Chapter Five

 

I was grateful when night finally came and it was time to leave to meet Luke. I needed a distraction now for the new guilt I felt. I could not help but feel that someday guilt was the only emotion I could experience any more.

            Luke was waiting for me behind the bar as promised, his face holding an eager smile. “I’m glad you came, Will,” he said as he put an arm around my shoulders and started walking with me.

            “Do you want to fully explain to me what your plans are?” I asked, the irritation I still felt at myself evident in my voice.

            “There is a group of men that meet once a week for a match. A fight. The only rule is to not kill your opponent. The match is won when your opponent submits. The rules are as simple as that.”

            I got the feeling that these were not exactly clean fights considering the one rule. Anything goes. Had I not worked my mind into a numb knot it might have seemed brutal and not the kind of thing I would participate in. But it was in that numb knot.

            “You said something about making a lot of money.”

            “Yes, that’s the biggest part of this,” Luke said, the excitement building in his voice. “There are a lot of very rich men who attend these events, placing wagers on the participants. The fighters get a portion of those wages. If you win you become a very wealthy man.”

            “And what is your involvement in all of this, Luke?” I asked, feeling I already knew the answer to that question.

            To this he seemed to get a bit nervous, the excitement in his voice dimming a bit. “I’m just asking that you let me represent you. Let me find the best matches of fighters for you. All I’m asking is a small portion of your winnings.”

            “Haven’t I made you enough money yet?” I said with a chuckle.

            Luke chuckled in return. “One can never have too much money.”

            We walked down a narrow, dark alley. The buildings that rose around us seemed to be staring down upon us, listening to the things I was considering doing. They seemed to be whispering to each other, telling of the awful things I had done and had yet to do.

            “I beg to differ,” I said as we slowed and stood before an ancient building that looked ready to crumble at any moment.

            “This is it,” Luke said as he approached the door. He opened it and motioned for me to follow. Certainly illegal if they were meeting in these kind of quarters. 

            There was a short hallway that lead into a large room and everything inside matched the outside, looking ready to collapse at any moment. It was dimly lit and the smell of smoke was heavy in the air and burned my nose and irritated my lungs. There were probably twenty people in here and there were two obvious groups. The first was obviously the ones placing bets. They were dressed in fine clothing, wearing top hats and shiny shoes. The other was the fighters. They wore only trousers and work boots and looked as dirty as their surroundings.

            Luke and I walked into the room, drawing little if any attention as we sat to watch the match that was in progress. The inside of the building consisted of one large room. There was a stone floor, the middle kept completely clear. Chairs were lined around the outside of the room and at the head of the circle a small table held two men who I assumed were some kind of judge. 

            The fighters simply stood in the center of the room with everyone seated around them. Neither of them were particularly large but they were lean and fierce. I watched as the slightly taller man landed three punches in a row to the other man’s face. Blood poured from his nose but it did not seem to slow him down. I noticed the floor beneath their feet was a dark crimson, blood mixed with the dirt.

            The fight was brutal as they alternated landing punches, kicks and anything else they could manage. Blood was smeared across each of their bodies and splattered the floor with a fresh new coat. Finally after five minutes of intense battle the taller man collapsed to the floor after a blow, unconscious. A man declared him the winner and several shouts of anger and delight went up.

            “That man has yet to be beat,” Luke whispered.

            I nodded as I observed money being exchanged throughout the room, a lot of it. It seemed ridiculous that people would bet against one that was undefeated. But that was the gamble I suppose. Had people not been doing the same thing with me? It seemed absolute stupidity that they still made wagers against me yet had never seen me loose.

            “So are you interested?” his voice was suddenly unsure.

            “I’m interested,” I said as I watched the next fighters move to the center. “But I won’t fight the smaller ones. They seem to be paired according to their size. I am afraid I might break the little ones. The bigger men will at least be a little more solid.”

            “I am not sure about that William,” he said. “I’d rather not have you get mangled in your first match.”

            “Trust me on this one Luke,” I chuckled. “I think I will be able to handle this. When do I start?”

            A huge, wicked grin stretched over his lips and he patted me on the back. “Let me go talk to some people and see what I can do.”

            I turned my attention back to the match as Luke sauntered away. The two men fighting now were larger than the last two but they still looked very breakable to my eyes. I was going to have to be very careful not to kill anyone. All it would take is just exerting a little too much force and I could knock someone’s head clean off his shoulders, I was sure of that. I was also going to have to be careful to not move around too fast. I had noticed that the more excited or angry I got, the faster I moved. It would also probably be good to let my opponent get a few punches in as well. At least I would most likely never feel any of it. No need to tip people off that something was off with me. If I gave too much away the amount of bets placed against me would quickly diminish as well. Luke wouldn’t like that.

