Darkness

35. Autumn-Rose

Thirty-Five

Autumn-Rose

This week and a half has been the worst in my whole life, even with Rowan back in England it was never this bad, it’s been nothing but hell. I’ve cried myself to sleep more times than I want to admit. The whole family were at the apartment saying they aren’t leaving even when I told them they could and that I’ll be fine. Maybe it would have been more believable if I wasn’t crying.

I woke up this morning so scared, and the messed up thing is it wasn’t because I was coming here, to The Pit. No it was because I don’t know how the day is going to end. Will it end with Cain walking out, or will it end with my world being broken? My head is full of unanswered questions.

Turning to Logan, who is another person who has been with me most days. He’s even been helping Lincoln in the club. He really stepped up with what he said to Cain. He takes my hand in his. “We’re all here.” I turn to Lincoln who’s looking around, I know who he’s looking for. Yang and Rowan.

Yang came to the club last night and reminded him, he needed to bring me here today. Does he really think Cain was going to do anything to put me in danger by not bringing me?

“Keep her close,” Lincoln tells everyone, and Logan moves closer to me, Hayden on the other side. I look around but don’t see anyone. How the hell does he know someone is coming. I don’t hear anything.

“Yang.” I turn to where Lincoln is looking, and without meaning to I move closer to the Hayden, as Yang stares at me while walking closer to Lincoln.

“Ready to lose your boyfriend?” he asks me, and David tells him to shut up. “You know my friend.” I don’t look at where he is pointing, because I’m praying after tonight I never have to see him again.

Rowan walks over to me, but Declan slaps his fist into his chest, only making him laugh. “You know if we win, I will get you.”

“No, you won’t you fucking asshole,” Lincoln shouts at him, which makes him laugh as he tries to get closer to me, but again met with Declan’s fist to the chest.

I watch Lincoln place his hand on the wall and my body tenses as the scrapping of the gate opens. “He's not in the cage, you know the way. Someone will be following you, so don’t fucking try anything,” Lincoln snaps at him, which makes him laugh.

Lincoln looks at everyone, but stops when his eyes reach me. “No names, and no matter what happens you do not go into the middle. Understand?” Everyone nods, but I keep my eyes locked with him. “If everyone wants to go in and wait by the door,” Lincoln tells everyone but I stay where I am, because I know he let them in because he can see how scared I am.

“Lincoln-”

“Autumn, I don’t know what is going to happen so I can’t say anything. All I can say is, Cain will fight, the man will fight until he has nothing left in him. I’ve watched him fight. I’ve watched him kill people without even breaking a sweat. He won't go down without a fight, that I can promise you.” Lincoln stands in front of me and wraps his arms around me, pulling me in for a tight hug. “We’re all here, remember that.”

I still can't say anything, but I nod into his chest. I pull away from him and give him a nod, letting him know I’m ready. I follow him through the gate, and I can already smell it. The smell of blood, piss, and vomit. This is the smell no one ever wants, and I don’t think it will ever leave me.

“You get used to it,” Lincoln jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

“I don’t want to,” I reply as we reach everyone else. Hayden and Logan are the two who move to stand either side of me.

I look around at this hellhole. Everything Cain said about this place was correct. It feels, looks and smells like what I’d picture hell to be. The coldness gives me chills knowing many people have died here, and if I was a supernatural person, I would say the chilly breeze hitting my body right now is that of those who died here.

“Remember, no one can see you, but they can hear everything.” Lincoln tells us as the big, and I mean giant door opens. Even with only one inch open, I can hear the roaring of people in there shouting.

The sounds echo in my ears of people abusing each other, and that cold icy breeze which hit me not too long ago hits me again, but this time it feels as if I’ve been hit with icy water a few times.

This place is where the devil would happily live, and my boyfriend grew up here.

God, he grew up in this hell, and once his grandad died, he was alone here. I wipe the tears away, thinking of him being here by himself, fighting to survive. Looking around, the whole Pit is a circle with cage after cage, going up floor after floor. They are all closed with metal doors. Even through the metal I can hear them shouting.

I can't Cain anywhere. Why can’t I see him? I’m beginning to panic.

