I woke up to screaming. I could feel cold air on my face and could tell that there were fresh drops of blood on my face. One of them was at the tip of my eye lashes. I could smell the stench that filled the room. My hazy mind took several minutes to register that I had fainted.

As realization hit me, so did the urgency of the situation. I looked left and right and saw that of the remaining seven, two of them had become the monster's meal. I could see it's blurry greenish-gray form between the bunks. It was facing away from me, a leg from its meal held high in one hand and its face and other hand busy.

I looked around and noticed that there was someone praying, someone screaming for help, someone crying. A few of them were crying. My heart was pounding and I couldn't figure out what to do.

They'd only let monsters in three times. I'd been unconscious twice and been given a weapon once. This time, I was chained, helpless and surrounded by teens who could see it.

None of the others had ever been able to see past the human disguise.

I could hear the guy praying for the green, eyeless goblin to disappear. I could hear the girl screaming for someone to save her from "the ugly beast" and as scared as I was, I found myself praying too. I found myself praying that they wouldn't kill all of these kids who clearly had the sight.

"Are...are you okay?" A voice said beside me and I opened my eyes to find the speak looking down at me.

Fear in me, I had scooted as close to the edge of the mattress as my chains and body would allow before sticking my head as far off the bed as it would go. Only my hair was off but it was enough. "It's not near you is it?" He asked and his eyes looked confused and terrified. His eyes up were all that I could see.

"No." I heard myself croak. It hit me, as my brain started to work a bit more. He was high up with less of a vantage point than I had. He couldn't see from above but the monster was sitting on the floor. "Two bunks over to the right." He registered my words quickly and vanished above.

My body hurt. The chains were tight. My clothes and hair were icky with dried blood and wet droplets. As the green toad-like blob tilted its head back, I saw what the girl was screaming about. It really had no eyes. Two large holes that were constantly being opened and shut served as its nostrils. There was no chin or neck. Just a round body with arms and legs attached and a mouth taking up a quarter of it's upper portion.

It tilted backward and shoved the entire leg down it's open mouth, closing its teeth around it, only pulling its empty, chubby hands back before chewing. It chewed and chewed and chewed, its whole-body bubbling with the motion. It had definitely been chewing when it had been looking down before.

The speakers blared, shutting off all the sounds in the room besides the wet, sickly crunches coming from the blob. I clenched my teeth trying hard not to picture my own foot being constantly churned and shredded by the frog-like goblin as he squirmed like a worm just to perform a basic function. Chewing. Feeding.

"Code Mel." Named after the speaker's son, Meldon, I knew from past experience that Code Mel would be our saviour.

Gas filled the room from all corners, painless and safe.

I stayed awake. That's what it feels like, complete awareness. I could see the room, foggy and white, and that's all there was. No sound. No movement. Just smoke. I knew it would be like that until they woke us up. The gas would knock us out but trick our minds to be frozen on the last sight we had before falling asleep.

Waking was even more painless than the gas itself. I woke up, centered on the bed, my body unstrained and free of the heavy chains, my pillow fluffed, my hair cleaned and dried, my clothes changed and the room changed.

I'd never been in this one before. I'd never met a room filled with kids who had the sight either. Something in my mind told me that this round was going to be the worst one yet.

Even though each time had been different, there were always constants. They'd give the warning then release the new comers into the room. There'd be some sort of champion or just regular old blood baths. Then there'd be a choosing. Someone would enter and remove all the dead kids and living ones. Next my room would be empty with me being lost in my head, fully shaken. They'd give me a week or sometimes months before repeating the process.

The strongest ones they kept.

Something about this bunch told me that there had been a reason to it all. I looked around the room and realized quickly, something I should have noted earlier, especially with my perception. These kids were all survivors. Not all of them but these kids had been in my room before.

They were on their bunks staring at the door as though something would burst through at any moment, which it could.

All this time...

They'd been sorting them out. Finding kids that knew how to fight. Not because they were deadly or mischief makers but because they could see what everyone else couldn't. They were finding kids like me.