7. Uri
Uri
Six months, that's how long it had been since I last saw Corinthians. The morning Robert had her taken off the table, leaving me in the tank for another day. He eventually lowered the water so that I could stand but didn’t rush to take me out.
Now I was standing in a basement, one I’d never been to before, watching her.
She stood on the other side of the makeshift ring, her head down as her daddy talked to her.
Logan stood a few feet away, watching them with a smirk on his face.
He’d been around more, too. Robert said he was security, but there were guards.
In the past, we only fought in the warehouse, so this was new to us. The windows were blacked out, and the only way in or out was the door at the top of the stairs. There were cages lining the back of the room, and in each one was a bucket, a blanket, and a thin mattress.
“Uri,” Robert called my name, and I slowly turned to look at him. “This fight determines if and when you come out of this basement.”
“If and when?” I repeated. I looked around the basement, trying to figure out exactly where I was.
“Yes,” Robert answered. “This basement will be your new home.”
“For how long?”
“That’s up to you,” he said with a shrug. “My pet has been practicing. Her skills have improved, and I need to see how far she has come.” He smiled at her, a smile that he never gave to anyone else, and only when he spoke of Corinthians. “Your brother-“
“Kenbral is fighting her?” I asked quickly. Now I was confused. If Kenbral were fighting, why would it determine how long I would be here?
“No,” he tsked. “He lost to her already, so I need a better fighter. Kenbral is too weak.” He turned back to look at me and shook his head. “You have had six months to prepare for this. I have to see what I’ve taught her, and you are the perfect person to fight.”
“Bets are closed!” Logan yelled. He pushed off the wall and stepped around Corinthians. Traced his hand down her arm, then walked to the center of the ring. “As you know, this is a TKO match against our two favorite fighters.” He pointed to me, then Corinthians. “So, it should be interesting.”
Robert pushed me to the ring, and I ducked between the ropes to step inside. The crowd was quiet, which was unlike the warehouse, where it was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think.
Corinthians stood on her side; her face was blank, and her eyes were dark.
She had grown since the last time I saw her, but she was still small.
Her arms and hands were covered in bruises and cuts.
I turned and glared at Robert, who was now sitting at the side of the ring. He nodded, then pointed at Corinthians.
The buzzer sounded, and I turned to see her get into a fighting stance. She looked over at her daddy, who was talking to Jonathan Franklin. When she realized who he was talking to, her shoulders dropped, and she bit her bottom lip.
“Fight!” Logan demanded and hit the wall.
Corinthians pulled out of her thoughts and turned to look at me.
That’s when I noticed how sad her eyes were.
She blinked, and just like that, the pain was gone, and now she looked angry.
She took a deep breath, then started moving towards me.
She threw a few test punches that I blocked, then stepped back.
Her feet never stopped moving, and neither did her eyes.
She was trying to find a weak spot. Somewhere that would make me fold, but I didn’t have any.
After a few more tester hits, she went for it.
Her first few punches landed, and I just stared down at her.
I couldn’t make myself hit her, no matter what Robert threatened; I couldn’t make myself move.
She was just a little girl, someone thrown into a life that was never meant for her.
“Fight back, Uri,” Robert said.
Corinthians swung and hit me in the face. The only reason I knew my nose was bleeding was that I tasted blood when I licked my lips. Corinthians tilted her head to the side like she was confused, then stepped back.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Robert stood up. He dug into his pocket, then threw a knife into the ring. Corinthians looked at it, then at me. She crossed the ring, picked it up, and flipped it through her fingers.
“Pet,” Robert called out to her. Corinthians continued to flip the knife through her fingers as she watched me.
“Cut him open like I taught you.” She gave a subtle nod, then moved towards me again.
My heart slammed against my chest as I watched her move.
I reached for the knife, and she moved it to her other hand and stabbed me in the side.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she pulled it from my body.
Blood splattered the floor, and she quickly moved to the other side of me and kicked my legs from under me.
I wasn’t surprised that she knew what to do, especially if Robert trained her.
I hit the mat, and she climbed on top of me.
Her knife went from her right hand back to her left, and she put it to my throat. “Tap out.”
“He will kill me if I do,” I told her, staring her in the eyes. “I can’t.”
