Our Fighters

                               Our fighters

Running . I was running. The sound of my footsteps mixed with the dripping water off a pipe fixture and a blaring horn in the distance were the only sounds that echoed in New York City that night.  The air was stale and dry, despite the rain that had been plaguing the city. It seemed to lull the sleepless city to a deep slumber. Or maybe I am just the only nut job awake at this hour. I stopped at the end of the street, taking a minute to decide my next route. Night time in the city was thrilling for me, I feel like the streets, the parks, everything was so unexplored. I have nothing to lose, might as well make it an adventure. My feet started up again and I ran toward a backstreet, that I found when I arrived in the city last week. I had been running every night—looking. The backstreets were lit by one or two dim street lights. The stream of foggy light made an attempt to light up the vacant, boarded up shops. A smell of stale coffee whirled past my nose as I made my way past an old café. Broken neon lights saying “open” were flickering slowly by the old arcade. Exiting the backstreet I turned onto a typically busy block, but at 2 in the morning, no one was out. I ran by an alley next to an older style restaurant, when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into the dark.

                “Aye you got any money?” A husky voice of a man who probably spent his teen years smoking pack after pack of Malboros demanded.

                “No.” Was my reply as I struggled to reclaim control of my arm. “I am a runaway I have nothing—no cash, credit cards, nothing.”

                “What’s this then!” The man’s greedy eyes were on my necklace. He grabbed it and pulled my neck forward. “You a runaway? I ain’t seen no runaway with this kind of stuff. You lifted it didn’t you?”

                “Get off of me!” I squealed while I struggled to get my necklace out of his grip. His grip tightened. I lurched forward and bit down on his hand. He yelped in pain and swung his hand back hitting the side of my face. One. Two. Three hits.

`               “Ha. Ain’t so big now is you?”  He asked laughing. That’s when my blood laced spit landing directly on his face. I knew this would only make his rage more intense but at this point I did not care. I turned my head before he punched me. “Help!” I screamed. He swung again his hand hit the brick wall behind me. His other hand still had my necklace.

                “Hey, what the hell?” I heard someone’s voice say. Another pair of hands pulled me away from the mugger. I fell into them. The mugger was turned around by another man, I couldn’t see him very well. He got the mugger of the ground and started unloading on him. I saw blood on the muggers hands and that is when I realized my head hurt. I kept gazing at the man beating up my attacker, he glanced up. The only characteristic of him I could make out while cloaked in the darkness of the alley were his eyes. They were an intense green, and they reminded me of a cat. They were the last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness.

 

“She’s obviously too weak for that man,” Said a voice, it was a guy’s voice, it was soft but deep. Like a bass.

“Well I didn’t save her for nothing; we have to use her somehow.” Another male voice said this one was plain rough. If sandpaper had a voice it’d be his.

“She’s waking up!” A female voice observed.

My eyes were assaulted the minute they opened. The harshest white light I ever seen blinded me momentarily. These were like hospital lights only a million times brighter. I struggled to sit up for a moment. “Where am I?”

An uncomfortable silence was the stranger’s only response. I glanced around in a bit of a panic, the room I was in seems to be made of steel, it had matted floors, I was lying in a cot, there was a chair, couch and dresser in the room. Two men were seated on the couch. Both had military style hair cuts. The blonde man had a very stern look on his face. His eyes were wide, childlike and intensely blue. The other man had dark hair, a very strong jawline and well, ‘cat eyes’. A woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, stood behind the couch in front of the door. She was thicker, with jet black hair pulled into a ponytail, her arms were crossed and a scowl was etched onto her pretty face.

“Underground.” The blonde man stated, he was the one with the sandpaper voice.

“What?” Raising my eyebrows I let a small laugh escape. Underground, right, how ridiculous.

Cat-Eyes got up and began coming toward me, he was very timid about it, treating me as if I was some sort of wild animal. Immediately my body tense I got into a somewhat defensive position.

He raised his hands and laughed. “Relax, kid. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“Yet.” The girl snorted.

