and ran towards two fallen rocks creating a cave-like structure. She crawled in the small space, and when she turned around to push the boy in with her, she saw it. A small, pointy rock had lodged itself in his head. Ambrosia let out a silent scream and dropped his hand like it was scalding hot. Tears spilled out from her eyes, and she went into a shock; she could see her surroundings, the dead boy on the ground, the rock in his head, but it was all fuzzy. Ambrosia was crying, screaming, begging to the gods to save him. She pulled the boy's body inside her small hideout, hugging him tightly, rocking around. The rock poked her cheek, and she was staring at his frozen eyes, unable to process the fact that her first friend in years had died because the gods wanted bloodshed before another bloodshed.  Ambrosia was left with his body, her tears, and another tragedy in her life.

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This is our beloved unnamed boy :(  He was a very likeable character, a possible love interest, so it was hard killing him right away. Can you tell I love the netflix show Elite by my casting choice? If anyone has watched it, at least three of my characters are cast from there lol. The picture in the beginning of the chapter is Ambrosia's dress. Hope you liked this chapter :)

Love,

Talia