I woke up in a dark room, the floor was cold and damp. I sat up and as soon as I did, men come in with lit torches and light the entire room. Soon, men flood the room from secure doors above this hole I'm in. This room is huge and caged in at the area I'm in. Every man starts chattering among themselves.

I see men laugh and woo over me. Some men even yell profanity over my naked body. I try and cover my body with my arms and legs as I look around. The entire room is soon filled with disgusting men and their little sons.

Soon after the room fills, the ring master finally makes his presence. He's at the very top row of the pit and stands tall as he announces tonight's even.

"Gentlemen, it is so good seeing you all here today. We have an interesting guest this evening as you all can see." All the men cheer and stare at me. "Settle down. Now, as you all know, each match you get a chance to place a bet on who the winner is. After all matches are made and all bets are placed, you'll receive your reward, or you'll pay your share. If you're unable to pay, you have a chance to fight in the pit to forgive your own debt. Each participant that wins tonight will not only be rewarded with their life, but a thousand gold coins. We have 8 fights tonight. The first one is going to be between two men you've all seen here tonight. The Boulder, and Dynamite. The rest of the 14 participants will be chained to the wall per usual until the fight is over and the next one begins. Now, let's do this!" He says, clapping while everybody else yells and chants.

After the speech, two men come into the area and grab me. I kick and scream as they laugh. I get dragged to the wall. I hear the ring master say "We got a live one. Maybe we should make her first." And all the men cheer. "But we need her to be the final event, don't we?!" He yells in excitement.

When the guards chain me to the wall, leaving one arm free, they leave the arena to grab another participant. It takes awhile, but each of them get chained to a wall except the two for the match. Each man is on one side of the arena, surprisingly they have no weapons in hand. They both watch the ring master. I can no long see him after being chained to the wall but he does something and the men go at each other with their fists like gladiators.

Fists are flying, bets and cheers are being made. The pit roars with loud noises as the men are tackling each other to the ground, their bodies sliding across the floor. I look around the pit at the other participants who are equally excited except one who watches with focus. He watches every move both the men make as if he's trying to learn their weakness and then once he's seen enough, he begins to watch the ring master with the same intent.

I watch both the men, trying to find their weakness. But I'm not a fighter, I'm not sure what to look for. I've never hit anyone in my life. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it out here alive. I just pray they let me go. However, I don't think they will. I'm not even sure who I'm up against.

I continue to watch the match, it's getting intense and both the men are getting tired. They begin to slow down but are still using as much strength as they can. Blood is all over the floor. I feel nauseas from the sight.

The tall one is using his length to hold the smaller man down. He's wrapped his legs around the smaller man and holding his throat with his hands while punching him. The smaller man is hitting the guys chest and reaching for his eyes. It looks like the smaller guy is about to pass out, but he manages to free a leg and it goes directly into the taller guys balls. The man falls to the side and the smaller one holds his hands together in a fist and drives them down into the taller ones head until the man is left unconscious.

"Finish him!" The crowd of men yell, but the man refuses to do so. He goes to the gate and waits for the ring masters men to come grab him.

"You do understand that if he doesn't die, you only receive 500 gold coins tonight." The ring master says.

"I will not kill a man, this is not new sir." He says and the men come grab him and the man left unconscious on the ground.

The crowd boos at the man but the man holds his head up high and walks off, hands cuffed behind him.

"Now, round two, hopefully we have more excitement. This round is between The Psycho and a newcomer who named himself Crusher. Let's give them some love!" The ring master yells, and the crowd yet again goes wild.

The ring masters men unlock the two guys and place them on each end of the pit. They both look at the ring master until he gives a signal. The Psycho laughs chaotically and as soon as the signal is given, runs as fast as he can towards the man, jumps on him and bites the man in the neck. The man begins to scream and yells for him to get off. Blood starts squirting out of the man's neck and I throw up.

Eventually the man is able to pull off The Psycho, but as soon as he does, a chunk of the guys neck is taken with. Blood sprays all over everything and everyone in the pit. I start screaming. The crowd loves it though. The Psycho swallows the chunk he took out of the man's neck and laughs as the guy squirms on the floor as he dies.

