“Hey, mate?” I nudge him in his substantial gut. “Want me to write you a quick shopping list? It would only have one item on it. B.O killer. Ever heard of it?” I growl up at the bearded guy behind me.
He grins displaying a few teeth that will probably be lost in the next year by the look of his dental hygiene practices. His eyes are leery making my already moody stomach turn sourer. He raises one eyebrow and waggles it. “Forget shopping. Want to see my totem pole, little Indian girl?”
I slide out my knife, lovingly stroking it before looking up at him straight in the eye, a smile playing on my lips. “Wanna be scalped?”
“You wouldn’t...” he stammers.
I stare at him. I would.
Satisfaction swirls in my stomach as I turn around, my nose is happy too as the guy is now invading someone else’s air.
Gratification turns to wariness almost instantaneously. The guy Noah is against has his back to me, circling his shoulders and cracking his knuckles - he’s enormous - an islander of some sort by his skin colour and tribal tattoos but I can’t take my eyes from Noah and his transformation to really study him.
This is probably what Noah wanted me to see. This change. This visual demonstration of the reign his monster has over him. The fact that Noah lets it rule him. Welcomes it even by the looks of it. Noah is not Noah anymore. I’m not frightened easily but if I saw Noah like this that day he had Amber - well yes, I still would have taken him on, since he had my horse, but I would have been shitting myself ... big time.
Once a few hands caught a bull shark right up inland in a river and brought it back to see if Daryl could make a seafood feast, Noah’s eyes don’t remind me of Black Jo anymore they remind of that dead shark’s eyes. Dead but alive with malice. There’s no other way to describe it. He’s gone.
I know he wants me to watch this, but I have a really bad feeling he shouldn’t have. He said he needs to but... while it’s fine to admit we have monsters, a dark side even... to let them take total control is probably not the best way to face them, to deal with them. And Noah’s monster is strong and savage from use, from regular feeding. If that thing came out anywhere but here it would not end well for anyone, including Noah.
Seth’s dad’s face floats in front on my mind. Maybe this monster has been let outside the cage already. Cold hatred radiates its chilling touch from every pore in Noah’s body. This is the root of everything he keeps hidden, right now alive and bared for everyone to see. This is what he is warning me against. Something that owns him. Why he hesitates with me.
“... killed the last guy he fought...” I hear someone whisper behind me. I turn around.
“Who did?” I ask alarm ringing through me. The guy flicks a glance at me and then stares back at the ring. “Ahomana.” He nods toward the big guy who smashes his fist into the cage, denting it without a flinch. “Maims every fighter he has been put up against. Three in wheelchairs in the last six months. Brain damaged, two of them were. This will be a good fight though; The Mute will give him something to think about. Quick little bugger.”
“Yeah, until he cops one,” adds the guy’s friend with a smirk. “Wonder what part he’ll lose.”
Fighting the urge to slice the guy’s smug lips off I turn back to find Noah’s face is twisted with the deluge of hate that is crashing through his body, for someone that says he’s filled with fear he sure looks pretty fearless now. I think Nathan would even be a roo in the headlights if he were facing this guy, although at least, Nathan would be lucid, would study the bigger guy like a scientist examines a virus, hunting for any weakness; testing, testing until he finds it. Not like Boofhead is now, just ready to let loose with blind abandon. The bad feeling is more substantial now, Ahomana is a full-grown, air-rifled, feral mummy pig.
Worse.
They start circling and I catch Ahomana’s face full on, his sadistic grin displays teeth filed to sharp points and fists that could probably fell a young steer with a death blow. No wonder the cage gave so easily to his punch. Noah is full of hate, but this guy looks to be off his head on something. His eyes are wild and seem to be shooting around everywhere unable to focus while his own blood drips from his lips where he deliberately has sunken those sharp teeth. His tongue comes out and sweeps it from his chin, sucking the crimson drops in with a face full of glee. His eyes are freaky, I can’t even relate them to an animal or a situation. No animal I have seen has eyes like this guy. He could well be a man that has met with an experiment that Dad is so fearful of. I’ll have to inform Dad I saw a man x pitbull x feral pig mutation. I snap a photo for proof.
