A bed, a toilet, a sink, and a mirror. Those were the only things within the tiny room Ulrich had to stay the night in. All grey and metallic, minus the bed. Ulrich didn't really have anything to do besides check his appearance and pee, so he started on both. He spent a few minutes peeing, not realising just how long it could have been since that last happened. He assumed and hoped he never pissed himself at any point, putting everything back where it should be. He washed his hands, checking himself in the mirror. No major bruises or cuts, his hair still the normal shade of black, still unruly with those two goddamn strands on either side of his head not staying down. He noticed a small black screen, which he tapped for a second, not getting any sort of response from, so he decided to leave it alone. He took a small glimpse outside the hall, noticing a man with bugged out eyes staring back, and decided that going to sleep would be the best option for now. He removed his jeans, his white hoodie with a blue stripe, and his purple shirt with a triangle and circle intersecting. He noticed the man still staring at him in his blue boxer shorts, so he jumped into bed.
The next morning, Ulrich woke up a small bit refreshed, which was good. He stood up, checked himself in the mirror, and made his bed before he lay in it. Today was the day this supposed gauntlet was supposed to happen, right? So he assumed that he'd hear something over a loudspeaker or something of that sort.
He started drifting off to sleep again, interrupted when he heard an extremely loud and enthusiastic voice. He looked around in a daze and noticed the screen next to the mirror was lighting up a brilliant neon blue.
"GOOOD MORNING NOVA! It is a beautiful Seraday and are here live in the holding facility that is holding our two hundred and ninety-seven brilliant criminals. Actually, ditch that number real quick. It appears more than a few contestants have damaged their screens giving them this information. Clearly this just won't do! Can't have any truly unruly contestants in our prestigious gauntlet. Now, I'm aware this is falling on deaf ears, but we already have thirty-seven losers."
Ulrich heard a small clicking sound from across the hallways, and the cell containing the man with bugged eyes exploded in front of him, his charred remains and mattress burning in front of him. He didn't want to know what a flaming corpse smelled like, but he was learning first thing in the morning.
"Okay, for the remaining two hundred and sixty of you, get ready to enter the gauntlet in thirty minutes!"
Ulrich quickly put his clothes on, hearing a click in front of his doors as he doing it. He opened the door, noticing a wave of people being directed to a room at the other end of the corridor by more people in armour. He followed them over to the end, going through the door whose edges were wrapped in neon lights with constantly changing colours. A combination of both this and the white banner saying 'GAUNTLET HERE' written in awful red handwriting told him the gauntlet was through that door.
When he stepped through, there were several young people on a metallic grey platform already waiting for the game to begin, as a digital clock counted down to when the game began, currently at 27:22. Seconds and minutes seemed to pass the same way as back home, which seemed good. After that, it was time to look at his competition. Some were looking down at their feet and crying, some were leaning against a wall nonchalantly, and some tried emulating that behaviour, while looking on the verge of crying. Others were casually smoking and talking amongst themselves, and it sounded pretty bleak. Ulrich didn't know what exactly to do, so he just leaned against a wall next to a couple other people. He looked at the man to the left of him, a black man in a grey hoodie who looked about his age, who had his eyes closed.
"Hey, how you doing?"
The man opened one eye, and then closed it again.
"Got it." Ulrich nodded.
He looked over the platform, where there was a row of spikes lines up. Several had blood on them, and as someone else looked over the platform, a smaller girl who looked terrified pushed them in, running away as he screamed. Ulrich backed away from the platform, going back to leaning on a wall with the other people his age, looking at the clock.
Once it hit zero, a woman came up from under the floor. Her long hair tied in two pigtails with incredible volume, one half blue and one half red, in what looked to be a torn-up wedding dress.
"Are we having a good day, everybody?" She screamed into her microphone. The same voice as on the screens. Multiple people backed away from her, as she walked up to the girl who pushed somebody into the spike pit.
"You know we saw what you did, right? And that it is a major violation of our rules?"
The young girl backed away, but she put a hand on her, calmly taking some sort of grey liquid out of a makeshift dress pocket.
"You know what this is?" she asked with a smile. The girl shook her head.
"It's a gift." Wedding Girl continued. "I want you to have it."
The girl tried kicking her way out of the woman's grasp, but she simply put the metal over her chest, and Ulrich saw a spike materialize out of her hands and through the girl's body.
When the girl's body stopped moving, she walked over to the edge of the platform and threw the fresh corpse over it.
"Ah, there's one every year, isn't there, folks?" She joked, smiling. She lost the smile for a brief second when about five people were in front of her.
Ulrich was about to get closer, but the black man grabbed his arm, shaking his head.
"Fighting the hosts is forbidden." His deep voice said.
"Well, this seems like a messy situation." Wedding Girl announced calmly. "Or would be, if I was dealing with actual fighters and not a bunch of useless thugs."
One man summoned a white outline of an axe and lunged at her. She casually ducked under him and sent him off the ledge with a small kick, casually flipping the girl behind her over her shoulders as she tried to land a punch, sending her to the spikes. Another young boy let out an ear-piercing scream, which she took out as soon as possible with a punch to the head. And one girl left a sort of red smear on her dress.
She was facing away from the others, but the tone in her voice said everything.
"Is this…blood? On my premium Anticlique dress, provided so graciously by our sponsors and available to our viewers for seven hundred tua?"
She grabbed the small girl who did it by the head, smashing it against her knee. She threw the girl on the ground, stomping her head with nice looking blue sneakers. And when she was done, she threw her off with a look of disgust on her face. She didn't even wait for the last person to do anything, just punched them in the stomach and threw them into the pit.
"We have forty-three rule breakers, and the game isn't even started." She mumbled, massaging her head with her free hand, before springing back.
"Ok-ay, everybody! Viewers, contestants, cleaning staff! Get ready, as the gauntlet is starting in two minutes!"
She sauntered up towards the spike pit, casually falling headfirst into it. Someone looked over it, looking behind their backs as they went.
"She's gone."
A few people peered over the ledge, coming to the conclusion that she somehow disappeared, all of them nodding to the statement. And then her voice echoed through the long hallway.
"Okay, are we ready, everybody? Let round one of the gauntlet…begin!"