by Michael Todd
They were stuck in that box and they had no idea how long they would be there. It was a chilling feeling even for Joshua, who had seen his fair share of demons through his father.
He knew he could protect them, though, and he would—whatever the cost.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Mamacita eyed Joshua as he stood in front of the doors to the underground tunnel, holding his knife firmly in his hand. He was no longer the scared little boy she had first met.
He looked like an angry man; a warrior, perhaps a shadow of his father.
She understood that he would not just sit there and wait while the others fought, and frankly she wasn’t sure she would either.
She went to the weapons closet and opened it, tilting her head at two weapons hanging from the back.
They shimmered and sparkled like the others, but these seemed special.
They were identical sais, with strong carved-ivory handles and tips that looked like they could shatter diamonds.
She reached in and ran her fingers down one of the blades, admiring the craftsmanship that Joshua had put into them. They were beautiful, even more so than some she had seen across the ocean so long ago.
Memories gently floated through her mind and she sighed, remembering her early life. Joshua walked up beside her and nodded as he looked into the closet.
He blushed, realizing she’d found his work, but she didn’t know why he would be embarrassed. It was some of the finest she had seen from him, including the swords he had made for the others.
He should be proud of these, but he probably assumed that no one would understand them, especially not on Korbin’s team.
They weren’t very skilled in karate, or anything of that level. They fought with their muscle instead of their minds, which was okay—just not workable with the sais.
“When I was growing up, I wanted to be a fighter,” Joshua explained. “But because of my difficulties, my mother wouldn’t let me do it. When I was old enough to watch television, I got hooked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They were all outcasts; different than everyone else, but inside, where it mattered, they were warriors—skilled warriors. They knew what it took to be the best, and though they ate a lot of pizza, they made sure they were the best.”
“That’s a nice story,” she told him.
He chuckled. “Yeah. Anyway, I made the sais because they were my favorite weapon on the show, and I hoped that someone else would like them and be able to use them. So far I haven’t met anyone who is knowledgeable about using them or even knows anything about karate, so I leave them hanging there, hoping one day they will be used for good.”
“Did you try to sell them?”
“No, I was afraid they would end up in the wrong hands. Honestly, I made them because I enjoyed it. When I wasn’t pushing out swords and knives to sell, I took time to work on the art of it all. It was calming and soothing to just sit and mold, to make something that had meant a lot to me when I was a kid. I could never be like the Turtles, but I could provide something that would allow others to be like them. That was what I had to settle for, so in my free time I made something that I dreamt of one day being able to use. I guess you could call it my hobby, in a way. I didn’t really have anything else in my life.”
“We all have hobbies,” Mamacita said, calmly taking off her suit jacket. “And I like the sais very much.”
She ripped her long silk sleeves from her shirt one at a time, and tossed them to the side. She stretched her arms over her head and closed her eyes, breathing deeply in and out. The girls looked at her and quieted down, watching every move she made.
“May I use your knife?” She held out a hand to Joshua.
He handed it to her carefully, and she smiled to see the beautiful craftmanship of the blade and handle. She winked at him as she leaned down and cut slits in her expensive skirt all the way to the tops of her thighs.
The girls looked confused, but continued to watch her as she handed the knife back to Joshua and squatted before kicking high in the air.
She turned to the girls and smiled.
“Makes it a whole lot easier to kick without the skirt holding me in so tight,” she explained. “We all have secrets; pasts that we don’t often talk about, and dreams that were never fulfilled. Most people have this inner need to protect the ones they love. To push them and make them grow, but sometimes you inadvertently hold them back.” She looked at Joshua. “There isn’t a magic answer to any of that. Your mother did what she thought was best. But do you know the beauty of it all?”
“What?” Joshua asked.
“You are now a man. A man who is capable of anything he puts his mind to,” she told him. “So, if you are ready to be a warrior, then you can be one. If you are a weapons master, then you can be that too. Just like I told you the other day…you can be many things, but there is usually only one you are a master of.”
Mamacita turned to the side and the girls all gasped. Wrapped around her thigh, disappearing under her skirt, and reappearing across her neck and over her shoulder was a beautiful and intricate dragon tattoo. She had gone to great lengths to hide the tattoo, but for what reason?
The girls had no idea.
She looked like a different woman now, someone they didn’t recognize as their former keeper. There had been a secret warrior hidden away under the layers of clothing, long curled hair, and makeup that hid the stories in her eyes.
At that moment, though, as she walked carefully across the floor and kicked off her heels, they saw a different woman. One with honor and respect, one with a past she had yet to reveal, and one who was simmering an idea in her head while they were locked in that basement to wait for a resolution.
“And what are you the master of?” Joshua asked.
“Me?” Mamacita laughed. “Well, I’m the master of my own life, I guess. I am good at a lot of things; a lot more things that I let anyone know. But a master? I am not really sure yet.”
“Caretaker,” one of the girls yelled.
“Aw, that’s sweet. I think I am pretty good at that.” She smiled. “But not a master.”