Muscles ripple underneath his dark skin; big, popping, veiny muscles and while Noah is muscley ... this guy must weigh a good four times him. The feeling that I should get Noah out swims urgently in my stomach. I’m not one for inaction, but something is stopping me. Noah might not enjoy getting pulled out when he is like this. He might take my act as a show of non-faith in him, and that’s the last thing he needs right now.
“Remember when he bit his lip like that the last time,” a lady says somewhere along from me. “He bit that other guy’s ear off and part of his neck. I reckon he’s going to try that again. All that blood, he loves it. He loves lapping it up!”
“Not on my watch,” I murmur, just as they go for it.
I’ve seen fights, the one with the Rowan’s was as brutal as I’ve seen but this... this is beyond that. There was no one screaming and egging those involved to kill and dismember, to bite or rip heads off – although, I most likely would have thought that at the time if I was able - this is pure entertainment for those outside the cage, but something else for those inside. They aren’t lucid like the fighters in the previous bouts. There’s no joy or challenge in this fight like those ones. This is between a demon and a madman.
Noah is super-fast, but Ahomana isn’t as slow as you would expect from someone his sheer size. Noah lands some almighty hits and kicks, but one hit from Ahomana sends Noah reeling back into the cage. You can tell he doesn’t feel it though, he’s as crazed as Ahomana now. He’s attacking him, savage and dangerous. There is nothing in his world but his hate and this man he now blames for whatever drives that monster.
Ahomana manages to grab Noah after his huge kick whips into the dark man’s side, he leans down and rips into Noah’s shoulder with his teeth just before Noah twists and elbows him hard in the kidney, slipping out of his grasp. The beer on the floor turns a darker shade as Noah’s blood streams down his arm and over his chest.
I don’t realise until now that I’ve been screaming, shaking the cage like a banshee, until I hear my voice yelling out, “Get his right knee!” Nat is awesome at dissecting people, and unconsciously I must have picked up his weakness, not that does Noah any good because he hears nothing. Sees nothing but his inner drive inflict pain.
For what feels like hours, they smash each other when they can, Noah is fitter but Ahomana is bull-like strong, and the hits Noah bestows on him seem to glance off, only serving to anger and excite him more. My stomach churns, I thought I would love watching this, but I don’t, it’s like watching a dogfight with two blooded dogs. It’s not entertaining, it’s disturbing and when Ahomana lets out a primordial scream things start to really indicate that Noah is fighting a deranged lump of human flesh high on some narcotic.
Noah returns the scream and hits Ahomana so hard that his eye socket dents with a sickening crack but it does nothing to faze the giant, he charges at Noah and smacks him against the cage. Blood sprays on to the audience as Noah’s face is whipped to the side by a fast cross. The blood slicking his body allows him yet again to elude a strong grasp by Ahomana’s minotaur like hands, hands that were going to lock around Noah’s neck. Ahomana’s teeth graze Noah’s back as he slides out of the big man’s clutch.
The escape fuels the feralness in Ahomana’s glazed eyes and while Noah takes advantage of his slow turn laying into the big back with some killing kicks, he is laid to the ground with a punch to th
e chest. I know I’m screaming but everything feels so quiet and still as I feel powerless.
The giant lifts a leg and Noah, by millimetres, misses the stomp that would have crushed his skull. I can’t take this anymore. Looking around I see no one is going to stop this, the guy that was in the cage with the other fighters is not in there with Noah and Ahomana but pinned to the gate, his face alive with ecstasy. The crowd is all for more blood spill. The small gate is guarded by some pretty big guys, there is no way they will let me in, but I have to get him out before Noah gets seriously hurt. The other guy is mental, sure, if it was a fight against another guy that just had a few issues, fine, but not this. No way. This is not right.
Noah is flung against the cage so hard that the entire square rattles and he sways dangerously before stirring to attack again. Urgency swims in my blood as he moves with a distinct disorientation.
