Loving the Broken

Chapter 7

As soon as I walk through the door the crowd goes silent. Guess they're surprised to see a girl here.

"Oi girly, I think you're lost!" Some stupid man calls out.

"No, I really don't think I am" I reply. As I make my way to the arena I see my opponent, he's pretty big but looks scared. I guess I'm his first fight, poor man.

I climb through the rope to the arena and prepare for the fight. The referee also enters the arena and the crowd goes silent, he then calls out our names and starts the fight. To be honest I don't even know why there is a referee, there aren't really any rules, but even the few that there are, are often broken and the fight still carries on. The rule that is broken the most is that no weapons are allowed, however at least once a week a fighter will bring in a knife or another small weapon, luckily the people that normally bring weapons in are people who can't fight or have never fought before.

Suddenly I see my opponent charging towards me so I quickly doge out of the way, he charges into the rope and stumbles backwards. I clip him round his head with my left hand, then kick him in the right side of his ribs. This catches him off guard and he falls to the ground. I jump on top off him and punch his head repeatedly, he flips us over and gets a few punches in on me but I dodge most of them. I manage to get out of his grip and I give him a roundhouse kick to the head which knocks him out. Fight done, $1,500 in my pocket. Not bad for less than an hour's work.

I walk out of the arena and over to Mr Scott, he congratulates me and tells me that I have 2 more fights in a few nights time, I then grab my money and head over to the changing rooms. I quickly put on a new hoodie and spray some deodorant so I don't stink of alcohol and smoke when I leave this place. I quickly snuck out of the warehouse and began the jog home.

After about 10 minutes of jogging I hear a familiar voice along with a voice I don't recognise. I peer around a corner and see a man towering over someone else, the man on top looks up but luckily doesn't see me, however I saw that it was Xavier. I couldn't believe it, he looks so different and dangerous to the boy who lives over the road from me. The man then whispers something into Xavier's ear which clearly pisses him off. Xavier lashes out on the man, I want to step in but I know I shouldn't. When I see Xavier fight this man all I can think of is my step-mum and my dad.

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"Bitch! Get your stupid, filthy arse here now!" My father calls from downstairs. My terrified 12 year old self ,slowly crawls out of my bedroom and heads towards the stairs. "NOW!" As soon as he screamed that I ran down the stairs to my father.

"Yes..." I quietly whispered to my father who stank of alcohol already, even though it was only 2pm.

"I'm hungry, make me something." He spat out at me, then slapped me around my face. I ran into the kitchen and looked in the fridge. We only had some week old ham, a carrot, a bit of grated cheese, an open yogurt along with of course lots of alcohol. I decided to look in the cupboards, but to my disappointment I only find a can of tomato soup, spam and a half eaten pack of biscuits. Guess I needed to do some food shopping soon then, great.

I decided to warm up the soup for him, hopefully it will be enough. I laid the table in the dinning room and set out a beer for him with his soup, while walking to the table with a glass I tripped and fell, I silently hoped that the glass hadn't smashed, but of course because God hates me it did. I stayed still for a few seconds until I heard the loud footsteps of my father.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" Suddenly I felt someone grab my hair and pull me up. I was met with the eyes from my nightmares. I looked into the yellow tinted eyes of my father, he looked down to the ground and saw the broken glass below me. When he looked back at me, fury filled his eyes. Suddenly I felt myself falling and I felt the glass cut my skin. He kicked me in the stomach which moved me slightly, that also made the glass go deeper into me. I stayed still on the floor while my father repeatedly punched and kicked me, I heard my ribs crack multiple time. After what felt like hours of torture he finally stopped, however of course and this point the front door opened and the mother of the year walked in. When she saw me on the ground with blood everywhere she stalked over to me. "What the fuck did you do bitch?" She said as she spat in my face.

"I-I-I f-fell, a-and the g-g-glass smashed." I stuttered. She then stepped on my hand with her heals. I screamed out in pain as I felt the heal go through my hand.

"Ugh, you ruined my shoes!" She screamed as she twisted the heal in my hand, by now my hand had gone numb and all I wanted to do was die. As she pulled out her shoes, blood poured out of my hand until I finally passed out.

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Snapping back to reality, I saw Xavier walk away from the man, "Finish him." I hear him say before he walked into the darkness of the streets facing away from me. Suddenly I saw a man walk out of the darkness, I think it was Derek from school. What the fuck is going on?! I thought to myself. Derek then pulled out a gun and within a split second shot the man straight through the head, he then walked off as if nothing happened.

I couldn't move. I was frozen. Just staring at the man on the floor who had blood pouring out of his head. Who is Xavier? What the hell did I just witness? I quickly came to my senses and knew that I had to get out of here. So I ran, quickly. Probably the first time I actually wanted to go home, although who ever Xavier is, probably isn't any worse than my parents.

As soon as I see the run down house that I live in I slow down, gathering my thoughts and forgetting that I just saw a man get murdered in front of me. I opened up the front door to silence, this could either be really good or really bad. I walked into the living room and saw dad passed out on the sofa with an empty bottle of vodka on the floor next to him, 3 empty beer cans and a bottle of what I think is sleeping pills on its side, unfortunately he had not taken all of them as most of them were spilling out on to the floor.

I couldn't find Lynda anywhere in the house so she was probably fucking some stranger.

I crept up the stairs so that I didn't wake up dad, who knows this might be he first night in a while where I don't get beaten! I open my bedroom door and shut it again, trying to be as quiet as possible. I fell onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling, the shock of everything that happened tonight finally sinks in.

"Finish him."

'Derek then pulled out a gun and within a split second shot the man straight through the head'

'Blood pouring out of his head.'

'What the hell did I just witness?'

Before I knew it I drifted off to sleep deciding what I should do and what could happen.

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