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As we stood inside an area full of boisterous natives, my stomach flip-flopped. No one had told us anything about what was expected of us, just that this was our just dues or something to that effect. I narrowed my eyes at the slight figure that appeared at the opposite end of the arena. Without my glasses or contacts, I was pretty blind.

“It’s Lizz,” Brian whispered weakly.

“Where the fuck is that growling coming from?” AJ quietly demanded.

“I’m guessing that black thing in the center,” Howie decided.

All eyes trained on the man standing in the center of the ring as he shouted native words causing the crowd to errupt in an enthusastic roar. He set about his tendious task of removing the black cloth, appearing fearful of stepping too close to the edge of the hole.

“Okay, this doesn’t look good to me,” Kevin breathed, still dizzy from the blow to his head.

Brian glanced upwards at his cousin and gasped when he saw fresh blood staining the white cloth that covered the wound on his head. “Any ideas on how to get out of this mess?”

“I say we fuckin’ run,” AJ suggested.

“Okay, yeah that’s a good idea... abandon Lizz? Are you crazy!?” I threw a look over at AJ. It figures he would just run and not think this thing out.

“Oh yeah, well, make a run for Lizz and then run?” AJ tried to correct his idea.

Something dark reached out from the pit and grabbed the native man’s legs and pulled him into the hole. A sudden yelp came from the man before he disappeared. The growling increased in it’s intensity and the crowd seemed pleased that the man had become a sacrifical meal for the beasts that were in the hole. They started chanting. I gulped.

“What the hell are they saying!?” AJ shouted to no one in particular.

A name became clearer as the chanting continued.

“It sounds like Beadios or something like that,” Howie replied, his head cocked to one side, trying to decypher the words.

“How about dead mother-----”

“LOOK!” Brian cried out, interrupting AJ, he pointed a finger towards the pit.

My mouth dropped open as I caught the sight of Lizz slowly inching her way towards the pit. She was clutching something in her left hand.

“LIZZ STAY THE HELL BACK!” I screamed as I started running towards her, pushing away from Brian’s weak grasp.

She froze in her tracks momentarily but then a blank look became fixed on her chalky white face as she ignored my plea.

“LIZZ, PLEASE.... DON’T, GOD, PLEASE!” I begged as I continued to sprint towards her.

In something that seemed to be played out in slow motion, I managed to not only leap and grab Lizz around the shoulders, I pulled her to the ground and we rolled away from the pit. The crowd errupted in cheers, pleased at what had just happened.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked after we rolled to a stop in the dirt, the dust still filtering the sun from us.

“I have to do this Nick, they want one of us to die,” Lizz whispered, her eyes set with determination.

“Oh god, Lizz, don’t be stupid. None of us have to die, we’re gonna get the fuck outta here,” I replied as I pulled a strand of hair away from her mouth.

“How? We’re surrounded,” Lizz asked as she looked around the arena.

“I’m working on that one,” I replied as I got up from the ground and held my hand out for her to take.

The crowd started to boo as Lizz and I hurried around the pit back towards the guys. They were evidently not happy that both of us escaped, unscathed. I was growing more irritated by the minute and I could tell by the look on AJ’s face, he was ready to blow.

“What the hell do those assholes want?” AJ seethed as he looked wildly around the packed arena.

“Death,” Lizz replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Well it ain’t gonna happen Lizz, so get that thought outta your head, okay?” I tried to reassure her and AJ.

“Nick’s right,” Brian added. “We’re in one heck of a mess but we’ve come this far not to get defeated.”

“Okay, we gotta think fast cause it looks like raptor or whatever the hell that thing is is tired of waiting on us,” Howie stated, nervously.

All eyes riveted back towards the pit to see a black lizard, something that looked like a prop from a Jurrasic Park movie, struggle to climb out of the pit. It’s red, forked tongue kept slithering in and out. The creature appeared to be over twelve feet in length and it’s body was a thick, sturdy mass of leathery alligator looking black skin.

“Ah shit, we’re gonna get killed by freakin Godzilla?!?” AJ moaned.

“Yeah and it’s got it’s eyes on me,” I stated as I looked directly into the reptile’s yellow-green eyes. “Okay, here’s the plan, you guys run towards the tunnel we came out of and I will distract raptor until you get there and then----”

“Whoa, whoa Nicky, wait on a minute, you’ll do what?” Kevin asked, his eyes darting back from the lizard to my face.