“Then fight back,” she demanded. She hit me in the face, making my head bounce off the mat.
“Fight back!” She grabbed a handful of my hair, lifted my head from the mat, only to slam it down.
She did that four or five times, and I started to see spots.
Corinthians got up and rolled to my side, then she kicked me in my ribs.
Blood poured from my side where she stabbed me.
I coughed and noticed blood on the mat, too.
“Finish this, Pet,” Robert said. I looked over to see him standing. “I’ve seen enough.”
Corinthians climbed on my back, wrapped her arms around my neck, and started to squeeze.
I hated being choked and felt myself starting to see red and get angry.
“Let go!” I yelled as I pulled at her arms. “Let me go!” The harder I pulled at her arms, the tighter she held on, which only made me angrier.
Finally, my control snapped, and I stood up with her still on my back, bent my legs, and then fell.
I made sure to move backward so that when I landed, I would hit my knees.
When we hit the mat, I heard her whimper in pain.
She let me go, and I got up, stared down at her, and laughed even though there was nothing funny.
I grabbed the front of her shirt, picked her up, and slammed her back onto the mat.
I couldn’t stop myself, no matter how hard I told myself what I was doing was wrong; I couldn’t stop.
I kicked, punched, and threw her around the ring until Logan pulled me off her, and then I fought him.
“Uri!” Robert yelled as I kept swinging at his brother.
I hit Logan for every time Robert hit me, and he did nothing.
For every time he stood in the room and laughed as I suffered.
I hit him for each nasty thought he had spoken to Kenbral or me.
I hit him for Kenbral. I hit him for the times I heard his wife scream out in pain behind closed doors.
For every kid who went into their office and never came back out the same.
I hit until I couldn’t breathe, until my head started to spin and my sight blurred, and even then, I didn’t stop.
I didn’t stop until I hit the mat, and when I did, I looked over to see Corinthians, black, blue, and bloody.
My heart broke because I’d done that to her, too.
I put my hand out to reach for her, but couldn’t touch her before someone grabbed my leg and dragged me away.
**
“Wake up,” I heard my brother say. “Wake up!”
I opened my eyes to see that I was still in my cage.
It had been days since my fight with Corinthians.
After the doctor saw me, I was brought here and left alone in the dark.
The only thing I wanted to do was sleep, so that’s what I did.
When I opened my eyes, there would be a tray of food on the floor with a cup of water.
I had enough strength to eat and go back to sleep.
I looked around; the sun was coming through the small holes in the boards covering the windows, but there were no lights on.
“You have to wake up.”
“I’m awake,” I groaned as I rolled over.
“You have to help me,” Kenbral said. I looked over to see him holding Corinthian's shoulder. “Uri, you have to help!”
“What happened to her?” I finally asked, getting up. The room started spinning, and I held on to the gate until it stopped. “Kenbral, what happened?”
“We had to fight,” he answered. I stepped closer to him, and that’s when I saw his cuts and bruises. “I threw her against the ropes, and that’s when I heard it pop. She kept fighting, though.”
“Is she awake?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“They threw her in here and left,” he answered.
“I’ve been trying to get you to wake up so you could do it.
” He nodded at the small opening in the gates.
“Push that up and climb under.” I did what he said and quickly got to them.
“She’s been out of it for a while, but I know when you pop it back into place, she’s going to wake up. ”
“Whose house is this?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure who could hear us, so I wasn’t going to take any chances.
“I don’t know,” Kenbral answered. He moved back so that I could take his place and see what I was doing. Her shoulder was out of place and possibly broken, but I hoped it wasn’t.
“Why did you do this to her?” I scolded him as I looked at her injuries. She was beaten up and had dried blood on her lip, nose, and coming out of her ear. “Huh, why did you do this?”
“Because Robert told me to!” he angrily replied. “Since you’ve been down here, that’s all he’s made me do: spar with her. Every day, all day. That’s all we do.”
“You didn’t have to do this to her,” I said to him, shaking my head. “You could’ve taken it easy on her.”
“And Robert would’ve known!” Kenbral angrily said as he backed away from us.
Instead of arguing with him, I waved him off.
I positioned Corinthians against the gate, gripped her arm, and took a deep breath.
