Fight Club (Rewritten) Luke Hemmings

Nine

Music thumped loudly through the building as distant voices echoed off of the walls, garbling together as a strand of incoherent nothingness. Luke sat on an uncomfortable locker room bench with his head resting against the cool metal as he stared at Calum intently. Ian stood behind the boy quietly as he gave a short pep talk. A million thoughts ran through Luke's head as he stared intently at his best friend, but every thought was punctuated with the same phrase, "Please let him be okay..."

He knew what it meant for Calum to throw his fight... it meant that he could get hurt. The boy had never been in a real arena before with an opponent that had everything to lose... Luke bit sharply on the metal that stuck out of his lip, suddenly wishing he had just told Calum to run away to the police instead of going through with this fight.

"You'll be facing off with an older opponent, but he's relatively new himself and pretty slow. Alfonso has never been much of a fighter," Ian explained to Calum quietly.

"Alfonso?" Jax asked suddenly. "I thought they replaced him with Lahela for Victor's team?"

"Lahela didn't make it out of his last fight thanks to Luke," Ian beamed proudly. Luke felt his stomach lurch suddenly as he turned to look at the older man, suddenly tuning into the conversation.

"I- he- what?" His mind flashed back to the image of the older man lying in a pool of his own blood after Luke dealt the final blow.

"He was successfully eliminated from the arena... permanently," Ian said.

"He died?" Luke whispered breathlessly. He felt as if all the air had been knocked out of his lungs, and he forgot how to replenish them.

"Victor wasn't very pleased to lose his best fighter, but they were all impressed with your skills, kiddo. Maybe we went a little harsh on you for your punishment for the match because now you've been renamed by the fans as the skull crusher-" Ian continued on as Luke fell back into his seat. Every other thought that had previously been in his mind went silent, and only one phrase began to repeat itself over and over again: "You're a murderer now." A soft hand landed on Luke's shoulder, pulling him back to his surroundings. He looked over quickly and saw that he and Joshua were suddenly alone in the locker room.

"Luke? Are you okay?" He whispered. A soft breath mixed with a sob escaped Luke's lips suddenly as he crumpled into the older boy's arms. Josh hugged him tightly as he cried silently.

"I fucking killed someone..." he muttered. "I always thought if I killed someone, it'd be Ian..."

"Hey... it's okay... it's not your fault," Josh whispered, pulling away to look at him. "Ian's the one who needs to be blamed for forcing us to do this. If you hadn't won the match, Lahela would have killed you. He hit you upside the head with a lead pipe... and if it wasn't him, Ian would have. Luke, you were just defending yourself. That's all you've ever done in that arena." Luke sighed softly and shook his head, examining the bruises and cuts that littered his friend's face from his match with Calum the other day.

"Calum can't end up like us..." Luke muttered softly. "No one else can..."

"We'll get him out," Joshua muttered. "We will... but his match is about to start. We should be out there to support him."

"He isn't going to win," Luke muttered. "I made him promise me he wouldn't. If Ian kicks him out, he'll be safe. They haven't shown him where we live yet, he makes him ride in the back of the van so he hasn't seen anything... he's going to get out."

"He's going to get out," Josh repeated adamantly. "We'll make sure of it... and this is a fists only fight, so he's going to be fine... no weapons to worry about." Luke let out a slight breath of relief and wiped some tests away. He pulled his hood over his head to hide his face from the crowd per Ian's instructions before he followed his friend out into the main room. The crowd was going wild, screaming and growling for the two preparing fighters to draw blood. Luke swallowed nervously as he stared intently at Calum. The boy in the arena was eyeing his opponent carefully as Kasey circled the ring holding up a sign, and the referee shouted the match rules at the fighters. Luke glanced toward Calum's opponent as they made it to their seats in the stand, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. The man stood around Calum's height but seemed to weigh over one hundred pounds more than the boy. His face was hard, and his glare fierce. Jax gave Luke a gentle pat on the back as Ian paced nervously near the ring.