            The match before me ended, the slightly larger man finally submitting after he lost a few teeth and gained a broken nose. It was sickening to think that such brutality was viewed as amusement for the wealthy. And I was going to be a part of it now. What did this say about me?

            “You’re up after this next fight,” Luke said excitedly as he sat by my side again. “Your opponent is that man over there.” He pointed across the room to a man who stood, watching the match like everyone else. He was as tall as I was and just as thick. He still looked too breakable. “He’s new, only been doing this for a few weeks. Shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.”

            My nerves suddenly started jumping into high gear as the match wore on. My opponent started stretching out and making practice punches to the air. This was going to be too easy and I was unsure if I was going to be able to use enough restraint to not kill him.

            “I’m not so sure about this, Luke,” I said as I shook my head. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

            “Nonsense,” he said, alarm rising in his voice. I then realized that he had already put down money on me that he would lose if I backed out. “You’ll do just fine, Will. I have every confidence in you.”

            “It’s not me I worry for,” I said as I stood, the match now over. “It’s him I’m worried about.”

            I pulled my shirt off over my head as everyone else had done that I had observed. My opponent did the same and came to the center of the floor. 

            Too breakable. To fragile.

            The man who seemed to be the announcer and in control of the event stepped forward. “Remember the rule. Just don’t kill each other. Other than that, anything goes.” 

            But not killing him was going to be the problem.

            He suddenly backed away to the edge of the invisible circle that formed around us. “Ready! Go!”

            My opponent immediately went in for a punch and it was all to easy to dodge. He had counted too much on making contact and exerted too much force. He went sprawling across the circle, landing flat on his face.

            “Get up,” I said as I stood three feet away from him. There were confused whispers among the crowd. Most fighters would have seen their advantage and taken him on the floor.

            It was easy to read the confusion on my opponents face as he scrambled to his feet, his fists at the ready. He swung twice more, this time managing to stay on his feet. We danced in a slow circle as he tried landing punches and kicks anywhere he thought possible, missing every one.

            “Hit him, Will!” I recognized Luke’s voice from the crowd.

            Right, I thought. Time to get to business.

            Trying to be as careful as I possibly could I landed a punch in his side. Too much. He went flying sideways four feet, seven inches and landed on his back with a huff. I heard as all the air in his lungs was forced out.

            I had not knocked him out at least but he curled into a tight ball, rocking back and forth trying to force air into his lungs. After only a moment he made the submission signal.

            There were few cheers at my supposed victory and a lot of mumbling. Apparently this had been unexpected. 

            As my opponent seemed to regain the use of his lungs I walked over to him and extended a hand to him. He looked at me hesitantly before he accepted it and I pulled him easily to his feet.

            “Good match,” I said quietly and walked back towards Luke.

            I had never seen the man look so happy, his grin stretching from ear to ear. “Well done, William,” he said as he patted me enthusiastically on the back. “See, I told you that you could do it.”

            “As I said before,” I said as I pulled my shirt back over my head. “It wasn’t me I was worried about.”

            The man who I had seen handling what appeared to be all the money approached me, his face serious. “Your winnings,” he said as he handed me a sack full of money. Without another word he walked away.

            “Now, don’t be too disappointed with the amount. Not everyone wanted to bet on this match since neither of you was very well known but it will only get better every week,” Luke said as he eyed the money hungrily.

            I opened the sack to see the contents. It wasn’t a fortune but about equaled what I would have won in the bar in about a week. I pulled out a handful and slipped it into Luke’s front pocket. His face was quite surprised as he looked to see how much there was. I had given him nearly half.

            “A special bonus for our first match,” I said as I followed the crowd out the door. Apparently my match was the last of the night, or perhaps morning. Dawn would be breaking in less than an hour.

            The next week was fairly similar. It fought only one match which seemed to be fairly common. It was rare when a fighter battled more than once a night and the second was usually a last minute one when an unexpected challenger came into to play. Like Luke predicted, more money was laid out for my match and our winnings were more this week.

            I continued my arm wrestling matches at the bar throughout the week but contenders were getting scarce. Word was getting out that I was unbeatable and people were getting tired of losing money. This was a great disappointment to my supporters though. I had made some of them wealthy men. I had the feeling that this event was going to have to end soon. People did not like losing money and I could hear the whispers that were being breathed in the corners of the bar. The regulars suspected something was amiss. A man my size should not be beating other men so much larger than him.

            This meant that Luke was losing money though. Even though I was supplementing this with my winnings from the fights, I could see the greed that was growing in his eyes. There were fewer and fewer people coming into the bar seeking a match and so the betters had slowed as well. Due to this he started pushing for better, “harder” fights for me to participate in once a week. At first the coordinators were hesitant to match me to bigger, more experienced fighters but I soon proved that I was up to the challenge when I continued to defeat every opponent.

