Ian already knew the way to the factory well and once he arrived there, he wasn't even exhausted. He hid his rucksack in a place where nobody would find it, and just confidently walked towards the loud factory and stepped in through the door. As usual, the inside of the factory was loud, packed and smelly. People didn't notice Ian step in, as they were watching the fight happening in the cage, and those who did see him didn't particularly care. Ian wasn't interested in any of the people watching the fights or participating in them. He was interested in talking to one man and that man was the man called Bloodhound. The door leading to Bloodhound's office was blocked by a muscly goon just like before. Ian stepped up to said good with a straight back.
"I need to talk to Bloodhound. I want to fight!" Ian stated.
"I remember you. You lost to the Killer and beat the Ginger Tornado. Alright, bruv. Follow me." The goon said and walked through the door.
Ian followed him through the corridor and arrived at Bloodhound's office. Bloodhound was in the midst of counting money while Killer watched with his arms crossed. When Ian entered the office, Bloodhound didn't see him, but the Killer did.
"Hey, it's the kid who I beat the other day. Back for more? Ready for a rematch?" The Killer asked with glee.
"Fuck it, mate. Let's go!" Ian answered and walked up to the Killer.
"Ha! I'd love to, brother. But the Killer doesn't fight twice a night. Don't want to give the people too much of what they want. Some other day. Be prepared." The Killer said and got handed his money.
The Killer walked out of the office looking satisfied and Bloodhound looked at Ian with curiosity.
"You came here for another fight, then?" Bloodhound asked.
"That's right, mate. Got any?"
"I saw you beat the fuck out of the Ginger Tornado like it was nothing, so I'm putting you against someone who's at least won a fight. Go wait outside and my man will tell you when you're up." Bloodhound told Ian.
"And the money?"
"Based on the bets."
"Alright, let's do it." Ian said and smacked himself in the head.
He was escorted out of the office and to the factory floors with all the rest of the people and there he waited. At the factory floors he heard some interesting voices coming from one corner of the place that got his attention. He walked towards them to hear better.
"Alright, bruhs and bras! Next up on the betting is a fight between a familiar face and relative newcomer. It's Mad Mike A.K.A the Nosebiter with a win-loss record of one knockout win and seven disqualification losses facing the Ox with a win-loss record one knockout win and one knockout loss. Any bets?" A woman with ragged clothes shouted from the top of a crate.
"Twenty for a disqualification loss for Mad Mike!" Some man shouted from the crowd and then was drowned out by everyone else making bets too and shoving money in two boxes that were on the crate as well.
"Should I bet on myself? I don't think they'd allow that." Ian thought and remembered that he has no money with him.
"Haven't seen Ronnie here. Guess Jacob wasn't as merciful to him and snitched on him."
Ian went to wait in a lonely corner to hype himself up. He hit his head against the hard wall once and felt nothing. That boosted his confidence. As he was hitting his head against the wall some more, he was discovered by the familiar muscular goon who guards the office.
"Yo. You're up next. Follow me." He said to Ian who obediently followed while slapping himself.
"I'm a fighter. I was meant to do this. I need this." Ian kept repeating in his mind while walking to the corridors and through them.
The door to corridor and into the cage was opened for Ian and he stepped in. Ahead of him he saw his opponent. An extremely pale and bony man with with baggy black trousers, a black buzzcut, bad teeth and bags under his eyes. The pale man was looking at Ian with wide eyes and looked like he was on substances.
"The fighter standing at the side of the cage wall, a favourite of the people, Mad Mike!" A voice from the speakers announced, and the people cheered.
"And standing at the side of the brick wall, the Ox." The same voice announced much more quietly and nobody cheered.
This time Ian didn't take his shirt off, remembering how people laughed at him when he did it the first time.
"I'll bite your fucking face off!" Mad Mike screamed at Ian from the other side of the cage while the people were chanting his name in unison.
"Both contestants ready? Fight!" The voice shouted from the speakers.
