5. Uri
Uri
“Breathe through the pain,” I told Kenbral. He was shaking, and I could see that he wasn’t going to last much longer. “Just breathe.”
“I am,” he groaned. He’d lost his sparring match, and as punishment, Robert had him kneeling on broken concrete. He started to shake, and I reached for him. “Don’t touch me!”
“I’m just trying to help,” I said, stepping closer. “I know-“
“You don’t know, Uri,” he said, shaking his head. “You don’t know because you can't feel it. My knees hurt so much, and they are bleeding.” To add to the weight he was already carrying, Robert filled a backpack with bricks and made him wear it.
The buzzer sounded, and I rushed around to pull the bag off his back, dropped it on the floor, and then helped Kenbral up. He struggled to get to his feet, and once he did, he had to lean against me. I gladly took his weight and helped him to the chair in the corner of the room.
“I didn’t mean to say that,” he mumbled as he sat. His knees were cut and bruised. “I was just hurting.”
“I know.” I grabbed a water bottle from the table, opened it, and poured it over his knees to try to get some of the concrete out of his skin. Kenbral winced in pain, and I sighed. “It’s fine.”
“Uri-“
The doors opened, and I looked over my shoulder to see Logan walk into the room. He looked from me to Kenbral, then back at me and smirked. He kept walking through the room and left through the door opposite the one he’d used to enter the room.
“He’s up to something,” Kenbral said, still staring at the closed door. “He was smiling, which means something bad.”
“I have to spar later,” I told him. After I finished cleaning his knees, I took my shirt off, ripped it, and wrapped the pieces around his wounds. It would have to do for now. When we got home, I could do more.
“Spar with who?” he asked, and I shrugged. “I thought since you were leashed that you couldn’t?”
“Robert said sparring doesn’t count. “I stood and put my hands in my pockets. “He said it’s training.”
Kenbral kissed his teeth and shook his head. “He’s trying to kill us,” he said.
“Not yet,” I denied. “We are still useful to him.” What I didn’t say was that if this was us when we were useful, I was scared to see what it would be like when we weren’t. Robert didn’t love us; he wasn’t even capable of love. All he knew was anger and pain. That’s what made him happy.
The doors opened again, and Robert entered the room. “Uri,” he called my name. “Come.” He left without waiting for me.
I patted my brother on the shoulder, then followed Robert to the sparring room.
We hadn’t been back to his office since the incident with Corinthians.
Every time I was close to his office, I got nervous.
When I closed my eyes at night, I saw Corinthians being beaten.
I haven’t had a full night's sleep since.
I walked into the sparring room to see Corinthians sitting in the corner of the ring. Her daddy was talking to her about something, and all she did was nod. Ruben looked frustrated, and every so often, he would ball up his fist.
“Uri!” Robert called my name again, and I turned to look at him. “Get in the ring.” I did what he said and stood in the center of the ring. “You will be fighting someone new. You won't hold back. Not once do you hear me?”
“Yes,” I answered with a single nod.
“No!” I heard Corinthians yell. I turned to see her being held back. Her daddy was holding her while Logan tied her to the corner cushions of the ring. “No! You promised. You said if I fought, she wouldn’t have to!”
“Uri,” Robert said, and I slowly took my eyes off Corinthians to look at him. “You ready?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“Daddy, no!” Corinthians cried. “Please no!”
“It’s fine, Corinthians; she needs this,” Ruben replied. “Now stop crying.” He jumped down from the ring and walked away. I watched as he left the sparring room, the door slamming behind him, echoing.
“No!” Tears fell from Corinthians' eyes. She turned to Robert. “Please don’t make her! I will fight. I will fight him! Don’t make her do it.”
“Pet,” Robert chuckled and walked to the ring. “This is all for you.”
“Not her, not him,” she cried, then turned to me. “Please don’t. S-s-s-s-she can't handle it. I will do it. Tell him I will fight you.”
The doors opened again, and in walked Corinthians' little sister, Psalms. Corinthians was right; she was so small. Her eyes were big as she looked around. She clenched a ladybug stuffed animal against her chest. I’d seen a lot of kids come through those doors, but she had to be the youngest.
I shook my head and stepped back when Ruben helped her into the ring. She saw her sister, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Robert! Please!” Corinthians pleaded. “I’ll fight Uri. Let me do it!”
“Pet,” he sighed. “You can't keep protecting her. She needs to be in the ring.”
“Let me do it,” she cried. “I’ll do it. Don’t make her do it.”
