The Fight

There it was, staring at me. Begging me to open it. Whispering away, gnawing at my mind.

'Open me, open me,' incessantly in my head. Extirpating my sanity. No matter where I went, what I did, it appeared again. Stalking me.

A knock at the door.

‘Hello sir, we’ve been waiting for your reply for ever so long. Have you made your decision?’ I slam the door, running away. Trying to block them all out of my mind.

The letter, you see, is about my death. I’ve known it was coming for years and I found myself petrified; unable to do a thing. No wife, no children, no happy ending. Nothing. I’ve wasted my life away and it comes to this. Fight or die.

You have to understand, our city - if you can still call it that - can’t sustain many people. It struggles to keep the leaders alive. Let alone we ‘lucky’ few left in squalor. We’re left to fend for ourselves and expected to be thankful to the thieving pricks who’ll take it from us without reason. The spiders, we call them. Once they pounce, it’s only a matter of time before you die.

You get a choice, though! Fight for your meager existence or be killed. In this broken place they mean the same thing in the end. The spider’s pawns are always heavily armed. Not one person has ever won a battle before.

I’m not afraid of death at all! You get used to the idea here. The only thing I’m afraid of losing is my memories. Will they stay with me to the end? Will I keep my honour and my composure? I hope so. I won’t let myself die with a bullet in my back.

I stand suddenly, calmly opening the door. My fist drawn back. Screaming, I tell them.

‘I. Will. Fight!’ I laugh as I knock the first to the ground, stepping out into a suddenly bright world. Waking from it’s slumber. They march me into the arena - an old football field - and I grin.

‘I’ve hated every minute of my godforsaken life on this planet. But now I’m at peace, friends. I welcome my death. I will stand for my family. This is the end of the line.’ Running out, I embrace the warmth of my blood as it sprays out in front of me.

Even at my end, they betrayed me.

-- written by George Lee