Mad Mike charged right at Ian before he could even react. Ian expected his opponent to be a fist fighter, but he was wrong. Mad Mike smashed his forehead right into Ian's nose and sent him back. Ian hit the back of his head into the wall behind him. Mad Mike grabbed Ian's head and slammed it into the hard wall two times before Ian retaliated with a punch to the gut. And another and another. Mad Mike wasn't affected by them by much and retaliated by biting Ian's nose. The teeth pierced the skin and Ian's roar of pain could be heard over the noises of the crowd. Mad Mike let go of Ian's nose and slammed the back of Ian's head to the wall again.
"Why won't you fucking go down?" He screamed at Ian and slammed his head again.
Ian started landing fast punches to the gut of Mad Mike and once Ian was free from his opponent's grip, he landed a swift but strong hit to the side of Mad Mike's skull. Mad Mike stumbled, and that give Ian an opportunity to to grab him by his belt and shove him head first into the wall. The sound of Mad Mike's skull hitting the hard wall made the crowd cheer some amount, but most of the cheers were from people who had bet money against the seldom victorious Mad Mike.
Mad Mike went down and the referee counted to then and then waved his hands to signal that the fight is over. The speaker announced the Ox as the winner but Ian didn't celebrate. He went to the corner to hold his bitten nose.
"Fuck fuck fuck! The bloody skin is open. Hurts like a bitch and probably looks horrible too. Fuck. How do I explain this?" Ian thought to himself while crouching in the corner and holding his nose.
His head was not hurt at all. He didn't stay in the cage to celebrate his victory, but rather went into the corridor leading to Bloodhound's office. Ian barged into the office and walked up to the desk while holding his nose.
"The fucking money. Now!" Ian demanded and slammed his free fist on the table.
"Alrighty, matey." Bloodhound said and took out a stack of cash and then added:
"You were the favourite to win, so your pay won't be as big."
Bloodhound handed Ian a stack of cash which Ian accepted with his free hand.
"How about you put me against someone who's not expected to lose next time?" Ian suggested impatiently after he counted his money.
"We'll see. Now fuck off. We've got more fights planned tonight." Bloodhound said.
Ian was escorted out by a guard down to the factory floors. He went outside and back to the place where he hid his rucksack. He put the money there and took his phone from the rucksack. He used the camera and the light on the phone to see how his nose looked.
"Fucking hell. How do I explain this at home? Cindy would know exactly what's up if she saw me like this. Do I just wait now until it's night and they fall asleep. Knowing Cindy, she'd stay up and wait for me all night." Ian thought after he checked himself and saw the horrendous state his nose was in.
"Unless I let them 'em know that I'm not coming home tonight." Ian said and sent a message to his mother explaining that he won't come home tonight.
"Those teeth went deep. Fuck me, what if it gets infected now? I need to clean this somewhere. But going home would get it noticed. No place is open at this hour either. Fuck." He thought and then wondered what to do.
He thought for a moment more.
"Suppose I could try." He thought and sent Lloyd a message.
"I sort of need help. Can I come over?" Ian ask with a text message.
For the first time in a couple of days, Lloyd appeared online. he didn't reply anything and then shortly appeared offline.
"Fucker is purposefully ignoring me! Is he still mad about that middle finger?"
"I'm sorry about whatever I've done to make you mad but this is sort of urgent." Ian texted and sent a picture of his nose.
"I just need to clean it and I'll be out because I can't go home looking like this or they'll know where I've been and they'd just get mad at me. Get me?" Ian texted.
"Fine." Came a reply from Lloyd.
"Thanks. Appreciate it, mate." Ian replied and put his phone away.
21Please respect copyright.PENANAeRELu3pYYv
Ian jogged to Lloyd's house where the lights were off. The bite on his nose was getting more painful by the minute. The sky was black and the street was lit by lamp posts.
"Probably shouldn't ring the doorbell and wake up the whole house." Ian thought and dug his phone from his pocket.
He sent a message to Lloyd letting him know that he had arrived. After a few cold lonely minutes outside the front door, the door was opened for Ian. However, not by who Ian expected.
"Umm. Why did he send you to open?" Ian asked in confusion when he saw Lloyd's red haired sister Evelyn at the door looking at Ian shyly.
She closed the door.
"Wait wait wait, I need to do a thing here." Ian begged.
The door was opened again.
"He didn't send me." Evelyn said and showed to Ian that she had Lloyd's phone.
