by C. A. Rene
My blood runs cold and I lose all feeling, there’s a pit growing heavy in my stomach. Is Raphael my father? Does he even know? Makes sense if my mother followed him to New York, he’s a Kingpin there, after all.
“Ember!” Tommy pulls me back to the present.
“Yeah?” I croak out.
“You’re in danger, this is why he was so obsessed with tailing you.”
“Yeah.”
“What am I missing here? Why was he in a picture with your moms?”
“I think he’s my father.”
“Holy shit…”
“Yeah.” I whisper.
“Okay, listen get to your house and lock up everything. I’m on my way.”
I nod and hang up the phone. Shit… everything makes sense. I’m stuck, rooted in place by my disbelief. Why would my mother have anything to do with a gang banger? She was good, sweet and kind. It just doesn’t make sense, but I know Tommy wouldn’t mistaken who Raphael was. He earns loyalty based on violence and fear and his men absolutely fear him. He’s cunning, ruthless and from what I’ve heard loves getting his hands bloody. His violence teeters on the fine line of psychotic and I’m now realizing where my darkness comes from.
A blacked-out sedan pulls into the parking lot, and I know-I just feel it- it’s him. I still make no move to run, he’ll get to me regardless. I need to face this and protect the people I love from danger, and Raphael is the epitome of danger.
The passenger side of the car stops in front of me and the rear door opens. I don’t move a muscle and the inside is so pitch black I see nothing. Finally, a face leans over and materializes through the darkness. His eyes are pools of tar and his skin is like a dark rich honey, so similar to mine. His full top lip curls up into a sneer.
“Hola hija.” Hello daughter.
His voice is smooth and velvety and I can detect a slight Latin accent. When I don’t answer him his face transforms into a grin.
“Eres hermosa, cariño.” You are beautiful, sweetheart.
I’m fluent in Spanish, so I understand him. Thanks to mandatory spanish in school. My hands tighten into fists and I watch as the front driver and passenger doors open. The darkness is seeping in and the need to feel warm satiny blood becomes unbearable.
“Be careful, don’t hurt her.” My mobster father calls out as he retreats back inside the darkness.
“Yes boys, do be careful.” My voice isn’t my own, and everything in my vision is in hues of red. Pure anger comes over me feeling as hot as the sun itself.
The goon on the driver’s side comes around hesitantly when he sees the look on my face but the passenger side goon is a fucking idiot and only sees a girl. He grabs my arm and tries to drag me to the rear side door, big mistake. I catch him off guard when I pull him back towards me and quickly punch him in the nose. The spray of blood that hits my face makes me smile. While he’s grabbing his nose, I give him a swift kick in the knee hearing a crack. He’s down and crying in no time. I turn my sights on the driver and watch him put his phone back into his pocket. That’s when I hear another two cars pulling in. Both blacked-out sedans, the same as the one in front of me.
“Mija, as impressive as you are. I just want to talk, get in the car.”
I know I can’t take on all the fucking goons and I know my family will come looking for me any minute. I can’t have them be in the middle of this. I nod and lower myself into the backseat and watch as the driver closes my door and scrapes his passenger off the ground, taking him to another car.
“What do you want?” I ask, still vibrating with anger.
“You’re my daughter, do I need to want something to see you?” He asks smoothly.
“It’s been almost seventeen years.”
“For fifteen of those I was locked up.”
“Daddy goals.” I reply dripping with sarcasm.
“Lo siento.”
I look at him with shock and he quickly puts a rag over my face. I try to react but my muscles instantly become heavy. Then darkness quickly takes me under.
Chapter Sixteen
My head is pounding, how much did I drink last night? I try to remember the last thing I did and I am met with a wall of fog. I groan and run my hand down my face, my eyes open and the confusion hits me. Where the fuck am I? Nothing looks familiar in this room. I do a quick scan around me and notice there are no windows and absolutely no noise. Then everything floods back and I remember the play, seeing Vin’s deadbeat dad and of course seeing my own deadbeat sperm donor.
That motherfucker drugged me!
He fucking drugged me!
I bolt up out of the bed and feel my pockets. Of course, my cell phone is missing. Where the fuck am I? And how long have I been out? My stomach growls incessantly and I realize it must have been awhile. I move around the room opening each door. I find an empty closet painted all pink. Kind of reminds me of Marlana’s head. It’s the only bit of colour in this whole room, everything else is a stark, clinical white. The next door leads to a bathroom, thank God because these people would have to deal with pee on the floor if there wasn’t.
The last door is locked tight and must be the only way I have in and out of this hell. Why the fuck am I even locked up? And why am I letting myself be? I shake my head, get your shit together, Ember. I get to the door and start pounding on it.
“Where the fuck am I?!”
“Hello??!!”
“Anyone there?”
Of course, no one answers, but I know someone must be standing right outside the door. Raphael wouldn’t go through all this trouble just to have me escape. I continue pounding on the door for another five minutes, there’s no sound outside. It’s almost like this place is soundproof, shit it probably is. My family is probably going crazy, Vin is probably attempting to kill someone. I know though, they won’t be able to find me, none of them would ever make the connection to Raphael.
