The sound of crowds cheering echoed as he opened his eyes and sat up. He was in his bed, the soft glow of morning light diffused through his curtains. He looked around and then flopped back, sighing in relief.

“What a dream.” He said to the ceiling.

The lights flickered and the ceiling changed, he was in the hospital. He was still in his boxers and not the hospital gown, the bed had no sheets and it was the only one in the ward. 

“No!” He despaired, hearing a familiar screeching sound in the distance. He jumped out of bed and started running towards the north staircase this time.

His steps echoed, his bare feet cold against the terrazzo floor. He could hear it catching up, the rapid tap-taping of its many feet. He crashed through the door and half jumped as he went down the stairs. 

The ground floor door shook when he tried to open it, he heard the screeching above him. Meech continued down to the basement, putridness assaulted his nose.

The door opened to a fleshy hallway, he continued to run, his feet squished against the wet mucous, having already found other rooms that led to these hallways. The first time he threw up and the creature caught up to him.

The path curved and went up, he had never gone up before in this. It was slowing him down as it got steeper, he had to use his hands to help him climb. He dared not look back, the creature made no noise inside this part.

There was light ahead, he ran forward, giant teeth lined the entrance. He stopped at the edge of what must be the tongue, a gap was ahead between the teeth and a cliff. He took a few steps and looked behind him. The giant centipede creature was coming up the throat cave, its half human face smiled and wiggled pudgy human hands in excitement.

Meech ran forward, jumping off the tip of the tongue and springing off the teeth. He crashed on the rocky dirt and looked back. The giant mouth closed, he could hear the crunching as it chewed on the giant bug. He grimaced and stood up. His arm and legs were scrapped, some little pebbles still stuck in some of the wounds.

There was a path that led down, with only darkness around and the giant head staring at him, he descended. Ahead he heard some noise. As it became clearer, there were people shouting, or cheering rather, and clapping.

Meech came to the stage at his school, a light shined on him, the bleachers too hard to see. Some people laughed as others hollered, he looked back and the path was gone. The announcement speaker screeched alive.

“Everyone welcome to the stage, Niel Andrew Meechum!”

The crowd cheered.

“Poor Niel came to school in his underwear!”

Laughter.

“How embarrassing! And look at that, he’s bleeding everywhere.”

The crowd booed. Meech looked down, the little pebbles had little arms and legs and were swimming around in his wound, blood trickled out.

“What a sight. Maybe Niel will redeem himself this time!”

This time? The cheering from when he woke echoed in his memory, had he already been here before?

“My name isn’t Niel.” He said, looking out.

“He speaks! Well then, Drew, let the performance begin!”

The stage expanded and three more lights flicked on, lighting it up from each corner. The crown began stomping its feet.

“Here’s the rules, Drew, you have three challengers to face. If you beat all three, you get to leave, but if you lose to any of them, we’ll split your head open and eat your brains!”

The crowd cheered, someone yelled out, “brains!”

“LET’S GET STARTED. In the first corner, we have a mouse with a house, Cowl and his Moving Boot!”

A boot with mechanical legs came onto stage, it had little windows and a chimney. Smoke puffed out as it moved forward slowly. When it got close, Meech grabbed the boot and lifted it up. A mouse appeared and climbed up the inside of the boot and bit his finger. Meech cried out and flung the boot off stage. 

“Have you ever seen a flying boot? Drew swiftly sends his first challenger to the crowd, oh dear, it looks like the boot and all have been eaten, you’re wild folks!”

A velociraptor jumped onto stage, letting out angry chirps. 

“What the shit.” Meech let out. 

The announcer kept rambling on but he wasn’t listening, the raptor had immediately charged toward him. Meech stumbled out of the way, and ran to the other corner of the stage. The raptor dug its claws in the wood and spun around.

Several things flew onto the stage between them. A hammer, a sword, a brick, some underwear.

“Now, now, I said give him a hand, what’s he going to do with those?” The crowd laughed.

The raptor started charging again, right down the middle of the stage. Meech ran right at it, dropping as they got close. A claw on its foot sliced across his shoulder as it tripped over him. Meech grabbed the sword and rolled to get up. The raptors tail flung as it spun itself up, whacking Meech to the side. The sword tumbled away.