Cat-Eyes sat on the edge of the cot and moved a long of my blonde hair off of my left side of my face. He turned to the blonde guy. “She’s a little bruised, should be better in a day or two.”

Nodding the man said “Okay, okay. Cool.”

“You said I’m weak.” My words were soft but forceful. Angry that a stranger could make that judgment about me, something I wasn’t evens sure of.

Cat-Eyes opened his mouth to speak but the blonde man cut him off.  “He’s right. You are weak; you are a mugger’s dream. Tiny. Vulnerable. Pathetic.”

“I am no-“ I began protested but in his condescending state the man continued speaking.

“I was going to try and help you but now I think we’ll just use you as practice.” He swaggered over to me, Cat-Eyes glanced up defensively. “Then again—I think you are too worthless for even that.”

“Watch it Rob.” Cat-Eyes growled. “Too far.”

“Help me how?” My curiousness was rising. Who were these people? Why did these two men save me? How could they make me…strong?

“Well you see sweetie we are an underground, no pun intended, fight club.” Rob explained. “We talk runaways, thugs, and fighters who didn’t have a fair chance in life and we turn them into champions.”

“Fight club?” I raised my eyebrows Cat-Eyes. “Aren’t you guys like… not suppose to talk about the club?” The girl erupted into laugher “What an idiot,” she stated between cackles.

“That’s just a movie line that got way out off hand.”  Cat-eyes answered.

“Anyway, I was thinking, why not show this girl how to fight, put her in a fight and bet some money on you. You are little so no one would suspect you are any good. Which you aren’t. Yet.” Rob smiled after presenting me with this information.

“Teaching me how to fight to make money.” I repeated his words and nodded my head slowly.

“We gotta make a living somehow sweetness.” He gestured to the room. “We have over 10 of these rooms, it is like a apartment complex down here we gotta make some sort of dough, but as Josh said you are too weak for that.”

“I’ll do it.” I decided. “I want to be strong.”

Cat-eyes now known to me as Josh glanced at me. “I don’t kno-“

“Terrific!” Rob interrupted. “Come on Josh.” He began waltzing to the door.  Josh got up reluctantly and followed.

“Wait!” I called after them. “Aren’t you going to teach me!”

“Well, the only way you’ll learn is if you are in a real fight.” Rob opened the door, he gazed at the girl by the door and put out his order.

“Get her Lilac.”

 He slammed the door and I jerked my head up. Lilac was smirking and in the middle of the mat floor. “Get up.” She demanded. I did as I was intersected and stood in front of her. “We will go on three. Understand?”

Within those three seconds I thought “what the hell am I doing?” at least seventy times. “Three.”She rushed for my legs, knocking me onto my back; she straddled me and tried to get my arms. I bucked her off and got back onto my feet, feeling some sort of adrenaline I had realized I was forming a plan. Her arm. It is her weakest point; her legs are very muscular and strong. I can’t go for them. Lilac got up and rushed me again. I spun and kicked her directly in the stomach knocking her back a little; I grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. She gasped and hunched her back, and then with a force she flipped me over her. I landed on my back with a thud. The air was just returning to my lungs when she forced her arm against the arties in my neck, I could feel the blood rush to my head, the pressure increase I started seeing spots. Impulsively, I kicked my legs upward and successfully hooked her right arm. Swinging around I got her arm trapped between my legs, my calves were across her chest, I thought if someone was watching we would look like a T. I raised my hips and pulled her arm down. I kept doing this with increasing pressure until I heard: “I tap.”

Several hours later I was sitting on my cot reading an old copy of ‘The Art of War’ that I had found in the dresser drawer.  I heard my door open, glancing up from my reading I saw Josh enter my room. A small smile was on his lips. He sat on the couch.

                “Are you an idiot?” was his first words. They were calm.

                “Rob sent her to fight me. I didn’t me to break her arm.” Defending myself I put my book down and straightened up.

                “I’m not talking about that, and you didn’t break her arm. You dislocated her shoulder. And that was pretty damn impressive.” I smirked. “You never fight a mugger for something. You just give it to them, don’t you know that?”

