William shook his shoulders to loosen them up. The run to The Club had warmed him up and he felt sweat on his back.
He made fast eye contact with the tall blond bouncer. The guy nodded fast gesturing him to the door. The bouncer wouldn’t dare deny him entrance.
Will had always liked the idea that even if the bouncer didn’t recognize him as a guest, he’d still come in. It made him feel powerful.
As soon as Will had walked past him, the bouncer went back to sitting on a chair with a cigarette. If the police would pass they’d only see a man smoking.
The Club didn’t have any signs on the door or on the walls and windows. Ronnie didn’t take the time to come up with a name so everyone just called it The Club. If someone asked, “The club? What club?” you knew he wasn’t part of the fighting circuit and no one would answer his question.
The risk of nosy officials was not something anyone was willing to risk. If any Club member would find out you couldn’t shut up, they would make sure you never talked again.
When Will entered the old building, the smell of old sweat, alcohol and smoke filled his nose. He couldn’t say he liked it, but it was the smell of home.
Some guy had pinned a girl to the sticky wall. He watched with disgust as the porn-blonde whore put her hand in the guy’s pants. Apparently she spotted Will and she showed him her middle finger.
William pushed them out of the way and walked past them. The woman mumbled something but the man was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
Will went down the stairs and quickly closed the door to the cellar behind him. The big soundproof space he entered was the heart of The Club.
“Finish that bastard already!” screamed a fat man with a too small T-shirt saying; I like Party Girls.
The man was too disgusting even for the whores to make a call at him.
“Come on you coward!” he screamed again at the guy in the cage who was clearly losing of his much bigger opponent. “You can do better than that, you piece of shit!”
A crowd was screaming at the fighters while clinging to the iron fence. It was a quiet start of the evening; the better fighters would come later. The better part of the audience was still lurking at the women bringing drinks.
Will saw the fat man curse when the fighter he had put his money on lost, and leave to the far end of The Club. In that corner was a small podium with a shiny iron pole in the middle. Will watched the woman clinging on to it while he made his way to the entrance of the cage.
She was thin and seemed tiny, yet he could see the chains of muscles on her arm when the lifted herself up. She didn’t wear more than lingerie, so despite his conscience he noticed she had not much of a chest to hide. The woman threw her legs around the pole and started spinning in a dizzying speed. Her long black braid flew through the air.
The man with the Party Girls T-shirt tried to catch her hair just when she raised her body vertical again.
She was faster.
He then tried to catch her foot. She pulled her foot back, and was faster once again. The man was red headed and looked angry but he didn’t try again.
William was intrigued by the way they fought. It was a whole different fight than his, but she owned it without a doubt.
Before he could spot her face, Ronnie called his name.
“Hey Will. Here’s your scheme.”
He handed Will a paper with four numbers written on it. The upper was his own. The three names on the line below were the numbers of his opponents.
71, 22, 4.
He didn’t know seventy-one, which was a good sign. It meant seventy-one was new.
Twenty-two wasn’t worrying either; he had beaten twenty-two before.
Four was the reason why his heart dropped. Four was the black man in short pants. Number Four had beaten him.
Another fight started and William heard the sound of leather gloves on skin. He looked up and saw number Four was already fighting. And winning.
A loud scream drowned out the other noises and made Will twitch his mouth. He imagined he heard a bone breaking. A second later, the man fighting number Four was on the ground, clinging onto his arm while Four gave him one last shove.
It had been a long time since William had felt this particular emotion.
Yet, he knew this emotion better than any other.
It had dominated his whole youth.
Will would do anything to beat Four.
To beat fear.
YOU ARE READING
Specks
RomanceWilliam, a young street fighter has been through a lot. Yet he vowed to stay clean and not go down same path as his parents. He thought he had seen it all but couldn't have been more wrong. No one is more to blame than this young woman.