“Businesswoman?” Joshua offered.
“Again, I am really, really good with business.” She shrugged. “I am, but I don’t think I am a master of that either. I think that what I am a master of hasn’t come to me yet, and that’s okay. The beauty in life is the journey to find what you are master of. But you know something? I am pretty good at a couple of things you would not have guessed, which was my intent.”
Mamacita walked back to the cabinet and carefully pulled the sais from their hooks, then gripped them tightly in her hands as she smiled at Joshua.
They felt right. It was as if she had never ever put them down. She walked forward, twisting one way, then the other, and back again.
Her movements were quick, hard, and structured, like she had performed them all her life. She started to work the sai in her right hand, moving it in circles across her body and back.
When she switched to the left, she fumbled the weapon and it fell to the floor, clanging on the concrete.
She winced. “I guess if someone hasn’t practiced in a few years, you can’t expect perfection right away,” She picked it up and returned to her place.
“You know how to use those?” Joshua asked in wonder.
She didn’t look at him, just nodded. “I sure do, Joshua,” She smiled, moving into the traditional heisoku dachi stance.
She bent slowly forward, bowing to Joshua before making a hard turn and bowing to the girls. She moved from the formal attention stance quickly into the nicho sai.
Her hand, holding the sai, snapped up and behind her head, while she tucked her other sai to her side, tip towards her back.
She slowly moved her front leg, dragging her toe around in a half moon in front of her self before calling out as she front punched, once, twice, and a third time. She then shifted back into the nicho sai again, holding still for a moment.
From there she danced across
the room, showing the girls her beautiful art.
“Iyaaa,” she yelled, chopping one hand down into her leg, holding her pose perfectly as if she had done it her whole life.
She incorporated the sais into her kata, swinging them around, twirling them through her hands, and flowing from pose to pose without hesitation.
She began to sweat as she moved, completely focused inward. Her muscles tensed and relaxed, their definition visible for the first time in a very long time.
The girls were entranced, unable to move or talk.
Joshua was having a hard time understanding or believing the talent the woman had hidden from everyone.
Slowly she flowed back into the beginning stance and breathed out deeply, bowing to Joshua and then to the girls, who gamely tried to bow back to her. She stood up straight and opened her eyes, smiling around the room.
There was no sound at all in the basement—just the presence of the girls, of Joshua, and of Mamacita.
“You see, ladies…and Joshua,” Mamacita began, “sometimes you have to stop running from your past to make sure those you love have a future.”
Joshua didn’t understand what she meant and neither did the girls, really, but they all understood her intent. They were the ones she loved, the ones she wanted to have a future.
They watched as she walked to the large door leading to the tunnel and slowly turned the lock. As it clanked open, she gripped the sais and looked back at the group.
“If I never am blessed to see you again, know that I’ll watch over you from heaven,” she told them, a sad smile gracing her face.
She turned back to the door and opened it, then slid into the hallway and closed the door behind her. Joshua’s smile faded when he realized she was going to fight the demons.
He wouldn’t let her fight alone.
“Take a weapon,” Joshua said, and the girls walked up to the cabinet one by one. “Hold it tightly in your hand. Feel it as part of you. Know that where it goes, you go. When you strike, aim for the face, the neck, or the chest, but try to stay back. I’ve seen these beasts’ claws, and they are brutal.”
“You think we are ready?” one of the girls asked Joshua.
“If you think you are ready, then you are,” he told her, giving her shoulder a tiny squeeze. “You are the bravest women I have ever met, and you were fighting demons long before Korbin’s Killers started. They just came to you in other forms.”
They all lined up as the he opened the door, then looked back at them and lifted his sword into the air. They shouted and cheered loudly before running full-force through the door and down the tunnel.
When they reached the end, there were two demons blocking their path. The front two girls lurched forward and swiped their weapons across the demons’ skin. Mad with pain and agony, the demons lashed out, severely injuring both women.
Joshua shouted and ran toward the demons, wielding his weapons like a true master. He fought the beasts, injuring them repeatedly. He kicked them, slashed them with his blade, and finally knocked them backward into the wall of the cave.
The boy surprised them. They hadn’t seen or heard of him before tonight.
Joshua could feel the anger surging through him, which was new to him. He had to protect the women.
His mind was clear, and he could see every move before he performed it.
He sliced down through one of the demon’s heads, splitting it open. That one fell to the ground as he turned and slashed his sword across the remaining demon’s chest, blood splattering to the ground.
He raced forward, cutting through the second demon’s claws as he pulled a knife from the sheath on his belt. The demon had frozen and was screaming at the pain of losing a hand.
Joshua lunged forward and stabbed the knife deep into the demon’s chest, piercing its dark black heart. The demon gurgled and spat until finally it died. Joshua pushed the beast off his knife and watched as it turned to dust just before hitting the ground.
“You don’t think a blacksmith knows how to FIGHT?” he screamed at the pile of demon ash.