“I will distract that thing there and while it’s worried about my butt, you guys run for the tunnel and then once I know you’re safe I will run like hell to the tunnel,” I replied, semi-confident in my decision.

Lizz started shaking her head. “I’m staying with you.”

“Like hell you are,” I snapped as I gently shoved her towards AJ. “You can’t run very fast with your bum lungs and I sure as hell don’t want to be responsible for picking up your severed parts when Spike here gets ahold of you.”

“Spike? And what the hell do you mean by bum lungs? I had a transplant,” Lizz protested.

“Spike the lizzard and I ain’t arguing with you anymore! Now GO!”

“Wait, what if you have a seizure?”

“You worry too damn much, I’m fine, good god just go you guys!”

I watched after them for a moment as they took off towards the tunnel and then i quickly turned around in time to see the lizard out of the pit. A bloodied part of the man’s clothes that fell victim to the animal’s wrath, hung on the back of the lizard. I cringed at the sight realizing I could very well be adding to the live clothing rack if I didn’t think my moves out quick enough. Thank god the crowd was roaring, because I was screaming my fool head off, scared to death.

Hearing my screams, the lizard hesitated for a moment and then seemed to be angered and started to lunge towards me.

“OH SHIT,” I yelled out as I started to freak out at the sight of the giant reptile moving towards me, it’s mouth opening, showing a full rack of large, sharp, pointed teeth.

As I turned to go, my confidence was short lived as I felt a sharp object dig into my left ankle. I looked back to see the lizard had it’s mouth locked down around my leg. I tried desperately to shake the beast from me only making it more madder at me, causing it to clamp down harder.

“GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” I cried out.

Suddenly, I could feel my body starting to be dragged towards the pit where the animal came from. I twisted my body around and clawed at the sandy ground, trying to get ahold of something to stop the beast from taking me into it’s home. I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest, random stupid thoughts were filling my head. I wasn’t thinking clearly I was pretty much writing myself off, deciding that maybe this will be a quick death once the animal had me in it’s den. I looked over towards the entrance way where I had sent my friends and semi relieved to see that they had managed to scale the fence that was blocking the tunnel.

Hearing the crowd in an intensified cheering frenzy, caused AJ and Brian to look back to where Nick was left at to see what was happening.

“Oh sweet God,” Brian gasped as he saw the creature starting to drag Nick towards the hole in the center of the arena.

“Oh fuck,” AJ muttered. He quickly grabbed a heavy steel rod off the ground and scaled the fence, running full speed towards Nick and the reptile. “HANG ON NICK!”

“AJ, GO BACK! GO BACK,” I yelled frantically as I saw AJ running like he was being chased by a crowd of crazed fans. For some reason he wasn’t listening and I saw a heavy rod tightly gripped in his hand. He started swinging the weapon before he even got close to us.

“LET GO YOU BASTARD!” AJ grunted as he heaved the rod up into the air, bring it down repeatidly in a hasty attack.

I squeezed my eyes as I waited for the metal to connect with my leg. Everytime AJ hit the beast in the head, it bit down on my leg harder, almost in reflex. I kept hearding the sickening thud of the bar hitting the animal over and over again, the growls from the beast were strong at first but were slowly dying out as the thuds kept coming. Finally, I heard the bar drop to the ground.

“Hold still Nick, lemme pry this off your leg,” AJ calmly stated.

I looked back at my leg to see AJ prying the dead animal’s mouth off my leg. I then glanced back to see that we had been only a mere five feet from the pit. I suddenly became dizzy, but tried to remain calm.

“Oh shit...” AJ gasped, his face turning a shade of white. He swallowed and then quickly regained his composure, he was never good at the site of blood. “It’s not that bad.”

Okay, I don’t know if I could trust his words on that, but I was figuring he was trying to convince himself that it wasn’t bad. I looked at my leg and all I saw was blood - blood on my tattered pant leg, blood soaking into the sand, blood on AJ’s hands. I quickly looked away.

“Yeah, just a flesh wound,” I tried to joke.

“Oh my god,” Lizz cried out as she sank to the ground beside me.

“It’s okay, I’m a bleeder, really,” I again tried to joke.

Clenching her fists, Lizz stood up and faced where the leaders of the island were seated. The crowd was quiet, a soft buzz from small conversations about what they had witnessed floated in the air. Their mighty warrior, the beast, had been defeated.

“OKAY, YOU ASKED FOR DEATH, THE CREATURE IS DEFEATED, NOW YOU MUST RELEASE MY FRIENDS AND I,” she shouted.