She was out, but like Kenbral said, as soon as I popped her shoulder back into place, she was going to wake up from the pain.
“Hold on to her,” I told Kenbral. He did what I asked, then put his hand over her mouth. “Let her go!”
“She’s going to scream,” he replied. “They told us to shut up and not make noise.”
I debated arguing with him, then decided not to.
I nodded, then pulled until I heard the pop of her shoulder going back into place.
Corinthians woke up, screaming and fighting like we said she would.
Once her arm was back in place, I pushed Kenbral away and held her, making sure to cover her mouth too.
“You have to be quiet,” I said into her ear. Corinthians continued to fight me, but I didn’t let go. “You have to calm down before they come down here.” She kept fighting, but not as hard. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“I told you,” Kenbral said as she continued to fight.
“Please stop,” I begged her. I knew how much pressure to apply to her neck to make her pass out, but I didn’t want to do that.
“Please stop fighting. I won't hurt you, believe me. Please, Cori.” Her fighting stopped, and she held onto my arm around her. I didn’t move my hand from her mouth until I looked down and saw that she was crying. “I’m sorry.”
“You can't protect her,” Kenbral said, glaring at Corinthians. “Robert already has plans for her.” He looked up at me with a weird expression. “She’s his; he already said so.”
***
“What’s your favorite color?” I asked Corinthians. She sat in the corner of her cage, her knees pulled close to her body and her head resting on them.
“Gold,” she softly answered, not looking at me.
“Animal?”
“Ostrich.”
“Why?” I didn’t mean to laugh, but I did. I had never heard of someone, especially a girl, saying their favorite animal was an ostrich. “They can't even fly.”
“Because they run fast,” she answered. “It's hard to catch them.”
“My favorite animal is an orca,” I told her, nodding. Corinthians' brows went up.
“Like Free Willy?” she asked, and I nodded. “Why? Willy was caught.”
“But he got away,” I told her with a shrug. “At the end of the movie, he was free. That’s going to be me one day.” I stood up, looked around to make sure no one was coming, then snuck up the gate to her cage. “Stand up so I can look at your back.”
Slowly, she got up and turned around. I moved her shirt aside and looked at her cuts. Robert had cut her before her last fight with Kenbral. It was deep, and she needed stitches, but we didn’t have any down here, so I had to use some old superglue I found.
“Is it infected?” she asked.
“Does it still hurt?” I asked her as I looked at it. It wasn’t as red as it was yesterday.
“What do you think?” she replied.
“I wouldn’t know. I can't feel pain,” I told her, then put her shirt back.
“It looks okay, but I will look at it again later when the sun is through that hole.” I pointed to the hole in the corner of the board on the window.
That was how we were keeping track of the days.
It’d been two weeks since I put her shoulder back in place.
“You can't feel pain?” Her eyes were wide in surprise. “Is that why you aren’t limping around here? And why you didn’t scream when I stabbed you?”
“Yeah,” I answered, then went back to my cage. I sat in the corner and watched as Corinthians looked at me through narrow eyes. “What?”
“You can’t feel anything, like at all?” she asked, and I shook my head. She sat back in her spot against the cage and sighed. “You’re lucky.”
“No, I’m not,” I told her. “Robert fights me because I can't feel it. He said that I’m almost perfect because of it.”
“Almost perfect?”
“Almost,” I said, nodding. “He said if I didn’t feel emotions, I would be perfect.”
“I just don’t want to feel pain,” Corinthians mumbled. “That way I could fight, and my sister wouldn’t have to.”
“Robert has your little sister fighting?” I wasn’t even surprised.
“Not yet,” she answered, shaking her head. “She’s somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“With Mr. Jonathan,” she replied. Her face twisted like she was going to cry, but the tears never fell. “I would fight every day if I didn’t feel pain, so she didn’t have to go with him.”
I knew what Jonathan did to kids; I had seen and heard it. If Corinthian's little sister were with him, then I wish she couldn’t feel pain either.
“Cori?” I called her name after the silence was too loud. I moved closer to her corner and sat down. Our heads touched through the gate, and I stuck my hand through the railing to hold her hand.
“Mmmmh?” she replied without looking at me.
“I’ll stop feeling emotions to get you and your sister out,” I told her. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I would try for her.