Chapter 3

POV Rio

When I arrive at the bar there are only a few clients present.  But I know that there's always a crowd craving flesh blood in the arena below. 

I go straight to the counter. Spencer is pouring a shot to another customer who's sitting on a stool. As soon as he notices me approaching the expression on his face changes. He never approves when I come around here. His allure is quite intimidating with his full sleeve tattoos on both arms and his side swept undercut that accentuates his severe expression. There’s a cross earring dangling on his left earlobe.

"Hey, is Davis down there?" I ask when I reach him. 

"Shouldn't you be at school?" He doesn’t bother looking up.

"Shouldn't you stop acting as if you're my father?" I shoot back. The guy is only twenty-three and yet for some reason he thinks he’s well placed to lecture me.

Spencer and Davis have been dating since I got here last year. He was against the idea of letting a high school student participate in the fights even if I’m not a minor but Davis convinced him that he wouldn’t get into trouble because the chief of the police in town is married to his older sister. Davis also pays him so he can keep his eyes closed on some of the things that are happening in the bar. 

“I won’t be staying long I say again,” with a more civilized tone because getting on Spencer’s bad side is never a good idea. “I just need one round into the arena, that’s it.”

Spencer takes his time to prepare the order of two other clients while I’m standing at the counter, tapping my foot incessantly on the floor out of impatience. I really need to let go of some steam right now. But I can’t access the arena without Spencer calling Davis ahead to announce my arrival so he can book me a fight.

Finally Spencer comes back to my spot. He’s wearing that expression that I know doesn’t announce anything good for me. He’s like that family member who’s always giving you advice so you don’t do the same stupid mistakes they made in their life. I don’t need this right now. I can take care of myself even if I don’t do it well but at least most of the time I find a way to keep my head above water. If I ever feel like I’m sinking to the bottom I’ll seek out professional help. I’m good on my own for the time being.

“I’m giving you two rounds in the arena today, one right now plus the other one that you already had scheduled for tonight. But I don’t want to see your ass back here until next Monday.”

What? How am I supposed to go the rest of the week without fighting?

“Come on, Spence…” I start complaining but he raises his hand to cut me off.

“Take it or leave it.”

Spencer can be a real pain when he wants to. I don’t know why he even cares that I spend so much time in the arena, it’s not like we’re friends or anything and I’m sure that he’s not simply worrying about his boyfriend getting in trouble with the police because of me. It goes deeper than that. Sometimes after I get out of the arena, out of breath, my knuckles busted and my body covered in bruises, I would catch Spencer looking at me with a kind of understanding in his eyes as if he could relate to this anger that I have inside of me even if he didn’t approve of the way that I decided to cope with it.

“I fight once today then I come back on Saturday,” I try to negotiate.

“Goodbye Rio.”

“God… okay fine!”

He pulls out his phone and dials a number. He quickly exchanges a few words with Davis before hanging up.

“He’s waiting for you.”

Finally, time to let go.

                                                  ***

That night will remain forever in my memory.

Camilla and my parents had been planning a surprise for me for my eighteenth birthday. Mila is so bad at keeping secrets that I discovered it but I kept pretending to be oblivious to not ruin their fun. She would often go on shopping trips with my parents and come up with the most ridiculous excuses to cover it up. It was very entertaining to watch her struggle to lie to my face and also adorable I must admit. 

When I received the call that turned my world upside down, I was having a gaming night at a friend’s house. I have never thought that I would experience one day this horrible sensation when your world comes to a halt before it suddenly implode and every piece of you get scattered across the universe. It was my friend who drove me to the hospital, I don’t even remember how I succeeded at telling him what the phone call was about but I do remember that my hands were shaking so hard that I could even get my keys out of my pocket. He’s the one who took them and drove me there. 

We didn’t talk during the car ride. I know this because I had never once prayed before in my entire life. But as the as the car was taking us closer to the hospital, I kept muttering one thing over and over under my breath: “Please God, not them. I’m begging you.” 

Well…

Needless to say that God wasn’t listening or rather he might have been listening but simply decided to ignore my prayer. What is it that people say? God works in mysterious ways? Yeah right, all of this is a load of bull.

When I emerge from the dark memories of that awful night, I find myself throwing a punch at my opponent. My fist connects so violently with his jaw that blood and saliva spurt out of his mouth. All around us the crowd is going wild behind the metal fence. My opponent staggers back but doesn’t fall to the ground.

I don’t know for how long I’ve been in here. I tend to lose track of time when I’m inside the arena as if me and my demons are in our own bubble and I have to beat the shit out them one by one until I can finally be able to get out of the cage. 

My opponent succeeds at throwing some good punches at me mostly on my ribs and my stomach because I always try to protect my face as much as I can. The memory of Mila’s adorable attempts at lying to me about the surprise she was planning with my parents suddenly pops in my mind. She always had the habit to twirl her hair around her finger whenever she was lying. 

My opponent takes me by surprise and throws himself at me. We both fall on the ground, struggling to take over the fight. I succeed at getting the advantage and place myself above him, throwing punches at his face. I keep hitting him without taking a breath. All I see is red. All I feel is this anger inside of me taking over and eating the last shred of humanity that might be left.

Two strong arms suddenly wrap around my naked chest and yank me out of the unconscious body of my opponent. It’s one of the security men guarding the arena, he takes me out and only let go of me once I’m safely out of my opponent’s reach. Most of my fights end up like this. If someone doesn’t take me off my opponent I actually don’t how far I could go.

Maybe Spencer is right to be worried about me.

Maybe as long as a member of the Chase family breathes, the beast inside of me will demand more and more blood.