Songbird

Chapter 15 ~ Escorted

Before he could object, before he could see who was pushing him, Jace was shoved into an octagon arena. A card girl blew him a kiss as she held a sign with the words "ROUND 1" displayed across. The referee put his whistle to his mouth.

Songbird was about to fight.

I'll just get this over with, thought Jace, figuring it would be easier to beat his opponent and then be able to move to find Craton. He'd have to fight against the crowd, who would be trying to get him back into the arena for his fight. They couldn't have their favorite fighter skip out on his match.

Songbird eyed his opponent, a rather large man with a frown painted on his face. Songbird almost felt bad for this man. This night was not the night to get into the arena with the furious Songbird.

Just like with Shane, at the sound of the referee's whistle, Songbird showed a wrath that was unmatched by anything his fans had ever seen. He was hitting his opponent with punch after punch. He ducked from a few swings aimed his way, but mostly he was the one attacking and putting his full weight behind each hit. Songbird didn't even bother with uppercuts or other moves that took longer; instead, he sent in quick jabs and crosses with a fury behind each one, so much so that the audience was taken aback at the rage they saw. Songbird's speed was something they had never seen before.

Isaac and Devin exchanged uneasy glances. They didn't like the darkness that they saw in Jace's eyes as he hit his opponent.

And then, the crowd got even more riled up. They pushed on the barricades as Songbird got an obvious upper hand and knocked his larger opponent to the ground. Instead of ending the match there, Songbird seemed to be taking out his anger. Everyone could tell he was not his usual self that night, but the audience loved his newfound aggression, of course.

Somgbird sat over the man he was fighting and continued to hit him across the face. Blood spattered the ground as the opponent's face became bloody and mangled. Songbird was relentless. Two referees and another official fought their way into the arena and had to pull Songbird off, and it took all the strength of those three men to do so.

Jace stood, his breath hot and heavy under his black mask, his hands burning from hitting the man so much. His careful, dark eyes scanned the room, searching for the bald, tattooed man who had his Felicity.

In the corner of the room, he found his target. Jace practically leaped over the arena barricade and made his way over to Craton, weaving in and out of the crowd like a shadow.

Devin spun around in a complete circle, then stared blankly at Isaac.

"What?" asked Isaac.

"Where did Songbird go?"

Isaac started spinning around, too. There were so many people; everyone looked the same.

"Why did he have to wear black?" asked Isaac, thinking out loud. "Why couldn't his colors be bright orange or turquoise? We'd never lose him then."

Devin would've laughed if he wasn't in a desperate situation. "Isaac, we have to find him before he does something stupid."

"Knowing him, he ducked away when he saw Craton," said Isaac, "and he'll probably do something stupid even if we were there."

As they continued to look, scanning over the crowd, Devin spoke again.

"Did you see the way he fought just now?"

"You mean, with the Devil in his eyes?" replied Isaac, his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah." Devin frowned. "I haven't seen him that angry in a long time."