I heard mumbled laughs echo around the courtyard. I already wanted to quit. To get up and storm out of there and go home. But I thought back to the boys on the bleachers, laughing at me while I ran the bases. I thought back to Portia Carson.
No. I was going to finish this stupid course.
My cheeks were burning as I pushed myself up again. I barely managed to step over the rest of the logs, moving very slowly and carefully. The next section was five wooden barriers to roll under, and I almost fell again as I gingerly ducked under them, moving even more slowly. At one point I was supposed to swing on some ropes over a wooden frame filled with water. I just walked around it, ignoring Eldon’s annoyed shouts.
The fake monsters were worse. I couldn’t even string an arrow. When I finally did, it flopped out a metre in front of me and clattered along the stones. I stabbed a fake ogre with a sword and got the blade stuck in the coarse wool fabric. After failing to pull it out, I just moved on, feeling the humiliation build. I wanted to cry, but the sweat was stinging my eyes, and I was too busy squinting against the salty burn. I just kept moving. I managed to push a large cart over the red line painted on the stones pretty fast, but I knocked over most of the spears during the agility part. They just kept falling one after another. Hitting my hips. My waist. My thighs. My fat arms. My entire fat, bulky body.
When I finally got back to Eldon, the laughter wasn’t mumbled anymore. The only one who wasn’t laughing was the redhead, who was looking at me scornfully.
Well, her and Eldon. He just stared at me for a long, awkward minute while I clutched my sides and doubled over, sweat pouring out onto the ground.
“Ten minutes…the longest I have ever seen in two decades of training. That’s enough for today,” he said, barely hiding his disgust. “You can go home.”
The warriors immediately returned to their training, leaving me standing there alone, grasping my thighs. I knew it.
Someone like me could never be the Monster Crusher.
I was just slinking back through the gate, completely humiliated, when I heard someone fall into step beside me.
“You forgot the guide,” Eldon said quietly.
I looked back at him. “Give it to someone else.”
“There is no one else.”
“I can’t do it,” I said, feeling my voice cracking. “Weren’t you watching?”
He walked toward me, the book in one outstretched hand.
“You have to,” he replied calmly. “The house chose you—”
“I don’t care,” I cut in. “I’m sure it will pick someone else.”
Eldon just held the book out, and I reluctantly took it. He looked at me for a moment, his hard blue eyes softening just a little.
“I wasn’t happy when I saw you. Nor with what I saw today. But a few months ago there were no monsters anywhere near the surface. Now they are watching your house.”
He looked off toward the distant cavern walls.
“Something has changed, Laura. The monsters have purpose. They have direction. You don’t look like a Monster Crusher, I agree. But we will just have to hope you can act like one. I know you don’t plan on coming back. I can’t say I blame you. But I can tell you this with certainty, Laura: if you don’t come back, the monsters will come to you.”
“So let me tell people in my world to get ready—”
“That I cannot allow,” Eldon said, shaking his head. “No one in your world may know about the Under Earth. The Brotherhood were very clear in their instructions.”
“Why?”
“My people have survived thousands of years apart from the surface humans, treasuring our way of life. If your people found out about all this, they would harvest the Under Earth for everything it’s worth. They are already doing that now. No. We want to keep our world a secret.” He met my eyes. “By whatever means necessary.”
I sensed the implied threat in his tone. If I told anyone, they would be in danger. And so would I.
“I sincerely doubt the monsters could conquer the surface—”
“They multiply very quickly,” Eldon said. “And they grow to adulthood within a year. And remember this: they didn’t always have swords and bows and arrows. They stole those from us.” He grabbed my arm. “You must be ready to fight.”
Eldon held my gaze for a moment, and then he walked back into the courtyard.
I watched him for a moment, and then hurried all the way back to the elevator, giving Porton a quick nod before I stepped inside and pulled the lever, racing back toward the surface.
When I finally lay down in bed that night—after peeking out my window and seeing no yellow eyes—I thought about the look on the warriors’ faces. It was the same look Portia Carson had given me every morning for six years. The one the girls on my softball team gave me when I rounded the bases. The one I gave myself in the mirror some nights after a particularly bad day at school.
The one that said, “You’re just a pathetic fat girl.”
I didn’t want to go back. I was tired of that look. But once again, I had a feeling that Eldon was telling the truth. Like it or not, I had to try.
I flicked on my light and rolled over, opening The Complete Guide to Monster Crushing. I fell asleep with the lights on, my cheek pressed against the dusty old pages.
Chapter Twelve
I had a lot of alone