                “What? How did you know…?” I trailed off and reached up to my neck. It was gone.

                 Using his pointer and middle finger he lowered the collar of his neck to reveal a silver chain with a ring on the end.

                I could feel my face turn bright red with anger. “Give it to me now.”

                He inspected the smooth silver of the ring the words “class of 1965” beautifully etched into the sides, the royal blue gem shining bright in the middle. “Beautiful piece, really. Grabbed it off the mugger when we left. Must mean a lot to you.”

                “It does. Give it to me.”  I demanded stomping over to him.

                “That is no way to get what you want doll face.” He smirked. “You want a piece like this? You’ll need to earn it.” He unlatched the metal hooks and put the necklace on the dresser. “Give me your worst honey.” 

                I didn’t waste time like I did with Lilac I went after his legs knocked him to the ground and started punching him, just like he did to the mugger. There was no way in hell I was going to lose. He threw me off him and he me pinned by my wrists, I tried to get him off but he was much stronger than me. He ended up twisting my legs into a figure four leg lock, I remember my friend in fourth grade trying to do this to kids on a playground. I used my hands to support my upper body I knew if I fell back my legs would be done. While, I supported myself I wiggled my one leg out of the lock and reversed the lock by repositioning my leg, it was now him that was squirming in pain. He knew what I did if he fell back he’d be done, he struggled to stay up. Before I knew it I was using my one hand to knock his hands off balance. He fell back. While he struggled and squirmed I caught a glimpse of the blue stone, a rush of memory came back to me.

                “Graduating college was my greatest accomplishment—miracle really—that was until I had you as my granddaughter.” My grandfather smiled at me, his mouth and face was wrinkled like any sixty six year old, but his eyes remained a vibrant youthfulness. He reached into his pocket and took out the necklace with the ring. “You are the most important person in my entire life, you deserve my prize possession. I love you Babygirl.”

                The voice of my deceased grandfather was replaced by Josh’s. “I said I tap!” He panted.  All at once I relax my grip, freeing him.

                I jumped up and grabbed my necklace putting it around my neck I sighed. Relief.

                “Firstly, that was amazing.” Josh stated as he hobbled to the couch. “So…” His tone was softer and quieter. “What’s that mean to you? Looks a little dainty for your hand.”

                I laughed, mainly because I remembered my Pop’s  large fingers, His thumb was three size bigger than mine. I sat on the opposite side of the couch.

                “It was my grandfathers.” I whispered. “He died.”

                “I’m so sorry if I known I would have never…” The guilt in his voice was real and extensive.

                “It’s okay. There was no way you were getting out of this room with that ring.” I smiled, he did too. “He’s buried somewhere up here. That’s why I came to the city.”

                “You don’t know where he’s buried?” Josh asked confused.

                “I wasn’t…I wasn’t aloud to come to the funeral.”  I choked back tears. I wasn’t going to let anyone here see me cry.

                “Wait, why?”

                “My aunt hated him, I use to live with him and when he died she made me live with her and she refused to let me go to the service.” My eyes were focused on the mat floor, tears crept their way in and I blinked them back. I won’t let him see me cry.

                “I am so sorry.” The whispered words were slow low I barely made it out.

                “Yeah.” I replied.  We stayed quite for awhile, lost in an absence of words. I heard Rob yelling at another fighter outside my room.

                “He’s an ass.” Josh mumbled breaking the silence.

                Glancing at him I said, “Why do you do what he wants if you think that?”

                “Excuse me?” He raised his eyebrows.

                “You are his henchman, don’t you realize that?” I questioned flicking a piece of lint off his leg.
                His eyes were on the place I touched him and he bit his lip, clearly thinking about what I said. “I guess…” He stopped and gazed at me. “I’ll have to change that…” His eyes were so vivid and intense I started to get nervous, my stomach was twisting up and I could feel my heart in my ears. He leaned into me, faces inches apart, he glanced up above my head.

                “Hey Rob..” He mumbled.

     &nb