Broken

by Sandy Kline

  Not only is Whispering Pines a college town, it has a very long summer and short mild winter which draws people from just about everywhere else but Hawaii maybe. Our weather is that good. So much tuition and tourist money filling the city’s coffers it’s no wonder the town of 200,000 can support a more than a dozen plastic surgery clinics, too many dentists and oral surgeons to count and gyms and fitness clubs on what seems like every corner.

  Abruptly my name being shouted draws me out of my head. I do a pirouette and behind me twenty fake bodies away is Alex hollering and waving wildly. I lower my shoulder like a linebacker and forge a path towards her. When I finally am able to elbow my way to her I’m rewarded with a hug and a peck on the cheek.

  “Have a hard time finding me?” I ask.

  “Are you kidding? You’re the only one here without blonde hair. You stick out like a neon sore thumb.”

  “Thanks for that. Hey who’s this Blade that’s fighting Bone Crusher?”

  “That’s a good question. No one I’ve talked to really knows. It sounds like some guy just come out of the woodwork and gets to fight. I’m guessing it’s going to be a good fight or they wouldn’t have given it top billing, you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah I guess it’ll be good.”

  “All this time and you still aren’t a fan, are you?”

  “Maybe if I actually liked one of the guys fighting or if I could at least respect him then I might enjoy a fight. Sure everybody loves Bone Crusher but he’s just a big meathead with an eighth grade education tops. Show me an intelligent, educated fighter and I’ll cheer him on. Wait, that can’t happen. No one with brains and an education would dare step into the cage. Sorry, it’s never gonna happen. I’ve never going to be a fan.”

  “So closed minded you are grasshopper.”

  “Hey there’s something to be said for closed minded people. Sometimes I think you’re so open minded that any old shit can just slip right in.”

  “Very funny Jen, very freaking funny. I have a feeling tonight’s going to be different. You may just end up being a fan after the night is over.”

  “Well don’t hold your breath Alex. Toni-”

  Suddenly the lights go out and a single spotlight shines through the rabid crowd. At first it’s deathly quiet. Then someone spots Bone Crusher and pandemonium erupts. The screaming is so loud my eardrums are vibrating painfully in my head despite the fact I’m wearing ear buds to block out the noise. When Bone Crusher is finally ensconced in the cage the spotlight focuses on the opposite side of the arena. At first there’s a massive booing from every corner of the arena. I’d hate to be in that guy’s shoes; for more than one reason. The spotlight follows his progress to the cage but I still can’t see him from where I’m standing. I don’t have to wait long though. As he climbs into the cage I am prepared to join in with the booing; then I see his mysterious opponent. It’s the biker from this morning!

  “No freaking way!”

  Blade is the blue eyed biker of my dreams. For some insanely weird reason fate just keeps throwing us together and in the most unlikely places. I mean, this is the first cage fight I have been to in probably four months. And the one fight I happen to go to is the debut fight for the man whose been stalking my thoughts and dreams almost my entire life. It’s almost too much to bear, but at the same time it’s terribly exciting.

  This time I get to study his face just before Bone Crusher ruins it with his bone crusher fist. He’s got this perfectly symmetrical face. Most guys I’ve dated have at least one flaw but I swear, this man has it all, and I haven’t even started on his body yet. He has wavy blond hair that falls across his eyes forcing him to be constantly brushing it aside, almost like a tick or something. His upper lip and chin are covered with a fine layer of scruffy blonde hairs. His once serene face has adopted an intense stare, no doubt meant for his opponent tonight. My eyes travel down to his mouth. His lips are slightly parted, just enough so that I can see his perfect white teeth. I find myself licking my lips and wondering what a kiss from those lips would be like. Suddenly a kiss forms on his lips. Suddenly I feel like I’ve just invaded his privacy or something and I’m about to look away when I catch his eyes. He’s staring right at me! The man just puckered up and gave me a kiss from across the ring. When he realizes I’m staring at him he cracks a crooked smile, then blows me a kiss. The arrogance of the man! I know I should respond. I should glare back at him and give him the finger but I can’t make myself do anything but stare back at him. I can feel my face heating up as he blows one more kiss before returning his attention to his opponent.

  A poke in the ribs finally breaks the spell the biker has over me. I look over and Alex is watching me intently.

  “You got something going on with him already?” She asks.

  “What? No of course not. I don’t even know the guy.” I protest.

  “Right…I think you two are going to have to get a room after the fight is over.”

  “Very funny Alex. Just wai-”

  The sound of the bell puts a stop to our conversation. I look back up to the ring as both men explode into action. They literally charge one another and the sound of the first clash between the two reminds me of a pair of rams fighting. I remember watching some kind of National Geographic special about the animals. When their horns came together it would make a loud bone splitting crack and for a second I wonder if the two men in front of me actually butted heads.

