Free Little Dead Monsters by Kieran Song

not he survives the fight is up to God.”
    “What kind of God allows this to happen?” Maria spat. Allegra had no answer for her.
     

Chapter Twelve.
     
     
     
    That night, two ghosts came to visit Dog. Both Cannibal and Pain were on their knees, heads bowed as if worshipping Dog like some false god.
    “Leave me alone,” Dog said. The two remained unmoved. Blood flowed from Pain’s head like syrup from a cracked tree trunk while Cannibal bled from three symmetrical punctures in the chest.
    “I’m sorry for what happened,” Dog said. “I had no choice.”
    They looked at him with sorrowful eyes that read like words on a page.
    But you had a choice, they said.
    “You killed people as well,” Dog said. “Don’t judge me.”
    You’re better than us, the ghosts echoed. You can be different.
    Dog turned away from them as he lay on the straw bed.
    “I’m nothing,” Dog whispered to himself. “I’m just another animal in a cage.”
    He fell asleep with his back turned to the apparitions, who watched and haunted him throughout the night.
     

Chapter Thirteen.
     
     
     
    Ryker warmed up the crowd with a couple of preliminary matches before the grand conclusion of his tournament. Despite the gory happenings in the pit, Ryker seemed to have maintained a healthy appetite as he gorged on slices of sausages and cheese that Allegra brought to him. He ate them greedily with the point of his pocket knife.
    Watching Ryker eat like a starving warthog made her stomach feel queasy and she choked down the bile that rose to the back of her throat.
    The preliminary fights were over fairly quickly and on came the championship matches which drove the crowd into a real frenzy.
    “Here we go,” Ryker said as he bit into the end of a greasy sausage, the juices bursting from it and running down his lips and chin.
    Dog was up against Crush in the first fight, and like his previous matches, this one ended in a matter of seconds. Armed with an axe, Crush swung it around wildly and he missed — badly.
    Dog was quick to spot an opening and countered with a knife to Crush’s heart. The boy fell to the ground like a heavy sack of flour while Dog watched him helplessly.
    Ryker’s cheers were as loud as the others in the Arena.
    “That little bastard,” the Goblin laughed. “He’s something special.”
    Perhaps no fight she had ever seen was more heartbreaking than the one between Stink and Prophet, which followed immediately after. The gates opened and Stink wandered into the pit listlessly. He was still running a high fever and he could barely stand. Stink reached out into the empty space before him, grasping for the phantoms that the fever had created.
    “Don’t leave me,” he cried out.
    The Prophet watched the boy and bit his lip. Stink continued to saunter around the pit, hands outstretched as if reaching for some type of salvation. And then suddenly, Stink woke from whatever place the fever had taken him too and he realized where he was.
    When Stink saw the Prophet standing there, ready to fight, he dropped to his knees and buried his face into his hands.
    “I don’t want to be here anymore,” Stink said.
    “Where do you want to be?” Prophet asked as he walked over to Stink and knelt down beside him.
    “Will you kill me?” Stink shuddered as the tears took hold of him. Prophet shook his head.
    “We’ll leave this place together,” he said as he embraced Stink in his arms. “I’m not going to fight anymore. It’s not His will.”
    Allegra wanted to join the boys and hold them, tell them that everything was all right. She wanted to shield them from Ryker’s wrath or join them in death. But like all other times, she was frozen in her place. All she could do was pray that their fates were swift and painless.
    Ryker glared at the two boys with disgust and spat as the crowd erupted in a chorus of profanities over the match results.
    “If they won’t fight, then they die,” Ryker shouted. He made a gun gesture