I do the only thing I can. I climb. With every lift of my right arm pain screams through my body until I feel like crying. Before I’m at the top I am crying, warm tears creep between my lips. When I’m at the top I’m heaving, my lungs feel like a knife is held being held against them with every deep breath I drag inwards.
I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to climb back down. I’m in agony and every cell in my body wants me to just stay where I am. Maybe if I close my eyes, I will open them to find a fair fight or someone in this crowd has stepped up and said to stop it. Maybe my pain has put me to sleep and when I wake up, we’ll be back at Jill’s and this was all a bad dream.
A grunt of pain has my eyes flying open again. Noah is clutching Ahomana’s neck with all his strength trying to put the sleeper hold on him, but Ahomana turns and continues to ram and ram Noah into the cage. The vibrations trigger spasms of pain to shoot through my side as I clutch the cage top with everything I have. I can’t fall now.
Noah holds on tenaciously even though his back is getting chewed up but the cage wire and Ahomana’s clawing hands, his grip slips allowing Ahomana to reach and pull him off throwing him to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Noah seems half dazed as the big bastard pummels him in the stomach with both knees. A vicious laugh rips through his lips sending shivers up my spine. Noah still not feeling pain, lashes out from the ground. The fight turns to a new vicious level until Ahomana gets him down again.
I feel so sick as I lower myself in. Acid washes up into my mouth, I feel so much pain that it makes me miss Nathan and my dad. Miss Frank. The desire to be curled up with my horse is so strong that I can almost imagine her there. Her sweet smell and her muzzle brushing softly against my face, the warmth of her breath on my hands. I don’t want to taste the blood that’s in my mouth. I don’t want to be in here, but I could never let this go and live with myself. No one has noticed yet, all eyes on the most unfair blood fight I’ve ever imagined.
Ahomana rams his knees into Noah again from standing height, punching him in the head on the way down. Noah twists at the last second, but the strength of the blows still hits with enough power that he’s completely still for a second.
The Islander grins wolfishly to the crowd, clacking his teeth together and leans down with those teeth barred, cruel intentions for all to see. His pinches Noah’s ears between his fingers ready to be sliced by his teeth, his tongue wags in his mouth. He leans down. Fire erupts in my stomach smoking the pain. I move.
“I’ll cut your fucking throat open if you don’t back off right now,” I snarl in the big man’s ear, my knife pressed against his juggler. My body wrapped around his mammoth back. I’m that livid that any sane mental capacity I have has deserted me. I don’t even know if I’m doing the thing that will end this or make it worse. But I will end it the hard way if I need to.
The crowd is going nuts. The man snarls beneath me, I know he could toss me like a ragdoll, but I’ve got my knife in a place that one movement would mean I would slice him. I let the edge sting him to send him that message. As his eyes swing to find mind. I note it’s the first time I’ve seen him even look remotely interested in life. Lucid. Calculating.
Noah gazes up at me. He doesn’t know me. I don’t move.
Noah’s eyes clear then and he takes in the situation for the first time as a normal human, not a being controlled by his monster. He reaches a bloody, cut up hand up to my face and with one finger wipes at my cheek. Bringing that finger in front of his eyes, his eyebrows pucker as he studies what must be a tear. His beautiful green eyes move from the glistening drop perched perfectly on top of his finger to Ahomana and the controlling hate gives way to something else.
“Get off him, Thornie,” he says calmly, which actually sounds quite scary. I’m not sure what to do, I just want to get him out of the cage. I wish it were as easy as saving Frank from the croc. But it’s not. Frank has more sense.
He smiles at me softly and nods again for me to get off. A whole lot of me doesn’t want to get off but I do, sliding off carefully leaving my knife at the big man’s neck until I can safely get a distance away without him retaliating.
And retaliation is definitely on his mind because he heaves his huge body up and swings himself around in nanoseconds. I hold myself at the cage edge. Watching and waiting, ignoring the pulling and scratching of fingers through the wire I hold my knife ready. The crowd is loving this new twist, new drama.
