REND

“Nice to meet you…Madam Blanchette,” Bianca said. A glittering silver masquerade mask mirroring the color of her hair covered the upper half of her face, her intense silver eyes peered with suspicion through its slits.

Deen chuckled weakly. “She’s the one I told you about. With Madam Blanchette’s help, I can check the guest list now and then, see who’s who.”

“Snoopy, snoopy you.”

“I know, right? Anyway, that’s how I found out you were going to join us. Benefits of being snoopy.”

Bianca narrowed her eyes. “I see.”

I winked at Bianca as a greeting and nodded at Deen, acknowledging her introduction. Deen hid her hands beneath the table cloth. Her forearm muscles tensed. The rustling cover told me she was fidgeting under it. And even though she tucked her left leg behind her right ankle, she was rapidly tapping the floor with her foot. She noticed I was examining her, so she stopped moving.

I hadn’t seen Deen's leg bouncing before. I could only guess what was going on inside her mind. Freaking out, probably. No matter how much she mentally prepared for this mission, she could never have accounted for me showing up here.

But why introduce me this way? Did she forget Bianca hated our fake mysterious benefactor? 

During our first meeting with Bianca, I told Deen to make up a story that someone well-connected with the 2Ms was how she found out about her. And this “friend” was supposedly an old woman who looked young because of extensive surgeries only possible with the help of the super healing abilities she gained. I suspected Bianca had a personal vendetta against plastic surgery and other such non-natural ways of changing the body, so we made up that story to distract her from probing us.

This could be the Guardian Angel's chosen path. Let's see how this would pan out. 

I sat down and twirled my hand, indicating they carry on their conversation. To show I was an old-timer here that didn’t care about the affairs of newbies, I turned my chair to face the monster pit instead of them. Don’t mind me, just chilling here.

“Blanchette?” said Bianca. “Isn’t that of French origin?”

“Yes, but that’s not her real name, of course,” Deen said, giving me a hesitant sidelong glance. “It’s just the name she goes by when we’re at this place since, er…we’re not supposed to know each other here.”

“Of course. Blanchette. Wasn’t there a version of 'Little Red Riding Hood' where the girl character was named Blanchette?”

“And that’s how Madam Blanchette picked her alias. The red hood outfit and all is fitting.”

“I’m sold on the whole little red riding hood motif,” Bianca said, her tone indicating the contrary. “Did you know,” she said to Deen, “the early versions of that story were about a girl coming of age and learning the dangers of the world, especially of men? That’s the point of the wolves, you see. The tale had more erotic undertones which the published versions sanitized.”

“I've heard about that.”

“It suits Madame Blanchette so well with her…I'm looking for an appropriate adjective,” Bianca said. "Luscious? Sensuous? Perhaps alluring body?” I turned to her and smiled with my eyes, caring not to move my actual monster mouth. “How much surgery did you have to do to get that body?” she asked icily.

Deen drew a sharp breath, sensing the situation was getting out of hand. From her perspective, she was just spouting bullshit to make Bianca believe she knew me. But Deen had no idea what I was doing here, what I wanted, or even who I actually was.

For all she knew, she was already exposed and I was just toying with her, lounging around before killing her. If I were in her shoes, the logical step was not to antagonize me so her Guardian Angel would have enough time to get in range of a possible future where she could escape with her life. She had to buy time.

“I’m not sure Madam Blanchette would know about children’s fairy tales,” said Deen. It was pretty cool in this cavern, but I spotted a couple of beads of sweat on her forehead. “Let's talk about Xaz joining—”

But Bianca was just getting started. “I don’t mean to pry, but what did you look like before—"

“Oh look!” Deen said with noticeable panic. She pointed to the pit where the mutant was feeding on the humans. “They’re done with the round.”

All the humans in the ring appeared to be dead. The few people who were watching at the side of the pit returned to their tables. Were they going to bring in more people to be eaten by the monsters? Or was that it?