The ring masters men drag out the man and brings The Psycho back behind the gate and off to somewhere else. The men come back and unlock the next participants, I guess the names are Fatso and Robin. I watch as they fight and Fatso ends up winning this match by suffocating Robin to death.

Next match is between Nightengale and Spider Wolf. The guy who is named Spider Wolf jumps up the wall and then body slams Nightengale in the chest. Nightengale still continues to fight but is unable to after awhile. He collapses on the floor and suffocates. I think his ribs were broke and may of pierced his lungs.

The fights keep coming and each one ends in death and is more brutal than the last to watch. I'm the last fight. My body trembles in fear as the ring master announces I'm next. I cry and yell to be let go but everybody laughs at me. I shouldn't be here, I'm going to die in here. The men come unlock me and walk me to one end of the arena and the other boy to the other side. He couldn't be more than 16 himself.

"Now, the fight you've all been waiting for. The New Girl and The Young Boy. Let's see which one wins." The ring master says.

"Wait! Before we start, I would like her to use a weapon. She seems disadvantaged. Let's give her a chance. Plus, it would make things more interesting." The Young Boy says.

"Who agrees!?" The ring master yells out.

The crowd cheers in agreement. So the ring master says very well and his men bring out a dagger. The boy grabs it and walks his way over to me. He says we are going to escape. Before I could say or do anything, he chucks the dagger out at the ring master and it hits him in the eyeball.

Everybody yells and the men come through the gate to come get the young boy and men start dropping into the pit to kill the young man. But before they could take a step, the guy grabs me and we run towards the gate. He knocks the ring masters men onto the ground and we run through, he closes the gate behind us.

We start running down the hallway until we pass one of the cells. The man unlocks it and tells the man from the first fight to come with him, he gets up and follows with us. The man grabs my arm again and we start running. Now all three of us are running. I'm not sure where we are at or where we are going. I just follow the man.

The Psycho starts yelling at us, wanting to be released and come with us, help us even but neither men stop to help him thankfully. After all, he's a Psycho who bit a chunk of skin out of someone's neck. The Psycho yells at us and tells us we are going to burn in hell and be cannibalized for not releasing him. And that he will watch while it happens. The young man stops for a moment and turns back. But because he saw people coming after us he didn't engage. We just kept running.

We finally reach outside where another guy is waiting for us. He has two horses with him. The Young Guy lifts me onto one horse and hops up onto it while the other guy rides with the man already on the horse and we take off. We ride down a very long path until we reach a small cabin in a large open field. I believe it's the same cabin my family and I had visited previously. We all get off the horses and go inside while one of the men hides the horses.

There's already a woman inside the cabin that notices me and that I'm naked. She runs over to me and grabs me, taking me off into another room to find me clothes. While I'm in the room the man comes into the cabin. The Young Guy and him start arguing over the fact the guy didn't grab the ring masters money. He explains how the guy and I were more important. The other one explains that they didn't have the money to care for more people. The argument goes back and forth for awhile.

The lady on the other hand finds me a dress. I put on the dress and she starts mending it so that it fit me. I start crying as I look at the dress. I feel hopeless. I can't defend myself and I'll always be seen as a woman. The lady asks me what's wrong and I explain the best I know how.

"I want to wear pants and a shirt. I don't want to wear a dress. I want to be able to defend myself." I said.

I'm not sure if the woman understood me the way I was meaning, but she hugged me and said she would protect me. She said she understood and went and grabbed me boys clothing.

"You don't have to be afraid. My sons and I will protect you. I'm sure you have went through a traumatic experience. I want you to feel safe and if feeling like you can hide in boys clothing does that, I will find boys clothing for you to wear." She said.

I put on the pants and the shirt. They were huge on me. But she started fixing them up so they would fit decently on me. The shirt was left mostly baggy because of my developing breasts. But the rest of the clothing fit well on me. Her sons were still arguing and fighting. It sounded like it was getting heated but before it turned into a fist fight, one of them left the cabin.

"Why are they fighting?" I asked the lady.

"We don't have enough money to sustain us. Someone stole all our food and blankets and we can't buy more at the Castle. So my son Johnathan is mad at my son Thomas for getting you and that other man instead of the gold. Frankly, I'm mad at him too. But seeing the shape you're in, I'm glad he chose you over the gold."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"My name is Mary, and your name?"

