The Departed (Working Title)

Chapter Twelve

Pain pulsed in my cheek as I was knocked to the ground by another one of Reach's powerful punches. I stumbled trying to get myself back up before he forced a kick into my stomach and I fell to my side getting the wind knocked out of me.

"Come on!" Jax yelled at me, sounding rather far away.

"Get him!" Kyle shouted beside him.

I curled myself into a ball, desperately gasping for air but Reach wasn't going to stop. And Jax wasn't going to stop him. This was the way our practices have been going the past couple of weeks. Conditioning. Combat. Sleep. Repeat. It was all we could do since the first competition was fast approaching, and the council had already announced they were cutting the competitors pool completely in half after the first round. And let me tell you - there were a lot of competitors.

"Get up!" Reach screamed at me.

I rolled onto all fours and balanced myself on one knee, my hands supporting me with the other to lift myself up. I wobbled from side to side and tried focusing on Reach. At this point there were four of him, and I wasn't entirely sure which one was the real one. My entire body was throbbing, my arms and legs complete led. I shifted my arms to in front of my face and then forced a side kick towards Reach's crotch. It was a cheap shot, I knew, but anything to get ahead of the competition. It didn't matter anyway because he grabbed my foot and pulled it towards him forcing me off balance and onto my ass.

"Whatever you do, don't yield!" Jax yelled at me, "Or you'll do more conditioning after this!"

Ugh, I really didn't want to have to anything else except go to bed after this. I squabbled backwards on my elbows to get away from Reach, and he gave me the space to get back up on my feet. I wasn't sure how I was going to get through this, but I was going to give it my all until I was completely knocked out. I brought my hands back put to my face again and took a big breath. Reach's eyes penetrating me with his mischievous grin, like he knew he had me and there was no way I was going to get out of this. Before I could let him get in any more hits, I aimed a punch right at Reach's face, which he blocked with his arm. I swiftly drew my elbow into his jaw, and he his head jolted backwards. His hands flew out of defensive position, giving me the perfect opportunity to land a gut wrenching blow to the abdomen. I drove my heal into his stomach and he flew to the floor.

"Atta girl!" Jax shouted.

I didn't think my kick was that strong, but Reach was struggling to get back onto his feet. He rolled over to his front, clutching at his stomach and I took the opportunity to go in for the kill. I straddled him on his back and wrapped my arms around his neck, hoping that I could hold on long enough to choke him out. Reach clawed at my arms, his finger nails digging deep into my flesh causing me to bleed, but I didn't let go. In a last ditch effort to make me let go, he drove his head back into my face. Crunch. My face burned and a searing heat rushed to my nose and blood gushed down my face. But I hadn't let go. Everything around me was a blur, and my hearing was strained but I swore I heard Jax curse under his breath.

My eyes were welling up with tears and my face was bursting with pain. Bells were ringing in my ears, clouding all the surrounding sound. But I held on to my grip around Reach's neck for dear life until he finally tapped the ground twice signaling he wanted to yield. I didn't believe him, though. Reach never yielded, and didn't Jax just say we weren't doing that?

Enough. Something echoed in the back of my mind. Shawn, let go. It cooed again. I felt two strong arms wrap around my waist, while another pair of hands were prying at my hands to get me to let go. Everything started to come back into focus. Kyle was the one shifting my fingers, so that I would loosen my grip on Reach, while Jax was attempting to pull me away from his body.