Arsonist's Lullaby

Chapter 11 - Jesse

She didn't get it. She didn't understand anything at all. That's all my mom tried to do, to make everything perfect and neat. But nothing was ever good enough for my dad. I had to go fight. I had to box. Something really bad would go down if I didn't get this out of my system.

"Mark! I need a dummy, where the hell are those damn punching bags?" I yelled as I stomped into the gym.

The people dispersed as I made my way through. They knew when I got angry that I wasn't the same person. I was dangerous and everyone knew it. That's what 15 years of child abuse and having your mother taken away from you does.

Mark was the only one who knew how to calm me down but he was no where to be found.

"Mark!" I roared again just as he got out of his office.

"What's all this yelling about Jesse? What the hell is the matter with....." He stopped mid sentence when he saw me heaving my chest violently.

"Everyone, you know the drill." Mark yelled over his shoulders and people started moving their equipment to train downstairs and away from me.

"What does he mean by drill?" I heard a guy ask.

He must have been new.

"That's Mark, the owner of this boxing gym and that's his nephew, Jesse. Something must have happened to the kid cause he has some....issues."

"What's with the drill thing then?"

"The kid's pretty dangerous when he gets like this."

"One time, he almost killed some asshole who thought it was funny to push him around while he was mad. Took almost 6 of the strongest guys in here to pry Jesse off of him. Dumb bastard, he can't breath through his left nostril anymore." Another guy explained, they're voices fading as they disappeared downstairs.

"Okay, Jesse take a deep breath. C'mon work with me." Mark says and starts taking deep breaths, I follow his lead and start deeply breathing with him.

"Now go get the jump rope and jump until the buzzer goes off, okay?" Mark says and set the timer while I grabbed a hanging jump rope and start jumping.

Mark disappeared and came back a minute later with my specific punching bag. I could feel myself slowly calming down by the time Mark managed to hang it in front of me.

"Now you know what to do. Tell me what's wrong while you spar." He said and dragged a bucket from beside the ring to sit on.

"Sam! That stupid, stupid girl! She doesn't know what's going to happen to her if she continues to act so stubborn and...and..." I let out my frustration and punch the bag over and over again.

"Hips kid, watch your hips." Mark warned. Even like this, he still made sure I got the most out of it.

"I don't care what happened or what you're feeling. There's no excuse to spar sloppy, now watch your steps and make the most of this."

"Okay so you're mad because Sam's stubborn?" Mark asked.

"Not just that! She's....she's just like her Mark. Sometimes she acts just like her that it scares the shit out of me." I say and continue punching the bag harder and harder. I could feel the skin on my knuckles starting to peel and bleed from how hard I was punching but I didn't care.

"Who Jesse? She's just like who?" Mark asked gently.

"Her Mark! She's so like her it's fucking insane!" I yell and punch the stupid bag harder and harder. The white tape covering my knuckles were drenched in blood by now but I was numb to the pain. I've been through worse.