"You can call me Henry." I said, nervously.

"Well then, Henry it is. What happened to you if you don't mind me asking? How did you end up in the arena?"

"We had to leave a Castle and on our way to find a new one, I started breathing fast and getting dizzy. So I ran away from my mother and brother. They couldn't find me. I went looking for them and found a group of men instead. They raped me and then brought me to that fighting ring. They were going to make me fight, but your son Thomas saved me from them. Now I'm here."

"Well, those are quite the events now aren't they. You didn't happen to stop by here or see anyone around here in your travels did you." She asks.

"N-no, I didn't." I said, realizing I had just lied for the first time in my life.

"Why did you have to leave your Castle? That's unusual."

"The King felt we had no skills other than my brother Brandon. So he didn't want us."

"What does your brother do?"

"He is a Blacksmith. He's really good at making things with metal."

"Well, let's go meet the rest of the boys shall we?" She says, putting her hand on my shoulder. I agree and we walk into the living room. "Thomas, this is Henry. The girl you rescued from the arena. She's going to be pretending to be a boy as a way to protect herself." Mary says.

"No problem. It's good to meet you Henry." Thomas says.

"I have a question, how did you get the keys to unlock him from the cage?" I said, pointing to the other guy.

"Well, the ring masters men had keys on them. When I knocked them down, I just happened to grab them at the same time. It wasn't that hard."

"Why did you get him?"

"The same reason I got you. You both needed help. He refused to kill that man, he's a good guy."

"We don't have the resources to take them in Thomas." Johnathan says.

"Well, I already have a family that I want to get back to. In fact, you can take me to King Charlies Castle and I will go find my brother Brandon. I will stay with him until my family comes back." I said.

"Well, that guy can't stay here." Johnathan protests.

"That guy has a name, and it happens to be Walter." The guy we got from the cell states.

"Okay Walter." Johnathan makes fun of the name as he says it. "Leave."

"You know what, I actually happen to have skills that would be useful around here. I can fix stuff and tend to crops. But seeing how I'm being treated, I might as well tell the men to come here instead." The man gets up to walk away.

Johnathan grabs him and pushes him against the wall. "You're not leaving."

"Just because I didn't kill a man, doesn't mean I can't kill a man." Walter says.

"Boys, boys, settle down." Thomas says. "The man has skills, let him stay. If he can fix some things, we let him fix some things. Maybe let him get a job at the Castle as a carpenter or something. We give him a place to live. As for Henry, Walter can take her to her brother when he goes to the Castle to get the job. Everything will work out. But using brute force and threats will not solve anything."

The men let go of each other and scoff as they walk to separate sides of the cabin. The tension is heavy as they both glare at one another. Thomas leaves the room and takes Walter with him into another room. That leaves Mary, me, and Johnathan in the same room. My stomach starts to growl and it can be heard by both of them. Mary says "Oh dear, come," And she takes me to the kitchen. "I forgot about dinner." She says as she begins cutting up vegetables and boiling water. "Can you help with the broth?" She asks.

"Of course, what would you like me to do?" I said.

"Add in some spices. Pine needles, basil, parsley, and other things of that nature."

"Okay." I say and I begin cutting up and throwing in some spices I think would sound good in a soup.

Within an hour we all had some dinner. Mary brought two bowls in where Walter and Thomas were at, and Johnathan and I ate in the living space. It was a delicious soup with carrots, green beans, the broth I made, potatoes, and many other ingredients to make it filling. I could have went for seconds if there was anything.

After both Johnathan and I finish our soup, he begins staring at me. He stares to the point it begins making me uncomfortable. I cross my arms and legs and turn away from him. He gets up and moves his chair closer to mine and stares for a moment longer before speaking what was on his mind.

"Why do you want to be a boy for, dress in these clothing?" He asks. "It's weird and unusual. Girls should be in dresses and skirts."

"I'm doing it as a way to protect myself. Men like you see me as a woman. So if I dress as a man, they will leave me alone." I responded back.

"No, everybody knows who you are. As soon as you speak they will know you're a girl, and those breasts aren't going to stay small forever." He says.

