by Rae B. Lake
I let them drag me back to the room and drop me on the floor in front of Angel.
“Oh, no! Ink! Inkpop, it’s okay. You’re okay.” The little girl bent down to the floor and cradled my bloodied face in her lap as she cried and tried to wipe the blood away. I wanted to get up and tell her I was okay, but I just didn’t have the strength. I let her comfort me and fell asleep on her lap as she whispered encouraging words to me.
I woke up a few hours later, my ribs smarting from the knees I’d taken, and my face busted and bruised, but I was amped up. I felt like I could take on the world, I had taken out the undefeated opponent, and I was still standing. They had underestimated me, and I was sure they’d do it again.
The door to the hall opened, and I heard another set of footsteps coming toward us. I did the best I could to stand up and put Angel behind me, but it was more like I was leaning on the little girl for support.
The footsteps were different than what I was used to; one of them clicked like female shoes. Heels.
The door swung open, and both of the Giles stood in front of me.
“You won.” Ruby let the words slide out of her mouth like venom. “I would have bet money you would be the one dead today; in fact, I did.” She chuckled and grabbed onto her husband's arm. “Well, I guess we know better for next time, won’t we darling.”
Harrington nodded his head in affirmation, “Indeed, that was quite the clever move to tear his throat out like that. We’re used to seeing more carnage, but that worked just as well.”
“I think our gladiator and his little girl deserve a reward, don’t you?” Ruby said as she glared at us both. I instinctively grabbed onto Angel, Ruby’s rewards were never painless.
“Yes, he did quite well today. I think a small reward is due.” The man walked out into the hall for the briefest of seconds and came back in with two large covered plates. The aroma coming from them was enough to have my mouth watering.
“These are for you and your little friend,” Ruby spoke, giving me a slick smile and then turning to walk out.
Harrington put the plates down on the floor, “We would never have bet on you to win, such a surprising turn of events.” He gave us a tight smile and turned to walk out following his wife.
I waited for a few seconds trying my hardest to keep Angel away from the delicious smelling food.
“Ink, that’s for us! We should eat it right away.” She pulled at my arms, her sharp wrist bones reminding me just how skinny she was. I let her go, and she dropped down to the plates, lifting the covers off to show the large helpings of chicken breast covered in a rich brown sauce, a sautéed potato with a spattering of green and orange vegetables. There was bread and even a chocolate chip cookie for each of us.
I dropped down next to her and used my hands to pick up the potato and pop it in my mouth. It tasted better than it smelled. I watched as she shoveled handful after handful of food in her mouth, a bright smile plastered on her greasy face. I picked up half of my vegetables and put them on her plate.
“No, those are for you.” She tried to push them back on my plate, but she needed the nourishment more than I.
“No, I don’t eat green things. Yuk.” I played as I picked up another piece of chicken, chewed it fast, and swallowed it down. Within seconds we’d almost finished the large plates of food we’d been given when the outside door slammed open. I stopped her hands from digging into the scraps on her plate when the footsteps began to run in our direction. The door to our room burst open, and Roth looked down at us, acting like savages eating food off the floor. A look I could only describe as heartbroken erupted on his face as he looked between the empty plate and Angel.
“No.” I pushed the plates away from us. I looked back at Roth, who was now backing out of the room. There was nothing for him to do. “No, no, no.” I grabbed Angel by the face and looked into her eyes. She was confused.
“Inkpop? What’s the matter?” Her sweet voice questioning why I was panicking all of a sudden.
The first cramp was enough to confirm those fucks had poisoned our meal. They lost because of me, and even though I’d won, my reward would also be my punishment.
“Angel, I need you to throw up. It’s not going to feel good. I need you to do it now.” I spoke harshly.
“I can’t. I don’t want to throw up.” She shook her head, but I didn’t have time to try to convince her. I grabbed her face and stuck my finger as far down her throat as I could, she cried and tried to get out of my grasp, but I kept hold of her until she was retching all over me.
I let her go, just as the sweat and nausea began to roll through my body. I turned myself away from her and stuck my finger down my own throat, performing the same process as I had for Angel. I threw up everything I could, but my gut still clenched with cramps I thought would rip my abdomen in two.
“Ink, I don’t feel good. My tummy. Inkpop.” Angel whined and cried, rocking back and forth. Her arms wrapped around her midsection as she shivered in pain.
Within an hour, we were both crying in agony on the floor. I knew exactly what Angel felt because I was in the same boat. In fact, I felt worse because I’d given her half of my food, and she was exposed to more of the poison.
I held her tight against me, offering her the only thing I could; comfort. I cried like a baby when the poor girl passed out from pain and exhaustion. From the very beginning, I’d been waiting for someone to help us, someone to rescue us, but this was the last straw. No one was coming for us. All I had was Angel and myself. If we survived, it would be because of me alone.
Chapter 5
Months turned into years…
I stretched my neck out, the air up in the mountains of New Guinea was thin, and it made me feel even more fatigued than usual. I couldn’t afford to be fatigued or without oxygen. Not today.
