///The Devil's Den///

I was escorted into a secret underground place. I followed the guard that was in front of me. I was dragging my feet because there was a huge, heavy chain currently attached to my left leg that was holding me down.

There were about 300 kids locked up in cages. The cages were so tiny that the children could not stand up. The only way for them to fit in the cages was as if they sat down crossed-legged. There was no room to lay down to sleep either.

The cages had metal bars which allowed me to see all of the children in them. They looked dirty and malnourished.

I looked around the place and I found out that every child had a tracking collar stuck tight on their neck. The tracking collar displayed numbers, I had not to doubt that the numbers represent how many assassins they raised here.

I raised my right hand to touch my neck and just as I expected, I too had a collar around my neck. They must have drugged me to put the tracking collar on me.

I knew that this was the Devil's Den, a place where the world's deadliest assassins were trained. The only reason why I knew this piece of information is I overheard the conversation between Cruz and his guards. Before I passed out I heard Cruz tell his guard to send me to the Devil's Den.

I knew that that must be an important clue so I remembered the name.

It took us three days by car to get to the Devil's Den and during the car ride, I heard the guards talking about how inhumane it was.

I was jolted out of my thoughts when a guard yelled harshly, "Get in there boy!"

He whipped me across my back with his whip to usher me inside the small cage. Soon the cage was locked and the guard left.

It's only been about five minutes since I was brought to my cell, but some children were already crying, others were begging for the guards to let them go back home or they were silent like me.

From the looks of it, these children were either kidnapped from their families or sold by their families.

"Hey, psst..." A boy with light brown hair whispered to the cell next to him.

In the cell next to the boy, there was a black-haired boy. He was sitting in the cell with his head down. When he heard the whisper, the boy quickly looked up, revealing emerald green eyes. The boy gulped in fear as he rapidly put his pointer finger to his mouth to signal the other boy to shut the fuck up.

I watched as the brown-haired leaned closer to him and as quietly as possible whispered, "Do you know where we are?"

The other boy nibbled his lips in worry. He looked at the boy hesitantly and he looked around a bit before he whispered back, "We are at the Devil's Den."

'There was no point in looking around, I am pretty sure they installed cameras.' I thought.

"The Devil's Den?"

The boy nodded quickly.

"It's an underground training facility designed to create the world's deadliest assassins." He informed him.

The other boy's eyes widened in shock.

"What's your name?" The light brown-haired boy asked the frightened boy.

"It's Ricardo, but you can call me Ricky."

"Well, I'm Santiago, nice to meet you," Santiago replied with a warm smile and hand wave which Ricky hesitantly responded to by waving back.

Thinking this is the right time to butt in, a random female voice said, "And I'm Aspen!"

"Be quiet, Aspen!" Another female voice said sharply.

"Aww, don't be mean Vanessa! I'm just saying hi to the new inmates!"

I looked around my surroundings and it turns out that Santiago and Ricky are in the cells to my left while Aspen and Vanessa are in the cells right across from me.

"Hey, the boy with the violet eyes, are you new?" Aspen asked with curiosity.

Deeming the four children trustworthy, I replied. "Yes, I'm new. My name is Hades."

"I love your name!" Aspen responded.

"Hey dude, do you know that this place is supposedly where people train to become the world's deadliest assassins?" Santiago asked.

"Obviously, I overheard what you and Ricky were talking about," I said as I rolled my eyes.

"I heard rumors that the German Mafia owns The Devil's Den," Aspen said excitedly.

Just then the side doors to the prison opened and in walked the same guard who escorted me here. He approached my cell and barked, "Number 6838, you're up!"

I stared emotionlessly at the man and he unlocked my cell door. He roughly ranked on my chains, causing me to trip over my own feet. I fall at an awkward angle, twisting my ankle in the process.

"Get up, trash." The man sneered.

I was too slow as the man practically dragged me to what looked like an arena.

As we neared the arena, I saw crowds of people shouting with glee. It seems to be an underground fight club.

The guard bent down to unlock my foot chain and pushed me onto the arena where another boy was. He appeared to be several years older than me at 16 years old and he had nasty scars across his face.

He was panting heavily from exhaustion and stared at me wearily.

"Number 6838 and Number 3000 fight!" The referee announced.

The teenage boy rushed towards me and swung his first. I dodged and kicked him in the balls. He passed out on the stage.

"Number 6838...wins in less than 10 seconds! Wow!" The referee exclaimed in shock.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see people quickly betting on me.

"Number 6838 and Number 3001 fight!" The referee announced.

I knew the first time was a fluke. The teenage boy I beat in the first round was tired. Today I was going to get beaten up. Fuck.

---

[Several days later]

"I think he is awake guys!"

"Hades! Are you okay?"

I groaned in pain as I slowly opened my eyes. I was in my dingy cell, I slowly sat up and crossed my legs.

"I'm fine guys."

"Well, it doesn't look like it." Victoria snapped.

"I'm serious, I'm fine. But I do have a question. When do we have to fight in the arena like that?"

"Oh, that! Well, obviously since you and Santiago were new shipment, you guys fought on your first day. After that, it depends on what the crowd wants. They voted and whoever is voted the most will have to participate in the underground fights again but this means that it is usually the stronger prisoners who get to fight which in turn makes them stronger and stronger. I guess that's how they turn into the world's deadliest assassins." Aspen said.

"Plus, there is a ranking system. The top 5 get special privileges such as being able to go outside the underground and into the real world to do missions. Plus, the top 5 have rooms and not cells." Ricky said.

"Let's aim for the top 5 then guys," I said.

"Let's do it!" Santiago shouted.

"I doubt we all can rank up, but I'll try," Vanessa replied.

I looked at Ricky and Aspen and they both nodded in agreement.

"Then that settles it, let's aim for the top 5 and plan a way to escape this hell hole," I said.

"Let's escape, together," Santiago whispered solemnly.

We all nodded in agreement.

I knew that we were all thinking the same thing. That we will escape. Be it dead or alive, no matter how long it will take. We would not give up without a goddamn fight.