Desta

Stop killing him! Desta would scream in her head each time they made him fight; each time they made her watch. Make me fight, I'll fight. She wanted the scream, but she seethed inside, like a pot about to boil. And then the pot boiled over. Dejen had been pitted against a real brute, a man more beast than man, and he fought dirty. Dejen never fought dirty. The beast-man hammered his great fists against Dejen until he fell to his knees and then Desta exploded. The worst part is, later she couldn't remembered most of what happened. She remembered seeing everything go red and hearing what sounded like an animal screaming and the next thing she knew they were pulling her off a badly wounded man... no three badly wounded men. We should put her in the pits. She heard one of them say. She saw the look of horror on her brother's face. I'm sorry. She thought. I know, came Dejen's reply. Not your fault, she heard him think, and then all the rage and fear drained out of her and she felt sore and tired, but strangely, better than she had in months. I'm not sorry, too, she thought. I know, Dejen answered. From then on, the tables were turned, the handlers used Dejen to motivate Desta to fight rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, it didn't always work the way they planned. Their "patron" grew tired of losing money and so nine months later Dejen and Desta were free to fight or not as they chose. But now fighting was the only way they knew how to make money, and it was hardly a guaranteed income. Maybe Katya had some better ideas? At least she had a place to sleep at night to offer them. And street kids should stick together.