Second Chance

Chapter 30

"I really don't want to do this, DK. Please don't make me do this." I tried to reason with my cellmate, as he was practically dragging me out of my cell. We were following the Descouche brothers as they led us somewhere, and DK seemed pretty adamant about following them.

"You don't really have a choice here, Fish. If you refuse to fight, the two of them will beat you up themselves. If you lose then they'll probably also hurt you. The only way out is to win, and honestly, I think you have a pretty good shot." DK said encouragingly.

"Am I going up against one of them?" I asked, desperately hoping I could fight someone who was not twice my size.

DK shook his head. "No, the guards don't allow those two in public fights anymore. Anyone who fights them ends up dead, so if they have a problem with someone they would kill them in secret."

"Oh, great. So how do I know I'm not on their death list?" I questioned.

DK chuckled. "You don't, you just gotta hope they don't hate you."

"I take it it's easy to get on their bad side?" I felt as if I was walking on eggshells at this point, and just one wrong step could send me plummeting to my sharp, toothy end.

"The last guy who got murdered by them forgot to return a pen he borrowed. He turned up with the pen lodged in his eye with blood pouring out of the socket in his cell a few hours after he went missing. There was no proof of who did it, but everyone knew it was the brothers." He said this so nonchalantly that it seemed like he was completely numb to this, that nothing ever bothered him.

"So, uh, who would I be fighting then?" I asked, changing the subject so I wouldn't have to picture a guy laying in his own blood with a pen stuck in his eye.

DK shrugged. "Don't know, probably someone in the higher ranks. Not me though, I don't think."

That did not make me feel any better. There was only one reason why I didn't want to fight. I didn't want to lose control and kill my opponent. That would be too much blood on my hands, and I did not want to be responsible for yet another death.

—-

I was surrounded by cheering people in the courtyard, which was apparently where fights were held. Across from me were Nick and Shawn, and DK was still beside me. A part of me was worried that DK would be a Juvie version of Riley one day. Would him and I get that close? He would never be as close as I was to Riley though. No one could ever replace him.

"Alright Justin," One of them said, after they finished muttering to each other. "We picked your opponent. Look to your right."

I looked to my right and so did DK. I was confused at first, but it eventually clicked. They wanted me to go against DK. That was unsettling, and I had no idea how this would go down. Would he hold back? Or would he show no mercy and try to beat the shit out of me?

"I thought you said I wouldn't be fighting against you." I hissed at him.

He looked back at me and gave me a surprised look. "I didn't think they would. They don't normally make cellmates fight against each other. I guess this is a special case though."

Reluctantly, we both stepped forward, and the crowd began to cheer louder. "The first one to give in wins." One of the brothers called over to us.

DK and I stared at each other, trying to figure out who would make the first move. I did not want to hurt him, because I knew I could do some serious damage if I wanted to. He was probably a good fighter too though, since he needed those skills to do what he did before he got here.

Abruptly, after about five seconds of us just staring at each other, DK slammed his fist into the side of my face, which caused me to stagger back a few steps. He approached me again, and I punched him in the throat, then kneed him in the stomach. We went back and forth, hitting and kicking until we were both covered in sweat and blood. I was running out of energy, but just as DK grabbed onto my shoulders to throw me to the ground, I grabbed onto his forearms and used all my energy to throw him to the side and trip him with my leg. He stumbled to the ground, and I knelt over him, holding him there by his shoulders.

I looked up at the Descouche brothers for confirmation that I won, but something behind them caught my eye. In the crowd there was a figure. Someone standing there staring straight at me. I recognized him, which made my blood turn to ice. It was Riley, in the charred, burned flesh.