"Z! Z! Z!" The chant grew louder and louder, till it echoed off the glass walls and the fish on the other side of the glass swam in frenzied patterns as the line pulled us ever forward.

They can't be cheering for me. They can't. It makes no sense.

"Next trial must be starting soon," Skull whispered into my ear. I jerked away from his breath, but there wasn't anywhere to run. The glass tunnel ended, and, with no preamble, the guards marched us into the next room and a screaming crowd, their clothing like a churning sea made solid. As terrifying as the first crowd had been, this one was somehow worse.

Because they were cheering for me.

Hands reached between the K-guards, some touching my arm or clothing before I jerked away. Rapt, lustful faces screamed out my name, so many colors, so much noise that I couldn't understand. Why would someone cheer for a Z?

The next trail starts soon. I turned back to Skull, flinching away from the outstretched hands and yelling to be heard, "How do you know when the trial starts?" The Tuv Pit had multiple preliminary rounds, but every section had the freedom to design their own Letter Trial. Only now did I realize how very little I knew. They didn't show any of the other Letter Trials in the Belly, which meant I was the only person here who had no hint as to what was coming.

Skull's answer came with a near feral grin. "They like to parade the fighters, get the betting pools going strong. It'll be soon."

He's lying, trying to scare me. But why would he lie? And from the way people screamed, the frenzy of the crowd, it made sense.

"Hope you can swim," Skull yelled.

"What?"

"This is the water level," he said with a grin. "The trial always has something to do with water."

With those few words, the immense water tank we'd passed underneath went from the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen to the most terrifying. Xyla and I sometimes swam in the water holding tanks with a few of the other Belly kids, retrieving coins from the bottom or competing to see who could hold their breath the longest—me—but those tanks were a drop in a bucket compared to this. How could I compete with men who'd spent their whole life here?

"Maybe I don't wanna be your partner after all," Skull laughed.

Finally we left the crowd behind, the scent of sweat and people crowded too close together replaced by the scents of rust, salt and cold metal. The guards led us toward what looked like a metal hallway from the Belly— except for the blue light coming from below. At first I thought maybe they'd somehow put the lights into the flooring, when I realized what exactly the floor was.

Water.

Or, more accurately, water beneath a sheath of glass.

Well, Xyla, they might not have tails, but the Puckers are still insane.

The narrow hallway and blue light swallowed the first of our group as they stepped onto the glass without hesitation, looking for all the world like they were walking on water— another story from the picture book I'd read.

There was no time to stop and test the glass for safety, the line pulled me forward. I flinched as one then both feet hit the glass, and then we were in the dim hallway and marching forward. No lights came from above, the only light from the seemingly endless water swirling below. Only now did I truly understand why people afraid of heights were told not to look down. The depths beneath us looked ready to swallow me whole—my stomach had dropped to somewhere around my knees

As we marched the water beneath us slowly shifted from a murky gray to a startling clear, green-blue, revealing fish swimming far below, flashing and shining like spilled coins.

"What kind of fish are those?" I said over my shoulder to Skull.

"That would be Tastius Fishicus. Close relative to Stupidius Girlieus."

I rolled my eyes. The hallways were dim, unearthly, like living beneath an ocean; a cold, salty breeze drifted down the hallways after us. More than once I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Skull wasn't blowing on my neck—but he looked as unimpressed as if we were walking through the Belly cafeteria.

After what felt like an eternity, and no time at all, we were led into a long, narrow room lit by overhead lights with a blessedly solid floor. As soon as I stepped through the door the salty scent that lingered in the hallways hit me full blast. The other chained captives, who'd seemed unimpressed with the glass-floor hallways, looked around the room with wary, watchful eyes.

I'd never seen anything quite like it. 

It was a large room, maybe the size of our cafeteria, and filled with looming metal boxes, about the size of the red telephone booth roped off in the Old Earth museum. Or maybe closer to the size of Xyla's favorite exhibition in the Old Earth museum, the Port-a-Potty, which she'd once dared me to enter and then locked me inside.

Eight of the boxes stood in a single line, ominous as gravestones. As we came deeper into the room, I saw they were all standing on what looked like a conveyor belt, thankfully not made of glass. The conveyor belt carved a path away from us before disappearing through a dark hole on the far side of the room. So the boxes aren't made to stay here... interesting.

Our line stopped beside the boxes. I peered around the guards, already itching to take the box apart and see how it worked. There wasn't any circuitry attached to them, and they were free-standing. My closest comparison was from an old western book, where the cowboys had stolen a large metal box called a safe, where people stored coins and jewelry. I almost smiled at the thought of a dozen giant safes before us. Maybe the trial is that we have to break into the boxes, and if we win we get to keep the treasure. Ha.

Nervous muttering ran down the line which somehow made me feel better: if none of the other men knew what the boxes were for, then that brought us all to a more level playing field.

It finally hit me— I was about to enter The Pucker Letter Trial. A trial I knew almost nothing about. It doesn't matter. No matter what the trial is, you and Xyla survived worse in the Belly. She needs you now. The thought didn't still my racing heart.

Suddenly one of the guards was dragging Lizard up to the box at the end of the conveyor belt. The entire line watched.

Without any sort of key, the guard swung open the front of the box... which revealed an empty interior. So what the hell are they for then?

"Get in," the guard said to Lizard, and my body went cold. Because I remembered how the western novel ended. They'd caught the man who'd stolen the bank safe, and then buried him alive in another box: this one wooden and small. A coffin.

Maybe the box wasn't a safe. Maybe it was a coffin.

(So what do you think? What is the box for? And did you expect the next trial to begin so soon? 

Who do you think will end up as her partner? 

I've seen a few new readers trickling in, WELCOME!! Let me know where you're reading from! Or, if you don't share your physical location, where you wish you were reading from. Mine would be Idaho (real) and Hogwarts (wish ;). Also Idaho Hogwarts would make one really weird band name lol XD

Thanks for reading! New chapter coming next Thursday!

Best, H.J.)