The earth around us rumbled. Dust fell from above to the pit, the stalactite-ridden ceiling parted to reveal mechanical workings behind it. Four wide screens, similar to a four-sided basketball scoreboard LED display, descended from the opening to give all the customers a nice view of the show. The screens flashed on, projecting a view of the pit.

“This is it, Bianca,” Deen said. “Are you going to press it?”

Press what? Almost immediately, I saw what Deen meant. A hole in the middle of our table opened, revealing a red button. The chattering inside the cavern increased a level. What the fuck was going on?

“Not yet,” Bianca said. “I’ll wait for one more fight. We only saw the end of the last one. I want my precious Xaz to observe first.”

“You’re right.”

“I have no doubt Xaz could easily dispose of any disgusting mutated human they could bring out. However, it’s best to be prepared. Right, Madam Blanchette?”

I only nodded in response. I didn’t even turn in her direction but kept my eyes on the screen.

If I paid her any attention, she'd continue trying to converse with me, and I didn’t want to reveal that I couldn’t talk just yet. She'd probably try to get a rise out of me because she hated me, or to be more accurate, she hated my fake identity Deen told her about. My best recourse was to stay aloof. It did suit the persona I was portraying. Surely, Deen’s Guardian Angel would back me up on this one.

The lights dimmed with only the red buttons glowing on each occupied table. The cavern fell silent. Everyone waited for who would press the button.

A buzz broke the silence.

I noticed that people were bringing their hands together. Before the majority could start to clap, I quickly clapped so it'd give the impression I already knew the routine in this place. Bianca and Deen followed my lead.

The screens above displayed a large man wearing an Aloha shirt, unbuttoned at the top, showing off his hairy buffed chest. He was on the other side of the cavern across the pit from us and a couple of tiers above our own. The camera followed him as he descended. The man pumped his fists in the air, trying to rouse the people in the cave, but they only increased the intensity of polite clapping. They were bloodthirsty, not-so-human-anymore people, but they are posh bloodthirsty, not-so-human-anymore people.

Aloha man roared and took off his shirt. Ripping it would’ve been better if he was going for a gladiator arena thing, but his shirt must be expensive. He bent down and flexed his muscles, his skin reddening and started to harden like he was growing an exoskeleton. He kind of reminded me of Barb, maybe the crab or lobster counterpart to her tree material. And he only covered his upper body with red armor.

A drone with a camera flew over him, giving everyone a closer view of his transformation.

Especially thick exoskeleton formed around his arms and fists, turning them into knobby clubs. The crimson carapace on his back cracked. Spikes poked out of the cracks, four of them. They shot out and extended like the most aggressive weeds ever, hardened and bent into multi-jointed limbs like the legs of a crustacean, their ends were serrated spears.

Crab Man jumped into the enclosure with a loud crash. The drone followed him down. He kicked away a half-eaten body with such force that its head separated from the torso. With one of his spikey legs growing out of his back, Crab-man skewered the severed head like a trash picker and held it up. He searched around the arena waving the head on his spike.

The mutant came out of its hiding place, jumping on his back. The three other spikey legs stopped it, two speared its body and another its arm. Crab-man threw the mutant away. The mutant, oblivious to the pain, got back to its feet and scurried away, trying to find another hiding spot among the rocks to set up another ambush.

Bianca tutted. “Not a human, huh? The previous one was the aug bodyguard of that guy over there.” She pointed to a man on a table below ours. “At least he was human. Oh, well.”

“An aug would’ve been a better reference for Xaz,” said Deen.

“I don’t mean that. I just dislike this farce, just child’s play here.” The mutant tried chomping Aloha Crab Man but couldn’t even make a dent. Crab Man swung his arm and flung the mutant to the wall. “I mean look at this. This isn’t fun," she sullenly said. "If they wanted entertainment, they should keep up the human versus monster thing.”

“Super agree,” Deen said. “This isn't exciting at all.”

“Anyway, what were we talking about before? I remember! We were talking about Madame Blanchette’s awesome body.”