"Why do you have his phone?" Ian asked and squinted his eyes.
"Because he just tossed it aside when he came home on Saturday evening and then went into his room. He hasn't come out since." Evelyn explained.
"Does he keep his phone unlocked?"
"The passcode was easy to guess."
"Right. So he doesn't know that you allowed me to come here?"
"No. He doesn't. But can you please try to talk to him? Maybe you can get him to come out."
"That's not the reason why I came here but I can try."
"Oh right. Your nose. You can take care of it. We have a first aid kit in the bathroom." Evelyn said and let Ian in.
"Cheers." Ian said and got in.
He went straight to the bathroom where he had no idea what to do to the bitten nose and he hadn't thought to look it up either. He just applied alcohol on it and put an adhesive bandage on it. Staying quiet while doing it proved challenging, but he did it. He came out of the bathroom and there Evelyn was waiting again.
"Can you try to talk to him now?" Evelyn asked.
"Where is his room again?" Ian asked back.
Evelyn pointed at a door. From the cracks of the door some light shone out as if a monitor was on in there.
"So he's just been there for two days and not talking to anyone?" Ian asked.
"Yes! Maybe you can get him to listen. I know you're friends. And give him his phone back as well." Evelyn requested, almost begging as she gave Lloyd's phone to Ian.
"Okay then." Ian said and walked up the door.
He knocked on it. All the lights in the house were off and the light coming from the cracks was the only light in the house.
"Hey. Lloyd. What's up?" Ian asked the door.
Complete silence was the response he got. Evelyn had left the scene without anyone noticing.
"You hear me?" Ian asked the door but got no response, so he continued:
"I don't know if you're mad at someone or what the case is but your sister is worried about you and honestly I'm also worried about you. I've been wondering if your trip home went well and now I'm worried about what the hell you're doing in there. Just say something, mate." Ian said.
"You're actually worried about me?" A voice belonging to Lloyd asked from the other side of the door.
"Yeah, mate. I'm worried about you. Been for a bit now. You're never away from school even if you're sick but today you were. You haven't replied to my messages even though you usually always do. Is something up?" Ian asked.
Silence followed for a bit.
"I'm fine. I guess. Just a need a moment for myself." Lloyd answered.
"Okay, you're fine. You coming out of that room then?" Ian asked.
"What for?"
"You're going to fail at school if you miss classes."
"I can catch up. Just wankers and dickheads to deal with there anyway."
"Your band needs you."
"They're better off without me fucking things up for them."
"Your redhead sister probably misses you."
"She just wants to get on my computer."
"She might reveal your secret if you don't come out."
"At this point she may as well."
"I miss my friend."
"You don't even consider me a friend. You just allow me to stick by because you feel sorry for me."
"Mate, you think I'd travel to another town to catch you play if I didn't consider you a friend?" Ian asked.
Silence fell.
"Fine. I'll come to school tomorrow." Lloyd said.
"Good. So will I."
"Okay..."
"So you coming out?"
"You're not leaving until I do?"
"Nah, mate. I won't believe that you'll come to school tomorrow if you can't even come out of there." Ian argued.
He heard the door being unlocked from the inside. The door was then opened.
"Thanks for coming to talk to me." Lloyd said to Ian from the side of his room while having bags under his eyes.
"Of course, mate. I'll see you tomorrow. And here's your phone." Ian said back and handed Lloyd's phone to him.
"Thanks. Have you been fighting again?" Lloyd asked after accepting it.
"Yeah. You still want to learn to fight?"
"Maybe."
"Tell me if you do."
"I will. See you." Lloyd said and closed the door.
"What's with him? Good thing I didn't tell him the primary reason why I came here." Ian thought and walked away from the door of Lloyd's room.
As Ian was walking towards the door out, he heard a door open behind him.
"Is he coming out?" Evelyn asked while peeking from behind the slightly open door of her own room.
Ian turned around.
"I think." He said and shrugged.
"What did you say to him?" Evelyn asked.
"I reminded him that I consider him my friend." Ian answered honestly and felt a little embarrassed.
"Haha. Yeah. That part was so cute." Evelyn said giddily.
