Chapter 2

“Look its Prince Charming.” Everyone yelled when I walked through the door.

I could hear Kyra laughing behind the wall.

“So I take it was a mass text message.”

Alec came around. “Oh no we got a play by play of exactly what happened lover boy. I hear you got some moves.”

“I hear she was a real looker.”  Jace followed.

“I’m sorry Gabriel they really twisted my arm, you should have seen how they were getting the information out of me.” Kyra said finally coming out of her hiding spot.

“Yeah I’m sure it was pure torture.”

Kyra smiled and went back to stretching.

“Okay Okay, Where is Donovan and Craig?” I asked

“I’m here” Donovan replied coming out the dressing area. “As far as Craig, no idea.”

“How does he expect to beat me in a tournament if he never shows up to practice?” I asked jokingly, well partly joking.

Jace came up with the first reason. “Maybe it’s his new strategy against you, don’t show up and keep you guessing on what he’s going to do at the fight?”

“What?”

Alec followed,” Get you upset enough so you lose focus during the fight?”

“He could be training on his own. Doubtful but anything’s possible I guess.” Finishing with Donovan.

The school has always been like a second home to me. A safe haven, somewhere I can get away from the real world into my own fantasy of martial arts. In reality there was nothing special about the school. It was small, stuffed between a pizza place and carpet store. It’s still a wonder how my dad found this place. The inside was even smaller. As you walk in there was a small counter for merchandise and supplies. Leon's office was opposite of the counter. Moving forward is the open floor lined with blue mats with a random pole for the support of the ceiling. It has a record of actually being quite dangerous being where it was at, but as students we dealt with it. Other areas included a seating area for spectators which only fit about twelve people, open lockers, a single bathroom, and a storage closet. Mirrors are placed along the front wall of the floor so one can visual see themselves during movements, pads and bags were across the back, and lastly speakers for cardio classes and such. Doesn't sound like much and really it wasn't but to me it was everything. 

As a team we practiced every Sunday. There was no classes so it was just us, Leon, and the music blasting from the stereo. Leon ran the training session, we start with group stretch and warm up, then pair off and began sparring. Now when I say sparring people tend to think we are taking light hits at each other. Well were not, we are having every intent to hurt each other in a control manner, meaning it will hurt but it won’t kill you. It’s what we believe separates us from different schools. Also why we train only like this on Sundays. I don’t think the parents would appreciate it if their children saw their elders trying to kill each other. 

Each member of the team has unique style built for their frame. We each carry the same foundation and may have similarities in some cases but for the most part we have different styles. The styles are based on flexibility, speed, power, brawler, defensive, deception, and flashiness. There is not one member that carries all of these styles but like myself I carry most of them for the exception of flexibility and I try to stay away from flashiness but sometimes I can’t help it. I do however favor defensive and power with a hint of speed. 

We take turns with each other in three minute rounds with a minute rest. I always imagined it would be a sight for any passerby were to look through the windows and see five to seven teenagers attacking each other like a kung Fu movie with accompanying rock music and a lot of yelling. 

I always felt this way was beneficial; you have to think quicker, react faster, commit without hesitation, or deal with getting hit. As a group we took the idea and had to convince Leon to allow us to train like this. At first he was skeptical but over time he was more for it. We just had to be careful how we fought in tournaments because of penalties, couldn't exactly hit someone with the intention of hurting them.

I was sparring with Kyra and what I can say about her is that she is a slippery fighter because of her flexibility, deception, and speed. They are her biggest advantages. She likes throwing different techniques that seem to go one way and change direction at a moment’s notice. She almost tagged me a few times but I was able to block them and counter with my own deception move. I'll admit she’s like another little sister to me and I find it hard to hit her like I do with Jace or Donovan but I still hit her hard enough to know I got her. She looks at me after I hit her, I smile, and she attacks again.

We continue to go like this until we have trouble standing or we actually make the forty five minute mark, whichever comes first.

I lay out on the floor, my water bottle too far to reach but I have a real urge for a drink. The others reflecting the same issues I have when the door opens. I look over and right away I am able to see Rosalyn. Rosalyn is Leon mother and in a way a mother to all of us. She was in her early sixties and she would have looked perfectly normal if it hadn't been for the arm brace she was wearing. It had been a few months now since she had been in a car accident. It left her badly bruised with cuts throughout her body. I remember seeing her in the hospital but she looked better now for the exception of the scars that were still visible on her face. 

She was there for a few minutes, stopping by just to say hi to everyone, and then quickly left. Shortly after, everyone else was making their way out the door.

"I think my tooth is loose." Alec commented.

"Yeah, how it get that way." Donovan questioned.