Two of the women had pulled the injured to safety, and began treating their wounds. The girls nodded to Joshua, and Joshua to them. He couldn’t believe he had possibly lost two of his girls in the first thirty seconds of the fight.
In that moment he started to question his decision to equip the girls to fight with him, but as he watched the others attack he smiled, seeing a warrior in each and every one of them. They were no longer just flesh for sale.
And he was no longer just a lonely weapons maker.
They were part of something bigger than themselves. He had given them a reason to fight, and work, and train, and believe. They had entered into something that would change them forever—but in a good way, a way that might keep them from entering that brothel ever again.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Korbin, Calvin, Jeremy, and Derek surrounded one of the larger demons, their weapons at the ready.
This fucker had huge muscles, rows of jagged teeth, and scaly skin so thick barely anything could penetrate it.
The demon turned toward Korbin and roared, shaking the walls of the base. Derek took a running start and leapt onto the beast’s back, slicing it across the back of the neck. The beast bucked and screamed loudly in pain, and reached back to grab Derek. It tossed him hard, sending him flying through the air to crash into a wall.
He groaned as he fell to the ground, grabbing his arm tightly, then pulled himself up and looked at the others.
“My arm…it’s broken. I’ll shoot from here. I won’t get in the way!”
The others nodded and turned back toward the beast, sending shots winging toward the demon. Derek pulled out his pistol with his left hand and aimed at the beast’s face, pulling the trigger until his clip was empty.
The beast growled but ignored the bullets and Derek looked down, trying to reload his weapon with one hand. One of the bullets dropped from the clip and he bent down, cussing as he tried to get the damn thing to load.
“Derek,” Jeremy yelled to him. “Watch out!”
Derek looked up to see Jeremy sprinting toward him with his sword out, then glanced over his shoulder to see a demon very close. He dropped to the ground and scooted backward as the demon crept toward him.
Jeremy lunged forward to shove the sword through the demon’s shoulder, then pulled hard to remove it—but it was stuck. He looked up at the demon, kicking it to hopefully pull the sword free. Then he turned his head toward Derek, eyes wide, and his expression went blank.
Derek looked down to see the demon’s talons pushing through the kid’s stomach and out the other side.
“NOOOO!” Derek screamed as the demon retracted his claws. Jeremy, with no support, fell slowly to the ground, his eyes dimming.
Derek got his other pistol free and pointed it at the demon’s face, pulling the trigger until its clip had run dry as well. He continued to pull, the clicks echoing through his head, as anger overtook him. He looked down at Jeremy’s body and gritted his teeth.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” he screamed at his dead teammate. “You are paying your tribute too fucking early!”
Derek stood there and watched as the demon turned to dust, Jeremy’s sword falling to the ground and clanging on the pavement. Behind him Korbin and Calvin double-teamed their demon, making serious headway with injuring the big-assed bastard.
However, as Calvin stepped forward to swipe at the demon again, it swung its large arm outward and caught Calvin, sending him tumbling ass over appetite across the ground. He moaned as he heard his bones cracking.
“I’ll just be a second,” he called weakly from the sidelines.
A female’s arm came into view. “You tap out for a moment,” Mamacita told him, pressing her hand on Calvin’s arm as she looked toward the demon. “I’ve got Korbin’s back.”
“Well, all right.” Calvin chuckled and turned his head to spit out blood, surprised to see her.
&nb
sp; Mamacita headed into the fight and nodded at Korbin as she stepped up next to him, her sais gripped tightly in her hands.
He returned the nod and looked back at the demon, who was laughing menacingly.
Korbin’s lip twitched in irritation.
“You are so badly beaten that now you have to bring in girls?” The demon chuckled deeply.
“I wouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” Mamacita told it, moving forward in an intricate pattern. Her sais twirled in the air before she stabbed one of them into the demon’s side and moved back.
The beast yelled in agony, falling to its knees and grabbing its side. There was something about the sai that bothered it more than the other weapons had.
It slid in like a motherfucker.
The two humans started to fight in earnest again, causing the beast damage so grave that Korbin was eventually able to cut its head off. He climbed off the body and went over to Mamacita, both hurt and walking poorly.
Korbin shook his head and chuckled, just happy to have had some help.
Katie stood close to Eric and Damian as they fought two large sneaky demons. One was faster and thinner, while the other one was pure brute. Eric ran toward the skinny beast and jinked to the right as his knife sliced across its stomach, but the blade caught a claw on the other side and he had to pull back.
He realized it was just a flesh wound, so he retreated.
Katie and Damian continued to attack, both getting hit pretty hard in the process. Katie was still holding her own, though, no matter what the demon threw at her.
“These fuckers are a mess,” Katie said, rubbing her bruised arm.
“Hell yeah they are,” Eric said, shaking his head and breathing heavily. “I have a secret weapon, though.”
Eric walked over to the large pieces of concrete wall that had fallen during the battle. He groaned as he lifted one into the air, but once it was up he closed his eyes and stepped back, putting out his hands. With a telekinetic effort, he threw the stone harder than he would ever be able to do with his own hands.
