Stay With Me

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

About ten minutes before eight, I stopped in front of the seemingly-abandoned building. The last remnant of the sun disappeared over the horizon, a veil of ruby-red clouds streaking the twilight sky. The building was silhouetted against the setting sun’s rays, giving it a more deserted impression.

 My phone buzzed in my pocket. The paper bag containing the brownies swayed as I struggled to pull out my phone. I texted Jay a few minutes ago, telling him that I was near from the location. I stared at my phone and read his reply: Ryan’s gonna pick u up. The one wearing a blue shirt.

I just assumed that Ryan was one of Jay’s friends. I didn’t know him, but Jay trusted him enough to escort me inside. I let my eyes wander around the area, trying to spot a man wearing a blue shirt. I adjusted my eyeglasses and squinted in the direction of the alleys on both sides of the building.

I heard Ryan before I saw him. The faint creaking of a door signaled me that he was coming from the right side of the building and I waited for him to come out. There was enough light to see that he was wearing a blue shirt, just like what Jay said. Behind him, another guy stepped out of the building. I walked towards them, my footsteps silent against the asphalt road.

To say that Ryan and the other guy were muscular was an understatement. I was still at least four yards away but their silhouette shouted a body of a well-built men.

Darn, I didn’t expect Jay to have body builders guarding me to the arena. I appreciated the thought, though.

Ryan jerked his chin up in a way a guy does and asked, “You Sophia?”

A man of few words, I see.

“Yes. Jay sent you?” I asked, glancing to another man behind him.

He jerked his chin again and I interpreted the action as a ‘yes’. I could not have any real conversation with this guy. It was like talking to a damn tree. A scary, big tree.

He spoke again, his deep, booming voice slightly startling me. “The fight’s nearly over. C’mon.”

A complete sentence from him, finally. Close enough.

The guy behind him went inside and I followed. Ryan stepped a couple of steps behind me. I scanned the dim-lit area and noticed that it was deserted. I knew that underground fights are sometimes literally underground or in the basement. The cheering noises were muffled that way, and it couldn’t be heard by any passersby. Or cops, for that matter.

We descended a flight of stairs, and I began to catch the distant roaring of the crowd. For every step I took, the noise became louder, the ground beneath my feet vibrated. After another couple of steps, I stepped down to what seemed like a gladiator fight in a coliseum. I couldn’t see the fighters amidst the patrons. Heck, I couldn’t even see any space at all.

Just as I expected, most of the audience were guys. Some were college guys and others were obviously not in college at all, based from their rough beards and wrinkled eyes. There were also some girls, most of them wearing pieces of fabrics too miniscule to be called as clothes. Their arms were all wrapped around on guys’ arms

I was wearing blue sneakers that have silver linings running on its side, which I thought was really cool, faded jeans, and a black tee that said “Oh hell yeah” across my chest.  Considering that the girls here were wearing microscopic skirts and showed too much skin, I was way overdressed, but I was glad no one would mistake me as one of those girls and would try to touch me or something.