"I'm willing to guess it was from one of the dozen head shots." Alec answered back.

"From who? You think Gabriel did it to you for calling him Prince Charming earlier?" Donovan laughed.

"If so he should have knocked Kyra out, she’s the one who told us." They both laughed walking out. "Later guys"

"Later" I replied followed by the others.

"So are you still mad at me?" Kyra asked me in her most gentle sincere voice.

"Not anymore I got to take some frustration out on you."

"No kidding, I feel it already." She laughed and gave me a hug then made her way to the others and did the same.

It was just me, Jace and Leon left. The school needed some cleaning so we stayed to help. The music was still going and we talked about random things ranging from movies to food. It was easy talking to Leon about anything, he wasn't only our instructor but he was also our friend, mentor, brother, father figure and every positive influence in our life. 

 

It was some time in the afternoon and the school was looking as clean as it could get as I cut the music off. That’s when Jace threw a staff at me. 

"Are you challenging me to duel?" Doing my best movie impersonation.

"Why yes. Do you accept?" He went along

I spun the staff around my body finishing in ready stance "Let's go"

Before we were able to go at each other the door opened again but this time it wasn't Rosalyn or anyone we knew. It wasn't even a curious customer. I have been around long enough to know when three people in mask, with one waving a gun, aren’t the type of people looking for lessons. My heart began racing. What was going on?

"Now what do we have here?" The one with gun said strutting in the building with the other two behind him laughing.

Leon was behind the counter, Jace and I were standing on the floor. They were dressed in jeans and a hoodie with ski masks covering their faces. The one with gun was pointing it at Leon while the others slowly made their way toward us. Leon had his hands up and I just stood there frozen. I was scared. What do you do in this situation? How do you react? Well you don’t, there wasn’t much my body was allowing when it was too busy dealing with the shock. I couldn’t even tell how Jace was doing. The one holding the gun said something but all I understood was blah blah and something else garble together. I guess he noticed because he yelled it again and this time my ears heard what he said.

“Drop the sticks” He yelled.

I let mine go hearing it hit the ground followed by second thud.

The guy with the gun was clearly in charge, he motion for Leon toward the register and gave instructions to the other two to check us out. My shock must have been wearing off because as they walked toward us my mind was checking their features, sizing them up, looking for any weaknesses, why? I didn’t know it wasn’t like I was going to do anything. I figure it was because of habit, it was stupid. The one walking towards Jace was the smaller out of the two nothing real threatening until they both pulled out knives. The one coming towards me was playing with a butterfly knife, slightly bigger but I was noticing he was favoring his left leg; he walked with a slight limp.

There was more commotion back at the register. Leon had handed the money over and now he was being instructed to come around the register. More demands and questions were being asked or so I thought, I couldn’t see, my view was blocked and my focus was more on the two who were upon us now.

In classes we try to mimic situation like these with plastic guns and rubber knives, but to have real knife against my neck as it dug into my skin threw those experiences out the window. The guy was laughing now, and surprising the first thought in my head was how bad his breath smelled. It was like the inside of a fridge when food was spoiled. I know the smell, it happened once. The fear was still there on my part, that was obvious, he knew, I knew, but I kept my eyes locked onto his. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of fully knowing how scared though.

A loud bang went off. I never heard what a gun sounded like without earplugs; my only experience was at the shooting range with my dad. It was one of the loudest noises I have ever heard. My ears went deaf, my skin had jump, and I feared the worse. Everyone had turned to see what happened, my eyes registering everything instantly. Leon had taken hold of the gun causing it to go off and now was fighting it off the robber using a disarm I recognized. The guy with the gun must have turned his attention at some point allowing Leon to make a move.

Everyone else was still putting things to together, making me realize this is my ideal time. I still can’t explain it, except my body took over and left me and my mind behind. My feet wrapped around the staff on the ground causing it to whip at the left leg on the one who was standing in front of me. Yeah, he wasn’t expecting it; his facial expression had told me so. I had done it so smoothly and effectively the staff made contact with his shin with a loud crack. It was enough I put all of more force into in it. His leg buckled and I was all over him. I went for the knife grabbing his wrist turning it away so it wasn’t between us anymore. I peeled his fingertips away from the handle I stepped back gathered every fear I possessed at the moment focusing it into my fist and drove it straight into middle of the ski mask connecting with his nose. It was the first time I had truly hit someone with intent to seriously hurt them, it was the first time I had felt a nose break under my hand and I didn’t recall a thing.

Jace had also taken advantage from the confusion of both fights. I only saw the end result of Jace landing a push kick sending his assailant to the ground. Just as fast as it started it was done. I looked down at my attacker and I could see blood coming out of his mask and onto the floor. I couldn’t move, I wasn’t sure what to think, my mind was all over the place.

