dissolve. nh

Chapter 1

❝ your light is the strongest power: you could easily dissolve all of my sins and faults. i guess you could say that's why i fell in love with you. ❞

The familiar voice faded out, and I wasn't paying attention any longer. None of what he was saying right now mattered to me, I didn't need a pep talk, and I already knew what he was talking about. I just needed to get out there. Get out there, and do work.

"I'll give you a minute." He said, and I felt his thick hand clap me on the shoulder, and everyone filed out of the dingy, stuffy little room, leaving me to compose my thoughts. My taped up hands and my bare feet caught my gaze, and a million little thoughts were rushing through my head at once.

I blinked. Once, twice, and it was all gone. My world was slowing, tilting, spinning me into an oblivion unknown to anyone but myself. I'd been here before, I loved being here, but it was so hard to snap out of it sometimes...but sometimes, I don't think I wanted to.

I stood up from the bench, grabbing my gloves and walking into the hallway, looking at the tiled floor as I walked, Nixon and Henry falling in behind me. Nixon started up his banter again, and as the crowd's screaming and cheering filled my ears, he grew quieter and quieter. We stopped at the door, unseen by everyone, yet screams were still filling the warehouse.

Bright lights illuminated everything in the place, and anything you can imagine that is dank and dirty, well it was here. But this was where I belonged, this is what mattered most to me.

"You got it mate, you got it. Let's go." Nixon said, squeezing my shoulder as we strode out along the walkway, me narrowing my gaze at the cage.

I was anxious again, it had been a while since my last fight, and that withdrawal was starting to get the best of me. This, what I did, was like a high for me. Like my own personal drug that I could never get enough of. Not until I was surrounded by metal, controlling that hatred, that steady anger, into something worthwhile.

I bounced on the balls of my feet, hearing the crowd chanting my name, and that fed the slowly building fire within me.

Nixon and Henry were getting everything ready, and I pulled on my gloved, wiggling them to make sure my hands were tight in there. I pulled the band across my wrist, pushing the Velcro into place and letting my eyes flick to the other side of the cage.

That's when she caught my eyes, through the metal, crossed patterns of the walls.