I was about to go into my twenty-fourth stall brawl, and I was undefeated. I had bulked up substantially, working out, becoming my favorite pastime besides listening to Angel tell stories. The scars Ruby and her equally sadistic husband left on me both mentally and physically sparked fear in most of my opponents. I was all animal when it came to those brawls. I would do anything to come up the winner.
Today would be no different.
I walked toward the signature glass box, the beauty of the mountains all around us, and the marble flooring cold beneath my feet all felt relatively normal. I could admit the landscape itself was a sight to behold. The Giles family had homes all around the globe, yet out of the twenty or so I had been to, the ones on the islands had always been my favorite. The sun looked different, the people were different, but most of all, it smelled different. I pretty much had every country down when it came to how it smelled. The UK always seemed to smell like cinnamon mixed with fresh-cut grass and rain, and Chile smelled like spices and sweat. America, though, my country smelled like fumes, wood and, copper at least to me. Every time the scent hit me, we were on the same pier they took us from. The same small shops I remembered, even some of the same vessels still tied up to the dock, but the Wings of Diablo were never there for us. They never came looking.
“Oh, don’t you look pretty, I’ll take a slice of your colorful skin to remember you by.” The man I thought was called Viper hissed at me as I made my way to the opening of the box. Intimidation did nothing to me. I turned around right before I stepped into the box and took a few deep breaths of oxygen, trying to oxygenate my body over before the door was shut. Once it was closed, I had a maximum, three minutes and forty-five seconds before I would start feeling the effects of oxygen deprivation, and that was if the fucking bastard I was set to fight conserved his air too.
I watched as Harrington, hustled over to the front of the box to deliver his usual spiel. It never changed, except, of course, now the odds were always in my favor. Today my odds we 2 to 1.
The door was shut, the air became stagnant and muted. The man across from me had yet to throw a punch, but he was talking. I could see his mouth moving. He
was wasting my damn air. I didn’t give a fuck what he was saying; I was already in my zone. In the place of his face flitted the face of one of the many people I had on my hit list. Ryder.
I could see the grey at the sides of his head, the asshole demeanor he always walked around with, and the tattoos on his arms. He was a first-generation Wing of Diablo; he used to always spout shit about how the club and brotherhood came first. Where the fuck were they now? Where the fuck were they when a brother was lost. All the shit he used to speak was just that, bullshit.
I rushed him. I wanted to see Ryder’s face broken beneath my feet. The lying bastard. He tried to wrap me up as I got what little momentum I could in the tiny space, but I broke out of that hold immediately. I used one of his arms to turn him around and twisted my hand in his hair to slam his face against the glass wall as hard as I could. The scraping of teeth against the glass, followed by the spurt of blood, was oddly satisfying. Ryder used his knee to push off the glass and push me back into the wall, then swung his head back, a sharp crack echoed in my ears. My eyes blurred with tears, but I didn’t stop to wipe them away. I grabbed Ryder by his waist while his back was still to me, and I squeezed him hard, using all my force and breaking as many ribs as I could. When I let him go, he turned around with blood dripping from his mouth. He was still breathing my air; it wasn’t over.
I pushed him against the wall and got as close to him as I could, and began to swing power punches directly to his midsection, the ribs breaking further and pushing into organs. Ryder began to fall to the ground, and I moved to the side so that his back was as flush to the ground as it possibly could be and then as I stared into my old patch mates eyes I put my bare foot over his throat and using all my weight crushed his neck. His spinal column splayed out in different directions, in the now formless bag of skin.
I leaned against the wall of the box, my breath coming in slow, steady but shallow. I watched as Harrington rushed over to the box and opened it. His face splitting with the fake smile he wore for his guest.
“Good job, my boy!” He stood back so I could come out. I turned to look at the man who was already starting to get cold in the small box. He didn’t have Ryder’s face anymore. The man they called Viper was lying there dead in his place. I strolled out, and once I made it a little way down the path and into the large house, Lou and Roth were right there to put me back in my manacles and to attach the chastity trap. I was numb to the entire process.
I walked down the hall, and a flash of my past appeared in my peripheral vision. A man with long blond hair tied neatly into a low ponytail.
Vale.
I stopped and looked at him, this fuck was in the same space as me, and he was going to pretend like I didn’t exist?
He turned, the phone that he was talking on still glued to his ear. He pulled the mouthpiece away from his face a little and glared right back at me. “You got a fucking eye problem? I can fix it for you if you like.”
“Fuck you, rat.” I snarled at him and continued on my way, but Vale wasn’t through with me. He grabbed my hair from behind and pulled me back into him. Lou and Roth were doing nothing to help me. Vale put me in a headlock and squeezed tight. My arms were cuffed behind my back, and I had no leverage, no way to fight back. The second time in the day that my air supply was being cut off.
“Yeah, I ratted, but you’re just a dumb fuck. I saw the boys recently, they didn’t see me, of course. They’re living it up. New rides, millionaires, fresh blood in the club. Fuck, even Vida is on new dick.” He let me go, and I fell to the floor, rolling over to my back as I sucked in big breaths. The anger vibrated through me. Part of me wanted to believe they were doing just as bad as I in some way, that Vida was home waiting for me, that they couldn’t sleep knowing that we were missing.