At first, I wasn’t completely sold with the path Deen took in making up an identity for me. Yet, it was working out fine. Bianca was obsessed with criticizing me, indirectly, of course. She wasn’t dumb enough to outright pick a fight with me given her position. I took back my earlier doubts about Deen’s actions. Her Guardian Angel was really handy.

Deen, however, had no idea all was going according to plan. Her Guardian Angel’s plan.

Her eyes widened as Bianca went back to discussing my body. “Before we move on to that," Deen interjected, "I just have something to say about the little red riding hood topic. I hate how the printed versions changed the essence of the story. There were earlier versions with morbid endings, like little red riding hood getting eaten. But in most versions, she'd outsmart the wolf and escape on her own, relying on her wits.”

“You’re right,” Bianca said slowly.

“I guess it’s because men published the Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm versions.”

“Huh, I haven’t thought about it that way. The early versions never had the lumberjack or an older man helping red riding hood get away. It was only in the published versions, published by men, where they added a man helping her.”

“Right? Right?” Deen said, perhaps a bit too eagerly. “That’s another message of the story lost through the changing versions.”

Bianca continued with her lecture about women being independent and men taking credit while Crab Man pummeled the mutant. I took a mental note of Bianca's feelings. Deen struck gold with this one. Good advice, Guardian Angel, if this was you.

Crab Man was only hitting the body of the mutant. After the mutant stopped moving, he cut off its head with his spiky limbs. A different drone went down the pit carrying a pouch. Crab Man deposited the head inside. Then he climbed out of the pit, and the screens ascended back into the ceiling. Some people walked back to the edge of the enclosure. Were they going to release a new mutant?

“It’s done?” Bianca said. “That was quick.”

“I really hate this thing they’re doing,” Deen said.

“What? Do you mean releasing people for the mutant to eat before someone volunteers to fight it?”

“Uh—”

“I think that’s a good way to showcase what the mutant is capable of before someone joins in.”

Deen pressed her lips together but reluctantly nodded. “You’re right. It’s just…they don’t have to do this to innocent people.” She tensed up and held her breath. Shit, I thought. Did she say something wrong and went down the wrong path?

“What are you talking about?” said Bianca. “The mutants harvested to keep you this way, looking outwardly human, are just random people. I would've said us, but I’m not yet one of you.” She leaned closer to Deen. “Is your conscience bothering you? That’s weird. I thought you would—”

I tapped the table. Bianca and Deen looked at me. I opened my mouth, baring my fangs. Both of them immediately leaned away from me. Even Deen forgot she was supposed to know me. I growled at them. Closed my mouth, put a finger up the end of my snout, and tried to make the best shushing noise I could do with my weird mouth. It came out like a wet wheeze from a dying animal.

That shut up both of them. What were they going to do? Talk back to me?

You’re welcome, Deen.

Although we were far away from the pit, we could faintly hear people screaming. I expected the screams and cries for help to echo around the cavern, but they didn’t. They might have done something with the acoustics of this area.

When I saw the pit, I first thought of a zoo enclosure. I changed my mind to it being more of a gladiator arena, but I might have been correct the first time.

During the normal innocent people versus mutant round, kind of the intermission portion, no screens projected the gruesome slaughter happening below. Those interested to watch needed to go to the sides of the pit to observe the mutants eating humans. Essentially, they were zoo visitors watching an animal during feeding time.

I used to enjoy watching fish feeding in an aquarium.

Pretty soon, the lights dimmed once again and the red button appeared. The people were killed quickly this time. Perhaps this next mutant was particularly bloodthirsty or stronger than the last one. I tapped the table again to get their attention. I pointed at Bianca then at the red button. I gave her two thumbs up with my claw-tipped hands.

She pursed her lips and stared at me coldly. She slammed her hand on the red button. A drone came over to our table and followed Xaz as she took the stairs down to the pit.

Good luck, I thought. I'll join the next one.