The Badass and The Assassin

Chapter 6

When I arrived to my house, I peeped through the front door before walking in to see if my uncle was home, which he was; in his usual spot, on the couch in front of the TV. Uncle John was my "guardian", at least that's what the legal papers say. As I walked in the house, Uncle John looked at me with beady eyes. Here we go again. "Jason, get your ass in here.", my uncle called out. I put my keys in my pocket and walked in the living room. "Your school called, you were late to class. Again.", he said in a stern voice. I just stared at him. "Oh, so you have nothing to say?", he said while standing up. My uncle is taller than me and bigger. He's 6' 1/2 feet tall and 190 pounds of pure muscle. And I'm only 5' 11 and 145 pounds soaking wet but I'm a lot faster than him. I just kept staring at him, wishing he would hit me. He looked down at me and was so close I could smell the alcohol on his breath. He's been drinking, of course. "Are you gonna answer me or just stare at me like a dumb deer in headlights?", he leaned closer to me. "You want to hit me, don't you Jay?" I snapped and pushed him but he barely moved. "Don't ever call me Jay again!", I said with anger in my voice. "Why can't I? Cause your mom used to call you that?!", he said as he backhanded me across the face. That was it. I lunged at his legs and tackled him to the ground and started punching him. Then he grabbed my fist as I was going in for another hit and picked me up and threw me off of him. Then he picked me up by my shirt, looked me in my eyes and said, "if you ever lay your hands on me again, I'll end you." Anger was still boiling inside of me as I spit in his face. "Fuck you.", I said. He tossed me a couple of feet from him, "Get the fuck out!", he said. "Gladly.", I said after I spit blood at him. I got up, ran to my room and got my duffel bag. I tossed the knife my mom left me, some clothes for the night and a couple of dollars. As I stormed out the door, Uncle John was yelling my name but I ignored him and got in my car and drove to Matt's house.

As I was driving down the street towards Matt's, I got a call from a blocked number. I answered it. "We have a fight going on tonight, the other challenger canceled. I'll text you the address." Then he hung up. A couple seconds later i got a text from an unknown number with the address. 5 minutes later I arrived at the building. It was a rusty abandon building with a no trespassing sign hanging on the door. I parked my car and reached under my seat and grabbed my mask which only covers my mouth and my right eye. I finished fastening it and got out and walked inside and headed down the steps. As I entered the hallway, I could hear the cheers and boos of the crowd. Whoever was in the pit must be extremely good from the constant cheers I hear. I reached the door and the guard stopped me. He quickly recognized my mask and open the door and I walked through. The place was packed as always and there was a fight going on. I walked up as close to the cage as I could get and caught the end of the fight. The two fighters in the cage were both female, I could tell by the "referee", who is also female. The female and male fighters have to have a "referee", so to say, in the ring with them to make sure no weapons like knives, brass knuckles, or even extra weighted gloves are being used. The female fighter closer to me was using MMA and the other was using a form of tai chi. The tai chi user was wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask and her name was "Damsel" and the one closer to me, the MMA user, was sporting a raven masquerade mask, which looked pretty awesome, the crowd was calling her Raven hence the mask and possibly her pitch black hair. Damsel tried to lunge at her legs but Raven was quicker than her. She side stepped the lunge and used a little move I like to call the "handstand rag doll", she did a handstand and used her legs to grab Damsel by the neck and tossed her toward the cage. Damsel hit the cage with a thud and the referee started counting. "1, 2, 3, 4..." There's no way she's getting back up from that hit. "5, 6, 7.." I wonder who Raven is, she seems strong. "8, 9, 10!" The match was over. Raven turned and faced the crowd and I noticed that her eyes are an emerald green. I feel a smile tug at the corner of my lip; reminds me of Maira.
As I was making my way up the stairs to the ring, I bump into Raven. She looked calm like she knew that she was going to win. I admire the confidence in this chick. She stopped at the last step, turned around and looked at me and then walked off into the crowd. I watched her disappear into the crowd before I walked up the stairs. I stepped into the cage and the water boy went in after me and closed and locked the cage door. I don't know why he's here the match won't take long. My opponent walked in the cage and he was a semi big guy: 6' 3, about 210 pounds. I say "semi big" because I faced challengers bigger than him. This will be a breeze. I closed my eyes and cleared my head. I heard the bell for the first round and my eyes opened up. Let's do this. I got in my stance and waited for him to make the first move. He lunged at me and tried to bear hug me but I quickly side stepped it and grappled him and brought him down. I pinned his arm behind his back and tugged as hard as I could. He was groaning in pain. As he tried to grab my leg with his free arm, I applied more pressure to the pinned arm. He yelled out in pain and finally tapped out. I let go of his arm as the announcer announced my victory; "And the winner is Ghoul!" The crowd was overly excited. They started chanting my name and yelling at the top of their lungs. As I was walking out the ring, the announcer stopped me and gave me an envelope. It was really thick and I automatically knew what it was. I gave him a nod and I walked into the crowd. As I walked thru the crowd, I couldn't help but look for Raven. I quickly scanned the crowd but no sign of her so I walked out the door and up the stairs to my car. When I got to my car, I pulled my phone out to check the time. It was almost 6. Holy shit!! I'm late for my date with Maria. I quickly unfasten my mask and put it back under the seat and I put my prize money in my duffle and I backed out the parking lot and speed over to Bob's.