Tommy!
Yes! Tommy had said he was going to my house. So, he will find my parents and Vin and tell them who has me. I exhale with relief, Tommy will save me, he always does. I sit back on the bed and listen to the grumbling of my stomach. I wish I could work out how long I have been here, I have no natural light to judge anything and no noise to tell me if people are awake. I do have a feeling we are back in New York in the underground base.
The Eastside Rampage has a bunker, it’s not what you’re thinking, it’s not small. This thing spans the size of a shopping mall and all underground. I’ve heard it was an old army base before the Rampage claimed it. I’ve been here many times, The Ring is also located here, that’s where I used to come once a week and beat the living shit out of men. Why am I here now? And why did Raphael bring me here? I lay back on the bed, obviously my questions will not be answered until I see the deadbeat myself.
I don’t know how long I’m laying here when I hear the lock turn on the door. I turn my head and watch two men enter, one has a tray of food and the other has a gun trained on me.
“Really?” I snort and point at the gun.
“Here’s your breakfast, Jefe says to eat it all.” The guy holding the tray says.
“Well Jefe, can go fuck himself.” I shrug.
“Here are a change of clothes as well.” He nods and they both exit the room locking me in once again.
Fucking brainless minions. I eat everything because, one: I can’t be weak if I need to fight my way out of here and two: I’m fucking starving. I finish the food and go inspect the clothing that was brought. It’s clearly a set of sparring clothes and tape. So, he wants me to fight, and it also confirms I am indeed in the bunker.
I shower and change into the clothes, if the fucker wants me to fight then I am going to fight. He hasn’t seen me fight except for the last one before the fire and I really want him to see that I can rip his head off if I’m given the chance. It doesn’t take long for someone to come back, when the door opens I see it’s the driver from the other night. Now that I see him up close, he looks vaguely familia
r.
“How do I know you?” I ask.
“I drove you here?” He says, with a touch of sarcasm.
“I know that, but before then. You look familiar.”
“I’ve seen you fight before, but I doubt you ever saw me.”
“Why are you here? And by yourself? Aren’t you afraid I will kill you?”
“I’m here alone because I am the best with combat, and he wants us to spar because tonight you have a fight.” I don’t need to ask who ‘he’ is.
I nod because I did figure this much out. Raphael does want me to fight, and I’d bet there’s a lot of money on this, especially if he’s made it known I’m his daughter. I wouldn’t mind some sparring because I have a lot of pent up anger that I need work through before I could ever hit the ring, without emotions clouding my intellect.
“What’s your name?” I ask. He nods for me to follow him.
“Carmelo, but most call me Carm.”
“Carm, where are we going?”
“To the gym, I’m guessing you’ll want to take some aggression out on me after yesterday.”
“Something like that.”
He chuckles at my answer.
As I’m walking behind him I notice he is at least 6’2 and around 190lbs. He has inky black hair and skin the colour of caramel. His eyes I remember are as dark as his hair and his nose looked like it had been broken a few times. I follow him into the gym and see that there’s no one else here. We warm up together and begin grappling and wrestling on the mat. We are evenly matched, for such a large guy, he is quick and he has me submit as many times as I have him. At least an hour goes by and we are both stretched out on the mat, panting with exhaustion. He turns to look at me and a smirk curls his full lips.
“You’re good.” He nods.
“You too.”
“Tonight, you’re fighting a dirty cop on Raph’s payroll. He’s as big as me but not fast. His hit though is hard so I would avoid his punch.” He brings his hand to his chin, stroking his goatee. “He has a bum right knee. He was shot there about ten years ago.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Raph wants you to lose, he wants to damage your confidence so you will bend to his will.”
“So? How does this help you?”
“None of it helps me, but I’d hate to see that fighting spirit dim out.”
I nod my thanks to him and follow him as he leads me back to my room. When I get inside I see there is another tray of food and a few more sets of clothing. I turn and watch Carm leave the room and lock it tight behind him.
I’m standing in a room near the cage-it’s the size of my walk-in closet at home-waiting for my name to be called. I’ve been in here many times before. I hear a guy on the mic announcing the fighters as they enter the ring. I’ve heard four sets called so far so I know I’ll be the fifth and last fight of the night. Showcase, that’s what I am, the showcase. I was only the showcase one other time and that was the night of the fire.
I’m still trying to figure out Carm in all this mess, I know for a fact he’s familiar and I’ve seen him before. I’m hoping I can maybe convince him to help me out of here and not just in the ring. My music starts playing, ‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool and I can hear some people screaming and cheering for Blur. The door opens and I am ushered out by three big ass goons, because you know, I’m still a prisoner. I pull my hood up over my head and let it cover most of my face.
I see the guy I’m fighting in the ring and he is big. Probably a little bigger than Carm, and his face looks mean. Stupid dirty cop, I can’t wait to feel his blood coat my hands. He has an excited look on his face as he watches me approach the cage, rubbing his hands together like he’s in for a treat. So, dirty and likes to beat on young girls, noted.