"Wait, so you were listening and you just wanted to hear that part... Whatever. Good night." Ian said and turned around to finally leave the house.
"I still need a place to sleep. I can't ask these people to host me. At this point that would be too embarrassing." Ian thought as he stepped outside the house.
Outside the house Ian looked around wondered where to go now.
"I let them know that I'm not coming home. They're probably both asleep. They won't notice me coming home." Ian concluded and headed home.
21Please respect copyright.PENANATVBKc4vJb9
The next morning in his own bed, Ian woke up with his cheek on his pillow and a blanket covering his head. A conscious choice to hide himself from anyone who might come look at him. It turned out to be the right choice, and the first thing he saw when he raised his head was a brown bag on his floor. The side of the bag had hearts drawn with a black sharpie. He already knew that inside was a banana. He did his morning routine as quickly as possible and rushed out of the house as soon as he was ready. Nobody in the house saw the solution to hide his nose before he left. As usual, his journey to school was not lonely like he had wished.
"What on Earth and Heavens is that on your face?" William's annoying voice said from the car going slowly next to Ian.
Ian said nothing, not wanting to talk about his face that was all covered in bandages from the nose down.
"I hope you had a good night in the pharaoh's tomb." William joked.
Ian did not laugh.
"I mean, just look at him Jonathan. Is he serious?" William said to his driver.
The driver who looked miserable took a quick glance at Ian and then focused on the road again.
"Well, see you in class, Maltman. Why is your little boyfriend not giving you rides to school anymore either? Is everybody leaving you?" William asked.
Ian said nothing. William told his driver to speed up and so the expensive black car sped off. Ian took his phone out of his pocket and picked Lloyd's number from his contacts.
"Keep your promise and come to school today or I'll pay another visit."
No reply came at first so Ian put the phone away. After a few minutes of walking he got a message into his phone. He checked it.
"Damn it! Thanks for reminding me." Is what Lloyd's message said.
"He didn't forget. He was hoping that I would." Ian thought and kept walking towards the university.
At the university he obviously didn't meet his friend at the parking lot or the entrance. Right as he was was about to walk in through the front doors, he was grabbed by both of his arms from both sides by two of William's associates. Ian sighed.
"What now?" He asked.
"Did you think I'd just forget about that scuffle in the hallway the other day? There was a reason that I wanted you to stay in the university. It's because I'm not finished with you. Quite simple." William explained while standing behind Ian.
"You think you're so intimidating." Ian stated and sounded bored and unimpressed.
William said nothing and just waited for everyone else to pass them and get inside. Once there was nobody else outside the building anymore, William opened his mouth again.
"Now that we're alone, let's address our issues." William said and punched Ian in the kidney.
It didn't hurt much. Ian wheezed slightly.
"This is how you want your pound of flesh? Not very honourable." Ian asked and chuckled to himself.
"I just want you to know that messing with the top family around here has consequences." William said and landed another punch on Ian's kidney.
Ian just chuckled.
"And you think I give the slightest toss who your family is? That just makes me want to mess with you even more." Ian answered.
"A typical attitude for someone like you. But even the most stubborn minds can be changed." William said and kicked Ian in every man's weak spot.
That was when Ian let out a proper sound of real pain. William felt satisfied with himself.
"Real... fucking... brave of you." Ian commented while wheezing.
"Oh, boo hoo. Like I care about the opinion of someone who partakes in human cockfighting." William said back.
"What?" Ian asked, not being entirely sure what William said.
"Oh yes. I know about your little hobby. And I think it would be really funny if I could do some betting on it, wouldn't you think?" William smugly said.
Ian remained quiet.
"Did you think this is how I get my way with you? No, Maltman. The best part is yet to come." William said and his boys let go of Ian.
They all walked past Ian and went inside the building. Ian was left alone at the door holding his front area.
"Cunts." He only whispered to himself.
"I'll make sure the fucker loses all his money thanks to me." He added.
He straightened his back and grimaced and put his hand on the door of the university building to pull it open.
"Hi, Ian." Said Lloyd's quiet voice behind him.
Ian turned his head.
"There you bloody are. Did you see that?" Ian asked.
"I did." Lloyd answered with no emotion on his face.