I bump into Lincoln when he stops walking, then quickly I take a step back from him. I jump when I hear someone screaming. Everyone but Lincoln looks around. The scream is that of someone in pain, but Lincoln doesn't even bother looking to see what’s happening.

I hear a chant starting with numbers and I look at Lincoln. “They know Cain is fighting, they know who he’s fighting. Those are Yang’s numbers.” I spin around wondering how many people are down here? I look at each cage and wonder, how many of these cages hold women?

“Why are they chanting his numbers?” David asks.

“Because he’s playing mind games, and his son has been telling everyone, his dad is fighting the boss, and if he wins, then he will let everyone walk free. Yang wanted The Pit from the start, but Cain killed the boss first.” Lincoln looks up a few floors and I follow his sight, and my heart drops when I see Cain walking down.

My eyes don’t leave him as he looks up at the night sky through the small gap at the top of this hellhole. I hear Lincoln, reminding us.

“Don’t leave here, no one goes in the middle. You go in the middle, you die, stay here no matter what.” The sentence is just a reminder of what he’s been telling us all day. This time he looks around. “You break the rules, no one cares, you're the boss's family, you’ll die. Stay with her.” Lincoln walks away from us all, but I have my eyes fixed on Cain as he meets Lincoln in the middle of The Pit.

This is the first time I look at it. It is covered in blood and God knows what else is on there. I’m going to say this place is never cleaned, but then I suppose this is why it’s called hell.

Cain hasn’t looked over at us, but I haven’t taken my eyes off him as he talks to Lincoln who's shaking his head at him.

“He doesn’t look good.” I hear Mason, and I try to ignore them, because I can see he doesn’t look good. His eyes are red, almost like he hasn’t slept in days, or maybe he’s been in the fucked up white room.

I watch Cain talking to Lincoln. Something feels wrong, I can feel it. Lincoln cups his face and shouts at him, and Cain shakes his head at him.

“Should I be worried?” I ask more myself, but everyone turns to me. That means everyone is thinking the same thing as me.

“It's Cain, he’ll be fine. Right Dad?” Declan asks. The words escape with a shake. You can hear the worry in his voice at the state of what Cain looks like right now.

“He's fine. He's got this.” David tries to reassure everyone.

Cain shakes his head at whatever Lincoln has told him. When we left this morning, Lincoln said nothing to us, or hinted at anything being wrong. I suppose being in this place you learn to hide your feelings about everything. Cain does it well.

So whatever Lincoln is talking to him about, he didn't want to tell us, or he's just seeing what Cain says about the situation first.

But the only thing I can think about is, is Cain even going to come to us, say hello or just see how we are? It might sound selfish, but I want him to be close to me.

Part of me is relieved when they both walk over to us.

“You look like shit.” Hayden's the first to talk to him. There was me thinking Hayden was the one who would have been more supportive towards Cain.

Once Cain looks at me I try to smile but it’s a weak one. “Are you okay?” That's the only thing I can ask him because if I talk even more I might start crying, and that’s the last thing Cain needs is me crying. All I want to do is go down to him and tell him it’s going to be okay.

“As good as can be.” He looks between us all and I have no idea why, but my gut is telling me something's wrong and David feels it too. He asks Cain.

“What’s wrong?”

Cain lets out a sigh as he looks over to Yang and his son. They’re talking to Rowan who is looking over with a fucked up stupid smile on his face.

“Yang’s changed the rules-”

“What?”

“Can he even do that?”

“I don't understand how he can do that. You own this place.”

“Shouldn't he have discussed it?”

Questions are being thrown towards Cain and Lincoln from all of his family, apart from me. I don’t know what to say, and I don’t want him to be stressed out because of us. So, I’m hoping they all shut up and let him focus on the fight.

“He came to me last night. I didn’t want to tell anybody.” Everyone turns to Lincoln, but no one is saying anything to him, I can hear a few sighs, but. I don't know if it's out of irritation or Lincoln not trusting them. “He wants the fight to be two on one-”

“What?” Logan and Hayden ask at the same time, and my body tenses up, how the hell can this be happening?