  They’re so fast their hands are a blur. Sometimes I don’t even see the strike that made a head snap back. The violence of the spectacle sends the crowd around me into overdrive. Some are shouting the name of the fighter they support, while others are calling for blood and general mayhem. At first I refuse to be caught up in the spectacle, so I just yell his name half-heartedly - not willing to completely commit myself to the sensationalism of the bout. Then I catch Bone Crushers expression as he delivers a particularly nasty blow to Blade’s head. I believe the phrase is known as bloodlust. It’s just this crazed feeling warriors get that drives them to do unspeakable acts when combined with the sheer adrenaline that comes when one is put in danger. I see it in Bone Crusher’s eyes; it’s a manic glee and it freaks me out.

  Time seems to almost stand still as I watch in slow motion as Blade’s head whips around and a spray of blood splatters me across my face and chest. I have to fight the urge to gag as I taste the man’s hot coppery blood in my mouth. I start to dig around in my purse for something to wipe my face with but I can’t tear my eyes from the carnage in front of me. Blade’s head is getting pummeled from side to side and back and forth like a rag doll. Every time his head bounces off the rigid wire cage I expect to see him drop to the mat unconscious but by some miracle he keeps his feet.

  Just when it looks like he’s taken his last hit, the tide of the fight changes abruptly. Somehow Blade digs deep and comes up fighting. He appears to drop to one knee and for a split second Bone Crusher drops his guard as he interprets his opponents’ actions as one falling unconscious to the mat. That’s enough for Blade. He launches up off his right leg while driving his right knee straight into Bone Crushers junk. The strike is so powerful it lifts Bone Crusher a good 18 inches off his feet where he falls in a heap on his knees in obvious agony, but he’s in no way finished and neither is Blade. As Bone Crusher drops to his knees, Blade spins around and drops his right elbow right into the base of his opponents’ skull. I’m so close I can literally see the upper vertebrae’s in his neck separate from impact. Bone Crusher is out before his face hits the mat. Blade immediately grabs Bone Crusher by his long hair with one hand while his other grabs the man’s chin and for a split second it appears Blade is going to break his opponents’ neck. Then a blur of black and white striped referees swarm the two combatants pulling them part. Blade is so keyed up it takes three men to pull him away from Bone Crusher and with a coordinated effort the three men body slam Blade and hold him in place until he stops struggling.

  While they’re subduing th
e winning competitor, medical personal in blue jumpsuits are gathered around Bone Crusher rendering emergency aide. At first it appears to be business as usual, then the lights in the arena dim and officials from both Surge and Crossfire climb into the cage and the head referee hands Mike White from Surge the microphone.

  “Gentlemen…ladies, we are sad to inform you that the warrior Bone Crusher has fallen in honorable battle.”

  It takes a second for their words to sink in and when they do it surprises me that this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. Alex takes my hand and watches in horror as her favorite fighter has thrown his last punch. While the heads of Surge and Crossfire regale the crowd with tales from Bone Crushers storied past, event medics carry the fallen fighter out of the spotlight and to his final resting place. After his body leaves the facility the spotlight returns to Blade and his arm is raised in victory. Suddenly a thunderous roar erupts from one area of the arena. I crane my neck around trying to spot where the voices are coming from. It appears a large group of people are working their way en mass to the cage. When they get closer I begin to make out their leather cuts proclaiming them to be members from the Death Crusaders. I can’t quite make it out but as they approach the cage they’re chanting some ditty about Blade and dealing a cold death to his opponents. Well at least they waited until the authorities had removed Bone Crusher from the arena.

  Alex grabs my arm. “Time to leave Jen.”

  “Wait.” I protest. “I want to see what’s happening.”

  “I don’t like this.” She replies. “Something’s going down and I don’t want to be here when it does.”

  A sudden hush falls over the arena and I get a sickening feeling that whatever Alex wanted to avoid is just about to happen.

  “Yeah…let’s get out of here.” Suddenly I’m not so anxious to watch the unfolding events.

  Alex, with her hand still on my arm starts dragging me towards the closest exit. We only get about twenty feet when another group of leather clad bikers surge across our path effectively blocking us from leaving.

  “Dammit!” Alex swears. “What now?”

  I look behind us towards the cage. The group of Death Crusaders have spotted the other club and have changed direction and are on a collision course that will lead them right to where Alex and I are caught in the middle.

  “What do we do?” I hiss in her ear.

  “I don’t know. Just keep your arm locked in mine. When the shit goes down it’s gonna be a stampede towards the exits. If you go down you’ll get trampled to death.”

  I nod my head and focus on the two groups of bikers approaching. I can’t see any weapons from where I’m at but that doesn’t mean they’re unarmed. Although I do remember being searched before entering the arena so maybe they don’t have weapons after all. The crowd around us is getting even more chaotic by the second. All it would take is a single gunshot or for someone to yell gun and people would kill each other to get out. I swallow back my rising fear. If I’m going to survive this I have to keep my wits about me. If I just go charging off in a blind panic I’ll certainly die and so probably will Alex. The two of us need to stick together if we plan on getting out of here. With my heart hammering in my chest I spot what looks like a path towards one of the exits.