"Didn't want to do anything about it?" Ian asked.
"What could have I done anyway?" Lloyd asked.
Ian could tell from his friend's expression that his self worth just went down.
"Yeah, there were three of them anyway. Glad that you actually came to school today." Ian said.
"Sort of had to."
"Anything you want to talk about, mate?" Ian asked.
Lloyd was quiet for a few seconds.
"No. Don't need to. Don't worry about it." He answered.
"Why not?"
"Just... please don't." Lloyd insisted and expressed the slightest bit of anger and added:
"I already said everything that I wanted to say."
"Did you?" Ian asked.
Lloyd just walked past him and inside the building.
"I'm not getting anything out of him and I suck at consoling people. How do I get that guy to chill out a bit. Or should I just wait? I know he's not telling everything, but if he doesn't open up, maybe somebody else will." Ian thought and went the other way from the university.
21Please respect copyright.PENANAI6xJxMvkvv
Ian found himself at Lloyd's house once again, figuring that his friend doesn't want him in school today anyway. He slapped the dust off his legs a stood in front of the front door.
"If anyone's home right now, it's his mum or dad. Got no idea if they're home either but if anyone can tell what's going on with him, it's them." Ian thought after he rang the doorbell.
He waited outside the door for a minute and was ready to conclude that nobody was home just as he heard the door being opened. The door was once again opened by Evelyn. They exchanged and awkward eye contact for a few seconds.
"Should I even ask?" Ian asked after looking at Evelyn's bright white homemade armour set with angel wings.
"Why are you here now? And what happened to your face?" Evelyn asked and seemed confused.
"Doesn't matter. What is Lloyd's secret?" Ian asked.
"I'm not telling you that."
"Okay, then what can you tell me?"
"What do you even want to know?"
"What is up with him?"
"With who?"
"With Lloyd! For fu... for goodness's sake."
"I don't know. That's what I had been wondering and that's why I asked you to talk to him."
"Well, I didn't expect to talk with you today, but your parents. Why are you not in school?"
"Didn't want to go, so I didn't." Evelyn answered with a completely straight face.
"And are they at work?"
"Yep."
"Dang." Ian said and stood there awkwardly.
"Why are you not at school?" Evelyn asked.
"Because I wanted to come here."
"Shouldn't you go now?"
"I reckon." Ian said and turned around.
"But before you go..." Evelyn said before Ian could go.
"Hm?" Ian let out.
"How do I look?" Evelyn asked and posed in her elaborate home made angel armour.
"You're trying to be the... the the the the..." Ian tried to remember the video game character that he saw Evelyn controlling the other day.
"Queen Fyre! Do I look like her? This cosplay is the reason I dyed my hair red. So how does it look?" Evelyn asked eagerly.
"You look bloody st..." Ian was about to say.
"I should be more considerate to others from now on."
"...ellar." Ian finished with.
"You think so?" Evelyn asked with glee.
"Of course. Nailed it." Ian answered.
Evelyn seemed happy with herself.
"What would it take to get you to tell Lloyd's secret?"
"Nothing!"
"Alright. How much are you willing to share?"
"While I had his phone, his bandmates were trying to contact him desperately. They were apologising and begging him to reply. I couldn't reply on his behalf and he wouldn't take the dang phone back. I felt horrible." Evelyn shared.
"They got pretty mad at him for being late from the gig. I think that's what got him this way. But something tells me there's something more to it." Ian explained.
"Oh. He was late for the gig? He didn't tell me anything about that. Or anything about anything really. He had mentioned that you'd be coming there too. I guess you actually did. What else happened?"
"I showed him the middle finger when I was aiming it at somebody else but I don't think he'd get upset about that. I talked with him after the fact and he didn't really tell much."
"Was anybody else that he knows there?"
"That boy doesn't have friends other than me."
"Right."
"I did bring my... girlfriend? She sort of insisted on coming."
"Uh-huh. Maybe he specifically wanted just his friend to come."
"So maybe I should just invite him to hang out with nobody else there and he'll be happy again? Well, he's never been happy but you know what I meant."
"Maybe that's exactly what you should do." Evelyn said and looked like she had something in mind she didn't want to share.
ns 64.252.185.147da2