“He wants a two on one fight? I think it's going to be more with Rowan and Yang's going to help him wherever-” Cain starts but is cut off.

“I thought you were the owner of this place down here, so why can't you tell him to fuck off,” Miles asks the question I think we are all asking ourselves.

“I can tell him to fuck off, and I can say no, but if I'm honest, I just want the fight to be over with.” Cain stops, which worries me? Why does he sound so defeated? Why is he not trying to fight this? “I know if I fight one at a time, I don't know what energy strength I'm going to have at the end, because I don't know who I'm fighting first. If I fight both-”

“Cain, you already said Yang’s a good fighter. So you know what he can do, how he moves-” David adds his thoughts, but this time Cain is the one to cut him off.

“I know. I know.” He stops and presses his palms into his eyes. “Just trust me.” The three words come out in a whisper, as if he’s asking us not to say anything to piss him off.

Everybody is silent, and my silence has shut off everything around me, the voices in the cages, the sounds the people are making with their cages, it sounds like metal on metal, but I can’t see them behind the metal doors, everything is silent. All except the sound of my heart pounding against my rib cage as it’s fighting to escape, just like I need Cain to fight now.

“I didn't want to kill Rowan. I wanted to keep him down here. That was my plan, but now I’m hoping I'm faster than him, if I can just do a quick slit of his throat, he's dead. Then it's just Yang.” Cain looks over at them.

Lincoln's the next one to talk. ”I've told them all, no matter what happens, they should never touch the fight zone. Even when the fight’s finished, do not set foot in there.” Everybody again nods their head to agree. We don't know what would happen if we did, but the way Lincoln is telling us once again, no one is risking it. It was the one thing Lincoln told us about five times a day, every day.

I lock eyes with Cain. “Beautiful as ever I see.” He smiles, and I’m not sure who he’s trying to fool, but it’s not me.

“Are you okay?” I ask in a small whisper,

“Yeah.” Why did that one answer not give me any relief for whats happening?

“Liar. Fight this.”

“I will.” He winks, then turns around when Rowans shouts.

“Have we come here for a tea party?”

Cain nor Lincoln reply to him, and I look back at Cain as Lincoln hands him a long blade looking thing, and he slams it into the stoned ground. Cain removes his T-shirt and lets Lincoln slap him on the chest a few times.

“Do you agree with the new rules?” Yang shouts, and I hope Cain makes his death painful, so fucking painful.

“Sure,” Cain yells at him.

I watch Cain walk to the middle of The Pit. The fight for his life is starting I have to remind myself he’s done this so many times before.

Straight away, he tears forward with his blade moving between his fingers and he's moving it fast, but Yang moves out the way. Rowan’s not as fast as Yang or Cain, which will be good for Cain.

Yang comes forward with a few kicks in the air. Cain wasn't joking with the martial arts stuff, as he hits Cain's leg, taking him down. He brings his spear up ready to hit Cain with it, but Cain brings his blade up to stop him, and he quickly gets back on his feet.

Cain lunges towards Yang and manages to knock him off his feet a little, and spins around and gets his blade and slices a small part of Rowan's chest, making him scream in agony.

Crossing and unfolding my arms, as my body seems to have a mind of its own as I tremble watching this fucked up fight. I can’t seem to stand still as I bounce from one foot to the other.

It's got to the point where blades are just spinning around in the air in both of their hands. Rowan doesn't have a weapon, but he's still trying to fight Cain, even though Cain's got his massive blade. Cain slashes deep across Yang's stomach, spins around and then cuts very deep into Rowan's biceps.

This is full of martial art stuff that I'd see in a Bruce Lee movie.

Cain gets caught up fighting Rowan, and Yang takes the opportunity to cut Cain’s back a few times with the blade, making Cain scream, but he focuses back on what’s kicking Rowan in the stomach. Then he moves back to Yang to hold him off. Yang slices Cain’s stomach.

The tightening in my chest is burning as I watch Cain fighting. The people behind the metal doors are screaming Yang’s number and I’m feeling sick now.

