It wasn’t working. He had beaten his hands bloody, but it wasn’t working: the fog was still there, clinging around his mind and his senses, and it wasn’t being shaken off. With a lack of anything else to do, he tried harder and harder, but nothing happened. He could see the blood, could see the swelling, but nothing was getting through, it wasn’t working…
“Darren.”
He stepped back from the bag, exhausted and shaking, ribs heaving, and stopped. Jayden was standing in the bag-room doorway, face white and pinched, arms folded across his chest.
“Are you feeling…better?” Jayden asked slowly.
Darren clenched his jaw against the threat of tears. He wanted to cry. He desperately wanted to cry, but there’d be no emotional release from it. He’d been crying for nights upon nights now, but there w
