Savage Mate

6. Despair

Mark

"Again," Trevor instructs, as I hit the boxing bag, following his instructions. "Harder! Imagine it's your enemy." I imagine John's face over the bag and I hit it with all my might. "That's better! It wasn't that difficult, was it?"

I keep punching it, now that I picture his face I can't stop, I want to destroy it, I want to do whatever I can to hurt him. I'm not sure what happened after we left the last place. I guess the Kitty's parents did come after her, because John was in a bad mood for a long time, complaining about losing the place. Not that it hurt him that much, he still has his human trafficking and drug business, but I know the fights give him a lot of money, so he wants to start them again. Trevor insists that I need to be prepared, and he is training me, but I'm not sure if this is what I really want. I've been numb for a while now. Losing the Kitty just highlighted everything I have already lost.

"That's enough!" Trevor screams, and I think it's not the first time he has said that, as he pulls me by my shirt away from the boxing bag. "I like the commitment, but you will hurt yourself if you keep going like that."

"What do you care," I say bitterly, but move away. Now that he mentions it, my arms hurt. Once I stopped, I notice just how tired I am, and I'm not able to lift my arms anymore. I just want to collapse.

"You won't be helping anyone if you break before your fight," he says, but what he really means is that my fight won't earn them any money if I can't hold my own. "Go take a shower and go to your room. Don't try anything, your father is back and if he catches you somewhere you are not supposed to be, he will be mad." I barely resist the urge to remind him John is not my father.

I walk away and go back to where my room is. I hate to walk by the holding cells, the women crying just break my heart, but there is nothing I can do. There are thugs everywhere, they won't let anyone get away. We are all prisoners in here. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only fighter that's here against his will. There is a huge man, mean eyes and hard face, but when no one is looking, he seems broken. I'm not sure what John is holding over him, but I'm sure there is something. He is not like others who do it for money or for the pleasure of hurting people, he just moves around the place like a ghost, and then goes into the fighting cage and becomes a beast. 

I hide in my bedroom, my mind blank, but unable to sleep. I don't know what I'm doing or what I'm suppose to do. The answer comes when one of John's thugs comes to fetch me. I follow him silently, but dread comes to me as we go to the garage. I heard the screams and pleading for mercy as I feel my stomach churn. When we arrive, I see some of John's thugs dragging some of the women into a van. I try not to feel anything, there is nothing I can do, still, I feel tears in my eyes and I blink fast, not willing to show them how I feel. 

"There you are," John yells. "Go to the black SUV, we are moving to a new location."

I look and see several black SUVs, and I start moving that way, not sure which one I should go to. I get my answer when one of the thugs opens the door to one and indicates that I should go there. I go inside and prepare to wait. I know that asking questions won't help, no one ever tells me anything, not even Trevor who acts like he cares about me. Soon, a couple of fighters join me in the car, and then we are moving. The other fighters sneer at me. They don't like me, and I don't care, I ignore their whispering and laughter and close my eyes, it's mostly to ignore the others, but soon the movement and whispering lulls me into sleep. 

I wake up as the car suddenly stops, throwing me forward, even as the seat belt stops my movement, causing pain to explode through my chest. At the other two laughter and the driver's snickers, I realize they did it on purpose. I don't care, I look around, sleep completely wiped out, and see that we are in another, probably underground, garage. I don't wait for them to say anything, I get out and move away from the car. This is similar to the other places John had taken me, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same as always. I heard the car doors opening and closing, and then steps.

"Come with me, I will take you to your rooms. You need to prepare, tonight is going to be your first fight," the driver says, and I follow him. The other two walk by me, both pushing me when they do. There is no point in trying to retaliate, that's what they want, an excuse to fight me.

My room is the first one, the driver opens the door and I go in. There is just a cot with some blankets and a change of clothes over it. I guess that's what I'm supposed to wear to the fight, and with nothing else to do, I change and sit on the cot, waiting for them to call me to fight. I guess it's hours before that happens, it's and it's Trevor who comes to my room.

"Good, you are ready. Come with me, your fight is going to be the first one. It will be an easy one, but you better win, the guy you're going to fight is a challenger, not one of your father's men, and if he wins, he will take the money, no one wants that," he says, but I don't agree, I don't care who takes the money, but John cares, and I know that I will be in a world of pain if I don't do as they say. 

We get to the ring and I get ready, deaf to all the things they are saying about who I am and my opponent. They like to invent stories to make us sound better. No one cares to mention that I'm still weeks from turning fifteen, I'm just a kid, and even if I look older, they have to notice I'm a teenager, but no one cares.

Once they signal the start of the fight, my opponent launches at me, hitting hard and fast. I dodge, mostly by instinct, and try to avoid most of his hits while trying to connect some of my own. It's not easy, but as I'm hit over and over, I start losing my temper. I do what I did earlier during training, and imagine that it's John in front of me, John holding the broken body of the Kitty, that innocent child that shouldn't have died. 

I don't stop until someone grabs me from behind and I finally snap out of it. I see the man in front of me, his face is a mess, and once the adrenaline starts to go down, I realize I'm also hurt, I can barely breathe. I want to cry, but I know I can't, not in front of everyone.

"Good job, kid," Trevor says, and I turn to see he is the one dragging me away. 

I don't think that was a good job, I just hurt another person. In a way, it was self-defense, right? If it wasn't him, it would have been me, but I can't deny that my actions were not out of fear, but anger. I just snapped and I don't like it, but then numbness sets in, and I don't really care anymore. I manage to shrug Trevor away and then I start walking away, then I see a cage with a wolf, and I just know that they are going to use it in a fight. The image of the wolf's inert body fills my mind, the magnificent beast broken, just like the Kitty, and what if it's a shifter? I have to run out of that place, feeling sick to my stomach. I just make it time to the bathroom before I start throwing up. I lift my head to see another fighter looking at me mockingly, most likely thinking I'm weak and pathetic. Not that I care, but weakness is not something good in this Hell.

I manage to get up and walk away, not bothering to acknowledge what just happened in front of the other guy. I get out and back to my room. I know I'm supposed to follow a protocol, but at that moment I don't really care. Once I'm alone, I start crying, silent tears running down my face. It's not like I could do anything to help. I know what happened the last time I did, and I don't even know if it was a regular wolf or a shifter. An angry animal would have killed me if I tried to help, but at the end of the day, would that have been such a bad thing?