I heard zip sounds but I didn’t look to see what for. Leon quickly came over and checked on us. He had a concern look on his face probably from our expressions but he did a quick pass over us seeing if we had any damage I guess. He went to the bodies on the floor, checking them, and then tying them up with zip ties. I hadn’t move but my body begin to shake, I tried controlling the sensation but it was pointless. Jace was on the ground now sitting taking everything in.

“Stay calm. It’s the Adrenaline you’re experiencing. It will pass.”

I wouldn’t say it passed but my senses were coming back. Leon saw it because he nodded and then headed over to the phone. I heard him inform the police of what happened. Jace was taking breathes and bobbing his head at the same time. He must have felt me looking at because he looked up at me with deep sigh.

“I know” I replied.

What did we just do? We just took one big chance and now seeing the aftermath of it all it was really something, something scary. The broken portion of the mirror where the bullets hit, the blood on the blue mats, it all happened so quickly.

The police arrived shortly thereafter making the arrest of the three robbers. They had their mask off but I paid no attention. There was a lot commotion. Police officers, News stations, spectators, my dad was standing next to me holding me tight, Felicia taking it all in. Reporters were trying to talk to any of us but I was shielded away welcomingly. 

A few of the officers asked for my statement but I was only able to give bits and pieces of it. My dad quickly pushed them away. My mind still wasn’t processing what happened let alone the ability to put words in sentences.

“When things calm down, if there is anything you can remember please feel free to contact us. Your instructor provided enough information for us to process, good job in there taking them down. That took some guts.”

“He will.” My dad answered.

“Of course detective, we will give you an update once we everything collected.” My dad nodded

Yeah it took something alright. I scanned for Leon and found him talking to another officer near the reporters. He seemed really calmed considering what happened not so long ago. I didn’t put too much thought into because my father was motioning me towards the car.

Leon caught us leaving and went over to us, shaking my dad’s hand then placing his attention on me.

 “Get some rest. You did well today.”

“Thank you, sir. But if it wasn’t for you…” but I was unable to finish the comment. Officers wanted to talk to him. At that I waved and left with Felicia and my dad. I looked at the reporters as they tried to continue to get a word from me. I wasn’t in any mood to talk and I didn’t want to especially talk about that. They didn’t seem to care though as lights and cameras were being shoved at me.

It was still early in the evening time but I had a bad case of exhaustion. My dad didn’t say much just that he was happy nothing happened to me. Felicia wanted to talk about it but I was too tired and still had trouble remembering things. My dad hugged me again. When I got to my room I don’t even remember lying down, but I knew I wasn’t awake.

It’s funny how dreams work sometimes. I’ve experience all sorts of dreams, whether they had any type of meaning to them or not I didn’t care, it was a dream, but there were certain dreams that had a way of imprinting events from your mind that you weren’t able to recollect when you’re actually experiencing them. Why do I say that? Because I saw everything. It was like watching a movie and I was the director looking at it from different angles. I saw the guys run in from the outside. The three of us inside of the school. The reaction from each person as it occurred. The initiation of Leon’s disarm, the bullet firing into the mirror, my attack and that of Jace’s reaction, The motion of my fist driving into the nose, even the feel of bone and cartilage breaking underneath. I paused, rewinded, fast forwarded, played it in slow motion, changed the angles. I can’t tell you how many times I saw it till I woke up.

My sister was there next to me in bed. Apparently I was in stir because I was covered in sweat and she had a worried look on her face. I sat up realizing I was still in my uniform.

“I remember…”

“Are you okay?”

No I couldn’t say I was but I didn’t want her to worry more than she already was. It was dark outside, I looked at my phone, the amounts of miss calls and text there was, wow it was also way past midnight. “You mind if I talk to you about it”

“Of course Gabriel, that’s a stupid question to ask.”

“Cause you want to know?”

“Yes I want to know, but you’re my brother. Kind of comes with the territory.”

“Dad’s asleep”

“An hour ago”

So we both went downstairs, I really needed something to drink and I was halfway to starvation. We put some stuff on the table and I began telling her from what I saw in my dream. Her face had ranges of emotions, disbelief, excitement, astonishment. She asked a few questions here and there but mainly kept to listening. After she sat there in silence for a few minutes. I looked at the time and noticed an hour had passed.

“We need to get to bed, we have school in a few hours.”

“Yeah” she said getting up making her way up. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.”

She went into her room and I went into mine. I took off the rest of my uniform as I made my way into bed. To my surprise I was still tired and I fell asleep, back into the dream replaying the event over and over again.