  I turn and shout in Alex’s ear and point the way. She nods and we start moving forward. We get maybe ten feet when a sudden surge in the crowd nearly knocks us off our feet. I look back and my fear level skyrockets! The crowd is in complete panic. People are running in every direction at once and from the wild look on their faces I can tell nobody knows what’s going on. They just want out of the building at all costs. The two groups of bikers haven’t reached each other yet and now it looks like they won’t get to; which is a good thing. There’s just too many panicked people in between. I turn back around to focus on our path to the exit when another surge in the crowd from my right shoves me in the opposite direction I want to go. Even worse, the force of the crowd pushing has torn Alex from my side and we’re being pushed in opposing directions. She’s yelling something but I can’t hear and I can’t read lips either so we’ll just have to hope for the best. I try my best to quell my rising panic but I’m just not good in these kind of situations. I’ve never been one to be able to control my emotions when frightening things happen to me or around me. As I move along with the crowd all these stories I have heard in the news about people panicking in concerts and things and people getting trampled to death is streaming through my mind. It’s like I’m caught in my worst possible nightmare and I can’t get out. The only thing I can think is to just keep moving in the direction of the crowd and maybe then I can keep on my feet. If I misstep or slip and go down I’ll be crushed beneath hundreds of people’s feet.

  A quick glance around me and I have completely lost sight of Alex. The closest door leading out is probably a good thirty feet or so from me, but at least I’m being pushed in the right direction. Just when it looks like I’m going to escape without injury, a woman in front of me stumbles and goes down. I try not to step on her but people behind me keep pushing and suddenly my legs are tangled in hers and I begin to fall. I reach out to break my fall but the added weight of someone falling with me and partially on top of me makes that impossible. I go down in a heap and the air in my lungs goes out in single burst. As I lie on top of another poor woman gasping for breath I feel like my final seconds on this planet are ticking away. My eyes are open but most of my vision has already gone. The last thing I remember is someone grabbing my arms and literally pulling them out of their sockets. I know I should be resisting here not only has my breath left my lungs, my will to fight has fled as well. I just go limp and try to relax. There’s no point fighting the inevitable. I just can’t believe my last experience here on earth was watching some stupid cage fight.

  Chapter Three

  Fate

  “What’s her name?” A dreamy voice asks.

  “Jennifer Clarkson.” Comes the reply.

  “You know her?” The first voice asks

  “It’s the name on her license.” Says the other voice.

  “Jennifer…wake up!” Commands the voice.

  I must be in the hospital. I can’t believe I survived that stampede.

  “Miss Clarkson, can you hear me?”

  Slowly I open my eyes. I’m expecting to see the inside of an ambulance or the ER. But what I see is just about the last thing I expected; a bar.

  “She’s awake.” Says a gravelly voice.

  I blink my eyes a couple times, and then get the shock of my life. Leaning over me is an angel with the brightest, bluest eyes I have ever seen and immediately I know who it is. Despite some bruising and a couple nasty cuts, it clearly is Blade, the guy who won the cage fight against the undefeated MMA fighter Bone Crusher. And with that realization comes the memory of all the ruckus at the end of the fight. The medical personal gathered around the fallen fighter, then the pronouncement. Blade, the dude looking down at me, is the guy who just killed his opponent in the fight. I don’t get it. How can someone with such beauty be so damn lethal?

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re at our clubhouse.” The dreamy man replies.

  “A bar’s your clubhouse?”

  “You’re in the Death Crusaders compound. We’ve got a bar, a motorcycle repair shop, a dozen apartments and a couple houses.

  “Oh.”

  “How do you feel?” He asks, changing the subject.

  “Like I got run over by about a hundred people.”

  “Well that’s pretty much what happened.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Hard to say, but I’m guessing maybe five minutes this time.”

  “This time?”

  “It’s been about a half hour since I carried you out of the arena and you were in and out of consciousness pretty much ever since I scooped you up off the floor. A friend of the club is an ER doctor and he came by and checked on you. So far as she could
tell, you don’t have any broken bones or any internal injuries. You do however have a mild concussion and you should probably be checked out by your own physician just to be sure as we don’t exactly have a CT scan or an x-ray machine here.”

  Wow. I don’t know what to say. I could lie here listening to his voice for hours and not grow tired of it.

  Suddenly I feel the need to sit up. Just lying here under his gaze, beneath the power of his spell, makes me feel too vulnerable and helpless. I try sitting up on my own but find I am still quite weak so he reaches down and with surprising gentleness slips his hands around my back and lifts me to a sitting position. I look around again. I’m lying on a pool table. There are several pillows that were under my head and a couple under my feet. Slowly I swing my legs over the edge of the table and look about for a chair to sit in. I really don’t feel like sitting on their pool table any more than I have to. Sensing my thoughts one of the bikers brings over a chair and blue eyes assists me as I slip off the pool table and into the chair. Now that I’m in a chair I feel more relaxed and in the mood for asking questions.

  “I was with a friend…”