My breath came out in deep pants; I was starting to feel the wear on my body. I dropped to one knee once again to scoop up the soccer ball, unfortunately for me I failed to notice the cleat coming toward my head at a threatening pace. Pain filled all of my being as I let out a scream that sounded like a wounded animal. Black began to take over my vision and the voices around began to fade out, for a moment I felt a sense of fear and then nothing at all.
Quick rhythmic pounding of a drum filled my ears. Head throbbing a bit my eyelids slowly rise. My hand shot up to block the bright sunlight from above. Panic filled me as I quickly pushed myself up to a sitting position; I took in all that was around me, but recognized nothing. Little huts made out of straw and what looked to be mud were scattered around along with people dressed in feathered outfits with different markings drawn all over their bodies. I was grabbed from the ground by a powerfully built man and lifted over his shoulder. Screaming, I began to pound on his back trying to convince him to release me from his grasp. After two minutes of constant pounding my hands were aching and I was no closer to being released. The man carried me to what looked like an ancient stadium, panicked tears rolled down my cheeks when I noticed beheaded bodies scattered around the outside of what appeared to be a playing field of some sort. The man dropped me to the ground right in the center of the field next to what at first glance appeared to be a ball. But, after taking a closer look my mouth opened in a silent scream, it was a human head. The head of my best friend, I began to sob loudly when I heard snickering coming from behind me. Slowly I turned, to find the most vile hearted person that I have ever known, my younger sister.
"What's going on!" I yelled in anger, still not able to stand yet. "A match to the death," she said while gesturing to the hoops on the
walls. "The game is kind of like soccer, no hands and which ever team gets the most points, gets to keep their lives."
My whole body shook as I forced myself to stand, "Fine," I was finally able to gasp out, "Let's play."
My sister smirked at me and then went to stand with the burley looking men that were her team. I finally turned to face my own team, wiping the last of the tears that still clung to my cheeks.
Everyone lined up for the game, eyes darting left and right in attempt to find a weakness in the opposition. The mellow sound of a horn filled the air signaling the game's beginning. A large brown ball was thrown into the air. I ran as fast as my body would allow causing the already sore muscles in my legs to burn like a raging fire in protest. My sister let out a laugh as she pushed past me, "Having trouble big sister?"
I wanted to hit her or say something, but I knew that doing so would not help me any. I fell back into a defensive position, but someone had already taken a shot scoring the first goal of the game. I turned to go back to the position that I had started in, only to realize that everyone was already playing. Running again after a man, who was a lot larger than myself, I slid in front of him and let out a whimper as he slammed my body into the stadium wall. I fell to my knees, paralyzed with pain and watched as my sister's team scored twice more. Tears filled my eyes as I came to a realization that my team would not win. The sound of the horn filled the air once again and I felt a pair of arms grab me, dragging me across the rough ground towards a large flat stone.
"Goodbye," I heard my sister say with a venomous tone as I took my last few breaths before a sharp object came down on my neck.