“They don’t care about you; they never did. I may have gone about it the wrong way, but I will be remembered one way or another.” He bent down to get closer to my face, “But you are nothing more than a dumb whipping boy. You’re not even worth the air you breathe.”
My chest felt like it would explode from all the rage I had pent up inside. It wasn’t because of what Vale said; it was the accuracy of the statement. If I died here, would they even mourn? Would anyone besides Angel? And when she was gone shortly after, who would shed a tear for her?
I tried to free my hands, but the binds were solid. I did the only thing I could do even though I knew I would regret it. I head-butted him. My forehead cracked solidly against the bridge of his nose, causing blood to come gushing down. He fell back to the floor, holding on to his face as he screamed and cursed at me.
I smirked widely for a quick second before Lou and Roth jumped on me. They kicked and punched me while I laid on the floor with my arms behind my back, unable to protect myself. The best I could do was try to curl up and deflect some of the blows.
“You piece of shit! I should kill you for that! You think you’ve had it bad, just fucking wait!” Lou screamed as he jammed his foot down on my cock, still covered with the needle ladened trap.
“Fuck!” I roared in pain as my body bucked forward, trying to protect my manhood.
“Gentleman, that’s enough,” Vale said from where he was standing. A handkerchief in his hand as he wiped the blood from his face.
They stepped back and lifted me off the floor. I was in worse shape now than I had been a few moments ago after my stall brawl.
Vale walked back up to me, an air of confidence about him I didn’t quite understand. “You’re going to regret that. I promise you.” He smiled before walking past me as if we’d never had an altercation in the first place. I followed him with my gaze until Roth and Lou, dragged me bruised and bloody back to the room with Angel.
Angel’s pale face popped up from the book bed as the door opened, and Lou pushed me in, “Jeez, Inkpop, you gotta do better.” The little girl smiled up at me and gingerly put an arm around my waist. She was almost ten years old now, and even though she was still a skinny little thing, she was tall. I slowly put my arm around her shoulder; she was right. I needed to do better.
***
We settled back into the groove, and at first, I worried about Vale’s threat, I feared someone would come in the middle of the night or that they would set up a stall brawl I was sure to lose, but after a week and nothing happened, I just went back to living life the best I could. One day at a time.
“When in the world would I ever use exponents? Who uses them? I think its something you just made up.” Angel complained as she looked at the numbers I had drawn on the floor as her homework assignment. I tried my hardest to make sure that her mind stayed sharp, but I was running out of material I knew well enough to teach her.
“I promise you, they are not made up, why in the world would I make something like this up. I’m not that cruel.” I chuckled as I laid back, relaxing on the pallet mattress in the room.
“Seven with the little two is forty-nine?”
“Yes, seven to the second power is forty-nine. Now, what about seven to the third power?” I knew the math I was trying to teach her was a bit advanced for someone her age, but she always seemed to be eager for more information, she took to reading very well, even what little science I knew she was into, but the math, she would rather eat dirt than do math.
The lock to the door to our room turned, and I sat up immediately, Angel came and sat next to me on the bed.
Lou and Roth walked in, and I looked between the both of them. The only time they both came was when we were going to be let outside. We’d already had our time outside this week, so it wasn’t that, or because Ruby was calling for me. Yet something about this encounter already felt wrong, and neither one of them had said anything to me yet. Lou was smiling at me with an almost unbearable excitement while Roth didn’t even look up to my face.
“Let’s go,” Lou said. I walked over to him slowly and turned around so he could put the cuffs on me. They turned me around, and Lou began pulling me out the door.
> “Come on, Angel, you too,” Roth said behind me.
I stopped in my tracks, and it seemed like I couldn’t catch my breath. Did he just call Angel too? My palms were slick from the sweat as I turned around to look at Roth. “Where are we going?”
“Ruby wants both of you,” Roth said as he turned Angel around and cuffed her hands behind her back.
“What? Why? I didn’t do anything?” Angel spoke, her voice trembling with fear. “I’m sorry. I didn’t do anything.” Big tears began rolling down her face.
“No, why does she want her? Just leave her here. She wants me. I’ll fucking cooperate. Please. Please!” I begged, my eyes shifting rapidly between Roth’s downhearted face and Lou’s evil one.
“Let’s go.”
I sighed a huge breath, I had no idea what was about to happen, but I could only think the worst. In the three-plus years, we’d been carted all around the globe with the Giles family, never once had Ruby called for Angel. Angel had been kept around merely as a way to keep me in my place. They knew I would do anything for her, so if I ever fought against them too hard, all they had to do was threaten to harm her, and I fell right in line.
“Angel?” I called for her, and she broke out of Roth’s grip and ran to my side. Her big blue eyes were looking up at me for some type of answer.
“What did I do? Why do I need to see Mrs. Ruby?”
I shook my head in disbelief, and my feet felt like they were made of lead, each step toward our destination that much harder. “I don’t know, baby, but I’m right here, Okay. I am right here with you. Just do what she says and be polite when you answer.”
