So my options were I could get beaten and possibly killed or I could back to Peter…
"Peter you can fuck off you don't scare me now" I said stupidly facing up to a man with backup who had about 20 pounds on me and a weapon but that was me, a fucking fool.
He sniggered and his mate sniggered as well. He lifted the wooden plank within a blink and had belted me across the face with it. I landed on the ground with a thud my face instantly numb.
"Darren, cable ties!" he mocked as I struggled to gain focus of the spinning room. I felt my hands being dragged behind me and tied tight with a cable tie.
"Do I scare you now? Huh? Ungrateful bitch" he spat.
I tried to turn around onto my back and was met with Peter landing a vicious kick to my face.
"You're not so tough now are you?"
He hauled me up under my arms and threw me on a chair grabbing a fist full of hair forcing me to look at him, my eye already starting to sell.
"You know what..." he spoke as I spluttered up some blood. "You're not looking in great shape for an ultimate fighting whatsit"
"I'm…I'm not a…fighter" I struggled to spit out.
"Yea you're just like all those fucking idiots at that gym you hang out in. Guys who watch too much UFC on TV and think they're the next big thing, think they're actual fighters"
I immediately thought of Tommy, he was probably one of those wankers, breezes in thinks he's the shit, pounds a couple of guys into the mat and thinks he's a machine.
"Why do you hang out with those losers? Why don't you do something with your life?"
"O like you" I laughed lowly which really hurt.
"Excuse me?"
"You push drugs on 15 year old kids, watch them swap needles and diseases while you count your cash in the car and you want to talk about me hanging out losers" I felt my lip starting to swell and burn.
His lip twitched and I knew I had struck a nerve. He struck me across the face, his watch catching the side of my face opening a huge cut right across my cheek. He wiped the blood off his hand and fixed the strap that had come undone.
"C'mon Darren let's go"
"What? We're just leavin her here?"
"Yea we'll be back, don't worry, she ain't going anywhere. Remember what I said about your ma" he whispered in my ear.
He grabbed his wooden bat and walked out the door leaving me there with my hands still tied. I breathed heavily when I heard him eventually closed the front door. I let my head loll back in the chair and the blood slowly trickled into my hair line. I didn't move from the chair until my mother eventually woke up and cut the cable ties. She wanted me to go to the doctor to see if I needed stiches but the last thing I was going to do was explain to my doctor why I looked like someone's punch bag.
"Why were you passed out on the couch? You're not on that shit again are you mam?"
"No I just took a few sleeping pills…I was a bit stressed dealing with your sister" she said handing me a mug of tea.
I held my face in my hands. The last time she was on sleeping pills she nearly overdosed. It was only that I came home from work early and found her that she's here today. But I knew the risks I ran coming back home. Once again I was going to be the one responsible for taking care of my mother.
"Where did you go today?" she said looking into the sink avoiding looking at my battered face
"I'm going to bed" I said taking my mug upstairs.
I cleaned my face and went to bed ready to just forget everything that happened today.
My phone alarm buzzed loudly on my side table. I turned it around seeing 5a.m. blink back at me. It was still dark out but I swung my legs out of bed and rubbed my eyes. I wobbled to the bathroom and the light buzzed on and I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light before I got a look at Peter's work. My face was even sorer now that the adrenaline had worn off. My eye was bruised and puffed out, the cut on my cheek was hot, red and had started to scab and the whole left side of my face was bruised from the bat. I wrapped a scarf around my neck pulling it up over my face and pulled a hat down before putting my hood up and starting my morning jog.
There's something different about jogging at this hour of the morning. The air in my lungs felt clearer and the layer of mist hovering over the cold concrete settled over my shoes. I reached the bridge, the halfway point and I noticed a car over the other side of the bridge. I stopped and jogged on the spot for a moment occasionally grabbing my leg and pulling it up behind me watching to see what the car was doing. I suddenly saw someone come from stretching at the bonnet.
I strained my eyes trying to look through the darkness but I could feel myself cooling down so I had to start back running. I jogged warily over the long bridge and sketched to the edge away from the car and saw the guy stretching himself against the car. He had a woolly hat pulled down just before his eyes and a hood up. I haven't seen him out running here before. Actually I've never seen anyone out running at this time in the morning. I got to the gym and saw that it was totally empty, just the way I like it. I whipped off my sweaty hoody, hat and scarf and threw them in the corner. I heard a creak from the door behind me and saw Tommy trundle out of the dressing room. He kept his head down but his eyes looked up and met mine. He was the last person I wanted to see.