Robert stared at Corinthians. At first, I thought he was going to say no, but then he sighed and nodded. “Untie her,” he instructed Logan.
“Untie her?” Logan asked, confused. “You said-“
“I know what I said!” Robert yelled. “Now do as I said and untie her.”
Logan worked quickly to untie Corinthians, and once he did, she ran to her sister and hugged her. Corinthians said something in her ear that made her nod, then Corinthians stood. She pulled her sister to the other side of the ring, away from Logan, and set her down.
“Stay right here, keep your back to the ring,” Corinthians told her once she was settled. “And no matter what you do, don’t turn around.”
“I can fight him, Cori,” her little sister said. Her voice was so light I almost didn’t hear her. “I can do it.”
“I got it, Bug,” Corinthians said, wiping the tears from her face. “I told you I would protect you, and I mean it. Now sit here and don’t turn around until I’m done.”
“Okay,” her little sister said, nodding. Corinthians put her hands over her ears, kissed her head, then stood up.
Without saying anything, she looked at me, then at Robert.
“Don’t hold back,” Robert said.
I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, me or Corinthians, but it didn’t matter. Corinthians nodded, then ran at me full speed. Her fist hitting my face made me stumble back in surprise. It didn’t hurt, but I was surprised by how fast she was moving.
I sidestepped her punches, knowing that she would tire out before I would.
A few more swings and Corinthians stepped back.
She tilted her head to the side as if she were trying to figure something out and then glanced over at Ruben.
He was watching, his hands in his pockets, his face void of all emotions.
“He won't fight back,” she finally said as she circled me. “I can't fight him if he won't fight back.”
“Then attack!” Ruben yelled. “You are playing games, Corinthians. You know how to fight, how to move around people. You’ve fought your cousins and kids in the neighborhood. Hell, you’ve fought me! Fight him, or I’m putting Psalms in the ring, and no amount of tears will stop me.”
Corinthians stopped moving and turned to look at her daddy. “I can't fight if he won't fight back!” She pointed at me. Her little chest was heaving, and even though it was slight, I could see her shaking. “I need him to fight back!”
“Uri!” Robert called my name, and I glared at him. “My pet has requested you fight back. You made me a promise, remember?” He smirked. “I stood on my word; you must do the same thing, or I will follow through with my promise.”
“She’s little,” I told him, even though it was obvious. “I will hurt her.”
“I want you to.” Robert chuckled and shook his head. “I want her bruised and bloody.” He licked his lips and smirked. “I want to see her in pain, struggling to move. I want her little body to be weak and worn out.”
“I-“
“Please,” she pleaded. Her voice was no louder than her sisters’ was earlier, but I heard her loud and clear.
“I need you to fight me or they’ll put Bug in here.
” She shook her head. “I can't let them do to her what they do to me.” Her eyes filled with tears.
“Please. I won't ask you for anything else but this.”
“I’ll-“
“I won’t ever ask you for anything else, Uri,” she said. Her eyes filled with tears. “I promise. Just fight me. I don’t care what happens to me. I-I-I-I-I’m nobody.”
Hearing her say she was nobody angered me. She was somebody. She was important. She was the girl who had come into the warehouse and fought. She bit someone’s throat out. She was fighting to protect her sister from their parents. She was somebody!
“Never say that again,” I told her. “No matter what they do or try to tell you. Don’t believe them and don’t say it again.”
“Then fight me!” she yelled. “Fight me so I don’t have to!”
“Uri!” Robert yelled and hit the ring with his fist. “Fight her, or I will send your brother in here to do so, and it will be a death match! One of them is going to have to walk out of that ring alive, and the other I will feed to the damn hogs! It’s your choice!”
“Please,” Corinthians whispered. “Just fight back.”
Sighing, I wiped my hands over my face and nodded.
“Okay,” I said as I dropped my hands. I rolled my shoulders, and Corinthians squared up.
The first punch she threw, I sidestepped, and when she pulled back, I hit her, not as hard as I would’ve hit someone else but hard enough to make her stumble back.
Her nose started bleeding slowly, and I felt bad.
“Stop throwing your punches and fucking hit her!” Robert yelled as he hit the mat again. “Make her bleed!”
“I’m sorry,” I said to Corinthians. The next series of punches left her stumbling and confused. I kicked her in the center of her chest, and she flew into the ropes and bounced off. She landed on the mat, facing me. A tear fell from her right eye, and her nose and mouth were bleeding.
“Get up, Corinthians,” her daddy angrily yelled. “Get up!” She slowly pushed herself up from the mat and wiped her nose and mouth with her forearm. “Now fight him!”