Cain spins around, throwing a knife towards Yang, slicing his bicep and quickly turning back to Roman to punch him a few times and then kick him in the face so he's down on his knees, and it’s the first time I see Cain smile when he gets his blade and slices Rowan’s throat.

In that moment I feel Hayden take my hand in his and gives it a squeeze letting me know my nightmare of Rowan is over for good. Cain promised to protect me from him, and he has.

Giving him a moment to focus on Yang for a little bit. Yang punches him. I can see why Cain said that this was going to be a hard fight for him.

Yang punches, not giving Cain even a second to watch Rowan choking on his own blood.

Now I understand why Cain said this was going to be a hard fight for him. All of a sudden, Cain yells out in pain, and I see the knife being dug into the side of his body, then Yang kicks Cain to the floor, but Cain gets up quickly.

Yes, I’m going to be sick. I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from shouting, my sight darting from Cain fighting to the blood dripping out of his wound. This is absolute torture.

Yang, is so fast for his age. He comes to Cain quickly slashing his chest a few more times until Cain's on the floor. He's kicking him, he's punching him, he's slashing his back, and he picks up his spear and rams it through Cain's left hand making him scream in agony.

Yang looks over at his son, smiling.

Hayden's grip on my hand gets tighter. I didn't realize I was squeezing him so hard.

No one is saying anything. No one is moving. No one is allowed to move. Cain is in there by himself, and there's nothing anyone can do.

“Lincoln, he's not moving.” I choke on the words.

“What did you do?” Lincoln shouts.

Yang laughs, it’s such and evil laugh. “Poison, my good friend, poison. I know what your friend is capable of. I know how fast he can move. I trained him. He was my best student. I had to make him weak.”

“Lincoln?” I question.

He's poisoned him again. It took him three days to recover last time, and that was with Doc's help.

“Lincoln, I can't see his chest moving.”

“It's okay. It's okay.” I hear David, mostly talking to himself. “Did you guys feel that?” David asks us, and we all look at him. Does he really think anybody feels anything in this hell? You can feel the cold icy air hitting you all the time. “Did you hear that?”

“Dad, what are you talking about?” Miles asks.

“That?”

“Dad, people are shouting here non stop. It’s hard not to hear them.” Mason points to all the cages.

I hear Lincoln shouting towards Cain to get up. I can't talk. Every voice muscle is frozen. My body is shaking in fear, and then out of nowhere, David shouts.

“Get up my son. Get up, my warrior.”

I continue to watch Cain begging and praying to every God there is to help him.

Cain takes in a deep breath of life. Cain gets onto his side and pulls out the spear from his hand. Slowly he gets back to his feet, and I mean slowly, he’s fighting whatever he has inside him to get up right now.

Yang walks closer to him and punches Cain a few times, but Cain’s fighting.

Cain picks up his sword as Yang picks up the spear again, and they both fight. Swinging towards each other, dodging each other. They both back away from each other, then they come back to each other, swinging their weapons. There are punches and blade sounds echoing off each other.

I whisper to myself. “You can do this.” I believe in him. I have faith in him to win. He needs to win.

Cain gets in a good couple of cuts and stabs on Yang. Yang continues to slash Cain’s skin with the poisoned spear.

As they both fight, Cain kneels and slashes the back of Yang’s legs making him fall to his knees, Cain gets his sword quickly and digs it into Yang’s chest.

Yang’s body hits the stony ground, and before Cain can look over to us, he falls as well.

“Stay here!” Lincoln shouts then runs towards Cain, checking for a pulse.

“Lincoln?” Hayden and myself shout at the same time.

“Come on, my boy, come on, my boy.” David chants to himself.

My heart just completely drops when Lincoln does CPR on Cain, shaking his head.

“Why is he not waking up?” Logan pulls me in and wraps his arm around me.

“He'll be fine. It's Cain. That man's not going to die that easily.” I hear Logan.

Looking back over at Cain, Lincoln is still doing CPR on him, and he shakes his head. There are so many thoughts going through my head at the moment, the time feels like it’s ticking at the slowest pace it can.

He knew this was going to be a fight which might have killed him, and now he's not waking up.