"Morin'" he mumbled. His voice cracked like it does when you haven't spoken since you woke up.
"Morning" I said trying to avoid looking at him. I knew he was looking at my face.
I sat down on the bench and began to tape my hands. Tommy stood there in the same spot and I could feel the heat of his gaze. After I taped up my hands, I looked up and his gaze was still boring into my skull.
"What?" I snapped.
"Sup with your face?" he mumbled.
"Got in a fight"
"In one of those girly fightin' in your bra type fights while old guys jerk off at the side of the ring?"
"No"
"O"
Five more minutes passed and I fidgeted on the bench while he continued to stare. I met his stare and stuck my tongue up under my top lip.
"So who tuned you up?"
"Why do you care?"
"I don't"
"Well fuck off then"
"Fine I dunno thought you might wanna talk bout' it that's all" I think that's what he said his voice faded out into a quiet mummer.
"Why would I talk to you about it?"
He didn't say anything else just started punching the bag. But for some reason all my energy seemed to be gone and I didn't feel like working out. I sat there and could feel my muscles starting to tense, my warm up wearing off. My elbows rested on my knees and I held my battered face in my hands.
"How's the boyfriend?" he suddenly spoke still pounding the bag.
"Excuse me?"
"Well your boy obviously did that to you after you went back to him"
"And how do you know that? Coz you know fucking everything do ya?" I said standing up and squaring up to him.
He looked me dead in the eye and I saw the muscles jutting from his neck twitch slightly. "Believe me I know the look of a woman tuned up by a man"
"You know what Tommy, you don't know shit" I sneered into his face.
His lip twitched the same twitch Peter gets when you hit a nerve. I involuntarily winced, my eyes ready for the beating that inevitably follows that twitch.
Tommy just laughed lowly to himself. "What you think I'm gonna hit you? I don't hit little girls unlike your boy"
For some reason that line made me want to burst into tears. I suppose you only realise how bad something is until you hear someone else say it to your face.
His eyes moved from my eye to my cheek to the other side of my face that was black and blue.
"He belt you with a baseball bat or somethin'"
"Just…leave me alone" I said grabbing my hoody and storming out the door. I wasn't in any mood to fight anymore either with Tommy or the punch bag.
I got home and no one was up yet. I went into my room and lay on the bed thinking until I eventually drifted into sleep. It wasn't a heavy sleep, I remember waking up slightly hearing my mother call my name throughout the house and when she entered my room and wrapped the duvet around me.
I woke up a few hours later still engulfed in heat but my hair sticking to my head with the sweat. I could smell my mother's cooking wafting through the small house but I felt really unwell from the stress of everything and the fact I hadn't trained at all today.
I heard my mother answering the front door as I threw my legs out of bed for the second time today. I couldn't hear what was being said I just heard the mummer of my mother's voice and the muffled voice of the stranger.
"Erika!" she suddenly called as I heard the front door close.
I warily walked down the stairs and met my mother trying hard to whisper but who was in effect shouting quietly.
"There's a boy to see you"
"A boy?" I still think she thinks I'm like eight years old or something.
"Yea he's in the living room"
I jumped the rest of the steps and pushed the door to the living room revealing Tommy walking up and down the room like a lion in a cage.
"Tommy what the fuck are you doing here?"
"You left your scarf at the gym" he said throwing it to me.
"How did you find out where I lived?"
"The contact sheet at the gym…well I'll be going"
He proceeded to walk out the door but was met by my mother who was probably listening in at the door.
"Would you like to stay for dinner?"
"No" myself and Tommy replied.
"Of course you will, strapping young man like yourself, ya gotta eat" she smiled.
So the little woman led the tank by the arm into her little kitchen and sat him down in the wooden chair at the dinner table that creaked under his weight.
"So Tommy what do you do with yourself?"
"I'm a fighter"
"O really, my Erika is quite the little fighter too"
"Yea I know she is, we train at the same gym"
I sat down and watched them have a whole conversation about me like I wasn't even there.
"How come she's never brought you home before?"
"Ah I just got back into town" he said eyeing up the steaming dish my mother just put on the table. "Needed this old vet to help me train"
"What are you training for?" my mother smiled handing him a plate.
"Sparta" he said staring straight at me.
I raised an eyebrow and reached for a plate.
I love you all btw, just thought I'd let you know :) All my readers and reviewers of all my fanfics and I am working on updates for other stories so dont worry :) You're all heroes
-Sailor