The little pebbles from his leg screamed in glee and started climbing up to his shoulder. Meech was trying to push himself up when the raptor was on him again. It clawed at his back as he half crawled under it, pushing himself to get to the hammer.

The raptor turned around and came down at him. Meech swung the hammer with both hands and managed to hit in the eyes, making it stumble back. He grabbed the brick as he stood up, tossing it at the raptor. As its eye was on it, he charged forward with the hammer, aiming for the open eye. He hit just above. The raptor spun, checking him. 

Meech stood at the edge of the stage and the raptor stared at him from one side, its eyes blinking as blood ran over it. He threw the hammer with both hands at it. The raptor had started a charge and it bounced off its shoulders, it chirped and pounced at him. Meech half ducked and tackled forward, aiming for its legs. The raptor tripped over him and tumbled over into the crowd.

“Two for two! Drew keeps delivering alternative brains for the audience, not looking too swell now though, maybe his will be next!”

The crowd cheered and the voice shouted, “we want the boy’s brains!”

“Stop calling me Drew.” He let out between breaths.

“Demanding! He has one more fight to go, can we all bring it together for our final challenger! Andy, you might want to pick up that sword.”

Meech shuffled over and did pick up the sword as the crowd began to stomp their feet and cheer. It grew rapid and louder, going silent as something jumped onto the stage from above, shaking Meech lightly.

It was a tall man, his skin, or what remained of it, was blue-grey with red lines like his veins were inside out and the uncovered flesh below was brown with black tips where it frayed to the bone. It stumbled forward slowly, taking one step at a time as both legs shook, the body swaying to keep balance. Meech held the sword in both hands and strafed towards the middle of the stage.

Its arms swung fast, catching Meech off-guard unable to block completely, the flat of his blade slapped back on his upper chest as he stumbled back from the force. Though slow, it wastes no time and brought both hands down to slam him. Meech stepped back, the hands cracked the wood of the stage, Meech quickly swiped at the arms.

He made a cut but it resumed its attack like nothing happened. Meech ran to the side to avoid it and gain space. It turned slowly. He could see all the red lines connecting to the spine. Where he had cut the arm, the red line seemed to go deep inside the muscle.

It shambled towards him again, moving at the same pace. When it went to attack, Meech predicted the movement and counter attacked, swiping at its face when it missed him. The sword cleared the nose right off. It tried to grab him but couldn’t turn fast enough as Meech moved around again.

A big red blob was on the back of its head, where all the red lines lead up the spine. Meech went in close, feigning an opening, it attacked where he thought, letting him jump up on its arm and step up onto its shoulders. It grabbed his legs as he brought his sword down on the blob. Blood sprayed everywhere as they both crashed down.

“Folks, we may have a tie! Not sure what the rules say about that.”

Meech slipped twice on the blood as he tried to get up. The little pebbles on his body had all come off and were swimming in the ocean of blood on the stage floor. 

“The boy still stands!” The crowd booed. “Disappointing. We were all so looking forward to feasting on you.”

A ladder came down from beyond the lights of the stage. Meech looked up, unsure where it would lead. Hands and tentacles slapped on the edge of the stage.

“Better start climbing Andy, the crowd is about to riot! Oh, how games get us all riled up. Hey, hey, stay away from the announcement booth.”

Meech wiped the blood off his hands as much as he could on his boxers and started climbing, his feet slipping the first few rails. Up he went into the darkness, the announcer’s voice trailing.

The further he went, the smaller the light from the stage became. The thudding began, all around him, louder and louder as he climbed up and up. The ladder came to an end, not connected to anything at the top. The sound was so loud. He leaned on the top of the ladder and held his head, it felt like it was exploding. His eyes grew heavy and he felt himself sway, trying to adjust, his feet shifted and slipped off.

He screamed and tried to grab the rails, except they were next to him. Light and beeping were all around, he was in the hospital again. This time the door opened and two shadowy figures appeared. Meech tried to get up but his arm was stuck. They came over and held him down as he tried to get free. Their voices muffled by the thudding that was still going on. He felt a prick and then everything went quiet and dark.