            Never in my wildest dreams before I made this impossible change would I have imagined how much money I could gain. I was now making in a week what it would take us six months to acquire on the farm. I wanted for nothing, and nothing was unattainable to me. I had never had many new cloths in my life but my wardrobe now held fine linens and shoes. My flat was decorated with lavish things, furniture that had hardly even been touched.

            It was not all wasted on unnecessary things however. I did not forget those at home and they way that they continued to live. I had hired a young man with a fast horse and given him specific instructions to deliver a package. My father had always had a certain weakness for fine cheeses, no matter how bad my mother thought they smelled. I had purchased several large chunks of his favorite. I had also found a small wooden box and placed a large amount of the money I acquired into it. This was carefully and discreetly hidden inside of the biggest chunk of cheese. The young man was given instructions to not rummage if he knew what was good for him. He had also been given a large amount for his services.

            I had failed to realize at first just how serious some of the people who bet on these events were. Rumor was going around that some of them were recruiting from other countries. One of the richest of them was rumored to have found a man who no one could beat in a fight. It was said that he had killed four men in matches such as these.

            It had been five months since I had begun the matches when the rumors were confirmed. The wealthy man was a Duke, a known, obsessive gambler, here and else ware. It was the beginning of spring, the snow that had blanketed the ground for the last few months was finally starting to retreat back into the Earth, when the Duke brought him to the match.

            The regulars were buzzing with excitement. Could the blazing red-haired Irishman really beat William Colegrove? They were both unbeatable but someone would have to win this match. The Irishman had killed others in fights, what if he killed William the Invincible?

            I smiled at the nickname I had gained. Invincible. Well, perhaps that might be true but the very thought seemed preposterous. No one was truly invincible, but what if I was? All evidence was pointing that way…

            There had never been so many people packed into the unstable building and I truly worried that it might collapse on us all. Considering that my match was to be the only one of the night it seemed strange. But then there was a lot of money being laid out. For once my regular supporters were unsure of whom to place money on. My opponent was huge, six inches taller than me and over twice my thickness. The man could probably rip a mature tree out of the ground if he wanted to. 

            Luke was a nervous wreck as he paced back and forth before me. “I’m not so sure about this,” he said as he shook his head and looked at my opponent for the seventh time in the last minute. “If he were to put you out of commission, I…”

            I understood Luke’s concern. Should he loose me as his fighter he would lose the vast majority of his income. I wasn’t worried. In fact, I was actually quite excited. This would give me a chance to fight without having to hold back quite so much. Yes, I was still going to have to use an enormous amount of control not to kill him, just like all the others, but still, the effort wouldn‘t be quite so astronomical.

            Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised to hear the names of the people who were in attendance tonight. Names of royals were thrown everywhere. Apparently they found gore and violence entertaining.  Money wasn’t their reason for being here, though they brought plenty of that.

            “It’s time William,” Luke said as he rubbed my shoulders unnecessarily. I wished he wouldn’t touch me, his hands were slippery he was sweating so profusely he stunk. “Just go out there and give him all you got.”

            I wish, I thought to myself. It would be nice to go up against someone who could take everything I had.

            Just as I was about to remove my shirt and step into that ominous invisible circle a strange scent invaded my nose. A smell I had experienced before but could I not place it. It was clean, pure, and almost comically out of place here. I searched the crowd frantically for it but to no avail. 

            “William,” Luke’s demanding voice interrupted my search. “It’s time.”

            I nodded once and removed my shirt before approaching the ring. The Irishman entered the ring as well and I really looked at his face for the first time. He was young, probably even younger than I was. His face was smooth and but it was distorted by the angry, hateful expression on it. All traces of youth and innocence lost to the terrible things he had supposedly done. The intent in his eyes was obvious as if I were reading it from a book. He was going to try and kill me. He had every intension of making me number five. I suddenly understood the reason for all of the new come betters. They were laying down wages if this Irishman could end my life.

            Had I not known that it was already too late I would have ended it right then. Not for fear of my life, no I knew that I had no reason to fear for my life. But for the fact that I suddenly felt revolted at the human race. At myself. This was the entertainment they sought. To see one man end another’s life. What had happened to the human race?

            The same man as always explained the rule, unaware that my opponent had every intention of breaking that one, simple rule. As he backed out of the circle I saw the growing excitement in his eyes. Apparently he was excited by the possibility of declaring someone other than me the winner.

            “Ready! Go!”