Ahomana laughs as he advances on me. I should be scared, but I’m too relieved Noah is alive and breathing with ears intact to be. Pop always says to go with your strengths and mine is cattle and my mind transforms Ahomana into an irate cleanskin. I watch his body language carefully ready for the tiniest tell of what he is going to do.
He bares his teeth at me.
“Drugged up cheats don’t scare me,” I say levelly, causing the crowd to fall silent and listen. Inside my heart is thumping loudly like helicopters blade, ready to move when the time is right. “I doubt you have deserved to win any fight. Cheater.”
Ahomana glances at the crowd that suddenly seem to be siding with me in here. Things get launched at the cage again, one actually sails in to hit Ahomana on the back. His eyes turn even more deadly. The director should have used this guy’s eyes in the movie to create Voldemort.
He stalks toward me, those cruel intentions again plain to see, he opens his mouth to say something, but I never hear it because Noah is up again and the hit he delivers to Ahomana causes the big man to stagger for the first time in the fight. Noah is a different person, he’s fighting free of the blinding hate and he’s very, very angry... and relentless.
Every time Ahomana tries to advance in my direction he’s met with a hurricane of malice. Not once does he get within a metre of me.
In the next thirty seconds, Ahomana is pummeled with a continuous stream of hits and kicks. Noah is so much more brutal now than when he permitted his monster rule. I point to the knee again and Noah bestows on it a rain of torment. Finally, the loud crack of a bone breaking causes the big man to fall.
The crowd is silent for a short period as they take in Ahomana’s leg lying at an unnatural position, the bone making a mountain jutt through the muscled flesh. Yet, as if just to prove my point, he grapples on to the cage to get up. He doesn’t feel anything. I think they are just beginning to realise what a big rouse he was. Noah sets himself up for one hell of a kick which knocks a pointed tooth out of the bigger man’s head when it crashes to the floor. He waits there, every line in his body indicating he wants to lay in until Ahomana is dead and bloodied on the floor. After a minute his shoulders relax and he bends down to grapple with something on the floor. He turns and gazes at me, his green eyes ablaze in a sea of red. He walks cautiously over to me, “Number six...,” he presses the bloody tooth into my hand. “Give her interesting mementoes to remember your dates by.”
overflow
Noah
“Close your eyes,” she waits, one of the mega sized bottles of antiseptic poised in her hand ready to douse me with. But I can’t. My eyes won’t close.
“I’m not
going to do anything to you,” she chuckles holding her other hand up like she’s all innocent. “We have to get those injuries cleaned out, that dude was... manky. Who knows what the hell’s the matter with him or what his blood was breeding.”
“I guess, we could always start his list with, I dunno... a missing ear,” I lean back against my car carefully. One hand holding my shirt, adding blood to its wetness from mopping up my shoulder and back. I’m starting to feel the fight now. Stiffness tugs at every fibre.
“Or his missing tooth,” she quips back with a raised eyebrow. “Or broken leg.”
“Not the same, Thornie,” I respond trying hard not to pull her against me. She hates the thought of his blood, not of seeing it but of it touching us. Us. My eyes roam over her for the millionth time since we ran from the fight. More savage and brave than the costume she’s wearing. That feeling comes over me again, stronger than anything I have ever felt. Stronger than the cold, black rage that rules me in those fights. Stronger than my father’s words.
Then I think what it means, and the feeling paralyses me more than anything else can because I now know for sure, what the fear of her getting hurt turns me into, more than a monster. When I’m a monster, I can’t see anything but hate, rage and blame but when it’s about her... I can. All I can see is her. I’ve never been more dangerous in my life. That tear I held like a diamond on my fingertip... ripped me apart. Set me loose. Burned my monster so much that it retreated like never before. It was all me. Me. No one to blame but... me.
I raise my eyes to her beautiful blue ones, hoping she’ll see that now and push me away. Save herself, but instead, she shrugs. “I’m getting used to cutting human flesh, and it was the only way I could think of that we could get out of that place. I mean everyone there must have had the same thoughts I did about his blood. They sure liked seeing it from a distance but not right up close enough to be shoved in their faces.”
Avalon Expandable Heart: The Wild Heart Series Page 15