"I don't have to talk for one, and for two, I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about my breasts. You're like thirty."

"Excuse me? I'm only twenty-one, and my brother is fifteen."

"Why are you guys so far apart? Families usually have their kids close in age other than the Royals."

"Our mom would of had kids close in age too, at least two more, but they were both winter babies, and with me only being so young and dad always being away, there was nobody to keep the infants warm and so they died. One of them was a girl. Marilyn and funny enough, Walter was supposed to be their names."

"I'm sorry that happened."

"Well, it's what happens when things don't get fixed around here and we have no money to get them fixed."

"Why don't you fix this place up yourself, I see plenty of trees around you."

"We need to buy the tools and none of us have a job to get the tools."

"Where is your dad, can't he buy them?"

"He died when Thomas was five."

"Actually had an affair and gave all our money to the bitch for years to support his twin gremlins."

"Wait, what?"

"Yup, they are both eight-teen now. After the first baby died, Marilyn, my father stopped loving my mother and went and knocked up another lady instead. He was giving her his money until the day he died and stopped caring about us here. Only reason Thomas is here is because my dad felt sorry for my mom. But after Thomas's birth, he left for good. Fucking bastard. My mom begged him after Walter to try one more time. So they did. Its been Thomas and I ever sense."

"I'm really sorry to hear that." I said.

"Eh, what can you do right? All we have to do is move on now. But hey, we should get some sleep tomorrow. Walter is getting a job and you are going to find your brother. You don't want to be tired."

"You're right. But where do I sleep?"

"You can sleep with me up top." He said, putting his hand on my leg.

"O-okay." I stutter.

He smiles and gets up from where he is sitting, I get up to follow him. We walk up stairs where I see a bed. He motions for me to lay down and I do. I'm a little bit uncomfortable as he brings me a blanket. I curl up in the blanket and end up falling fast asleep as he lays down on the floor in his own blanket. I start dreaming of being a man and having sex with Gwen. It's a bitter sweet moment, this dream. I'm touching her body, kissing her, loving her to the fullest. Then it shoots to the future and she's having my baby, its a boy. He looks just like me and I hold him close to me. The joy in my heart is like no other. I know my path now, and there is no turning back for me. I am going to become a man somehow, and the guy in the center of the world is going to help me do that.

All the sudden I'm awoken. It's Johnathan. He starts whispering to me. "Can I sleep with you?" He says. "It's cold here on the floor."

"Sure." I say, as I scoot to one side, leaving room for him to get on the small, large twin bed.

"You know something?" He says.

"What?"

"You were moaning in your sleep. Were you having a good dream?"

"I was? I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you woke me up." He says.

"My dream was okay, I'm sorry I woke you up."

"It's fine, but now I'm having a little bit of an issue. You got me hard. Now, I won't do anything you don't want me to do, but I'd rather not be hard, it hurts. So, can I maybe touch you?" He says, putting his hand on my arm.

I felt bad for making him hard. I kind of did wonder if maybe I was going to be into it with a guy. But yesterday I got raped and I'm still sore from that. It scared me to have another guy do that to me. But the dream did make me well... Hard too. He asked again, a little louder this time as if I didn't hear him the first time. I nervously tell him what happened to me yesterday and he says he will be gentle and slow, and if I want to stop to let him know. I nod and he starts touching me first. He touches my breasts and nipples, then trails his hands down to my private area. When he sees how wet I am, he moans.

He then gets on top of me, takes off my clothes and begins to penetrate me. I moan out of pain loudly and he cups my mouth. I was going to tell him to stop, but now I can't. He keeps going slowly, his hand still on my mouth. But once he's all the way in, he's like an animal and goes faster. It hurts and I try to move his hand from my mouth but I'm still moaning in pain so he doesn't move. Luckily it doesn't take long for him to cum and he gets off me. He asked me if I liked it and I lied and said I did. It wasn't his fault though.

He instantly falls asleep, but I feel disgusted with myself yet again. I put my clothes back on. Yes, I did sort of like the feeling, but I'm not sure if it was what happened with yesterday, but there was too much pain for that to be enjoyable. I turn to my side, he rolls over and puts his arms around me. I look out the small window and watch as the night turns into the day slowly and I cry quietly.