            The Irishman immediately approached, much quicker than I would have expected for a man of his size. Rather than go for the punch to the face like I had expected, like most men did, he leg snapped forward, landing a hard blow to my left knee.

            That strange echo of what should have been pain registered in the back of my mind as my balance was thrown off. There was no way to prevent it, it was just the reaction that any human form would have had as I landed hard on my back and felt several of the stones that made up the floor crack.

            The Irishman did not hesitate. He was beside me, his foot ready to swing a deadly blow to my head. With just one and a quarter inches between his heavy boot and my skull I leaped to my feet, landing without making a sound. 

            My unexpected recovery threw him off and as his leg swung high, demonstrating the amount of force he had put into it, he lost his balance and landed on his back. I did not hesitate with this man as I had with my first opponent. I jumped and landed on top of him and began delivering, hard yet controlled blows to his sides. He yelped in pain and made an attempt to knock me off of him. Demonstrating that I was very much in control of my position I got off of him and allowed him to get to his feet. There were surprised gasps from the crowd and cheers all at the same time.

            No one looked as surprised as my opponent at my show of mercy but his expression quickly turned back to anger and hate as he rushed at me again. He tried the expected approach this time, going for the punch to the face. It was nearly comical how easy it was to dodge. I could not help it as a grin spread across my face. I had to admit to myself, I was actually kind of having fun despite the horrific motive behind our match.

            I let this continue for forty-seven seconds, dodging and blocking his blows, even letting him land two of them to my chest and arm. This only made me laugh aloud when I felt next to nothing behind it, only making my opponent all the more angry.

            “Finish him off!” I heard a shout from the crowd and knew that it was not directed at my ears. I registered the loud chanting of “William the Invincible” from amongst the onlookers and reality came crashing back on me. This man was trying his best to kill me and many of these people were encouraging him to do it. To end a human life. He had killed several others for entertainments sake and was attempting to do it again. I could not allow this to continue.

            Something kindled inside of me, an all too familiar sensation. It seemed odd; I had not noticed the fire within me these last few months. I had thought that it was only related to the hate I felt for myself, for the things I had allowed to happen and so I had been careful to keep those emotions locked away. But the flame sparked within me again. As I thought of what was happening here, what I was a part of, it grew within me, licking at my insides and begging to be let out.

            This disgusting cruelty had to end and I was the one that was going to end it.

            With the fire propelling me on my fist sailed through the air and landed square in his face. I had never exerted so much control before. It took all I had not to kill him. No, I would not kill him, but I would make sure that he would never end another life this way again.

            The Irishman stumbled back two steps before he lost his balance and fell backwards. I was on top of him before he hit the ground. I first focused on his legs, pounding with the exact amount of force necessary as I heard the crunching and cracking of his bones. The stench of his fear assaulted my nose. The fire raged through my system as he screamed aloud in pain and for a moment I thought I could feel the steam rise from my skin.

            I barely registered the silence that fell over the crowd as I finished breaking his legs, sure that he would never walk properly again. It was probably unnecessary but I turned to his arms, ignoring his shrieking, and broke each of them in one place, just to be sure.

            The Irishman now near madness merely muttered as I rose to my feet, sure that he would never fight again. He weakly made the submission signal and the match was called.

            Screams of joy and frustration went up in the crowd as they sprang from their seats. Some in their delight that I had defeated my opponent unexpectedly others in their frustration that the Irishman had failed to finish me off.

            I turned for the door, simply wanting to get away from it all. The fact that they cheered at my breaking a man’s body revolted me.

            “William!” I heard Luke cheering as he followed me towards the door, carrying four large sacks of money, three of which he handed to me. “Well done, William!” he said, his voice excited and loud as he tried to speak over the rumble of the crowd. “Just imagine what the fight will be like next week.”

            “There won’t be a next week, Luke,” I said as I stepped out the door, into the fresh spring air. “I won’t fight anymore. That was my last fight.”

            “What?” Luke gaped as his lower lip flapped open and closed as he struggled to keep up with me. “What do you mean, you won’t fight anymore? There is supposed to be another match like this one next week.”

            “Do you not understand what just happened in there?” I bellowed at him as I turned and stopped to face him. “All those people in there were there to watch him kill me. That is what they were betting on. They came for entertainment of watching a man die!”

            Luke was quiet for a moment, surprise at my outburst on his face. He would have expected me to be happy at my apparent victory. “Well, you didn’t die so I don’t see what the problem is,” he said as I turned to go in frustration.

            “I won’t fight again,” I called and left him in the dark.

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

now that was some brutal fighting....i wouldn't have minded at all if you had embellished the descriptions of the damage a little more, ah, the irishman had it coming, trying to kill our hero, and now he's quitting? we'll see.