I step in the ring and pull off my sweater. I’m dressed in a simple pair of yoga pants and a sports bra, so all my scars are on display and I watch as this filthy asshole peruses my body like he’s about to own it. I lean against the cage and close my eyes, all the noise around me fades and I let the darkness consume me. I want this to be as enjoyable as possible and I really want to show good ole Dad just want he helped create.
“I have just learned we have a change in rules tonight, ladies and gentlemen.”
I open my eyes and look at the MC, he’s looking nervously back and forth from the corner of the room to the cage. I follow his sight and see Raphael with Carm and a few other men. Raph is looking like a pig in shit with that grin on his face. Once the crowd calms down the MC continues.
“This showcase is going to be different from any other you have seen here in the cage before, tonight these two must fight… to the death!”
Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not a murderer, I’ve come close to killing people but I always drew the line. I school my features because this pig across from me gets off on girls fear I can just see it as he hungrily looks over my face. There’s no doubt in my mind that this man will kill me and enjoy it, so I need to pull up my big girl pants and kill this motherfucker first. This isn’t a problem; I know every way to kill someone with my bare hands but it doesn’t mean I ever wanted to put them to use.
The MC is counting down and the pig is circling the cage. I concentrate on my breathing and timing my inhales with each number counted. My eyes fly open as I hear his lumbering feet run my way. I stand my ground and let him throw a punch, at the last second I twist my body and his fist just skims my nose, Carm was right his punch is powerful. I grab his forearm using his momentum and pull him into the cage face first and punch him hard in the ear. He screeches and I watch with lust as blood starts trickling out, he must be hearing a lot of ringing, so I take advantage of his disorientation and punch him in the throat. The crunch of his trachea is so satisfying.
The pig growls with frustration and starts throwing punches all over the place without focus. I back up just beyond his arm reach and circle him.
“I am going to kill you, you little bitch.”
I ignore him and concentrate on his weak points. Right now, his ear is bleeding, his throat probably feels on fire, and I remember the knee Carm told me about. Just as he tries to punch at me again I drop to my knees and punch his right knee. He screams out and falls, I roll out from under him and uppercut him. He’s slow to come back up to his feet, and I take the moment to plan my next move.
He turns to look at me with his hands on his knees and the motherfucker smiles with a mouth full of blood. I wait for his next move and I don’t have to wait long. He strikes out with his left hand and I dodge but I’m not quick enough to dodge his right and he grabs my throat. He gets a firm grip and uses both hands to squeeze. I send a quick prayer up to who ever is watching over me because Juan and I have gone over this scenario hundreds of times over the years. I let him continue to squeeze and let him enjoy himself for a minute before I kill him.
He’s so engrossed in his hands on my throat he doesn’t notice my leg come up and slam into his balls. His eyes widen, he immediately drops his hands and vomits onto the mat. I pummel his face until the warmth of his blood is dripping off us both. Then as he’s on his knees wobbling back and forth, I step behind him and look my father in the eye. My arms wrap around his neck and I pull and push at the same time until I hear a loud crack, then I watch as his lifeless body hits the floor. Dead.
The crowd explodes into chaos and my name is being chanted, I grab my sweater off the floor and pull it on over the blood and snap the hood down over my face. I just played God back there and it doesn’t feel good, no matter how vile that man was, it wasn’t my place to take him out. I wait patiently by the door for the goons to unlock it and get me back to my room. I’m in desperate need of a shower and food. When the cage door unlocks, I look up and see Carm.
“Brutal.” He says with a grin, “and not a scratch on you.”
I shoulder past him and head in the direction of my prison cell, I really need Tommy to get the hell here already. I can’t stay here, I’m afraid of wh
at I will turn into.
Chapter Seventeen
I’m in this room for two more days, at least I think it’s two days, I can’t gage time well in this prison cell. But I can indicate through meals, unless they are fucking with that as well. This is my second dinner tray that I force myself to eat. I force myself because I know I will have to do it again and I will have to stand in that cage and fight to the death. I have stopped waiting for someone to save me and I have started to formulate a plan of escape. Living with my aunt and uncle has made me soft in a sense that I had people to help me, save me. It’s time to be the Ember I was before and be my own saviour.
The food tastes like cardboard as I force it down with water, then I lay on my bed and wait, it shouldn’t be much longer.
About an hour later the key turns in the lock and I am filled with dread and relieved all at once. I need to get out of this small room but I am dreading the anticipation I feel to do it again.
“Let’s go.” I hear Carm say into the room.
I peel my eyes off the ceiling and look at him. When I haven’t said anything for a few minutes, he comes in and closes the door behind him.
“You have to do it. To survive, you have to do it. So please, get up and let’s prepare.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because like I said I don’t want to see your fight dim.”
“What difference does it make to you?” I grit out.
“Nothing I can explain right now. Let’s go.”
I get up and follow him to the gym again. I tape my hands and pull my sweater off over my head and wait. He watches me closely and nods when he’s ready to go. We grapple and today I beat him more than he does me. The surprise in his features would be laughable if I could push back the darkness.
